Hey there,
i've purchased Cubase 5 and VSL special edition a short time ago, and so i hope this question is not to stupid...
i created an orchestral score on FINALE and exported it as a midifile (with different layers). then i imported in into C5 and now want to give it the great sound of the VSL.... the problem is, that i have no clue how to edit midifiles after they have been created. all the vid tutorials i found are just talking of editing the sound by playing it. does anyone know how to do this or does anyone have a link to a tutorial which might help me?
thanks alot for your effort!
best regards
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How to edit midifiles in cubse with vsl
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not sure what you mean by editing the midi but go up into the menu and click on "key editor" or "score editor" and there you should be able to edit all the individual notes (in cubase).
For example key editor is the one used most often allows you to length/shorten notes, add/change/delete new notes, change all the things like velocity, modulation wheel data (i.e. make it louder/softer, have less attack/velocity, etc)
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ok i read alot through the manual...and i think i can specify my question now ;) what i actually want is to ad to an existing midifile different articulations in the midieditor.... i crated a vst expression map but somehow cant really use it.... i can choose my map but in the midiwindow i dont really know what to do with it and how to add my articulations thanks for ur help so far!
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hi trompetosaurus. I don't have Cubase 5 yet (I have cubase studio 4) so I'm not familiar with VST expression but I can tell you the manual way of doing it IF I understand you correctly on what you're asking and what you're trying to do.
If what you're trying to do is basically learn how to change articulations/patches in Cubase, for example if you want your violins to play legato instead of detache/staccato, etc..if that's what you're asking then I can explain to you the manual way though it is very fast once you get a hang of it.
Look at your Vienna Instruments screen. That's the screen where you load your VSL patches from the special edition folders. At the top there should be 4 tabs "matrix assign, patch assign, control edit, and perform".
First load whatever patches or matrix that you want, let's just say you want to use violins so load your violins matrix (this loads all the patches/articulations like staccato, legato, detache, sustain, etc etc). Or if you want to do it manually then load one patch at a time like let's say violins legato, then drag the matrix box out to create another box and then load something else like violins staccato etc.
Next click on the CONTROL EDIT tab that I mentioned before at the top.
This tab lets you set up key switches so you can switch the articulations. There are 3 fields you see there "H-span" which means horizontal span, i.e. it's the horizontal line of boxes in your matrix. V-span which is vertical i.e. the vertical line of boxes in your matrix and "A/b Select".
Let's say you loaded a violin staccato patch and then another violin legato patch horizontally next to it in the matrix boxes on the left. We can control these with the h-span key switches. Where it says "not assigned" in the h-span box click "key switch" and a C1, C#1 should appear. This means that whenever you play the low note of c1 on your keyboard it will activate the articulation/patch in the 1st box of your matrix, like violin staccatos if that's what you loaded. Then if you play C#1 it will activate the patch to the right of it horizontally in the matrix, such as violins legato if that's what you loaded in there. It's best to keep this keyswitch at a note that's out of the range of your instrument so if you're using violins then C1 or C2 is good whereas if you're using doublebass it's best to use something like c6 or c7 since the key switch note is supposed to be silent, otherwise your virtual instrument will actually play that note you are using only as a keyswitch.
But you can set it to whatever you want. Now basically in Cubase if you go into the key editor from the top "MIDI" tab, and if you switch to the pen tool, you can just draw a note in the cubase piano roll (key editor) at whatever note corresponds to your key switch in order to make that articulation switch. So let's say you recorded a phrase where your violins play 3 notes in a row like La-La-La...if you draw in a C#1 in the key editor right before the 1st note, when you press play it will automatically switch your articulation to violins legato (or whatever you have in the 2nd horizontal row in your matrix) and then if you draw in a C1 it will switch that articulation back to your 1st one (violins staccato or whatever). You can also just hit record and "play" this note with your midi keyboard into the sequencer so you don't have to 'draw' it with the pen tool if you don't want, it's up to you.
One final thing though is that apparently Cubase and Vienna have two different understandings of the octave system on a keyboard(at least in cubase 4) so a C2 in Vienna Instruments "control edit" will have to be a C1 (1 octave lower) in Cubase. Meaning if you setup your key switch to be C5 and C#5 in Vienna, you have to play C4 and C#4 in Cubase in order for it to make that key switch work.
Let me know if you have any other questions because I'm not sure if I even addressed the right question that you have but I type really fast so I don't mind typing it all out.
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@Trompetosaurus said:
ok i read alot through the manual...and i think i can specify my question now 😉 what i actually want is to ad to an existing midifile different articulations in the midieditor.... i crated a vst expression map but somehow cant really use it.... i can choose my map but in the midiwindow i dont really know what to do with it and how to add my articulations thanks for ur help so far!concerning the vst-expression maps:
they look a little confusing first. i suggest you download the ones provided by VSL in your user area and experiment a little with them. also take a look at how they are programmed and how the VSL-player is set up so they can properly communicate... than on this basis, knowing now how they work, it is a lot easier to create your own maps, or it is at least easier to ask specific questions about the maps which makes it easier for us to answer... the maps are quite a huge field... don´t be discouraged... it´s really a little awkward at first...
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@requiem_aeternam7 said:
One final thing though is that apparently Cubase and Vienna have two different understandings of the octave system on a keyboard(at least in cubase 4) so a C2 in Vienna Instruments "control edit" will have to be a C1 (1 octave lower) in Cubase. Meaning if you setup your key switch to be C5 and C#5 in Vienna, you have to play C4 and C#4 in Cubase in order for it to make that key switch work.
Hi all!
Unfortunately this is still the case, took me some time to find out why my Maps didn't work, but by running through the provided maps (which automatically fit to the VI Preset) it was no problem at all
Best regards
Gabriel
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hey guys thanks alot, its a good alternative to edit it manually as u said, but its quite alot of work in case of the u have to edit an already existing midifile (i created them in finale and simply imported them)... in my case (if i got u right) i would have to copy every single note manually to give it the articulation it needs! ill try to use the presettet maps now and then will tell u how it worked! thanks alot for ur help so far!!!!
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Hi Trompetosaurus!
I am not sure if I got you right now.
You can import the Midi file to Cubase.
Afterwards you have the possibility of adding special Midi Commands to influence the articulation. this can be either done either by Expression Maps (which makes things quite easy and fast) or by manualling adding the information which is required by VI (Key switches, Midi CC commands ...)
Nevertheless the main Midi File stays unchanged and you do not need to edit the information about note length and position which you entered in finale again. (except you want to finetune things like timing to make the sound more realistic)
It might be also an option for you to export finale to musicXML file (which saves all the information about articulation) and aftewards import this to cubase and apply the Expression map to this track. This might make work much easier.
Hopefully this helps
Best regards
Gabriel
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Hey, u got me definately right :) i exported the midifile into cubase now and loaded the preset for the articulationmap. but till now i havent found the tool (i searched through the manual) to use the map in the way u describe... du u know how it works exactely? thanks alot! btw. sorry everyone for the problem in understnding me.. i think my english is ahm ...improvable :)
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Hello!
Did you already run through the tutorials of the Introduction Manual? (I would suggest tutorial 3)
That's how it should like:
The Note information is from the important midi track, the articulation is added in a second step (quite simple) and the cc2 is controlling the velocity X-Fade (which needs to be configured in VI first)
Hope this helps, I am also very new to Cubase and VSL
Rgds
Gabriel
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Hey there, thank you all...i think it works now! the prests work quite good so far! for those who have the same problem as me...i found aditionally a nice videotutorial on how to work with expressionmaps on cubase! http://www.the-composers-approach.com/tutorial_002.php