# MPE controllers (Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression)



## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

After seeing gpax talking about how he's wigglin' his fingers on the touch strips on his Maschine Jam while playing, I figured I'd type a few zillion words on the new hotness in town: Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression Controllers, aka MPE Controllers.

Beware: don't get me started on multi-dimensional controllers! 

Okay, I'll get started on multi-dimensional controllers. 

I think gpax should definitely look at one, but maybe not the Roli. I have used all four of the main players, and I own two of the four. If you're talking about doing super-expressive fingertip vibrato while you're playing, with the actual fingers that are DOING the playing as opposed to "riding" some left-hand controllers like the touch strips on the Maschine Jam or a fader box or whatever, then there's basically six choices:

The Haken Continuum, Roger Linn's Linnstrument, the Madrona Labs SoundPlane, the Eigenharp, the Keith McMillen K-Board Pro 4, and the Roli Rise (and Seaboard).

- The Haken Continuum - this is the big boy, and was the first of this new generation of controllers to hit the market. It's been out for a few years and is quite mature. The Haken comes in two sizes, four or eight octaves, and its playing surface is basically a rectangle of squishy neoprene coated with a smooth-gliding nylon fabric, about five inches front-to-back. Neoprene is what wet suits are made of, so the Haken's playing surface has a nice feel with about a half-inch of "give", and the nylon fabric coating allows your fingers to slide around smoothly. There is a stencil of lines mimicking the layout of a keyboard on the surface so you know where you're at, although it is available totally blank if you want the experience of playing a fretless keyboard while wandering in the wilderness with no GPS. Pressing down on the surface triggers a note-on, and then you can slide left-to-right (the X dimension) for smooth pitch sweeps across the entire range, or just wiggle your finger a little bit for natural vibrato, which very closely mimics the experience of doing vibrato on a violin or cello. Pressing down (the Z dimension) is usually routed to MIDI Channel Pressure, Volume, or Expression, and in the default setup you won't hear any sound until you "dig in" a little with your fingers. The position in the front-to-back direction (the Y dimension) can be routed to Mod Wheel or any other CC number. A typical setup is X = pitch, Y = mod wheel, Z = volume. All three from one finger! The unit can easily deal with all ten fingers at once, and like all of these units, each finger is sent on a separate MIDI channel so you can have individual pitch bend and volume control on a per-finger basis. It's a joy to play. There is adjustable "initial pitch rounding" which will quantize the initial pitch of a played note so that even if you're a little off-target when you hit a note it will be in tune, but you can easily disable this if you want to totally free-ball it. The Haken has 5-pin MIDI in and out, but no USB-MIDI.

The Haken is quite a bit more expensive than the others ($5,290 or $3,390), mainly because it has an internal sound engine that is very sophisticated and powerful. Powered by SHARC chips and with AES as well as analog audio outs, the sound engine can be thought of as a scaled down Kyma system. A software editor is provided which allows detailed control of the physcal-modelling sound engine as well as editing of the settings for controlling MIDI instruments. The unit has AES digital audio out AND INPUT, so you can feed audio into the thing and then playing on the surface will control real-time pitch shifting (X), format shift (Y), and volume (Z) of that audio! This is absolutely nuts and not available anywhere else. Definitely spend some time to check out the demo audio and video clips on the Examples page of their website, especially the truly astonishing Edmund Eagan demos, here: 

http://www.hakenaudio.com

- The Linnstrument. Roger Linn is a certified giant in electronic musical instrument design: he's already changed the world a few times, with the Linndrum, Linn9000, MPC-60 and MPC-3000. While everyone was waiting for him to do yet another MPC, he swerved to the left and came out with the Linnstrument, which is a slick little slab of touch-sensitive controller tech. Instead of a keyboard analogy, his device is laid out more like a stringed instrument, with multiple parallel rows of square "keys" about 1cm in size. This layout allows people who come from a background in guitar or violin to instantly feel at home, and you can easily edit whether the rows are tuned in fifths, fourths, octaves, or whatever you want. Like most of these devices, pressing down initiates a note-on and then controls the volume or expression of a note as it's being sustained. Sliding or wiggling left-to-right controls pitch sweeps and vibrato, and moving front-to-back is typically used for mod wheel control of filter cutoff or whatever else you'd use the mod wheel for. Roger has helped to pioneer the standardization of how this type of controller will speak to the outside world using MIDI by developing the MPE standard, which stands for Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression, and really just refers to standardizing what MIDI data is sent; it's not a "new MIDI format" or anything scary like that. With both 5-pin and USB MIDI, the Linnstrument comes in two sizes - the big boy has 200 "keys" and is $1,499 while the new Linnstrument-128 has 128 "keys" and costs $999.

- Madrona Labs SoundPlane. This is similar to the Linnstrument in that it's laid out in rows of square cells, sort of like a guitar fretboard. The playing surface is smooth wood, and it offers basically the same capabilities as a Linnstrument. Madrona is a smaller company, and only builds about 30 units per run, twice a year if we're lucky, and the SoundPlane costs $1,895.

