Will MPE affect your future plugin purchasing habits?

[tapper mike]

Here's the thing for me....and why I started this thread.


Every time I get a daw or virtual instrument package with stems / phrases.
1. I think most of them are crap because they are trying to avoid copyright issues.
2.a. I think that I could perform it better with an instrument that can capture the nuances better.
2.b. I get sick of looking for something I already have in my mind rather than just finding something close to. This is especially true for musical ideas involving swells / hammer on pull offs/ bow/pick direction vibrato and slide/bend.

I'd never waste my time with something like Native Instruments Session Strings because the technique would be in my hands

[pdxindy]

There are already a lot of standard possibilities to make synthesizers expressive : Expression pedal (cc4), aftertouch, poly aftertouch, pitch bend ( sometimes pos AND neg pitch bend), Mod wheel, sustain, breath controllers, ribbon controllers, velocity combined with gate time, key switches when it comes to articulations, or 'intelligent' automatic adaptative articulations etc etc.

And all that together with all its complexity and separate disconnected controls is incapable of doing this sort of realtime performance with all its lovely little note bends, pitch slides and timbre control on what is fundamentally a simple integrated interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOPer-0Hp54

[Lotuzia]

There are already a lot of standard possibilities to make synthesizers expressive : Expression pedal (cc4), aftertouch, poly aftertouch, pitch bend ( sometimes pos AND neg pitch bend), Mod wheel, sustain, breath controllers, ribbon controllers, velocity combined with gate time, key switches when it comes to articulations, or 'intelligent' automatic adaptative articulations etc etc.

And all that together with all its complexity and separate disconnected controls is incapable of doing this sort of realtime performance with all its lovely little note bends, pitch slides and timbre control on what is fundamentally a simple integrated interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOPer-0Hp54

It's not that complex, it's not 'disconnected' (actually the opposite, merged beeing possibly a more adequate word), and it also can do more, or let's say different, than what I heard in the -nice btw- YT demo. You just need to play with pedals/feet together with the hands for example. No more complicated than what a lot of guitar players are used to. Or piano players. Or use a breath controller. Or, well, anything that can send controls. (Don't try a Theremin, you could be surprised )

But well, as you were over sarcastic and somewhat contemptuous, and knowing that you often navigate between basic fanboyism and advanced sectarism, I'll just leave you with the idea that nothing can do what the Roli does, wich is possibly true, but then equally true for other techniques, and that the world have been waiting for it to perform with synths in expressive ways. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti linnDrum nor Rise, nor anything actually. I'm pro diversity, that's the difference between you and me. I could give you dozens of examples of things beeing possible with 'old techniques' and impossible to recreate with a Rise, but well, it's not really worth it. People with a bit of experience, practise and imagination will understand me, I think.

'There are plethoras of ways to control/play a synthesizer' was my message, some new keyboard based controllers beeing some of them, and only that, some fitting one's needs more than others. Each have their pros, and cons, and I won't surprise you by saying that I'll maybe get a Rise in an uncertain future. It's nice you finally met your own absolute way to do this. Other -probably not as educated as you - people use other techniques ( Just so that you know ) Also because these controllers have specific points, like the keys/triggers action, who could be seen maybe not as 'negative', but as introducing some limits or at least vast differences VS standard keyboard playing, and keys action.

[pdxindy]

There are already a lot of standard possibilities to make synthesizers expressive : Expression pedal (cc4), aftertouch, poly aftertouch, pitch bend ( sometimes pos AND neg pitch bend), Mod wheel, sustain, breath controllers, ribbon controllers, velocity combined with gate time, key switches when it comes to articulations, or 'intelligent' automatic adaptative articulations etc etc.

And all that together with all its complexity and separate disconnected controls is incapable of doing this sort of realtime performance with all its lovely little note bends, pitch slides and timbre control on what is fundamentally a simple integrated interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOPer-0Hp54

It's not that complex, it's not 'disconnected'

What I mean by disconnected is that for example, on the Rise, with 1 finger on the key, you can add vibrato and control speed and depth of vibrato. No other separate controls needed.

With a regular keyboard, you press the key, then you have to use at least 1 completely separate control... say modwheel plus aftertouch, or two separate controls modwheel and expression pedal to control vibrato speed and depth.

