Hi, It seems that the default value for the volume expression is set to +12 dB. https://github.com/steinbergmedia/vst3_public_sdk/blob/a3911a4615dabbfdfd9d181ee26b05c70c289a95/samples/vst/note_expression_synth/source/note_expression_synth_controller.cpp#L212 I believe that a better default would be 0.25 (0 dB).