Best way to setup keyswitching for expression maps

[simyoda]

Still new to MG Pro. I would like to be able to setup something like this but in Metagrid Pro. It would be great to have grids which are setup for particular orchestral libraries to switch articulations and control mic positions with faders etc. The ability to enable disable them and also the track or setup cc’s etc.
Can this be done or should I maybe try touch OSC for this type of thing?

I’m m yet to find anyone doing this with Metagrid Pro. I guess people have their own way of working and customize things but I just can’t seem to get Metagrid Pro profiles from anywhere other than the Cubase ones made for selected channel and midi.

Does anyone have a tutorial for articulation switching with Metagrid and Cubase Expression maps. I also really need a Dorico 4 profile too if anyone has made something a bit more detailed than the sample grid.

im on Windows 11 now. Even a profile I could copy and make a start from would be great. Cheers Simon.

[Vicken]

It is possible to do the same as in TouchOSC and more, I have TouchOSC and since Metagrid pro I stopped using it, no need, there are other things TouchOSC is superior for but Metagrid pro is a power house especially since introducing faders.

[simyoda]

Thanks for the reply Vicken. Do you have any more information on how this is setup? There’s a series of videos on YouTube for Nuendo but haven’t seen any tuts on articulation switching in Cubase 12 so far. Yet to build a grid yet so am a bit overwhelmed by MG Pro. This forum seems a bit quiet and there’s not a lot of people uploading content. Hopefully something becomes available that I can buy or a video for Cubase 12 and articulation switching. Can’t afford a stream deck either so I’m really hoping to setup my orchestral template with expression maps and MG Pro. Not a lot of time to spend hours on it unfortunately. I loved the first version but Steinberg changed their coding or something so feel a bit confused. I’ll get it sussed eventually! Take care and cheers. Simon

[Vicken]

Well, looking at your picture above, you have buttons and faders, each one send either cc or note number to trigger the articulation , you do the same thing in MG, I feel the graphics are better than TouchOSC , lots of tutorials are available

[Martin]

I think it should be possible but not without some drawbacks or use of 3rd party tools.

Out of the box, Metagrid Pro interfaces with Cubase via Generic Remote to trigger commands and to control parameters. It essentially takes the role of a MIDI controller sending Note and CC messages to Cubase which in turn translates these MIDI messages to specific commands etc. When using MGPro in this fashion it is highly recommended that the MIDI port to MG Pro is NOT included in "All MIDI Inputs" (MIDI Setup/MIDI Connections in Cubase). This prevents Cubase from recording the MIDI sent by MG Pro onto the MIDI track when the MIDI track input is set to "All MIDI Inputs".
Now if you only need MG Pro to send key switches for articulations, no Generic Remote is needed and the MG Pro MIDI input port can be included in the "All MIDI Inputs".
If you also want to use MG Pro to trigger commands in Cubase, such as Play/Stop, Mute, Solo, etc., you're going to need a workaround unless you want these commands to end up in your MIDI Parts as random MIDI notes.

A few workarounds from the top of my head. (Hopefully someone else will chime in with possibly better solutions.)

• Allow Metagrid Pro in "All MIDI Inputs" and deal with any recorded commands manually. A Logical Editor preset could be set up to quickly delete any unwanted MIDI from the MIDI Part. Another drawback of this option is when MGP is sending a MIDI event that is intended for the Generic Remote, the same MIDI is also sent to whatever instrument is being monitored. This could lead to unexpected parameter changes in the instrument.
• Have all your key switches in MGP on a dedicated, unique MIDI Channel and use a 3rd party utility to split this channel out to a separate MIDI Port. You would then effectively have 2 MIDI ports in your DAW coming from MGP, one with key switches for articulations that is active in "All MIDI Inputs" and one that is not and only used for mappings in Generic Remote.
• Using Transformer as an insert effect on the MIDI track could allow you to filter out any MIDI data that is intended for the Generic Remote.

I hope there is a more clever solution than the ones I could come up with.
As a side note, It will be interesting to see how the MGP team will add a piano keys module in the future given the above restrictions.

[simyoda]

Wow. Thanks for that feedback Martin! I do like the generic remote functionality of MG Pro. It would be a shame to hinder that workflow. I’m also doing orchestration in Dorico 4 which is how I’m just learning how to deal with custom keyboard shortcuts and setting up grids, scenes, etc. Still got so much to learn! I’m going to go back and check out all of Jason Graves videos to see how Metagrid can work with Cubase and I’m enjoying Paul and Przemek’s tuts as well. Don’t have heaps of time at the moment to build my new template but I definitely want Metagrid Pro to be a big part of it.

I do have an old IPad 3 with touch OSC version 1 but I never even learnt how to use that app at all. I like the transformer idea on each track.If there’s a painless way to do the filtering and setup the articulation switching it would be great. I have a nanokontrol 2 which is doing nothing. I wish I’d grabbed a nanokey 2 instead as I’m sure I could keyswitch with that and use MG Pro for everything else. To be honest, I don’t even know how to create a button to switch grids yet! I guess I figured there must be someone who’s using MG Pro as opposed to Metagrid 1 for working with libraries. My dream setup would be to have the midi channel grid, selected channel grid and then a separate grid which lines up with the MIDI track and has the expression maps all lined up and ready to trigger.

I’ve just got a KK s61 Mk2 which is great for the default Nks mapping of kontakt parameters (when the library is compatible of course).I only just discovered also that OPUS vst.3 can natively import keyswitch data directly in to the instrument track in Cubase which is great. One day I might get all this sorted! I have a short film to finish in a month so I will just try to get bits and pieces of my Metagrid setup done here and there. Thanks for reaching out. This forum is fairly quiet compared to V.I. Control and the Steinberg Forums! I think Metagrid is so brilliant. I also want to harness the power of macros as well. Such a time saver once they’re set up. It’s still all fairly new. Cheers from down under in Australia. All the best, Simon.