How to use Articulation Maps in Cakewalk by Bandlab 

One suggestion is to set the chase mode to "full" (It's set to CCs in the video) for the articulation maps. This is to make sure the correct articulation is selected and playback is started from the middle of an articulation maps rather than before. Of course, for this to work, in Preferences | Project | MIDI, both "MIDI Event Chase on Play" and "Include Note Events." need to be selected.

The best Cakewalk content channel on RU-vid.

I regret that I only have one like to give. This deserves 10 of them.

This is awesome 😍 10:34 yea, I too am not sure about Capo and Capo. But, I usually say capo instead of capo 🤷

What I used to do is use a separate MIDI track for the kewswitches . With that separate MIDI track, I would use a drum map to display the keyswitch names. Then I could enable both tracks in the PRV. With Articulation maps, I no longer have to use this workaround.

Thanks. This is going to be so useful for string parts. I had resorted to having separate tracks for sustained, short, pizzicato etc which was not good for cpu but easier than the old method of key switching. Keep up the great work with this channel!

Thank you for putting this video up on RU-vid! I've been neglecting a couple of my VSTi plug-ins because I didn't want to mess with the keyswitching. Now I'll be able to use them to their fullest, thanks to CbB's feature and your explanation/demonstration. Much obliged!

Another thing I wouldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks Mike!

Mike, Thanks for helping kick frustration in the teeth --you always come through.

I have an older controller keyboard with no faders or switches so have bought external midi controllers to help. I'm writing string quartet parts for band recordings and that involves a ton of articulation options. This is going to make my life so much easier! Thanks both to Bandlab for all the dedication you give to Cakewalk (and it's users) and to Mike for being our lovable tour guide!

So many positive comments belwo, its difficult to find a new one! As usual Mike, you have saved me hours and have broken through the impossibility of ploughing through the reference guide. I owned Sonar Platinum for many years, but as an occasional hobbyist never made as much progress as I have since watching your videos. You have transformed my enjoyment of the program. So well done, thank you! I have three Ample Sound VSTi's (Martin Lite, Bass Lite and Telecaster (full)) plus Spitfire Orchestra. Any articulation maps would be welcome, but I will start on the Ample TC tonight!

This is a great option added to cakewalk. It will save time in writing music. I will write some maps for: Amadeus. Bravura. Philharmonik 2. Berlin strings. And many more. We can now re-use a lot of vsti old sounds... But since i use oriental sounds also... because i write oriental music, i think i will write some maps for it

Great tutorial! I'm starting to really use this tool for the programming of Spitfire orchestra samples.

To put it mildly “BLOODY BRILLIANT”. This was a gripe of mine not being able to add such maps made using something like AmpleSound guitars a pain. I see myself setting this up when I get up in the morning. First on the AmpleSound guitars. I also see myself using it with VSL Synchron stuff and probably some Kontakt instruments. It will make life totally different. Thanks yet again Mike. For me this was your best session yet. It’s 10:20pm here on the Gold Coast right now and the sunrise was before 5:00am so to bed I go. But, I now know just what tomorrow will be. Thanks yet again. Tony

Sir you have made my year. I have spent years "PROGRAMMING" all the keyswitches. I will start using these maps asap. Thanks for the video. Cheers. By the way we say "Caaapo" in the States. Thought you might want to know. LOL.

Great video. I learned a lot, as I have from all your videos. Using Add from MIDI is very helpful when using EastWest Opus. If the key switch in Opus is C0 you must use C2 when you create the articulation in Cakewalk (or 2 octaves higher). If you use Add from MIDI, Cakewalk will put the correct value in so you don't have to remember to convert.

What an excellent feature! Thank you for showing this.

Thank you! Another awesome Cakewalk tutorial, that's easy to follow. I liked it three times ;) Regarding MIDI messages. MIDI is a serial protocol. Although we seem to play chords, for example, the messages for the notes to play come in one after the other (in the order your pressed them on the keyboard, that's why "as played" works for arpeggiators). Order defines when a message will be executed. So when setting the articulation map, the first notes entered will be triggered first, etc.

Thank you very much. Excellent and super useful video. I missed Bandlab added this feature. Now not only I know about its existence but also know how to add for my vstis when needed :)

Love, love, love articulation maps!

