2021 NAMM Show: Sensel has introduced Express MPE – a free set of MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) presets for five different synthesizer plugins (Aalto, Kaivo, Quanta, Pigments, Serum), two DAWS (Bitwig and Live 11) and one hardware synth (ASM Hydrasynth).
There are 5+ presets for each synth, all designed for MPE. There’s percussion, pads, leads, etc – all of which are designed to not only be great sounds, but also a great way to learn about how to design sounds for MPE.
“These presets are a masterclass in how to map Pitch Bend, Glide, and Pressure in each of these software (and the Hydrasynth hardware),” they note. “Pull these apart and learn some great ways to get the most from the many dimensions of MPE.”
Express MPE is a free download (email required) from the Sensel site.
Thanks, I already have key aftertouch keyboards.
MPE could be a lot better if pitch bend is turned off, makes a lot of stuff sound sour… but I guess if you really learn how to PLAY it this can be fixed 🙂
With the Sensel Morph you can map horizontal movement to any MIDI CC, in stead of pitch bend.
Learning how to play it is key. String and Horn sections do not have fixed notes yet they’ve been creating sourless music for ages.
There is also the possibility of a sort of “training wheels” version where you assign a slow curve to the pitch bend amount; anything close(ish) to center plays the note without pitch bend. You can expand your playing (or the sound) from there. If you have access to it, the Animoog app’s keyboard allows for this brilliantly. It’s very playable, even for a sausage fingered bafoon like me.
On the LinnStrument, you can configure it so the initial touch on a pad is on pitch, but still be able to do bends, vibrato, and slides (‘Quantize’ pitch setting). There’s also a Quantize Hold setting, where the pitch will be corrected at the end of a vibrato or slide (with 3 degrees of how fast it corrects.) That said, I know of at least a couple of LinnStrumentalists who play unquantized and have just learned to control it.
And, if you like, you can turn off pitch bend altogether.