- Eigen Labs EigenHarp. Yes, it looks like an electronic bassoon, and would be right at home in the Cantina Band at Mos Eisley space port. Sorry about that. This one is a little different in that it doesn't have a smooth playing surface that you can slide your fingers all around on - instead it's got a matrix of individual buttons that can each wiggle left<>right and front<>back as well as sense pressure. The keys are almost like little joysticks that you can also press down on. In addition, it's sort of a two-handed operation - there is a row of keys that you play with your right hand, almost like plucking the strings on a guitar, and then a huge matrix of keys that are sort of like the fret positions on a guitar. You don't need to operate both at the same time, so you can play it by just doing "hammer-ons" with your left hand, or play with both hands on the "fretboard" as though it were a Chapman Stick. It's been out for a while and is quite a thing to behold. It comes in three models - the big boy is 4,950 UK pounds, while the middle one is 2,395, but they also make a tiny little one called the Pico which is just a subset of the big ones at 459 pounds. Totally different than the others in this world, it bears mention because it does support MPE and is quite expressive in the right hands.

(continued next post)


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

(continued from previous post)


- Keith McMillen K-Board Pro-4. Many of us have the little touch-sensitive Keith McMillen K-Board, which is a great little rubbery keyboard that can do polyphonic aftertouch, and is also handy to use as an auxiliary keyboard just for key-switching with orchestral instruments. The upcoming K-Board Pro-4 is a four-octave keyboard controller that, of all of these, is the closest to a conventional keyboard. It has actual keys that are separate from each other as opposed to a continuous surface, but the keys don't move - they're pressure sensitive and can sense how far front-to-back they're being touched as well as sense a little bit of left-right wiggle. You can't do smooth pitch sweeps across the whole thing, but you CAN wiggle your finger left-right for pitch vibrato, and sliding front-back will control expression as on the other units. Individual key pressure is sensed and can be used for continuous volume control as well. This one is the closest to the little mono keyboard on the legendary Yamaha GX-1, where you could do side-to-side wiggling for vibrato. It's not out yet, but I've played it at the NAMM show and it's pretty darn cool. Price should be under a grand ($700? $500? I forget) and it should be out in the summer. Out of all of these it's the closest thing to a "normal" keyboard, and the price is right. Strictly speaking, it's not as flexible as the others, since you can't really play it like a ribbon controller, but at least the keys look and feel sort of like keys.

- Roli Rise / Seaboard. This is the one with the biggest marketing push and the highest visibility, but in my opinion it's the worst of the lot. Roli has gotten a ton of VC capital that has allowed them to establish a ridiculous marketing presence, and they are sure making the most of it. But when I go to actually play the thing, some aspects of its design gave me problems. First, it IS laid out like a keyboard, with raised "key waves" (their terminology) that resemble the raised keys on a normal keyboard - if you melted some Pasteurized Process Cheez™ slices over a piano, that's what it looks (and feels) like. Above and below the "key waves" there are smooth areas that can be played like a ribbon controller or the Continuum, but here's the rub: to do big, smooth pitch slides you've got to hit a key wave, then slide your finger down to the smooth area where you can then glide left-right. It's a little strange. Like the K-Board, you can just play it like a keyboard and wiggle your finger left-right for pitch vibrato, and front-back will control mod wheel or whatever, but the rubber they've used for the surface is a little too grippy and a little too loosely held down. When I attempt to do smooth pitch slides the rubber "bunches up" like loose carpet and I wind up pushing a wrinkle along, like I was trying to squeeze out the bubbles in a poorly-applied screen protector on my iPhone or something. It's.... weird. However - the industrial design and build quality are top-notch. It's thin but reassuringly heavy, and is built like a tank. The first one they came out with a few years ago, the Seaboard, is big bucks and is a little short on features when compared to the main one they're pushing these days, the Rise, which comes in two sizes at $1,200 and $800. These can often be found at your local Banjo Center™ so you can touch it and feel the weird grippy-ness of the playing surface. Maybe you'll love it - many people appear to. I just thought it was the worst to play out of all of these. It seems to be most suited to jammy-jammy keyboardists who want to play lots of wiggly notes really fast. To be fair, it can achieve most of the things that the other devices can - per-finger, real-time, expressive control over each note with individual pitch vibrato and front-back expression - but I struggled to get it to "sound" like I wanted. Then again, I am a shite keyboard player. Maybe that's the problem! Roli also make a cool little thing called Blocks which is actually available at the Apple Stores - these little boxes are sort of like a mini version of the Maschine Jam; little grid controllers with pressure sensitivity and some ability to express and slide notes individually. They're wireless and battery powered too! But they seem to be aimed at the laptop generation - I could see them on stage with Bjork, with some Icelandic boffin tapping away, but I didn't see an immediate application for them in my world. Pretty cool tech though, and very inexpensive ($179) so they might be worth checking out.

So. Which ones did I buy?

The Haken and the Linnstrument. 

I have the big-boy 8-octave Haken Continuum and it is a monster. But it costs an arm and a leg and another leg. The internal synth engine is inscrutable but awesome, and the ability to send audio INTO the thing and process it in real time is unique and terrifying. It. Is. Insane. As Ferris Bueller would say, "If you have the means, I highly recommend it, it is so choice".

