KVR Audio

vitocorleone123 · Post by **vitocorleone123** » Sat Feb 22, 2025 10:45 pm

Picked up an Exquis to dip toes into MPE in a more tactile way than an iPad.

I like it as a hardware input. Not sure about MPE. It might be too sensitive so that I can’t play normally without triggering 2 or 3 additional events.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Feb 25, 2025 11:13 pm

A bit of practice, and patience, might help with that.

george · Post by **george** » Sun Apr 26, 2026 5:08 pm

KeyPad has MPE mode and runs on iPhone and iPad, free on the App Store. A used iPad can cost less than most dedicated MPE controllers, with XY MPE, Poly AT and Mono AT, plus CC and Pitch Bend remapping. AUv3 too, so it drops straight into AUM, Cubasis or GarageBand.
https://www.discodsp.com/keypad/

ksandvik · Post by **ksandvik** » Sun Apr 26, 2026 9:45 pm

discoDSP wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 5:08 pm KeyPad has MPE mode and runs on iPhone and iPad, free on the App Store. A used iPad can cost less than most dedicated MPE controllers, with XY MPE, Poly AT and Mono AT, plus CC and Pitch Bend remapping. AUv3 too, so it drops straight into AUM, Cubasis or GarageBand.
https://www.discodsp.com/keypad/

As a bonus you could add Knobbler (Ableton Live) or Logic Remote and use the iPad as a smart controller that even remembers the plugin settings. I took my wife's somewhat old iPad and it works just fine in the studio. External controllers look nice but tablet based controllers are just more practical.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sun Apr 26, 2026 11:08 pm

An iPad screen is not terribly tactile, though, is it? A Roli Block would be a better bet, I think.

ksandvik · Post by **ksandvik** » Sun Apr 26, 2026 11:43 pm

Yes depends how tactile you want and how much money you want to spend, but modern iPad multi-touch screens are very responsive.

george · Post by **george** » Mon Apr 27, 2026 9:06 am

BONES wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2026 11:08 pm An iPad screen is not terribly tactile, though, is it? A Roli Block would be a better bet, I think.

Latency-wise the gap is smaller than the marketing suggests. A ProMotion iOS device samples finger touch around 120 Hz with Apple's documented maximum touch latency of ~32 ms, putting realistic touch-to-event in the 15–25 ms range, plus a 5–10 ms audio buffer if KeyPad is hosted in-DAW as AUv3, which is the lowest-latency path because there's no MIDI transport in between.

A Roli Block sits at ~30 ms touch-to-sound over Bluetooth LE and ~24 ms over USB per ROLI's own spec, both of which include the audio buffer. So KeyPad running AUv3 on a recent iPad is faster than a Block over Bluetooth and roughly tied with one over USB, with zero extra hardware in the chain.

Plus, you know, the iPad/iPhone is already in your bag/pocket

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Apr 27, 2026 11:38 pm

I've never noticed any latency with my Roli Blocks. But I mean tactile in that it moves, or doesn't move, when you press it. A glass screen is solid and unyielding. A Lightpad Block has some give in it, it squishes a bit under your fingers. Despite their squishy surfaces, though, I've had to stop using my Lightpads (as keyboards) and my Erae Touch because they were too hard and unyielding for my arthritic fingers. After about an hour it became too painful. With a glass screen I reckon I wouldn't last 15 minutes. The Lightpads now are strictly for X-Y pads and sliders and I really should sell the Erae Touch (which I never even got to use on stage).

Beyond that, I'm not even sure how a touchscreen would differentiate between velocity and aftertouch. My Lumi Keys is good at it because it has actual keys with reasonable travel but the Lightpads and Erae were/are trickier.

Finally, an iPad is bigger than my PC, which has a touchscreen of its own anyway, which I would never even think to use. I'd need a bigger bag to accommodate an iPad and it would just be another thing to cart around, for no benefit. A Lumi Keys is half the size of an iPad and a Lightpad Block a quarter the size of that and it all fits neatly into my sling bag.

To be brutally honest, though, I'd have to say I'm mostly over the whole MPE thing. It was a bit of fun for a while, in a geeky, techie kind of way, but lately I've mostly been using my Donner DMK-25 Pro because it's actually more useful. The keys are velocity-sensitive, the pads do aftertouch and, along with Mod and Pitch-Bend "wheels" (actually sliders), it works at least as well for me and has a smaller footprint than a 13" laptop. In fact, I absolutely love the little Donner. I use both it and the Lumi Keys on stage but at home I only have room for one and the Donner usually wins out.

george · Post by **george** » Tue Apr 28, 2026 4:04 am

Fair points! Beyond latency and lower price, a hardware keyboard offers other advantages I agree with. I'm with you on full MIDI MPE. In my opinion, aftertouch or poly AT combined with a pedal is usually more than enough for most playing situations. By the way, the iPad is bigger, yes, but an iPhone can also be used as a MPE controller

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Apr 28, 2026 9:51 am

Great, $1500 for an iPhone is twice what my Erae Touch cost, six times more than the Lumi Keys, 8 times the price of a Lightpad Block (which is smaller than an iPhone, too) and three times more than I've ever paid for a phone. And iPhones don't even fold up (yet). Awful things.

george · Post by **george** » Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:12 pm

Yeah, no folding, terrible. Guess we should wait for the $2000 iPhone Fold. Seriously though, for a quick play even an old $99 iPhone or iPad mini will do the job for basic MPE stuff. But I get your point.

Also disappointed by how thin the cheap MPE controller catalog is these days. Below the $300 mark AFAIK you've basically got Lumi Keys, K-Board, Joué Play, or hunting for a used ROLI Block. Not much middle ground.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Tue Apr 28, 2026 11:59 pm

I'd avoid a used Seaboard Block. Mine literally fell to pieces after three years. The glue failed and it just fell apart. Maybe they have sorted that but a used one would be risky. I like my Lightpads. I have 2 x originals and 2 x Lightpad Ms and they've never given me any problems, they just keep working. The Ms are a lot squishier and feel better to play as a keyboard or drum pad and you can pick 'em up on eBay for less than $100.

george · Post by **george** » Wed Apr 29, 2026 6:17 am

It seems like Lightpads are the winner in this case. I'll definitely consider getting one. Thanks for the heads up.

george · Post by **george** » Wed Apr 29, 2026 3:57 pm

Picked this one, fingers crossed! https://www.ebay.com/itm/188169379263

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Thu Apr 30, 2026 6:06 am

Nice! I saw that listing the other day, when we were discussing them. I bought 5 of them, on top of the one I already had, when Roli went into administration a few years ago, just to hedge my bets. My bandmate has two of them now. The Lightpad and Loop Block really enhance the Lumi Keys, making it a far more useful controller overall.

Cheap MPE controllers