New MPE synths...

[ChromeGhost]

Hey if you have or are planning to get an Osmose you may want to check out my Discord channel

https://discord.gg/Z5DHwey

Also people who are into MPE VSTs , Expressive E Touché or the Eagan Matrix

[BobDog]

What's that got to do with MPE synths?

[SteveElbows]

I suppose the Xerxes should be added to the Black Corp entry since that one supports MPE as well, although I dont have a Xerxes myself so cannot confirm first-hand.

Also I have learnt that the UDO Super 6 (already listed on your site), despite being the first hardware synth I know of that has MPE printed on the panel (as a label for one of the buttons), doesnt have MPE implemented in its current firmware version. They currently have September listed for implementation in their known issues document, and I will be happy to post here again in future to let you know when it has actually been implemented and made available. http://udo-audio.com/downloads/super-6-known-issues.pdf

[Tj Shredder]

The actual Novation Soundcollective freebie, Krotos Simple Concept seems to be at least Voice per Channel. If you have any Novation hardware, grab it... Pitch bend limited to 2 though...

[Reckon104]

Pretty cool new MPE mono softsynth from Eventide/Newfangled Audio. And it's free:

https://www.eventideaudio.com/promo/pendulate

[Echoes in the Attic]

Pretty cool new MPE mono softsynth from Eventide/Newfangled Audio. And it's free:

https://www.eventideaudio.com/promo/pendulate

Don't let Roger see you saying stuff like "MPE mono" around here, them's fightin' words!

But seriously thanks for the heads up, looks like a cool little synth. Going to try and see if they really do track overlapping notes separately while voicing in mono, as that is actually fairly rare still (ROli/fxpansion synths, Surge and a few others do it properly only), but very useful.

[Reckon104]

Yeah, I guess "set up for easy modulation routing with MPE hardware" would be more accurate in fact!

[Roger_Linn]

Yes it’s true that “monophonic MIDI polyphonic expression” doesn’t make any sense, but I like any synth that permits new ways of real time timbral modification as this synth claims. The Audio Modeling instruments are good examples of such expressive, but not MPE, monophonic synths.

[Fedor_Tkachev]

I bet we'll see a paid polyphonic version of this Pendulate synth)

[DGillespie]

Midi Monophonic Expression ;-P

[mrspiral]

Man, my musical life is going in a 'unique' direction these days. I saw this announcement, read through the copy, got really excited... and then went, "Aw, no iOS?" and lost interest. I'll probably come back to laptop-based stuff someday, maybe, but right now if it's not iOS or hardware it just can't stay on my radar.

Well, I can hope. Eventide isn't actually coding this, but they do a booming business in iOS apps, soooooooooo....?

[BobDog]

I bet we'll see a paid polyphonic version of this Pendulate synth)

I think you will be right.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Midi Monophonic Expression ;-P

The problem with that definition is that it doesn't take into account whether an instrument actually keeps track of the expression of different notes separately on an mpe device while still only allowing one note at a time. So there's more considerations that just having basic expression for one note at a time. For example some instruments can be set up to be modulated by the 3D/5D expressions with the corresponding midi control, like Kontakt. But it is listening to the midi in an unintelligent way. If you us an instrument like this in single channel mode, it only knows to listen to one set of midi instructions. So slowly glide the pitch of a note while intermittently press another note on and off without releasing the note that is pressing and changing pitch, Kontakt will get confused between the two signals and apply pitch bend to the new note that cuts off the old one and some when it goes back to the old, still held note from the new one when you release it. I think linnstrument has some functions to help with this sort of thing in single channel mode, but I find it much nicer to leave everything in MPE mode, regardless of it being a mono/poly instrument. What the intelligent mpe instruments are able to do in mono mode is to track what each note is doing as far as expression so as not to get confused with sudden changes and to be able to pick up exactly where a held note is with expression. So for the example above, you could slowly be gliding the pitch of a note while pressing another note on and off, always holding the original gliding note, and the notes will play in mono back and forth, always picking up the glided pitch of the first note, but even being able to play legato for example with overlapping notes. It's the behavior we are used to from mono legato synths but with the extra benefit of being able to do the mpe type expressions. Roli Equator, Srobe and Cypher all do this perfectly and it's awesome. Surge also works this way, as well as Bitwig and Audio Modeling instruments, and one or two others. Still rare though among mpe instruments as I don't think the behavior of mono patches while in mpe mode is something developers think about at first given that mpe was made for polyphonic expression of course.

[DGillespie]

Midi Monophonic Expression ;-P

The problem with that definition is that it doesn't take into account whether an instrument actually keeps track of the expression of different notes separately on an mpe device while still only allowing one note at a time. So there's more considerations that just having basic expression for one note at a time. For example some instruments can be set up to be modulated by the 3D/5D expressions with the corresponding midi control, like Kontakt. But it is listening to the midi in an unintelligent way. If you us an instrument like this in single channel mode, it only knows to listen to one set of midi instructions. So slowly glide the pitch of a note while intermittently press another note on and off without releasing the note that is pressing and changing pitch, Kontakt will get confused between the two signals and apply pitch bend to the new note that cuts off the old one and some when it goes back to the old, still held note from the new one when you release it. I think linnstrument has some functions to help with this sort of thing in single channel mode, but I find it much nicer to leave everything in MPE mode, regardless of it being a mono/poly instrument. What the intelligent mpe instruments are able to do in mono mode is to track what each note is doing as far as expression so as not to get confused with sudden changes and to be able to pick up exactly where a held note is with expression. So for the example above, you could slowly be gliding the pitch of a note while pressing another note on and off, always holding the original gliding note, and the notes will play in mono back and forth, always picking up the glided pitch of the first note, but even being able to play legato for example with overlapping notes. It's the behavior we are used to from mono legato synths but with the extra benefit of being able to do the mpe type expressions. Roli Equator, Srobe and Cypher all do this perfectly and it's awesome. Surge also works this way, as well as Bitwig and Audio Modeling instruments, and one or two others. Still rare though among mpe instruments as I don't think the behavior of mono patches while in mpe mode is something developers think about at first given that mpe was made for polyphonic expression of course.

I was joking, this is a proper MPE instrument, even though it is monophonic. (I'm the guy that coded it.)

[Roger_Linn]

Hi DGilledpie,
Thank you for participating in the discussion. Can you explain how your synth is MPE if it’s monophonic? For example, does it have an MPE mode in which each of simultaneous touches is received on its own MIDI channel? Given that that is essential to MIDI Polyphonic Expression, I don’t understand how a monophonic synth can be MPE.