ANOTHER USEFUL AND WELL EXPLAINED VIDEO. THANKS. I shall use it in my Embertone and Kirk Hunter libraries.

Fantastic. Thank you very much!!

So cogent, so good. You are amazing! Never STOP!

Mike, thank you and you're really good at presenting things....

Круто! Почти все ваши видео про Cakewalk посмотрел! Спасибо за такой контент!!!

Cheers Mike, makes it easier for us to get to grips with.

Thank you so much man. Greetings from Brazil.

THANK YOU so much Mike! I have been a fan of your channel for a long time. You ALWAYS deliver. I truly appreciate all your hard work and excellent content. Cheers!

This is awesome. Yesterday I updates my Cakewalk installation. Today you provide the tutorial of the new feature. Best service ever! Thank you, Mike!

Really an eye opener for me, thanks a lot

Excellent tutorial, Mike - thank you very much!

Because of your videos, my Cakewalk Bandlab daily work just got so much better!!!!

Described well Mike. Keep up the good work.

Just downloaded the update from BandLab yesterday... your video is perfect timing!! The information is spot on... thanks!!!

Powerful feature, well demonstrated!

Many thanks. I'm using it with Trillian and it's working just fine. A+

Bloody great job Mike, its something I know nothing about and found it quite daunting when it came with the latest CbB update. Thank goodness for your tutorials, many thanks.

Thank you for doing this so quickly Mike - awesome stuff. My go-to for creating a map will the Kontakt Factory Strings

Thanks so much! What a great service!!!!!! You are simply the best!

Wow, this was made just a few days ago! Definitely one of the very few reliable resources on Cakewalk.

This is a great tutorial for this awesome addition to CbB. I'll be testing it with various K6 orchestral libraries. Thanks for doing such a good job connecting the dots here!

Excellent, thank you very much. Great explanation, easy to follow. I'll be watching your other videos as well.

Thanks for this - just downloaded the version with articulations - I was on the verge of switching to Cubase just because of this feature. I am glad I can now stay with my favourite DAW!

Amazing. I was considering switching to Cubase or Logic, primarily to resolve this specific problem. I hadn’t spotted that this feature was introduced in a recent version of Cakewalk. So thank you so much Mike for alerting us to this and explaining it so clearly! 🙂

Espetacular. Esse era o principal problema que me impedia de avançar no ample guitar. Parabéns à Cakewalk.

Great job!! You are becoming the de facto Cakewalk video guy

Ooooh I just love you man, Thanks a lot. This video deserve 20 likes instead of just one.

Thank you very much. Well Done!

Good stuff, man. Thanks for sharing.

I only started with music production and therefore Cakewalk in march/april and they already brought two significant quality of life enhancements(which i know of and are usefull to me) with the the Arranger and the articulation map. For a free software thats really amazing. If they'd implement a feature to stack vst instruments and save them as a "preset", like you can with the audio effects, it would be pretty much perfect for me. Anyway thanks for your awsome video.

This was a very useful video for me Mike. Thank you much! I recently purchased Miroslav Philharmonic 2 and this technique came in very handy in using the multi's that are available in the software. I immediately set out to map all of the multi's because I never know what I might want to use. It took a couple of days, but in my opinion it was well worth the effort. Again, thanks for saving me tons of time moving forward.

I hadn't looked into this yet, but wow, this definitely makes keyswitching significantly easier to use in Cakewalk. I'll be using this with my orchestral libraries: Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition and various individual download instruments, and the Garritan libraries (Personal Orchestra 5, Concert & Marching Band 2, World Music, Jazz & Big Band 3).

just discovered you today and subscribed! thank you guys!

Will try it on Spitfire Studio strings. Thanks Mike, great job.

Thanks Mike. I had no idea this feature was out

Cracking me up, Capo, Capo, who really knows! LOL. In any case, this was a revelation, thanks Mike! Good ol' Cakewalk, still delivering. Not a zombie yet. I will need this mostly for Kontakt guitar and string libraries from various vendors. I switched to Studio One mostly but I still love Cakewalk, but I'm still always learning new ways of working.

Great tutorial Mike. I'm faced with creating Artic maps for EWQLSO and there literally hundreds!!

This is 100% exactly what I needed tonight! Just bought Electric Sunburst Deluxe. Thanks, Mike!

