CSS Delay Helper + Cubase Expression Maps
Free
636 people bought this
Overview
CSS Delay Helper is a VST3 instrument host designed for Cinematic Studio Series libraries running inside Kontakt. It loads a user-selected VST3 instrument, usually Kontakt, and applies MIDI timing compensation before the MIDI reaches the hosted plugin.
The goal is to make delayed articulations easier to write on the grid while preserving the intended timing. The plugin shows the DAW track delay you should apply and then internally delays notes, keyswitches, and selected MIDI controllers according to the active articulation logic.
Important Concept
CSS Delay Helper does not replace Kontakt. It hosts Kontakt inside itself. You still load your Cinematic Studio instrument inside Kontakt, but MIDI passes through CSS Delay Helper first.
• Load CSS Delay Helper as the instrument on the DAW track.
• Inside CSS Delay Helper, load Kontakt as the hosted VST3.
• Open the hosted Kontakt UI and load your Cinematic Studio instrument.
• Set the DAW track delay to the negative value shown in the plugin.
System requirements:
Windows 10 or higher / macOS 11 or higher (Universal 2 build for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs).
VST3 for Windows and macOS, AU format dedicated for Logic Pro users included. Signed and notarized macOS packages.
Changelog:
v.2.5.1
• Fixed playback started in the middle of a part: the plugin now keeps the articulation and legato state across stop, locate and playback start, the same way Kontakt does, so the two always agree. Before, a locate reset the plugin to Long with legato off while Kontakt stayed in the articulation the DAW had just re-sent (for example with Cubase Direction Expression Maps), and the timing was off until the next articulation change.
• Fixed legato notes that only touch on the grid: when a transition gets faster (for example slow to fast), the previous note is now held until just after the new note reaches Kontakt, so CSS plays the transition instead of a fresh attack and the note no longer lands early. Notes overlapped by hand behave exactly as before.
• Fixed a short or long note ending inside a legato phrase: it is released as its own articulation and no longer confuses the legato phrase counter. Before, the legato notes that followed all received the First Legato timing, whatever their velocity.
• Articulation switches still waiting in the plugin's delay queue at a stop or locate are now delivered to Kontakt instead of being dropped.
v.2.5
- Added Live mode: a Live button, the L key and a configurable MIDI trigger (default MIDI note 108, the top key of an 88-key keyboard) bypass delay compensation for the slot you are playing in, while the other Multi Mode slots keep playing back in sync. Play parts in over the running transport without the compensation latency, then switch back for playback.
- Added a Settings panel with the Live trigger setup (note or CC, Learn, one slot or all slots) and the Standard-legato portamento option.
- Updated the Strings preset to timings measured on CSS 1.7: fast legato is now 170 ms, and long notes without a legato transition (sustain with legato off, tremolo, harmonics, measured tremolo, trills) have their own new Longs delay of 100 ms. Low Latency legato follows the CSS 1.7 velocity zones (0-63 medium, 64-127 fast).
- Added a Solo Str. preset with the Solo Strings / pre-1.7 timing.
- Fixed the first note after a mid-song playback start: the articulation and legato state in effect is now honoured, so Auto Detect no longer plays the first note with the wrong articulation.
- Fixed loop wraps and locates leaving hanging or ghost notes, and saving the project during playback cutting notes.
- Fixed a Logic Pro freeze caused by the editor timer, and a crash when reloading a hosted plugin with its window open.
- Fixed an articulation switch sent right after a fast run of short notes reaching Kontakt before the last short note.
- Browse now opens in your platform's VST3 folder or the folder of the current plugin.
- Compatibility: projects saved with v2.0 open unchanged (all values kept, Live trigger off). To adopt the CSS 1.7 timings in an existing project, click the Strings preset (Solo Str. for Solo Strings).
v.2.0
- Added Multi Mode, allowing one CSS Delay Helper instance to manage up to 8 instruments loaded inside a single Kontakt instance.
- Added support for up to 32 Kontakt stereo outputs, making multi-mic and multi-output Kontakt routing much easier inside Cubase.
- Added Fixed Articulation Mode, so users can manually select the articulation type when they do not want to rely on keyswitches or Expression Maps.
- Added Sync Kontakt, which can send the selected articulation state to the hosted Kontakt instrument.
- Added Auto Bypass, which automatically disables delay compensation while the DAW is idle, making manual MIDI note entry more immediate.
- Updated macOS builds to Universal Binary, supporting both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
v.1.2
- Added Kontakt multi-output support with up to four stereo outputs: St.1-St.4.
- Updated the compensation base so all presets use a consistent recommended DAW track delay of -330 ms.
- Added a Mini MIDI Monitor showing current mode, legato status, last keyswitch, CC value, active delay and compensation status.
- Added hover tooltips across the interface, with a global Tips switch to disable them.
- Added Keyswitch Learn: right-click a keyswitch control, choose Learn keyswitch, then press a MIDI key to assign it automatically.
- Updated version metadata and UI label to v1.2.
- Updated the user manual with v1.2 features and workflow notes.
v1.0.1
- Improved project recall behavior.
- CSS Delay Helper now automatically restores the hosted VST3 instrument when reopening a saved project.
- Fixed an issue where users had to manually click Load again after reopening a Cubase project, even though the hosted Kontakt state was already saved.
- Improved behavior after disabling and re-enabling a track containing CSS Delay Helper.
- Preserved the pending hosted instrument state more safely during project restore.
- Updated the plugin version label and embedded plugin metadata to v1.0.1.
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