I recently got the big Linnstrument and it is also a monster, and despite the fact that I am, in theory anyway, a keyboard player, the fact that it's NOT laid out like a keyboard actually turned out to be a big advantage. I find myself making chord shapes that I wouldn't normally do on a keyboard, and some intervals and weird shapes are actually easier to finger on this thing. It's also small and compact and can sit just above my computer keyboard so I'm more likely to use it than the gigantic Continuum, which is so huge it has to sit off to the side.

So, which should you get? If you just want a keyboard with per-finger pitch vibrato and front-back expression, the K-Board Pro-4 is going to be great. If you want to get a little more weird, try the Roli, since it can do some things that the K-Board cannot do (ribbon-controller-style pitch slides) - but, try it FIRST. The grippy rubber rubbed me the wrong way (or maybe I was rubbing it the wrong way). If you're coming from a stringed instrument or just want a new way of thinking, the Linnstrument is just great to play and might inspire new approaches as it does for me, and the SoundPlane is basically similar but might be harder to get and who knows how long it will be supported, since Madrona seems more focused on their software products and the SoundPlane has the feel of a one-off or pet project. I know Roger Linn is all-in on the Linnstrument and its internal software is open-source, so I have some confidence that it will live on for a long time. If you're planning to play pick-up gigs in the Dagobah system, then the Eigenharp is for you. All kidding aside, the Eigenharp Pico could be amazing but I've never played the little guy. I did play the big one but I was lost and clueless. The build quality and tech innovation ARE pretty astonishing though. Lastly, if you want the ultimate, and have already paid off your house, car, and your kid's college tuition, then the Continuum is the biggest, baddest, most insanely over-engineered piece of music tech I've ever owned. But it's sort of like a Buchla modular synth - you kind of need to make it your religion to get the most out of it.

Do yourself a favor and check out all of the demo videos you can - especially the ones on the Haken pages. When I saw what Edmund Eagan did with the Continuum I was like "add to freaking cart" right then and there. 

Any questions, serve 'em up. I'll be here all week.


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## Ron Kords (Feb 10, 2017)

I love this site!

Thanks for the thorough reviews Charlie. Well beyond the call of duty!!


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

To expand a little bit: I didn't get either of these MPE controllers because I wanted to more easily do emulation of real instruments - I got into them as a way to make better use of electronic sounds. I unboxed the Haken, fired up the Omnisphere preset "Bowed Chromium", routed mod wheel to filter or something, and I basically did a whole drone-scape cue in one live pass. Playing low octaves with my left hand while slightly drifting my left thumb and applying pressure in alternating pulses with my thumb and pinky gave me an unsettling bottom drone with mild dissonance and rhythmic "wub-wubs" and I hadn't even used my right hand yet! With what was left of my ability I played little one-finger swipes with my right index finger which created distant seagull cries. Boom. Even if that's all it could do, it was money well spent. I didn't even record the MIDI, I just routed Omnisphere to a new audio track and did a live pass as audio and I was done. That would have taken me an hour or two of editing mod wheel data and drawing curves, but I was able to do it all in one live pass. Amazing.

When I got the Linnstrument, I could do a lot of the same kind of stuff that I did on the Haken, but because of the fretboard-like layout, my approach became different and, like I said above, I wound up "discovering" new chord shapes and interval relationships that, if I were an actual musician, I probably would have known how to do on a keyboard - but since I don't know crap about harmony this was a new way to stumble into things that I should have known but didn't. But still, all those left-hand bass-wubs and right-hand seagull cries are still right there and just seem to happen naturally.


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## jononotbono (Feb 10, 2017)

My partner bought me a Rise last Christmas. COmplete surprise gift and I do love it but then I haven't tried the others yet. And because I have a Rise now in my life it's something I will just persevere with. I stopped trying to play it like a Piano/keyboard, which as you have mentioned, is how you would initially try and use it due to the raised Key Waves. It's biggest use for me at the minute is sound design stuff. It's insanely hard to play anything with consistency, I mean, you hit a Keyboard controller and the Velocity is going to be the only parameter you need to master to get consistency (or after touch if your 88 Key controller supports it). So bearing this in mind I love how everything I play in with the Rise is slightly different to the previous note. Sure takes practise to use but most things do and I mustn't forget, I like that shitty McDonalds Cheese so there's always that! Haha!


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## jononotbono (Feb 10, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> I didn't get either of these MPE controllers because I wanted to more easily do emulation of real instruments



Yes! Exactly how I feel about the Rise! I hope I can try out the others some day! Thanks for all your thoughts about this stuff!


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

Yeah, I hope I haven't talked too much smack on the Roli - it IS extremely well designed, well built, well engineered, and they deserve to sell a ton of them. It does what it says on the tin for sure. I played the very first one, the big Seaboard, at a launch event a few years ago just after I had gotten the Continuum, and I was relieved to find that I preferred the Continuum's smooth surface over the Key Wave approach of the Roli. But that's just me, and I can't play keyboards anyway, so....

