MIDI Polyphonic Expression

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MIDI Polyphonic Expression is a standard for controlling synthesizers via controllers that allow multiple changes per note at the same time, so that the musician can modulate the sound not by changing the pressure, but also by horizontal and vertical finger movements, for each individual note played.

history

MPE was developed by the developer and synthesizer pioneer Roger Linn , among others , to give musicians greater freedom of expression than conventional keyboards and the MIDI standard allow. In 2015, Linn and competing developers of multi-dimensional keyboards such as the Haken Continuum Synthesizer and the Roli Seaboard submitted a proposal to the MIDI Manufacturer's Association. Even Apple and Moog followed. The proposal was adopted as a standard in 2018.

The extension of the MIDI standard was standardized in version 1.0 by the MIDI Association in December 2018.

Technical implementation

MPE is defined as an extension of the MIDI standard. While most modulations there affect all notes played simultaneously, such as the modulation wheel, pitch bend or channel aftertouch , MPE offers each note the option of using several modulations independently of one another in parallel to the control.

If with conventional MIDI a channel is usually assigned to a sound program on a device that interprets all modulations in the same way, with MPE each note is assigned its own MIDI channel. Another channel can optionally be used as a master channel, via which control commands for all notes and the zone division can be sent.

Each of the individual channels receives and interprets the following commands individually:

  • Note On and Note Off
  • Channel aftertouch
  • Pitch bend
  • CC74 for the transmission of finger movements on the Y-axis

All other controllers act as before on the entire sound program and should be transmitted via the master MIDI channel.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LinnStrument News Feb 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ MPE definition of the MIDI Association (PDF) https://d30pueezughrda.cloudfront.net/campaigns/mpe/mpespec.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/mpe.html%7Ctitle=Roger Linn Design: MPE