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MONTAGE Series Synthesizers
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My ROLI Rise 25 MIDI controller keyboard is capable of Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE). In this scheme, each note you play is assigned to its own MIDI channel, and all of the messages that modify that note (e.g. Pitchbend) come in on that same channel. This permits individual notes to be modified in distinct ways. In the MPE scheme, MIDI Channel 1 is for global things like the sustain pedal. Channels 2-16 are for individual notes, which gives you 15 note polyphony.
I thought about how to set up the Montage to deal with this mode of operation and came up with this: I could have Parts 2-16 all be the same Part (e.g. an electric guitar). That way, no matter what channel the Rise picked for a particular note, I would get the right sound.
My question is, am I thinking about this the right way, or is there some better way to set up a Montage to handle MPE?
Posted : 14/07/2016 12:15 am
I don't know if there is a 'right' way to do it, but that's what I'm doing. I actually also have some software in between the Seaboard and the Montage that replicates the MPE channel 1 things on all of the other channels too.
Posted : 14/07/2016 6:54 am
Topic starter
I don't know if there is a 'right' way to do it, but that's what I'm doing.
I was hoping for a simpler way to set things up, but it's good to hear that someone else figured out the same thing. Maybe I'm actually on the right track after all…
The Seaboard RISE has 3 MIDI modes: Multi-Channel with MPE, Multi-Channel without MPE, and Single-Channel.
If you use the Dashboard and set mode Multi-Channel without MPE, anything that would have been on global channel 1 with MPE turned on will now be replicated on all 16 MIDI channels. I verified this yesterday for Sustain by recording MIDI into Cubase for all 3 modes and then examining the resulting MIDI in the Cubase MIDI List Editor.
Posted : 15/07/2016 2:22 am
Topic starter
I just figured out something about the RISE that's been driving me crazy (a relatively short drive :)). I was never able to be completely sure which of the 3 MIDI modes the RISE was in. But I recently figured out how to do that by recording MIDI events from the RISE into a Cubase MIDI track, and then looking to see which of the 3 possible patterns had been recorded.
I discovered that the ROLI Dashboard app does not reliably pick up the MIDI mode settings from the RISE when the app launches. With the RISE previously put into Single-Channel mode, I launched the Dashboard app. It came up showing Multi-Channel with MPE. But the RISE was still producing MIDI events in the Single-Channel mode.
I reported this to ROLI. They say there's a new release of the Dashboard app coming out, and hopefully they'll fix this bug. In the meantime, I might keep a Post-It note stuck to the RISE, with the MIDI mode written down on it…
Posted : 16/07/2016 1:16 am
Ahh that explains a good deal!
One reason you might want to use MPE mode over normal 'multi' mode is that in MPE mode the Roli uses the initial position of your finger on the keywave (slide) as the starting point for the 'brightness' CC. In normal multi (and single) mode it always starts at 63 and moves up or down from there. So it's actually quite a useful option to have 🙂
Posted : 16/07/2016 12:59 pm
Topic starter
Didn't know that about MPE. Extremely useful information! Thank you so much!
Posted : 17/07/2016 11:50 pm