You're right about it being much harder to control than just trying to hit the right velocity on a normal keyboard - I can barely get that part right! The Roli made my lack of technique that much more obvious. I spent a good bit of time with the Roli at the NAMM show this year (and last year, and the year before that...) and I just... couldn't. Based on its awesome ergonomics and minimalist design I should have bought it immediately - I mean, it LOOKS like something I'd totally buy. But I struggled with it for an hour or three, and even though I know Angus from FXPansion who was in the Roli booth showing the new version of their Strobe soft synth with MPE capabilities, and everything was "tuned up" as good as it could be, I just didn't gel with the thing. No biggie. It's still a cool unit.

But I still like McDonalds Cheeze too...


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

Edmund Eagan killing it on the internal sound engine of the Haken Continuum:


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

And Sally Sparks can get busy with the internal sound engine too:


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

Roger Linn shows us why he's not making beat boxes anymore. This first video is him playing Sample Modeling's viola:


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

And check out as many of these videos as you can and just try to resist hitting "add to cart":

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/ls-videos.html


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

It should be mentioned that these MPE controllers can take you much further when you're using instruments that have capabilities beyond what Kontakt libraries can offer. Sample Modeling's instruments are a good example - perhaps there are some sampled waveforms in there somewhere, but the way in which these instruments can modify the tone in real time seems to go way beyond what any purely sample-based Kontakt library can do - and this is the stuff that an MPE controller can really tap into. Hearing Roger Linn play the Sample Modeling viola in the video above is an ear-opening experience for sure. This is why I hope that the answer to the question "Is physical modeling of orchestral instruments dead?" is a resounding NO. It kind of sucks that Synful Orchestra seems to be either dead or on pause mode, and that Sample Modeling is kind of the only game in town, because we need more options in this area for sure.

The results that you can get from the Haken's internal sound engine, as demonstrated in Edmund Eagan's video above, are likewise pretty astounding - but that requires a bit of spendy-spendy and some investment of time and tweaking, and it's basically limited to solo instrument sounds at the moment. 

Likewise, using an MPE controller with a well-specified synthesizer like Zebra, Serum, Strobe, or even Omnisphere can go WAY beyond what you can do with even the finest Emotional Cello or Spitfire Strings inside Kontakt. Zebra with the Linnstrument is pretty nuts if you're into quasi-organic yet totally synthetic gobs of sound twisting and flowing in abstract space. 

So don't sleep on this and just think these controllers are nothing more than a way to avoid using the mod wheel for dynamics - they ARE that, but there's so much more lurking just behind that obvious function.


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## synthpunk (Feb 10, 2017)

Is there also a system designed by the same engineer that does the roli that basically sticks on a traditional keyboard keys and allows you to use poly pressure that way ?


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Is there also a system designed by the same engineer that does the roli that basically sticks on a traditional keyboard keys and allows you to use poly pressure that way ?



Thanks for reminding me - I had almost forgotten about this. There IS such a thing - it's called Touch Keys and it's a DIY stick-on set of sensors that attach to a normal keyboard to add X-Y (but not Z) sensing.



It's a KickStarter at the moment, so who knows.... but we can hope. They've met their original funding goal on KickStarter, so maybe we'll see units in the field soon? I will keep my eye on this for sure, but remember - there's no ribbon-controller-like wild pitch slides possible, just "pitch wiggle" on already triggered notes, and no Z-axis (pressure) sensing - but there IS front-back sensing for expression or mod wheel or whatever. It will basically turn a normal keyboard into something very much like a Keith McMillen K-Board Pro-4, but with the added advantage of normal keyboard feel but minus per-key pressure sensitivity. Even without Z-axis this system looks to be pretty cool. To be fair, I often use the Linnstrument and the Haken with Z-axis sensing turned off, and I'll explain why because it brings up an important aspect (drawback?) that arises when using these MPE controllers with sounds you already have in your library:

Okay. So you have an awesome sample preset with some bowed, pitched waterphone sounds (and not the swirly un-pitched effects stuff, I'm talking a real, playable, pitched map of samples), all mapped across the keyboard and maybe with a few velocity layers. It sounds awesome when you play it from the keyboard. The release time is set to around one second so it has a lovely decay even with no additional reverb or delay.

Now you fire up your MPE controller and get all three axes in play - X is pitch, Y is mod wheel to crossfade between the velocity layers of the sample map, and Z is controlling absolute volume.

Problem #1 = Play C3, you hear the sample that's mapped to C3. Play C4, you hear the sample that's mapped to C4. But - play C3 and slide your finger up to C4, you hear the sample that's mapped to C3 being pitch bent UPWARDS by an octave. This does not sound the same as the sample that's supposed to be mapped to C4. Okay, well, what did you expect was going to happen? Everything is working as it should and this is why we need more modeled instruments instead of mapped samples in the old style. Okay, fine, I can work with this, I'll just deal.