The first is a simple, natural movement. The later takes both hands and is still not nearly as flexible and nuanced in moving from one state to another. And that is not even talking about being able to modulate per note... that is just talking about a single note.

And then with the Rise when you have that note held, and you are playing vibrato, you can simply slide up a 5th if you want. Cannot do that the same with with a regular keyboard. The pitch wheel is so crude by comparison.

And then with that one held note on the Rise with control over vibrato speed and depth plus larger note slides, that has not even used the Y and Z axis which gives you two more integrated controls with 1 finger.

To match what you can do with just the 1 finger (monophonic) on a Rise with a regular keyboard controller, you would need 5 separate controls... say aftertouch, modwheel, pitchwheel, ribbon and expression pedal and be able to play them all at once.

And of course once you add a second note on the Rise (polyphony), then the standard keyboard is incapable of duplicating it at all.

[gremlinmoon]

Coming from a "playing" background what I have liked about creating electronic music is that it is "jam-resistant." The technical limitations that have been in place block the "let's just jam" default that it is so easy to slip into with say a guitar. That is not to say you cannot go deep into modular improvisational madness or on-the-fly acid or minimal, but for me electronic music is somehow different -- perhaps less mindlessly indulgent or a testosterone-fueled Nugentification since it requires "left-brain activation" to operate the machinery. The muscle memory of chords and scales are different than having to assign an LFO and chose its depth and rate and then assigning another LFO to modulate the rate of the previous LFO and another LFO to modulate the depth of the first LFO and then route the audio signal in three different ways -- not exactly Mixolydian in G.

What MPE can do is potentially amazing. However, it has a darkside. Imagine all the prog musicians and metal musicians who also make electronic music. This gives them the power to shred. And not just shred, but to do so with a pre-locked in scale so you literally cannot hit a wrong note. Imagine just a drum loop and some dude soloing over it for 45 min with a distorted Lucky Man patch. Imagine an MPE keytar. This could be the most dangerous phallus-extension since a flying V guitar.

Please do not get me wrong. My favorite musicians are the Grateful Dead, Miles Davis and FSOL. I love jamming. It is actually a weakness. And I would love a hyper-expressive controller. I'm just saying we should be vigilant and promote some restraint as we walk into the wide dispersal of this new technology.

We may end up with the Wyld Stallions yet. And though bowling averages will be way up and mini-golf scores way down I don't know if I could handle all the soloing.

I have to admit when I first saw this years ago I had no idea who this guy was and was pretty impressed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrmp2EaVChI

[killmaster]

add a simple yes for me

[thetechnobear]

I really don't think the negative tone towards keyboards, that some 'sellers' have had is useful. e.g. "keyboard are on/off switches", "death of the solo" - frankly this is nonsense, Ive been to classical piano concerts, that demonstrate clearly that a piano with a great pianist can create unforgettable atmosphere, tension with huge amounts of expression... and some pretty good 'solos' too
so this attitude is bound to have keyboardists/pianists saying 'this is not true', 'is this the emperors new clothes?'

But I do like expressive controllers, they allow you to interact in ways you cannot do naturally on a keyboard, e.g. string like ,and they put alot of extra control 'under your fingers', assuming you spend time learning to play the instrument, and developing good patches that utilise the expression well.

also... and the reason I bought mine, (eigenharp/soundplane) , is you can develop new sounds, that rely on an interesting interaction with the controller... build a unique instrument, not an emulation of something that already exists.
(this is why I think pedals, breath, ribbons still have a useful place with these controllers)

anyways, simple answer to the question... yes, MPE support, is the #1 feature I look for, and rarely buy plugins without it now ( though I do make exceptions )

[thetechnobear]

arghh. double post

[Cinebient]

The Rise is actually more easy to play for me than my normal midi keyboards i had when i use it in normal mode too.
The keys are the same size but i don´t know, i find it better to play after some time. Of course it has some pro for beginners like that the keys are quantized so that it´s harder to hit a wrong key or 2 keys at the same with fat fingers.
It´s also great that you can change the behavier of pressure, velocity etc. in realtime via the sliders.
Like i said, every input form has it´s pro and contra. F.e. for virtual instruments like Bohemian Violin or Emotional Cello i prefer to use my Macbook keys since i get the best results this way. I just need to play very fast mono lines, can switch dynamics and octaves via one key and can do it blind and very very fast. The instruments in this case are scripted the way so that they are very expressive without these MPE stuff and it would even destroy the idea of it or would be of no use anyway. For other instrument/tools i much prefer a flat multi-touch screen and for others a combination of this stuff etc.
What i like about the Rise is that it can do a bit of everything for me (but not everything perfect).
So back to the topic, it also depends a lot of the kind of tools.
For synths, MPE is a very useful thing for me. For well scripted expressive solo strings f.e. i don´t need it really (but the controller itself can be useful to play different instruments at the same time).

