Expression map, and saving problem

Discussions about Macros for DTouch for Cubase and DTouch for Nuendo
Post Reply
cwazeeandluvinit
Posts: 5
Joined: 02 Sep 2021 21:47

Expression map, and saving problem

Post by cwazeeandluvinit » 02 Sep 2021 22:25

I have just started using DTouch in cubase 11. I'm still figuring it out, so apologies if I'm missing something very obvious.

The main feature I need DTouch for is to have expression maps on a small touch screen that dynamically update according to which track is selected. So I set up a simple cubase session imported some existing expression maps, and wow, it just worked immediately! The other functions look useful too, but for me they are secondary to the expression maps feature.

However, when I loaded up my orchestral template, the expression map window does nothing. I can't seem to get it to react or do anything. Re-opening my simple session and it works again. I wondered if it is caused by the template being big (362 tracks, and 88 expression maps), so I set the max number of tracks to 512, but that didn't help. My template contains a lot of Kontakt instrument tracks, many of which are disabled until I need them, could that affect it? The cpr file is 164MB, so fairly large (but not compared to many other people's orchestral templates!).

Any advice appreciated!

Another odd issue I have is when I save the session, cubase says it cannot write to the file, and saves it under a new name. It's never done that before, so I assume its because DTouch is accessing the file at the same time? The file takes 10 or more seconds to save.

Thanks

cwazeeandluvinit
Posts: 5
Joined: 02 Sep 2021 21:47

Re: Expression map, and saving problem

Post by cwazeeandluvinit » 03 Sep 2021 09:14

I tried deleting half the tracks in the project and it started working!
This makes me think that the expression map feature has an issue with too many tracks perhaps?

Another issue I found is that once I deleted the tracks and it started working, it started popping up errors that I had tracks with the same name. I meticulously checked and I didn't have any tracks with the name it specified, "Kontakt 5 [3]". So I tried deleting the 3 Kontakt rack instruments, which definitely had very different names to the specified one, and that fixed the error. I'm not sure why it wasn't registering their correct names. Also not sure why it matters as they were rack instruments (rather than midi or instrument tracks), so I don't think expression maps are even really relevant on them.

Any advice appreciated!

cwazeeandluvinit
Posts: 5
Joined: 02 Sep 2021 21:47

Re: Expression map, and saving problem

Post by cwazeeandluvinit » 08 Sep 2021 21:27

I got this working!

Not certain what the problem was but by systematically deleting stuff, I found that I had an old instrument track, where I had accidentally set the instrument to none in the rack, but the instrument track was still hanging around and breaking the expression map panel.

So in the rack I set it to be a synth rather than nothing, and that enabled me to remove the track in the arrange window, and then the expression map panel started working.

I also had issues where it didn't like duplicate track names, but I was struggling to locate those tracks in the project. I found that a couple of my rack instruments (not instrument tracks), had multiple audio outs enabled, and renaming all these outputs solved that issue.

Now when I save my project, Cubase no longer flags up an error and wants to use a new name, so that's good too!

cwazeeandluvinit
Posts: 5
Joined: 02 Sep 2021 21:47

Re: Expression map, and saving problem

Post by cwazeeandluvinit » 27 Sep 2021 19:50

Sadly I'm still having problems getting this to work.

If my cpr file gets too big (around 130MB), the expression map panel stops working and saving the project changes to the cpr file name. I am experiencing this issue on both my large template and when creating a new test project full of virtual instruments. Small projects work fine. I am using Cubase 11 in windows 10, but I am seeing similar issues on Cubase 8.5 too

Has anyone else seen this issue? Or is anyone happily using Dtouch with large cubase projects and not seeing the issue so I can figure out what's breaking it on my system?

Thanks

Post Reply