Problem #2 = Play C3, then lift your finger. The sound goes away instantly because pressure is mapped directly to the loudness of the note. You no longer hear your beautiful decay time. The volume envelope you've set up in the sample is basically out of the picture, since sample loudness is directly controlled by pressure. So now you've got to SLOWLY lift your finger if you want to simulate the effect of a long envelope release time, and you've got to do it smoothly and precisely for every finger, every note, every time. Okay, this isn't so much fun any more. You mean I have to actually develop a new playing technique? Even when I could barely play in the first place? Crap. What to do? Well, I do a couple of things. If I'm playing a monophonic solo instrument (cello, nose flute, whatever) then no biggie, I can concentrate on getting it right one note at a time. But, if I want to do some two-handed drone-scape creation like I described in a previous post, now it's a problem. I can't accurately control how quickly I lift my fingers because I've never had to do that before, and everything's starting to sound herky-jerky on the note releases. So one approach is to just slather on gobs of reverb and ping-pong delay and that will let each note gradually flutter away into the distance even if I lift my finger suddenly. This is the "best" way to cheat the problem. But it doesn't always sound right; even though it's never happened, I can, in theory, envision a situation in which I wouldn't want tons of delay and reverb (but I really DO want tons of delay and reverb, always!). So, what to do now? Well, I stumbled upon a "partial" use technique with MPE controllers - just disable the Z-axis control of volume. Just use the thing for wiggly, slidey pitch control and wobbly front-back control of filter or whatever, relying on your normal ADSR settings for the attack and release, with normal note velocity controlling the volume of the sound as usual. This works surprisingly well, actually, and then that opens up another cool option - using the Z axis to crossfade velocity layers WITHOUT directly controlling volume. In this mode, you route the Z axis control (channel pressure, or maybe MIDI CC #11) to crossfade between velocity / dynamic layers in your sample map but NOT to directly control the volume - still relying on the normal ADSR envelope for volume control. This mode works surprisingly well for a lot of applications, and I actually feel guilty when I use it because I'm technically not using the MPE controller to its full capabilities - but it often sounds better this way.

So, yeah... Problem #2 is a real thing. It can be a little off-putting at first, when formerly glorious ambient patches now cut off suddenly when you lift your fingers. But the cheats and workarounds that I described above actually can be better than true, full implementation of the MPE spec - especially if you just want to play some cool sampled instruments that you already have set up. But it's something to be aware of before dropping the full big bucks on an expensive MPE controller....

Problem #3 = A lot of Kontakt libraries have their pitch bend range set to zero. This means that when you wiggle and slide left-right on your expensive MPE controller, nothing happens, pitch-wise. You've got to go under the hood of the Kontakt instrument, start sifting through 10,000 groups to select the ones that matter, and edit their pitch bend range. This sucks, big time. It appears that there's no way to just set the darn pitch bend range for a Kontakt instrument at the top level - it's a per-group parameter that you have to go under the hood for. (Am I wrong about this? Can any Kontakt experts please tell me I'm wrong and show me where to just set pitch bend range for all groups in an instrument without opening the hood?) This can be a problem for two reasons: One = it's a hassle and you need to know exactly what you're doing and even then you can easily wreck stuff under the hood if you're not careful. Two = some instruments have the hood "locked" and you can't get in there at all!

Sad!

So, yeah, there's definitely some things to watch out for, some dog crap in the rose garden of MPE for sure.


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## jononotbono (Feb 10, 2017)

Good god. The Haken Continuum looks amazing. I can see why the surface being flat would be better. Sadly out of my price range at the moment but its great to know what is out there! It's dangerous to know I have bookmarked these videos.


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## synthpunk (Feb 10, 2017)

Another masterclass. Thank you.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 10, 2017)

The Keith McMillen keyboard is going to be $600. My first impressions trying it at NAMM: 1. Cool. 2. I felt slightly clumsy because the keys seem closer together than a regular keyboard, whether or not that's really true. It does the same things as a Rolli, in fact he was using the Rolli software to demo it.

He also had a $200 percussion controller pad that's 100% opening my wallet when it comes out. It's sensitive enough to play with your fingertips really lightly - which is what has me so excited - and you can also pound it with sticks. This thing was picking up buzz rolls and everything. It's proximity-sensitive, pressure-sensitive, and it has four programmable zones.

Edit: https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/boppad/


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

My earlier post about going under the hood of Kontakt instruments to edit the pitch bend range brings up another important aspect of MPE controllers - they have to know what the pitch bend range is set to on your receiving instrument. Let's say you want to slide your finger across two octaves on the Continuum or Linnstrument - well, you're going to want the sound you're hearing to bend by the same two octaves, right? So you need to tell the controller what the pitch bend range is on the receiving instrument, in order to get them in sync. The default range in MPE mode is two octaves, because most instruments can set their pitch bend range to this amount, but many cannot go any higher than that. Omnisphere, for instance, can go to two octaves up and I think three octaves down. Similar restrictions apply to most software instruments. But what happens if you have an eight-octave Continuum? You are out of luck dude. You have to set the Continuum to match the two-octave range on your receiving instrument and now, when you slide across the Continuum, the pitch slides until you get to the two-octave point and then it doesn't slide any further. Okay, no biggie. I can deal with that. But still. 

But what about this "each finger on a different MIDI channel deal"? Doesn't that mean that I need to use Kontakt Multis or whatever? Yes. It does. Let's say you have a cool Kontakt patch, and you've managed to edit the pitch bend range to +/- 24 semitones, and you want to get going. You'll need to load up as many copies of that instrument as you have fingers, and set each one to a different MIDI channel. Most MPE controllers rotate through the channels, with no easy or clear way to control which finger goes to which channel - they just use them up as the fingers come down. In practice, not a big deal, but this is how these instruments need to work. What about Omnisphere? Well, you need to load up and tweak the pitch bend range on the sound you want to use into slot #1 of Omnisphere's 8-channel Multi (which is always active even if you're only using one channel), then in the little Utility menu hit "Clone Part One" and Omnisphere will duplicate that patch into all eight slots. Boom, eight fingers worth of MPE ready to go.