[pdxindy]

I really don't think the negative tone towards keyboards, that some 'sellers' have had is useful. e.g. "keyboard are on/off switches", "death of the solo" - frankly this is nonsense, Ive been to classical piano concerts, that demonstrate clearly that a piano with a great pianist can create unforgettable atmosphere, tension with huge amounts of expression... and some pretty good 'solos' too
so this attitude is bound to have keyboardists/pianists saying 'this is not true', 'is this the emperors new clothes?'

If someone wants to play a piano concerto, best to use a real piano... or second best a proper 88 key weighted controller with pedals... which is no cheap thing either. I would not suggest an MPE controller for that.

The beauty of something like the Rise is that it offers a whole new range of possibility compared to the usual keyboard controller... and it does so in an intuitive way... just hands fingers and 'keys' needed.

[Lotuzia]

What I mean by disconnected is that for example, on the Rise, with 1 finger on the key, you can add vibrato and control speed and depth of vibrato. No other separate controls needed.

With a regular keyboard, you press the key, then you have to use at least 1 completely separate control... say modwheel plus aftertouch, or two separate controls modwheel and expression pedal to control vibrato speed and depth.

The first is a simple, natural movement. The later takes both hands and is still not nearly as flexible and nuanced in moving from one state to another. And that is not even talking about being able to modulate per note... that is just talking about a single note.

And then with the Rise when you have that note held, and you are playing vibrato, you can simply slide up a 5th if you want. Cannot do that the same with with a regular keyboard. The pitch wheel is so crude by comparison.

And then with that one held note on the Rise with control over vibrato speed and depth plus larger note slides, that has not even used the Y and Z axis which gives you two more integrated controls with 1 finger.

To match what you can do with just the 1 finger (monophonic) on a Rise with a regular keyboard controller, you would need 5 separate controls... say aftertouch, modwheel, pitchwheel, ribbon and expression pedal and be able to play them all at once.

And of course once you add a second note on the Rise (polyphony), then the standard keyboard is incapable of duplicating it at all.

Well, just to comment the case you describe :

Assign Vibrato depth AND speed to polyphonic aftertouch ( Usually simply callaed a Macro, whether it is labelled as such, or it can be done by assigning several parameters to a single control in say a mod matrix). It will give you something similar to the first set of 2 controls you describe. Actually it's a bit different, because the values of the two parameters will react in a linear way, and not in an independant way. But sometimes, it will just give better results when actually playing, because this is exactly what you want, and it will be more difficult to achieve with independant controls ( Let's say it's part of a more global discussion about Macros VS separate controls)

The Pitch Bend control can go easily to a 5th. Or any other value. You'll need one hand to use it. Then, you can also perform chord slides with it. The same thing on the Rise might require some different dexterity. Then you can also easily assign pitch dev to global pitch, or a single osc freq., or several oscillators in convergent or divergent directions and various amounts ADDED to the standard pitch bend action. On a particular synth like Oxium, you can also program different actions on positive pitch bend and negative pitch bend. I don't know if all this would be doable on the Rise, because I only played with it twice at a firends studio, and I'm yet to discover its precise whole range of possibilities. As a note, if you just replace the PB with a ribbon controller, you'll rediscover PB with more subtle variations, and a rich and original musical gesture.

Then I've only used two old school controls, and I've set one more functionality. I coudl also control mod envelope intensities with pitch bend, to add slight, but nevertheless controlled, pitch variations. Pitch bend is one of the specific features of almost any synth. It's something you wont find on 'traditional' pianos or organs.

Still I've not used my feet. And a simple expression pedal would allow me to control a lot of other parameters, optionnaly bipolar with standard midi controller options available in every daw (so similar to an y/z topology with half resolution on each axis). Same with a ribbon controler etc.

And I've not yet programmed the mod wheel, that could give me this time two additional dimensions than in your example, to present it in a pedantic way, or, more simply put, any number of additional parameters controlled.