Man you saved me a ton a time thank you!

I made a Articulation Map for Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 (PO5) for "Double Bass 1 Solo KS" - it has 12 keyswitches! This is sooo helpful as remembering all 12 is now no longer necessary. I'm excited to make Art-Maps for other Garritan instruments (strings and wind instruments, especially).

I almost always find value in your videos, but this one was a gold mine. Just being able to transpose passages without having to go through the normal process is going to save me a whole lot of time and hassle. Also, I have had trouble putting my controller knobs to work, but this is going to allow me to harness them easily. I don't yet know what other uses I will be able to find but I'm sure there will be plenty. I expect to be using the transpositions on things like string or horn sections among other things. The rest I will make up as I go along. Maybe I'll add more specifics later. Thanks for this very useful tutorial, MIke. You made my day. :D

This is so useful and may save me a lot of time! It took me really much effort on adjusting articulation, and was especially annoying to switch between GUI and piano roll view Thank you so much! I should have found this video earlier

Yes sir... Thanks... I will be working on a couple of vsts for my video... I will definitely be sharing... 😄👍

Just in case anybody's Cakewalk does not show up the Articulation Pane by default (mine didn't, I spent a little time figuring out...): Make sure you have the 2020.11 version of Cakewalk. Then, open the Piano Roll window of a track (usually, pressing Alt+3). Then, make sure you are showing the Articulation Pane. In the Piano Roll window, top left corner, you have a number of scroll-down lists. There is one called "Window". It has a "Show/Hide Articulation Pane". Make sure it is selected. Then, you can drag down that upper border of the piano roll and the "Double-click or drag to add articulation" message should show up. Hope this helps. Btw, thank you Mike very much for these precious tutorials! (90's "Cakewalk for Windows" v. 3.0 user here, enjoying as a child again)

That adds more usefulness to older synths like garritan personal orchestra. Thanks.

Thanks much for the details! I've not yet fully wrapped my head around this (still using a notepad memo as you've shown :D) and it gets even a bit more complicated when you add the Up/Down strokes and other noise effects from the higher octaves to the list (in Ample Sound guitars at least). I'll give it a try soon

profuse thanks for another brilliant tutorial!! I'm running out of superlatives to describe your videos!!

Very, very helpful.

Thanks !

I've improved my music production since I subscribe your channel..once again..thanks mike..

the new arranger tool is the best tool i have seen as you don't have to worry about recording everything in sequence and can play around with the arrangement by moving the sections

So helpful

In the staff view it would be good to see the articulations as well - which is what would happen in a real score but this is great tool to have. Clearly Noel and the team have really thought it through. Also thanks for you preparation and very clear presentation Mike.

Thanks a lot Mike for this video explaining the Articulation Maps in Cakewalk... Although I haven't installed Cakewalk yet, I am planning to do so very soon, I find the Articulation Maps creation much more simple than Expression maps creation for the DAW you know which one I am referring to ;-) All the very best and kind regards, MaxT 🙏

Exellent Video , thks !!

great stuff mike dont think il be using this feature but at least now i know what it is

Thanks a huge lot! I'm your god damn fan, man 🖤

This is great. I haven't been using articulations, but intend to. I'll be using this feature with Spectrasonics Trilian and Spitfire Audio's BBC SYMPHONY. Thanks.

Thanks, Mike! Liked and subscribed. This is great news. I will be using this feature with orchestral libraries. I have libraries from EWHO, Spitfire, IK Multi, UVI, and a couple others. I bought a Cubase template for EWHO Gold/Diamond for $20 and it's awesome. But I don't know Cubase, I've been using CW since version 5. This looks like a lot of work to build a template for a large library, but it's far superior to keyswitched articulations. Thanks again.

Great video. Its worth pointing out that the articulation track is found only on the piano roll view on each track. Took me a while to find it.

