New MPE synths...

[mrspiral]

Oh, sorry, I had no idea there was a Geo Synth.

No harm no foul. It's a great synth, actually, and I am super bummed that it doesn't work with any kind of MIDI input, MPE or otherwise. Sigh.

[Echoes in the Attic]

TAL has updated TAL_Bassline-101 V3 to have MPE support now in addition to Uno-LX.

[Roger_Linn]

I just checked and neither their web site nor their manual has any mention of "MPE" or "MIDI polyphonic expression". I prefer not to add a product to the Recommended Sounds page unless the company at least mentions MPE compatibly.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I just checked and neither their web site nor their manual has any mention of "MPE" or "MIDI polyphonic expression". I prefer not to add a product to the Recommended Sounds page unless the company at least mentions MPE compatibly.

Hmm, maybe they haven't updated the manual yet. Strange that it isn't in the changelog. You can see it on the GUI image though. It's the same implementation pretty much as in Uno-LX.

[Roger_Linn]

Ah, I had looked only on the product page and in the manual, but I now see the text "MPE support" in the news on the home page. Have you tried it and do you have any comments on how well they implemented MPE?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Ah, I had looked only on the product page and in the manual, but I now see the text "MPE support" in the news on the home page. Have you tried it and do you have any comments on how well they implemented MPE?

It's not bad, but very basic, like Uno. You can pretty much set Timbre to filter and pressure to volume (which is under the velocity box). pitch bend bend just works. Also, I think it's only 6 voices, so there is some voice stealing that can be pretty noticeable, especially if you had applied modulation to a sounds that gets cut off for a new note (if there is a slow release on the sound). Such a beautiful synth though, not bad to have some extra ways of expressing it.

And like most synths out there, it gets all messed up when using mono mode because when you cut off note with a new note, the modulation gets confused between the expressions of the two notes, creating expressions or bends where you don't want it on the new note or glitches. I've come to expect this though as only a few products actually separate the voice expressions in mono modes: Roli/Fxpansion synth (Equator, Strobe, Cypher), Audio modeling instruments, Phonec and Surge. I meant to make a dedicated post about this actually as I took some videos. People think of MPE as being just useful for polyphonic sounds but that just isn't true (as the monophonic audio modeling instruments illustrate). Unfortunately everyone seems to mess up the mono modes in MPE synths.

[Echoes in the Attic]

While we'er at it, looks TAL also added MPE to their TAL-Sampler. Should be good since it has a full mod matrix and higher polyphony.

[LarsDaniel]

BTW, I don't think the IOS app iFretlessGuitar should be on the list, Roger. I just tested it, and it kind-of sort-of works. But MPE it is not.

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks, Lars. I’ll remove it sometime soon.

[Roger_Linn]

I've just added TAL-Bassline-101 and TAL-Sampler to the Recommended Sounds page and removed iFretlessGuitar.

[SteveElbows]

You might want to remove 'Erratic Instruments: Quad MPE to CV (module for VCV rack)' and add VCV Rack v1 or higher instead.

Because the Erratic thing is for older VCV 0.6, and with 1.0 of VCV rack they added MPE support to the built in midi-cv module (as well as some polyphonic modules and polyphonic cables).

They dont shout about MPE in their marketing but its in the changelog if you scroll down a lot in the 1.0 section "Add MPE mode to MIDI-CV." https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/blob/v1/CHANGELOG.md

[tiantong]

You might want to remove 'Erratic Instruments: Quad MPE to CV (module for VCV rack)' and add VCV Rack v1 or higher instead.

Because the Erratic thing is for older VCV 0.6, and with 1.0 of VCV rack they added MPE support to the built in midi-cv module (as well as some polyphonic modules and polyphonic cables).

They dont shout about MPE in their marketing but its in the changelog if you scroll down a lot in the 1.0 section "Add MPE mode to MIDI-CV." https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/blob/v1/CHANGELOG.md

Agree with adding VCV 1.0 but why delete Erratic instruments? As I understand not all modules support the new polyphonic options (for instance the mutable instruments ports). Isn’t it handy to use Erratic’s then?

[Roger_Linn]

I don't have time to test VCV rack. I checked their site and found no mention of "MPE". Could someone please provide a brief and simple explanation that would allow a non-technical LinnStrument owner to play MPE sounds on VCV rack? Then I will copy your explanation to the Recommended Sounds page.

[SteveElbows]

Agree with adding VCV 1.0 but why delete Erratic instruments? As I understand not all modules support the new polyphonic options (for instance the mutable instruments ports). Isn’t it handy to use Erratic’s then?

Erratics module has not been updated for several years and so only works with old 0.6 version of VCV rack.

The polyphonic cabling system does include splitters, so it is possible to use modern modules such as MIDI-CV with polyphony and MPE turned on, with old modules that dont support polyphony - split the outputs into a bunch of single voice wires and create multiple instances of the non-polyphonic modules. Tedious, but no worse than the old way of doing things before polyphony was introduced in VCV.

Roger I will try to come up with some simple instructions later.

[Tj Shredder]

I don't have time to test VCV rack. I checked their site and found no mention of "MPE". Could someone please provide a brief and simple explanation that would allow a non-technical LinnStrument owner to play MPE sounds on VCV rack? Then I will copy your explanation to the Recommended Sounds page.

This is a very nice introduction to polyphonic patching in VCV Rack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXUJWA8RzZI
The standard Midi-CV module is not ideal for MPE, though it does support it (from 8:30 shows different modes of Midi-CV, at 13:50 he shows it, but he can't test it...)
The MIDI Poly+MPE from moDllz is better, as the V/Oct output incorporates the pitch bend, and it listens to cc74...
Here is the init patch ready to play MPE. You will have to install the moDllz modules though...
You should read the documentation for that MPE module. To set everything correctly is easy, but you need to know how...