So only old technologies, two hands, occasional use of the pitch bend, and a single pedal/foot controller, and I *could*/*can* do similar, or more complex things than in your example. In a different way. But playing with any synth, and with standard keyboard techniques.

You'll tell me that 'Any synth' can however be discussed, and that's true. In my example, I described a synth where 'macros' or equivalent can be set, where I can control Envelope depth, or optionnaly different settings for pitch bend + and -, or control the pitch of each osciallator. Then, the same can be said for MPE synths, as it's the reason of this topic. It's not every synth either.

So I've reduced your supposed set to only three controls : 2 hands, a pitch bend, and a foot controller. And I can do more than the Rise.

In a different way. But still ...

Some will prefer the Rise to perform. And, in a number of situations, I can perfectly understand, and agree with, that. Some will prefer other ways. And there are also reasons for that.

And some will prefer to use different tools for different performances ( imho the wisest thing, like a simple real piano to play real piano parts )

But I wanted to underline two things : a/ You can already have very expressive and creative playing without a Rise. I think it's enough to hear some performances made decades ago by talented artists to understand that. But it might also be usefull to understand how this can be made with standard and -rather- inexpensive tools, and that's this experience I wanted to share. b/ The tools you choose will somehow affect your performance. So a good choice might be to have several options, because for example, with polyphonic play, the Rise and the system I describe will behave differently.( Just try X/Y things or slides on the Rise with 4 out of 10 fingers simultaneously and you'll see what I mean)

Well, just that. I'll just recall that I'm not in any way anti Rise or LinnDrum or anything fancy. I'm just pro everything that can be used to make music in interesting ways. Including old things, that were created and implemented ... for good reasons.

[tapper mike]

When I was playing my linnstrument...Speed was never an issue as well I could switch off expressive controls at anytime by setting them up as presets and then just touching a button.

Wyld Stallions, They got better through practice and that was the point of the movie. You have to work at stuff to get better (even if you have a little help) With History and performance.

[Echoes in the Attic]

What I mean by disconnected is that for example, on the Rise, with 1 finger on the key, you can add vibrato and control speed and depth of vibrato. No other separate controls needed.

With a regular keyboard, you press the key, then you have to use at least 1 completely separate control... say modwheel plus aftertouch, or two separate controls modwheel and expression pedal to control vibrato speed and depth.

The first is a simple, natural movement. The later takes both hands and is still not nearly as flexible and nuanced in moving from one state to another. And that is not even talking about being able to modulate per note... that is just talking about a single note.

And then with the Rise when you have that note held, and you are playing vibrato, you can simply slide up a 5th if you want. Cannot do that the same with with a regular keyboard. The pitch wheel is so crude by comparison.

And then with that one held note on the Rise with control over vibrato speed and depth plus larger note slides, that has not even used the Y and Z axis which gives you two more integrated controls with 1 finger.

To match what you can do with just the 1 finger (monophonic) on a Rise with a regular keyboard controller, you would need 5 separate controls... say aftertouch, modwheel, pitchwheel, ribbon and expression pedal and be able to play them all at once.

And of course once you add a second note on the Rise (polyphony), then the standard keyboard is incapable of duplicating it at all.

Well, just to comment the case you describe :

Assign Vibrato depth AND speed to polyphonic aftertouch ( Usually simply callaed a Macro, whether it is labelled as such, or it can be done by assigning several parameters to a single control in say a mod matrix). It will give you something similar to the first set of 2 controls you describe. Actually it's a bit different, because the values of the two parameters will react in a linear way, and not in an independant way. But sometimes, it will just give better results when actually playing, because this is exactly what you want, and it will be more difficult to achieve with independant controls ( Let's say it's part of a more global discussion about Macros VS separate controls)

The Pitch Bend control can go easily to a 5th. Or any other value. You'll need one hand to use it. Then, you can also perform chord slides with it. The same thing on the Rise might require some different dexterity. Then you can also easily assign pitch dev to global pitch, or a single osc freq., or several oscillators in convergent or divergent directions and various amounts ADDED to the standard pitch bend action. On a particular synth like Oxium, you can also program different actions on positive pitch bend and negative pitch bend. I don't know if all this would be doable on the Rise, because I only played with it twice at a firends studio, and I'm yet to discover its precise whole range of possibilities. As a note, if you just replace the PB with a ribbon controller, you'll rediscover PB with more subtle variations, and a rich and original musical gesture.

