MPE with Hardware Synths

[ThomasHelzle]

[u-u-u]

Well, I have 3 Expression pedals + one Sustain, I built myself a two octave organ pedal from a Doepfer kit a while ago to play bass notes while playing guitar (those are totally non-dimensional though and don't even have velocity - although I wrote a Controller Script that uses one Expression pedal to set a velocity for them), I created a cool Processing script for my Leap Motion (still work in progress though, exploring the best ways to deal with it)...
I don't think it's so much about the sheer number of "dimensions" or that every preset needs a dozen different modulation parameters, but sometimes a certain motion/action feels just wrong for a specific sound change but right for another, so it's cool to have different options.
Breath is super intuitive for me for certain things and easily controlled on top of other stuff, while I personally find expression pedals not always as intuitive to use - probably a training issue.
Imitone can be amazing for certain things too, directly controlling pitch and volume with your voice...

In so called "reality", humans are able to control a lot of things at the same time if they are laid out well, so I hope we'll see things other than spiced up keyboards in the future. MPE so far is just the first glimpses IMO

I have the pleasure to play an C15 (by Nonlinear Labs) where using 2 expression pedals simultaneously (1 for every foot) is pretty normal. I'd say it requires some practice and I haven't mastered it fully yet but i also don't want to miss the expression pedals anymore. (originally coming from classical piano with only sustain).
Also for sound design: the more I can have hands free to play in parallel to tuning synth parameters the better.
I'd say it's a bit of a difference whether it's a global control (like classical global pitch-bend or a global expression pedal) or per-note control (like MPE). Both are appreciated.
A point of view I learned for preset design: I see just using ready-made presets out of the box as a problem. If it's only inside a computer: OK. But as soon as I attach a piece of playing surface to it, the presets have to be adapted to the feeling of the hardware which is a lot of work. So dedication to a certain (set of) hardware and the corresponding preset design is actually part of the process of building a musical instrument. So with just buying a controller and connecting it to a plugin with ready-made presets one probably gonna miss a lot of musical expressivity. (if the plugin and the hardware maker don't work together to ensure compatibilty)
Just my 2 cents

[ThomasHelzle]

Beta 4 has MPE in the Hardware Instrument (in the channel dropdown at the bottom).
It also "preserves the channel of incoming notes wherever possible".
Both seem to work in my initial tests.

Cheers,

Tom

[BobDog]

Nice

[pdxindy]

sweet!

[killmaster]

Hi There, just getting ready to get some use of my Lightpad BLOCK in Bitwig for the first time. (original BLOCK, not "M"). Has there been any further progress on this? I'm on 2.5 beta 7 now!

[SteveElbows]

Although release notes for 3.1 beta only mention the new Micro-pitch device in the context of MPE-Ready VSTs and Hardware via CV, my initial test suggests it will work with the HW out midi device in MPE mode too.

Now I just need to workaround the fact that some of my hardware MPE synths seem to ignore the pitch value thats sent just before the note on message, which is what this micro-pitch device does.