Thanks for getting onto this subject so quickly Mike - thought it would be another week or so at least! Really helpful - I was struggling to get my head around it so left it until I saw your video which has clarified things a lot! Good that you featured a VSTi I own as well (thanks to one of your competitions :-) ) which made it particularly useful! I can see this being very useful for Garritan Personal Orchestra and IK Miroslav PO too. I understand there are a lot of Cubase art maps already available and wondering if they will be compatible with CbB in some way

Excellent intro sir 🫡

I have recently downloaded BBCSO (free version) and am starting to use the articulation map feature. I also tried to use it with the Sine Player from Orchestral tools. Cakewalk articulations work well with BBCSO but I cant get them to work with the Sine Player. If anyone has or has created articulation maps for either of these and are willing to share, please reach out

Great!

In Canada its pronounced cApo, at least in my part of the country. :)

Fantastic tip. Thanks for pointing out this cool feature. Mike I know you're a Kontakt user. It would be really cool if there was a repository where we could all chip away at exporting maps for the libraries NI includes in the Kontakt bundle. Many hands makes light work, as they say. This gets me thinking, since I'm a developer. With NKS, I wonder if it would be possible to write code to query a plugin and generate a list of all of the key switches and controller articulations. The basic problem is that I know the NI libraries are not Open Source, I believe. Maybe the devs at Cakewalk could do this? I wanted to attempt a similar thing with TouchOSC and attempt to query a plugin, and have it output an OSC template.

For folks who may not want to create their own maps BabylonWaves Art Conductor is going to adapt the extensive library of maps they created for Logic and Cubase so that they work in Cakewalk. Fwiw ...

Great video Mike! These articulations have been a nightmare for me ever since I started using Ample Guitar VSTs. Hopefully this tutorial comes in handy :) P.S. It's pronounced capo, not capo :p

Hmm. This might get me back to using Cakewalk again. My frusturations with articulations with the East West libraries moved me to Cubase, but this looks like it solves that.

Okay, thanks.

Thanks Mike. I switched to Cakewalk a month ago and you helped me. I love your accent by the way. Are you from Australia?

Really helpful video. I’ve got loads of Kontakt instruments that use key switches. Did I see you can set the velocity as well. I’ve got a couple of libraries that use the same key but different velocities to switch between legato and sustain articulations. I will be experimenting/creating some maps for CSS and CSB tomorrow 😀. Thanks again.

Another great video Mike, thank you. "You say ca(h)po, I say ca(y)po. You say pota(h)to, I say pota(y)to" 😂😂 I compose mainly orchestral and world instruments and was wondering if this feature can be used for them.

My Prayers are answered :D

Mike. As always, fantastic and thank you! Maybe I missed it, but it might be worth telling people what version of Cakewalk this feature was added to. I haven't updated yet since I'm in the middle of a project (technique - don't upgrade unless between projects). With that said I believe any version newer than 2020.09 (build 006) if you're running a 64 bit system. PRO - Great capability potential CON - Having to build maps Details - As you mentioned, sharing articulation maps will be key. It would really be nice if a default map came with each instrument for future releases of Cakewalk. Quite frankly, I don't want to spend a bunch of time building maps instead of making music. Reminds me of drum maps; same concept where it's awesome once the maps are made but a PITA to build from scratch in terms of time invested. I'm sure this will all get significantly better with time. For now, if anybody has a repository location where we can find default maps and import them, it would be a HUGE time saver. Thanks again for taking the time to build an outstanding tutorial. Cheers!

Thanks Mike, another wonderful and timely instruction video (just started trying to figure out articulation). Is it cap oh, or cape oh? In the United states we say cape oh, we are famous for butchering the English language.

It's more sophisticated than the one in S1. Let's hope Presonus adds more features like midi channels and CC options in a future update soon. Thanks for the video.

Mike, yet another awesome Cakewalk video. Your videos are so helpful, thank you. I do have a question, well more of an issue with my Cakewalk. After I directed Cakewalk to my VST folder, it would seem that some of my VST's have been added as plug in's and I am unable to access them to play them as a soft synth. Have you encountered this issue? Do you know how I might move them to the VST's section so that I can use them? There are some pretty necessary synth and instruments that I need for my music that I can't access to play. ANy help would be much appreciated. I am still learning to use this, so I have no doubt it is something I have or haven't done right!! Thanks.

Hi Mike! It's pronounced cappo (Italian?). Thanks a million for all your hard work.

Many many thanks for your tutorials, always very detailed and clear! One question: how to save the customization of the command bar? Each time I launch Cakewalk, I have to rearrange the modules and/or hide the "unwanted" ones.