Then I've only used two old school controls, and I've set one more functionality. I coudl also control mod envelope intensities with pitch bend, to add slight, but nevertheless controlled, pitch variations. Pitch bend is one of the specific features of almost any synth. It's something you wont find on 'traditional' pianos or organs.

Still I've not used my feet. And a simple expression pedal would allow me to control a lot of other parameters, optionnaly bipolar with standard midi controller options available in every daw (so similar to an y/z topology with half resolution on each axis). Same with a ribbon controler etc.

And I've not yet programmed the mod wheel, that could give me this time two additional dimensions than in your example, to present it in a pedantic way, or, more simply put, any number of additional parameters controlled.

So only old technologies, two hands, occasional use of the pitch bend, and a single pedal/foot controller, and I *could*/*can* do similar, or more complex things than in your example. In a different way. But playing with any synth, and with standard keyboard techniques.

You'll tell me that 'Any synth' can however be discussed, and that's true. In my example, I described a synth where 'macros' or equivalent can be set, where I can control Envelope depth, or optionnaly different settings for pitch bend + and -, or control the pitch of each osciallator. Then, the same can be said for MPE synths, as it's the reason of this topic. It's not every synth either.

So I've reduced your supposed set to only three controls : 2 hands, a pitch bend, and a foot controller. And I can do more than the Rise.

In a different way. But still ...

Some will prefer the Rise to perform. And, in a number of situations, I can perfectly understand, and agree with, that. Some will prefer other ways. And there are also reasons for that.

And some will prefer to use different tools for different performances ( imho the wisest thing, like a simple real piano to play real piano parts )

But I wanted to underline two things : a/ You can already have very expressive and creative playing without a Rise. I think it's enough to hear some performances made decades ago by talented artists to understand that. But it might also be usefull to understand how this can be made with standard and -rather- inexpensive tools, and that's this experience I wanted to share. b/ The tools you choose will somehow affect your performance. So a good choice might be to have several options, because for example, with polyphonic play, the Rise and the system I describe will behave differently.( Just try X/Y things or slides on the Rise with 4 out of 10 fingers simultaneously and you'll see what I mean)

Well, just that. I'll just recall that I'm not in any way anti Rise or LinnDrum or anything fancy. I'm just pro everything that can be used to make music in interesting ways. Including old things, that were created and implemented ... for good reasons.

i think it's really absurd to be honest that you're trying to make an argument that you can do similar things with a non-mpe set up to an mpe set up. If you really believe that setting both vibrato intensity and speed to aftertouch is anything like having independent control of both per key, well you are just lying to yourself. I don't know why, maybe your favorite tools or company you work for isn't into MPE, but please don't downplay the usefulness of being able to have many different control available per key and try to convince us that normal keyboards can get close enough. We aren't fools. It's perfectly fine if you are satisfied with simple velocity and maybe aftertouch, or with somewhat inaccurate pitch bend only for solo instruments. But MPE opens up a new world.

And as for the OP, yes I only consider MPE synths now.

[EvilDragon]

Two hands and one foot to do what Rise can do with one hand or just one finger... doesn't quite add up IMHO.

[Lotuzia]

What I mean by disconnected is that for example, on the Rise, with 1 finger on the key, you can add vibrato and control speed and depth of vibrato. No other separate controls needed.

With a regular keyboard, you press the key, then you have to use at least 1 completely separate control... say modwheel plus aftertouch, or two separate controls modwheel and expression pedal to control vibrato speed and depth.

The first is a simple, natural movement. The later takes both hands and is still not nearly as flexible and nuanced in moving from one state to another. And that is not even talking about being able to modulate per note... that is just talking about a single note.

And then with the Rise when you have that note held, and you are playing vibrato, you can simply slide up a 5th if you want. Cannot do that the same with with a regular keyboard. The pitch wheel is so crude by comparison.

And then with that one held note on the Rise with control over vibrato speed and depth plus larger note slides, that has not even used the Y and Z axis which gives you two more integrated controls with 1 finger.

To match what you can do with just the 1 finger (monophonic) on a Rise with a regular keyboard controller, you would need 5 separate controls... say aftertouch, modwheel, pitchwheel, ribbon and expression pedal and be able to play them all at once.