But, whahhhh, you say (I say), I use Logic and I do all my music using EXS-24 (like I do) and it can't do a Multi or whatever.... whaaaahhhh! No biggie, the Logic dev team (as usual) is so far ahead of the game that they actually implemented MPE long before there were any controllers that could use it.

Actually, I lied. MPE has been around for decades - it's just that we all forgot about it (but the Logic dev team didn't!). Remember Roland guitar synths back in the day? They could send MIDI by using a brain that was driven by a hex pickup on an ordinary guitar. How did they deal with separate pitch bends for each string? By using the often-forgotten MIDI Mono Mode, aka MIDI Mode 4, aka Omni Off, Mono On. This is usually implemented by the receiving synth like this: the same sound gets assigned to all incoming MIDI channels, with each channel set to monophonic mode. Boom. This is basically what MPE is doing. And Logic supports this natively, and has for many years. Click the little triangle at the bottom-left of the plugin window in Alchemy, EXS-24, or ES-2 and you'll see a pop-up with MIDI Mono Mode, and another for Mono Mode Pitch Range. Set Mono Mode to ON, and now you can set the pitch range to 0, 24, or 48 semitones. Bada-Bing! Logic's built-in, free software instruments already surpass what even the mighty Kontakt and Omnisphere can do! You can easily load up a dumb EXS preset with one stupid sample mapped across the whole 88 notes, click Mono Mode ON, set Mono Mode Pitch Range to 48, and now you're using ten fingers on your Continuum to slide pitch across four octaves. This is actually the best, easiest, and most complete implementation of what an MPE controller needs to see on the receiving end out of ANY software synth I've seen - and it's been in Logic for years. WAY less hassle than an 8-way Multi in Kontakt or even the fairly simple Omnisphere technique. To be fair, as MPE controllers become more popular we'll probably see more one-button "MPE Mode" switches on software instruments, but for now Logic is way out in front. As usual.

So tell me again how Apple doesn't care about professional users?


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## charlieclouser (Feb 10, 2017)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> The Keith McMillen keyboard is going to be $600. My first impressions trying it at NAMM: 1. Cool. 2. I felt slightly clumsy because the keys seem closer together than a regular keyboard, whether or not that's really true. It does the same things as a Rolli, in fact he was using the Rolli software to demo it.
> 
> He also had a $200 percussion controller pad that's 100% opening my wallet when it comes out. It's sensitive enough to play with your fingertips really lightly - which is what has me so excited - and you can also pound it with sticks. This thing was picking up buzz rolls and everything. It's proximity-sensitive, pressure-sensitive, and it has four programmable zones.
> 
> Edit: https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/boppad/



Yep, I agree that the K-Board's keys felt a little "skinny" but it was still way cool. At $600 I think it's well worth the price. And I agree that his little drum pad thing was positioned perfectly - cheap-n-cheerful, expressive, versatile. I'll have one of those please as well.

I wonder if I can get anything for the pair of Mandala position-sensing drum pads I have lying in the spare room? Remember those? Designed in collaboration with Danny Carey of Tool, they plug in via USB and offer 128 concentric ring zones by 128 velocity levels for a potential sample map of 16,384 samples mapped to a single drum pad. Oof. Unfortunately, I have the first version, with the harsh, stiff rubber playing surface and not the later mesh-head version. I believe a Mandala v3 is in the works, which should be interesting - but at $350 per pad not all that much more than the McMillen pad. For a minute back in the day I had a Simmons SDX rig - hands down the sexiest, coolest-looking piece of gear ever made - and Danny Carey still has one or two, even though they are boat anchors now. They had three concentric zones per pad, choke-able cymbal pads, 16-bit user sampling, and at the time it was absolute sex on wheels. Still the coolest looking piece of hardware ever, just look at that trackball and padded rollbar:


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 10, 2017)

Yeah, that KM keyboard is definitely worth the price.

To be clear, price is really the only barrier between me and the Rolli: I like it, just not as much as I like thousands of dollars.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Feb 10, 2017)

^ Sexy piece of kit.


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## AllanH (Feb 11, 2017)

@charlieclouser: Thank you for taking the time to share your findings - truly appreciated. I love all the detail and that you took the time to share your though process.

I have been honing in on using the KM QuNeo controller: https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/quneo/

I'd (currently) primarily be using it to control orchestral instruments with CC1/11/2 etc and like the idea of the multi-dimensional controllers. I don't particularly need the pads, and I wish the individual the sliders were bigger, so I've bee a bit hesitant. 

Here's another one I've been looking at (Samson Conspiracy), which has more physical buttons and a nice XY pad.
http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/usb-midi/controllers/conspiracy/

Thanks again!


