New MPE synths...

[mrspiral]

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

Hi Dan! It really does look beautiful, and it's not like it will break the bank for me to try it, but wow I wish it was available on iOS, even not free. I hope it brings you major good karma anyway.

[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.

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

Cool! Welcome! I just downloaded and installed and it and yes indeed mpe mode is working as monosynth. Ie. all overlapping notes on separate channels are seem to be tracked independently, but cuts off notes exactly as expected, preserving held note pitches/expressions. So legato works perfectly etc. Nicely done, this is still rare with mpe synths!

[Echoes in the Attic]

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.

I'm not answering for DGillespie here, but I did my best to explain that above. The benefits are not just in the playing but also in the editing of recorded midi data of expressive mono sounds. Way easier with mpe data than single channel midi data. It might also be worth reaching out to Roli/Fxpansion to see how they designed their VSTs since they have this stuff really figured out as well. They have quite a large factory library of Mono MPE presets actually. I will try to make a video at some point demonstrating the difference between a patch on an instrument that tracks mpe expressions correctly in mono mode (like Pendulate) and one that does.

But I'd love to hear DGillespie's take as a developer as well.

[DGillespie]

Really, the simplest way to put it is that this is the mono version of a yet to be released MPE polysynth. So it tracks all the MPE channels just like you normally would in a poly synth, but then dynamically assigns them to the single voice.

[Roger_Linn]

Thanks for the additional info. Could you please post a message here when you release the MPE version? At that time, I'd like to add it to the list of MPE synths on my site's "Recommended Sounds" page.

[DGillespie]

Will do Roger!

[jsterne]

Haven’t tried it yet but this looks interesting and at least the price is right. Curious if others have.

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

[zerocrossing]

Haven’t tried it yet but this looks interesting and at least the price is right. Curious if others have.

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

I just saw this a few minutes ago. I’ll give it a spin tomorrow.

[zerocrossing]

Haven’t tried it yet but this looks interesting and at least the price is right. Curious if others have.

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

Just tried it. It’s worth every penny. Like Aalto, if Aalto was crappy and monophonic.

[Reckon104]

Haven’t tried it yet but this looks interesting and at least the price is right. Curious if others have.

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

Just tried it. It’s worth every penny. Like Aalto, if Aalto was crappy and monophonic.

I actually like it, but it's clearly a teaser for "Generate" which I assume will be polyphonic and have effects. Just listening to it dry and giving it a quick run through of the presets isn't really impressive. But i found that when I dug into the modulation possibilities it can really come alive and be very subtle and expressive.

[zerocrossing]

Haven’t tried it yet but this looks interesting and at least the price is right. Curious if others have.

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

Just tried it. It’s worth every penny. Like Aalto, if Aalto was crappy and monophonic.

I actually like it, but it's clearly a teaser for "Generate" which I assume will be polyphonic and have effects. Just listening to it dry and giving it a quick run through of the presets isn't really impressive. But i found that when I dug into the modulation possibilities it can really come alive and be very subtle and expressive.

It sounded dull and unremarkable, like a plugin from 2002.

[Tj Shredder]

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.

I found the clearest difference of a monophonic MPE instrument to a non MPE is, if you use a MPE capable arpeggiator like the one in Bitwig. Just play chords and slide some notes. Pendulate behaves as expected, others don't...

[Roger_Linn]

There's some understandable confusion about what MPE is. The "P" in MPE stands for polyphonic, and MPE exists for one reason--to get around MIDI's inability to have polyphonic pitch bend and CC messages over a single channel. MPE does this by each of the synth's voices-- and the controller's touches--using a separate MIDI channel. So a monophonic MIDI polyphonic expression synth is actually an oxymoron.

But every synth that allows continuous control of note loudness, pitch and timbre is certainly an expressive one-channel synth, and this includes just about all MIDI synths in existence. The Audio Modeling wind and bowed-string software instruments are excellent examples of this, and they make no claim to being MPE-compatible. And LinnStrument and other MPE controllers have a one-channel compatibility mode for use with one-channel synths.

Note that even when you're playing an MPE synth from an MPE controller, you are certainly welcome to play monophonic musical lines.

[SteveElbows]

I found the clearest difference of a monophonic MPE instrument to a non MPE is, if you use a MPE capable arpeggiator like the one in Bitwig. Just play chords and slide some notes. Pendulate behaves as expected, others don't...

The Micro-pitch module in Bitwig also makes use of MPE in order to actually work, so thats another way to test and differentiate. Also a good way to check that a particular synth is taking note of a pitch bend message that comes before the note on message.

I care much less about oxymoron detection and much more about what people actually build on top of the standards and do in practice, even when there are contradictions to be pointed out. Its called Pendulate, not pedantulate, ho ho ho and sorry for the dodgy joke there!

[Tj Shredder]

Generate the polyphonic version of Pendulate is released...
https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/ ... h/generate