And of course once you add a second note on the Rise (polyphony), then the standard keyboard is incapable of duplicating it at all.

Well, just to comment the case you describe :

Assign Vibrato depth AND speed to polyphonic aftertouch ( Usually simply callaed a Macro, whether it is labelled as such, or it can be done by assigning several parameters to a single control in say a mod matrix). It will give you something similar to the first set of 2 controls you describe. Actually it's a bit different, because the values of the two parameters will react in a linear way, and not in an independant way. But sometimes, it will just give better results when actually playing, because this is exactly what you want, and it will be more difficult to achieve with independant controls ( Let's say it's part of a more global discussion about Macros VS separate controls)

The Pitch Bend control can go easily to a 5th. Or any other value. You'll need one hand to use it. Then, you can also perform chord slides with it. The same thing on the Rise might require some different dexterity. Then you can also easily assign pitch dev to global pitch, or a single osc freq., or several oscillators in convergent or divergent directions and various amounts ADDED to the standard pitch bend action. On a particular synth like Oxium, you can also program different actions on positive pitch bend and negative pitch bend. I don't know if all this would be doable on the Rise, because I only played with it twice at a firends studio, and I'm yet to discover its precise whole range of possibilities. As a note, if you just replace the PB with a ribbon controller, you'll rediscover PB with more subtle variations, and a rich and original musical gesture.

Then I've only used two old school controls, and I've set one more functionality. I coudl also control mod envelope intensities with pitch bend, to add slight, but nevertheless controlled, pitch variations. Pitch bend is one of the specific features of almost any synth. It's something you wont find on 'traditional' pianos or organs.

Still I've not used my feet. And a simple expression pedal would allow me to control a lot of other parameters, optionnaly bipolar with standard midi controller options available in every daw (so similar to an y/z topology with half resolution on each axis). Same with a ribbon controler etc.

And I've not yet programmed the mod wheel, that could give me this time two additional dimensions than in your example, to present it in a pedantic way, or, more simply put, any number of additional parameters controlled.

So only old technologies, two hands, occasional use of the pitch bend, and a single pedal/foot controller, and I *could*/*can* do similar, or more complex things than in your example. In a different way. But playing with any synth, and with standard keyboard techniques.

You'll tell me that 'Any synth' can however be discussed, and that's true. In my example, I described a synth where 'macros' or equivalent can be set, where I can control Envelope depth, or optionnaly different settings for pitch bend + and -, or control the pitch of each osciallator. Then, the same can be said for MPE synths, as it's the reason of this topic. It's not every synth either.

So I've reduced your supposed set to only three controls : 2 hands, a pitch bend, and a foot controller. And I can do more than the Rise.

In a different way. But still ...

Some will prefer the Rise to perform. And, in a number of situations, I can perfectly understand, and agree with, that. Some will prefer other ways. And there are also reasons for that.

And some will prefer to use different tools for different performances ( imho the wisest thing, like a simple real piano to play real piano parts )

But I wanted to underline two things : a/ You can already have very expressive and creative playing without a Rise. I think it's enough to hear some performances made decades ago by talented artists to understand that. But it might also be usefull to understand how this can be made with standard and -rather- inexpensive tools, and that's this experience I wanted to share. b/ The tools you choose will somehow affect your performance. So a good choice might be to have several options, because for example, with polyphonic play, the Rise and the system I describe will behave differently.( Just try X/Y things or slides on the Rise with 4 out of 10 fingers simultaneously and you'll see what I mean)

Well, just that. I'll just recall that I'm not in any way anti Rise or LinnDrum or anything fancy. I'm just pro everything that can be used to make music in interesting ways. Including old things, that were created and implemented ... for good reasons.

i think it's really absurd to be honest that you're trying to make an argument that you can do similar things with a non-mpe set up to an mpe set up. If you really believe that setting both vibrato intensity and speed to aftertouch is anything like having independent control of both per key, well you are just lying to yourself. I don't know why, maybe your favorite tools or company you work for isn't into MPE, but please don't downplay the usefulness of being able to have many different control available per key and try to convince us that normal keyboards can get close enough. We aren't fools. It's perfectly fine if you are satisfied with simple velocity and maybe aftertouch, or with somewhat inaccurate pitch bend only for solo instruments. But MPE opens up a new world.

And as for the OP, yes I only consider MPE synths now.

You did not read me, did you ?

+ I dont work for a company, except mine.