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## clisma (Feb 11, 2017)

I've known about the Haken Continuum for a while, but due to what I considered a really high price tag and limited functionality, it seemed like too much of an esoteric product with little functional value to incorporate in my workflow. Thanks to you, @charlieclouser and your in-length explanation/review, I can see now that it (and the Linnstrument seemingly) can open up new ways of composition: they could be sparks for creativity, and boy, that is always welcome. Worth a thought in the future.


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## charlieclouser (Feb 11, 2017)

AllanH said:


> @charlieclouser: Thank you for taking the time to share your findings - truly appreciated. I love all the detail and that you took the time to share your though process.
> 
> I have been honing in on using the KM QuNeo controller: https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/quneo/
> 
> ...



Those are a couple of cool boxes for sure. I kind of skipped over the dozens of pressure-sensitive pad-type controllers because there are so freaking many of them, but technically some of these boxes can do a lot of the same stuff that the bigger MPE controllers I was talking about can do. A basic pressure-sensitive pad controller, like Maschine or some of the Akai stuff which use pressure to control dynamics while in "drum roll" mode, can't really do the full spectrum of side-to-side pitch wiggling and front-to-back mod wheel stuff or whatever, but still - they're pretty cool and can be quite useful in a lot of situations. A lot of the Keith McMillen gear like the QuNeo, however, CAN do a lot of the MPE type stuff. Since each pad is basically an X-Y-Z controller, technically, each pad is like a single key of the Linnstrument. So there's a lot of cool stuff that can be done with that for sure. Maybe not big slides between the pads like you can do on the Linnstrument, but still - I guess I should have added the QuNeo to my list!


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## dgburns (Feb 11, 2017)

Ed's the schizzle alright. Still trying to figure out if this pitchy keyboard thing is a tool or a toy. I just don't know. Wonder why his Haken has no key guides and Sally does???

One thing is clear >>>> Your passion for it is obvious Charlie.


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## charlieclouser (Feb 11, 2017)

Edmund's Continuum has the blank surface because he's a BOSS, or insane, or possibly both... 

But he does have those stickers or whatever across the top and bottom to indicate key positions... I don't know if he made them, or if they're available to download and print, or what... but that's a nice middle ground approach.


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## chimuelo (Feb 12, 2017)

Does ESX allow PAT so Pedal Steel type of Pitch Bends can be used by a Continuum?
I've always wanted PAT for voice leading, selective vibrato, but bending notes of a chord without bending globally is something I'd be willing to buy.
Love Logic and ESX, thinking about a MacBook Pro and Mainstream.


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## Markus S (Feb 12, 2017)

Well I have to say, it looks nice and interesting, but boy does it sound bad. Sorry. These gliding sounds don't go anywhere near a real legato feeling for me.


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## chimuelo (Feb 12, 2017)

Hence the SHARC Processors.
I'm on my 3rd generation of them.
18 in my Audio interface and 6 x gen3 in Solaris.

I've been feverish for a Continuum for years.
Keep checking Craigslist.. no joy.


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## Nathanael Iversen (Feb 12, 2017)

I have a Roli Seaboard (the original one, not the Rise) - 61 key. Charlie's commentary is accurate. It is a keyboard-like instrument in that the pitch organization is like a piano or organ. That is pretty much where the similarities end. I bought it as a synth controller, and not for any use with traditional keyboard instruments. That is an important point, because it is a lousy piano/e-piano/etc. If I was gigging, I wouldn't play a whole set on it. It is an auxiliary board in my view. 

I originally chose the Seaboard because it is the closest to a piano - I don't feel a lot of need to learn a grid based system like the LinnStrument, but it does have its benefits. Now that I own it, that "pianistic" closeness is not really that important - I'd be just as happy on the Continuum - none of these things are "next gen piano's". They are their own thing and need to be approached on that basis.

Because the pressure sensitivity typically controls the envelope, many pianistic techniques don't work quite the same. Where you can use the thumb as a fulcrum for rotating the hand on pianos and organs, you can't on the Seaboard because that note will get more pressure. 

My Seaboard lacks the front-to-back dimension that the newer Rise has. This can be added with a simple expression pedal, if desired. Whether this is good or bad, I don't know. I do feel a little put out that I paid the big bucks and have less control than the new cheap Rise. That said, it is a very high quality build, as Charlie points out. Despite being well-known in a tiny global synth community, they are VERY uncommon for playing out. 

I have done tests of playing my Bowen Solaris from the Bowen and being as expressive as I can be and comparing that with controlling the same patch from the Seaboard. The Seaboard wins - it produces more expressive data for solo lines, hands down. 

The Seaboard "keywaves" are much narrower than a piano key and require much better aim. The rubber surface rewards very short fingernails, and a different playing technique than a piano. 

For any "pianistic" type of playing, I'd much rather have a traditional keyboard. 

The included "Equator" soft-synth (hardware also in my unit) is quite interesting. it is typical subtractive synthesis, but the real-time controls allow the creation of truly responsive instruments. By carefully tweaking the parameters, patches feel "alive". It is a very satisfying instrument to play. I find this particularly true on slower tempos, which makes sense. Running a stream of 16th notes at a quick tempo is not about the individual expression of every note - the shape of the line is important. But slower, on melodies and simple lines where bending and sliding are possible, it comes into its own.

