New MPE synths...

[simmo75]

Phase Plant just added MPE support: https://kilohearts.com/products/phase_plant

Just played around with it for a bit and it's really nice. Very visual and quick to map MPE inputs to anything.

I can’t find documentation on setting it up for MPE, can you use the presets, is it just a button to click?

I’m thinking of demoing it.

[MilesParker]

I can’t find documentation on setting it up for MPE, can you use the presets, is it just a button to click?

There is nothing to do as far as setup goes. There are a few presets that already have it -- look for "reedy something something" in poly (at my work computer rn so can't look). You'll want to set pitch bend to 48.

But, most patches will not have MPE built in, you have to add it or create your own patches. Same for pressure in a lot of cases. I've just been playing with it for last few days and it's super straightforward: In the Modulator Lane (bottom row) click in an empty space and select "MPE Timbre". Then click the orange + label and draw a line to what you want to affect, e.g. filter cutoff. A lot of presets will already have macros for changing timbre so that can be a good target too. Note that you will have to set some value above 0% for it to have an impact -- you drag your mouse up and down while selecting line to do that. For pressure sensitivity it's similar, look for the "Pressure" modulator. hth!

[Tj Shredder]

I just stumbled upon Ruismaker. Their Mononoke for iOS does support MPE and it isn‘t listed yet.
https://ruismaker.com/mononoke/
But their most interesting plugin is Mozaic, I am going to create a script to adapt the pitch bend range to different synths within AUM. A lot of synths have a max pitch bend range below 48. With that script I should be able to adapt the range to whatever the LinnStrument (or my Sensel based LinnStruMini) is set to…

[MilesParker]

As we were discussing setting up for MPE on other software synths I've had a general experience I'm curious if others "resonate" with.

It seems like "MPE support" doesn't mean "MPE literate" -- even for Z and X dimensions, i.e. volume and - much less often - pitch bend out of the box. Personally I think that's fine, it's fun to fiddle, but it does make exploration less efficient and really highlights the weaknesses of the music iinterfaces nearly everyone else uses! So the first thing I do is set up those connections and wire timbre up somewhere interesting.

But there is a deeper issue (I mentioned in brief a month or two ago) -- I'm realizing how much of Synth design is actually about getting around limitations of the on/off paradigm. I almost always end up diving into this further and customizing if I like a patch at all. This is most apparent with ADSR (for volume control), but also applies to sounds that morph over time, etc.. Even LFO is often serving as a replacement for expressive touch; think vibrato and tremolo.

If I hit a note on a slow attack patch it doesn't matter what velocity I use, the sound will have a soft attack. But that's basically unnecessary with pressure control. So the next thing I do after above often is (using Phase Plant as example) to change Attack to 1.0 and volume/level to 0.0 and then attach it to pressure mod with a 100% factor. That puts the attack under immediate control. Same deal with decay.

Now, there are certainly cases where you'd want the smoothness and predictability of defined ADSR. I guess you could analogize that to using an automatic vs. a stick shift. I also recognize that there are more variables at hand than can be handled with the 3 dimensions, like initial strike vs secondary tone.

So I guess my point is to advocate for a) MPE patches having inherent differences with non-MPE that sound designers and synth makers could take advantage of (IIRC some of Roger's Logic Pro patches do this or something similar but I can't dive into them right now to verify that) and b) perhaps MPE-capable synths having an MPE 'mode' for patches that makes these kind of adjustments automagically.

A bit more out there, but c) I wonder if there isn't an opportunity for simplified hardware synths that do away with ADSR and perhaps some other bits entirely and focus down on 'pure' sound design issues. I've noticed anecdotally that I'm favouring simpler well-crafted patches and I wonder if that is just a matter of taste or if it is also that a lot of the complexities just get in the way once you have more expressive control.

And also curious if there are any synths out there that handle this case particularly well?

[Roger_Linn]

I've added Mononoke to the Recommended Sounds page.

[Vranq]

I can’t find documentation on setting it up for MPE, can you use the presets, is it just a button to click?

There is nothing to do as far as setup goes. There are a few presets that already have it -- look for "reedy something something" in poly (at my work computer rn so can't look). You'll want to set pitch bend to 48.

But, most patches will not have MPE built in, you have to add it or create your own patches. Same for pressure in a lot of cases. I've just been playing with it for last few days and it's super straightforward: In the Modulator Lane (bottom row) click in an empty space and select "MPE Timbre". Then click the orange + label and draw a line to what you want to affect, e.g. filter cutoff. A lot of presets will already have macros for changing timbre so that can be a good target too. Note that you will have to set some value above 0% for it to have an impact -- you drag your mouse up and down while selecting line to do that. For pressure sensitivity it's similar, look for the "Pressure" modulator. hth!

But MPE Timbre is the only thing I can find about MPE in Phase Plant. The most important thing would be to have a separate midi channels for every played note but this seems impossible.

[MilesParker]

But MPE Timbre is the only thing I can find about MPE in Phase Plant. The most important thing would be to have a separate midi channels for every played note but this seems impossible.

That part should "just work", I don't recall having to change any settings. (You can test by sliding notes separately.) Not sure why your setup isn't. Are you sure you have your linnstrument set to Channel Per Note.

[Vranq]

I am completely lost how to use this plugin without a tutorial or manual. The Linnstrument is of course set to MPE mode and works perfectly with Surge XT for example.

[MilesParker]

I'm sorry, my trial license has expired (and my music related budget is exhausted haha) so I can't verify exact behaviour but I really don't remember any changes I had to make. I could be wrong about that. Perhaps another PhasePlant user can chime in here? I agree their manual is pretty weak, it doesn't mention MPE at all. If you add MPE Timbre does it actually respond to y axis movement for you? (I mean just eyeballing it.)

[Vranq]

Yes, MPE Timbre responds to y axis. My actual problem is just that it seems impossible to use modulation and/or pitch bend per note. It always affects all played notes. The settings in Cubase (Pro 12) and Linnstrument are correct. I still have 7 days left on my trial version and will try to find out why it doesn't work for me in Phase Plant as it does with other plugins. I would definately buy it if I can get it working as intended.

[SteveElbows]

I've not tried this one yet but the interface looks fun and they go on about MPE and expressiveness in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqE3kIGdvjQ

[Roger_Linn]

Interesting synth. I've just added it to the MPE synth listing on my Recommended Sounds page.

[Ahornberg]

Any experiences with the Flash synth? It's manual says it should be MPE compatible.

https://hpi.zentral.zone/flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvVS8guBsY&t=2096s

[invisible_touch]

sounds like the Flash synth currently supports per-channel information for notes and pitchbend but not other things. MIDI _Paraphonic_ Expression?

[Roger_Linn]

I've decided to stop updating the list of MPE synths on my Recommended Sounds page. The reason is that while this list was helpful in earlier years when there were few MPE synths, there are now so many new MPE synths that it's difficult to keep up with all the MPE announcements. So it's easier now to simply visit a synth's product page to learn if it has MPE compatibility.