Will MPE affect your future plugin purchasing habits?

[EnGee]

Piano has pedals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_pedals

[deastman]

Piano has pedals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_pedals

Yes, but so does the Seaboard, and I'm not even taking that into consideration as an additional dimension of control.

[pdxindy]

Piano has pedals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_pedals

Is your point that there is no difference in expressive control?

[deastman]

Really accomplished pianists have amazing vibrato technique.

[zerocrossing]

Really accomplished pianists have amazing vibrato technique.

Pianos are for old people.

[deastman]

Really accomplished pianists have amazing vibrato technique.

Pianos are for old people.

I guess I'm an old person then! At least that's what my kids tell me.

But seriously, I have nothing against the piano. It was my first instrument... ten years of lessons... my parents have a very nice Steinway grand for me to play. But I'm not going to try to insist that it is the world's most expressive instrument.

[tapper mike]

this will read as strange.... I bought the linnstrument for it's harmony potential over it's mpe features. Sure I can play the keyboard really poorly though still play. But I love the rich clusters and wide harmonic expanse of keyboards.

With regards to mod and pitch wheels, joysticks and x/y control surfaces.... God they suck to high hell. I think ribbon strips are okay if you get the right one. x/y/z pads could be more functional. I'm more interested in McMillen Softstep,

A funny thing about limited expressive capacity electronic instruments. It didn't stop anyone from working magic of the expressive experience. If a keybed didn't have velocity sensitivity the player still had skill. And while I've dabbled in the same field. I could never go back except to play an old song from way back when. Even then I'd think twice to see if I could give the song a little more life with a more expressive instrument.

[Ah_Dziz]

I would enjoy seeing more integration in the way that strobe or Softube modular did for MPE, but it won't stop me from buying something new. Any multitimbral instrument can support the MPE as it's used with at least the seaboard. I mainly love the seaboard for its ability to send poly AT on a single channel when using it more like a normal keyboard.

[deastman]

I would enjoy seeing more integration in the way that strobe or Softube modular did for MPE, but it won't stop me from buying something new. Any multitimbral instrument can support the MPE as it's used with at least the seaboard. I mainly love the seaboard for its ability to send poly AT on a single channel when using it more like a normal keyboard.

I do think we'll start to see much more support for MPE. For example, I believe Urs said that U-he would add MPE once it actually becomes an official standard. I can understand a lot of developers not wanting to waste time on it now when the standard is still being revised and they'll have to do additional work later.

[Cubehog]

It definitely is a consideration to me. I believe that the Roli keyboards (lumpboards?) are pretty nearly the most perfect controllers for synthetic instruments that have ever been created. Others might be better, but come in at too high a price.

Coming from the world of guitar, you've got few options if you want synth sounds. GR style hex pickups have too many issues, IMO. Too limited. Prone to glitches. Standard keyboards can be OK, but as a guitarist, it just feels simple and clumsy. The first time I touched the Rise 49 was like magic. I literally laughed. Go out and buy one right now. I don't care if you're broke. JUSTDOIT.

You're always going to have your piano trained keyboardists or MPC/x0x button pressers, who don't give a sh!t. I get that. But, I think we're also seeing a backlash to that paradigm and I wouldn't be surprised if developers start coming on board with more MPE compatibility.

I use a Linnstrument and I do chords on that just like on a guitar. It´s definetly something new, but I don´t need to memorize new chords and can directly transfer my understanding of harmony into my DAW. Linnstrument is kind of a fretboard where you "tap your chords". I also own a YRG, but I use the Linnstrument way much more.

[Aleatoriac]

Had Linnstrument for about a week now. Really enjoying it!

Won't stop using keyboards, and certainly won't stop the guitar, but this thing is very useful... It's pretty easy to get really fast scale and arp runs with one hand on this thing.
I'm noticing though that I have to rework every patch to take advantage of - effectively MPE - on the Linnstrument.

[pdxindy]

I do think we'll start to see much more support for MPE. For example, I believe Urs said that U-he would add MPE once it actually becomes an official standard. I can understand a lot of developers not wanting to waste time on it now when the standard is still being revised and they'll have to do additional work later.

Urs is/has been adding the important bits. The new Diva beta has pitch +/- 48 and he said he will add CC74 support at some point near future and you already only need one instance because it supports note per midi channel in all the newer synths. So in short order, Diva, Bazille and Ace will all have solid support.

It will not be until Zebra 3 for Zebra due to needing to redo the voice structure.

[EnGee]

Piano has pedals
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_pedals

Is your point that there is no difference in expressive control?

No. My point is there are already expressive tools/techniques for various acoustic instruments. MPE keyboards/instruments are for me new instruments that I don't need. My expressions are not that complex, so what's there is enough for me

Anyway, glad that people are taking advantage of the MPE, but for me it is not required in new or old instruments/synths (soft or hard).

[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.

If you combine and master all of the above, combined with expressive patches, you can already get very expressive parts

As I see it, few people use these basic possibilities. I was surprised to see that most of my students barely used the mod wheel or the pitch bend, and especially ... those who had a classical piano background.( but they usually are far better at pedalling or velocity control)

This game (expressive real time music playing) has three components : You, the patches or presets you use/create, and the keyboards or controllers used. Resulting music is given by the way you make the trio interact, or less.

Advanced controllers are always welcomed. Mastering what already exists for decades can also be worth the effort. In many situations, I think you will/can get similar partition/audible results by using old technology, or new controllers, including MPE or similar musical gesture interfaces.

One point to possibly note, is that old technologies will possibly cost less, and, maybe equally important, thay will adapt more/less to every standard synthesizers, or sound generators, when MPE technology requires compatible musical instruments to make the most of them.

In the end, there's no better way to do things, except the one you like the most, because all of these techniques require to invest time to master them. And invested time will bring you much better results if you have joy using them.

[EnGee]

In the end, there's no better way to do things, except the one you like the most, because all of these techniques require to invest time to master them. And invested time will bring you much better results if you have joy using them.

True.