Once I realized that it is an auxiliary keyboard, and not even a primary synth for everything, I think I started on the journey toward a Continuum. I don't have one yet, and would buy the smaller one. I don't think there is anything more sensitive, powerful or evolved. Edmund Eagen's work on the internal synth has also created what is likely the best real-time performance synth engine out there - it is designed for MPE and a sensor refresh rate far beyond MIDI resolution. 

It is a great time to be alive as a synthesist. The controller world should explode in the next 10 years as the intersection of cheap sensors, open source software, and cheap hardware creates a new opportunities.


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## Nathanael Iversen (Feb 12, 2017)

This was the video I made shortly after getting the Seaboard.

My written notes from the first week are here:

http://www.nathanaeliversen.com/?s=Roli


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## charlieclouser (Feb 12, 2017)

Nathanael - Thanks for such a detailed writeup on the Seaboard! I didn't realize that it didn't have the front-to-back dimension; I though it was the same as the Rise. Shame on them! Still, it looks like a very cool device for those who have some keyboard chops.


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## charlieclouser (Feb 12, 2017)

chimuelo said:


> Does ESX allow PAT so Pedal Steel type of Pitch Bends can be used by a Continuum?
> I've always wanted PAT for voice leading, selective vibrato, but bending notes of a chord without bending globally is something I'd be willing to buy.
> Love Logic and ESX, thinking about a MacBook Pro and Mainstream.



I don't think EXS supports Polyphonic After Touch, but it's not really needed when using an MPE controller; since each finger is sent on its own MIDI channel, normal Channel Pressure works just fine, and this way you do get per-note pitch bend (X), pressure (Z), and your choice of front-to-back control (Y). Check out this video of Roger playing a pedal steel patch on good ol' normal EXS-24:



I did successfully lobby Lippold Haken to include Polyphonic Aftertouch as a destination for the Continuum's Z dimension, which would make it easier to use in a single-MIDI-channel configuration, like when you just want to do pressure-to-volume while playing an ensemble strings patch or whatever, and you can pretty much freely assign the Continuum's Z dimension to MIDI CC #11 or #7 or whatever you want. Previously, it allowed MIDI CC or Channel Pressure as a Z destination, because it was assumed that you'd always be using it in channel-per-finger mode in order to take advantage of per-finger pitch bend, but I described how dummies like me might just want to use it as if it were a Polyphonic Aftertouch keyboard with front-to-back control, but without using any pitch features, and they happily added this a few versions back. Of course, this requires that your receiving instrument can route PAT>volume, which not everything can do, but in the interest of completeness I though it might be important to have.


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## chimuelo (Feb 12, 2017)

Teach Your Children Well.....good old Dallas Winston licks.
Hard to keep the phrasing sustained but pretty darn nice.
Thanks for sharing.


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## chimuelo (Feb 12, 2017)

I was unaware that separate MIDI Channels could be sent to the same instrument.
That's a fantastic way to control an instrument.
Also take advantage of the multiple MIDI Ports.

Thanks lots, always enjoy your experienced opinions and tricks/tips..


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## gsilbers (Feb 12, 2017)

charlieclouser said:


> I don't think EXS supports Polyphonic After Touch, but it's not really needed when using an MPE controller; since each finger is sent on its own MIDI channel, normal Channel Pressure works just fine, and this way you do get per-note pitch bend (X), pressure (Z), and your choice of front-to-back control (Y). Check out this video of Roger playing a pedal steel patch on good ol' normal EXS-24:
> 
> 
> 
> I did successfully lobby Lippold Haken to include Polyphonic Aftertouch as a destination for the Continuum's Z dimension, which would make it easier to use in a single-MIDI-channel configuration, like when you just want to do pressure-to-volume while playing an ensemble strings patch or whatever, and you can pretty much freely assign the Continuum's Z dimension to MIDI CC #11 or #7 or whatever you want. Previously, it allowed MIDI CC or Channel Pressure as a Z destination, because it was assumed that you'd always be using it in channel-per-finger mode in order to take advantage of per-finger pitch bend, but I described how dummies like me might just want to use it as if it were a Polyphonic Aftertouch keyboard with front-to-back control, but without using any pitch features, and they happily added this a few versions back. Of course, this requires that your receiving instrument can route PAT>volume, which not everything can do, but in the interest of completeness I though it might be important to have.





that linnstrumm looks very interesting. except for the menu diving and the way the layout of the notes which i guess its like any instrument is.. with practice you get used to it.

it looks like an instrument that would be played in Ten forward by captain pickard. 

since im very interested in midi guitars, yet the available choices are very limited, this linnstrumm might be something ill look more into.


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## cborman (May 31, 2018)

charlieclouser said:


> And Sally Sparks can get busy with the internal sound engine too:



Nice.


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## cborman (May 31, 2018)

charlieclouser said:


> And Sally Sparks can get busy with the internal sound engine too:



Nice.


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## cborman (May 31, 2018)

That's a shame. I really thought it would be totally keyboard _player _focused. Cool nonetheless. From a drummers standpoint (or maybe just mine), the addition of the center to edge modulator on the mandala pad is way useful, playable and pretty much untouched as a percussive controller.


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## cborman (May 31, 2018)

Ok. Do I delete or not delete the pile of text above my response??


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