MPE support public preview revision 15139 (ACE, Bazille, Diva, Hive)

[Urs]

Having the MPE button ignore settings that the user is presented with and that they can change, isn't a good idea IMHO.

Therefore, the MPE button only affects the internal MIDI routing and setup which isn't otherwise available as a user choice.

[killmaster]

I think it is. So, the idea is that, no matter what other settings which could get in the way of full MPE functionality, you can hit the MPE button and that overrides any thing else? If so, I like that idea a lot.

I think I'd prefer if it automatically set the Y travel to CC74 too. It gets confusing trying to image how it would handle things like the Note Expression device in Bitwig. Would it know to bypass that or just use that in addition. I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about but trying to get come clarity. Sorry if this is obivous...

[tasmaniandevil]

Diva just joined the party. Download links in the first post.

[Fannon]

Having the MPE button ignore settings that the user is presented with and that they can change, isn't a good idea IMHO.

Therefore, the MPE button only affects the internal MIDI routing and setup which isn't otherwise available as a user choice.

Ok, I get that point. Especially since Control A might already be used in a way that doesn't work well with your particular MPE controller.

The other side of this is that now users need to understand that enabling MPE as a function is not sufficient (for the full feature set) and that they also need to map CC74 - which they need to know that this is MPE timbre. But maybe it already helps if you update the CC74 description from "Sound 5" to "MPE Timbre"?

If the synths would get MPE Timbre as dedicated modulation source and fututure MPE presets could conciously chose that - that would still be my favorite solution. Maybe then you could explicitly configure Control A to be mapped to MPE Timbre mod source in a global setting?

[Fannon]

I tried the new Diva build with MPE, but the CLAP edition doesn't work in Bitwig when I set it to MPE. With Hive 2 it works. With VST3 of Diva, it also works.

What I didn't understand in Diva: I can now set the MPE Support on, but also choose MPE in the pitch bend ranges (even though there's also 48 already). How do those interact?

[tasmaniandevil]

I tried the new Diva build with MPE, but the CLAP edition doesn't work in Bitwig when I set it to MPE.

The setup for CLAP and VST3 is a bit different in Bitwig, it's actually explained in the very first post of this thread.

[Urs]

What I didn't understand in Diva: I can now set the MPE Support on, but also choose MPE in the pitch bend ranges (even though there's also 48 already). How do those interact?

MPE is rather complex. While +/- 48 semitones is the common answer, the correct answer is that an MPE Device can be set to any range of pitchbend, albeit one that is always symmetric for up and down. Usually the controller (or the host) sets the range.

On top of that, the PB range for global channel and per-channel PitchBend may vary! That's because per-channel PB is usually used for wiggles or slides, while global remains tied to a wheel or something.

Now, as we came to enjoy asymmetric Pitchbend, say +2 and -12, and as setting a custom Pitchbend range does not break the controller specific expression of the channel based PB, we felt that allowing for a custom PB range in our software is a good idea and a nice improvement over common MPE.

[sl23]

Deleted

[Fannon]

Thanks for the explanations, that makes sense. Actually a nice feature / idea to treat global pitchbend differently from the per-voice pitchbend!

> The setup for CLAP and VST3 is a bit different in Bitwig, it's actually explained in the very first post of this thread.

Yes, I've followed the first post. Still I'm having issues with Diva as CLAP in Bitwig 5.1, while it works with VST3 or it works with Hive + CLAP. But I'm also on a Beta version of Bitwig right now, so maybe that's also contributing to problems.

Edit: I've just checked with Bitwig 5.1 Beta 4 instead of Beta 5 and there CLAP + MPE works. Something is probably off with that particular beta version.

[humpo72]

We are thinking about setting up an FAQ page with steps for how to configure different hosts and MPE controllers for use with our MPE compatible plugins. If you got some tips on how to best set up the plugin, your host and the controller for MPE, feel free to share them here. We can make this a community effort.

Please do, I can't get anything MPE working on Diva or Hive 2 with Ableton Live 11.3.13 & Push 3.

Im sure it's something I'm doing & my lack of general MPE knowledge but I have set it up as per the instructions.

I know it works correctly as the stock Ableton instruments & Serum work fine with MPE.

[sj1]

Hi. I'm trying out the Bazille trial for MPE.

FWIW, I have not been able to get MPE glide or Y-Axis to work using the CLAP plugin and Bitwig 5.1b5.

I think I've followed all the posted instructions above, but perhaps not. I'm pretty fuzzy on this, so it's quite possibly my own shortcoming.

If anyone can confirm they have MPE glide and Y-Axis working using the CLAP plugin and Bitwig 5.1b5 that would be useful info.

Further info about exactly what patch is being used to test with would also be helpful I think.

[sj1]

Separately, FWIW -

While I will happily go thru some hoops to get a soft-synth properly configured for MPE, I expect to have to do so only once, after which all my patches should ideally be MPE-ready-to go with the glide operational and the Y-Axis and Pressure soft-mapped to "good" destinations (which I can then change iff I want to).

If I have to visit each patch and futz with it to get MPE going, that's a likely "no-sale" for me, unf.

So, whether it's via a superior global MPE design, or whether it's perhaps via a separate default patch bank preconfigured for MPE (workable, but probably less desirable), that's what I'd be hoping to see (ala Pigments, Serum, etc.) from the vendor.

I'll add that the ideal situation IMO is to be able to simply turn MPE on and be ready-to-go for the Linnstrument (etc.) while being able to simply turn MPE off and be ready-to-go for any/all non-MPE keyboards or controllers. Obviously achieving this requires specific planning, and perhaps more programming time than otherwise. I think it is an investment worth making, and I just want to speak up for this goal because I believe it will do the most good for the largest number of music-makers, freeing countless hours for music-making creativity in the field for each hour of development creativity at the point-of-design.

Thanks!

[D Halgren]

Just wanted to say that everything seems to be working fine on my end. Tried the CLAP versions of Bazille, Diva, and Hive. Bitwig 5.0.11
MacOS 11.7.10

This is awesome and I appreciate all the work! Thank you Urs and Company!!!

[tasmaniandevil]

FWIW, I have not been able to get MPE glide or Y-Axis to work using the CLAP plugin and Bitwig 5.1b5.

As another user already mentioned, there seems to be a problem with Bitwig 5.1 beta 5 which breaks our plugin's MPE mode. We are in contact with Bitwig so they can hopefully resolve this soon.

[sj1]

As another user already mentioned, there seems to be a problem with Bitwig 5.1 beta 5 which breaks our plugin's MPE mode. We are in contact with Bitwig so they can hopefully resolve this soon.

Thanks for this info, much appreciated!