Anyone using MPE/Seaboard controller with their A4?

[robotron]

I recently bought a Seaboard Block and after a bit of time getting used to it (it’s like learning a new instrument in some ways) I’m really loving the expressiveness you can get from it.

I know the Analog 4 (along with almost every other synth out there) doesn’t have MPE support but I wondered if anyone has configured a Seaboard controller to use it in multi-channel mode (where each note of a chord sends on a different MIDI channel so you can separately bend/control each note).

The A4 seems to be made to be controlled by something like this and I think you could get amazing sounds out of 4 identical patches being altered in slightly different ways with each keypress. Being able to change the sound of notes as you’re playing like that seems like a game-changer, especially if you’re into the weirder type of noises.

[dotjayess]

I use a Linnstrument in MPE mode with an my A4. It works exactly as you have described. I don’t have a Seaboard, but you would need to configure the MPE voice count to 4 and make sure you set the correct channels on the A4. You can do some really cool things in the A4 with velocity, aftertouch, etc as these can be routed to many destinations.

I prefer to sound design for this on a single A4 track in poly mode, non-MPE control. This way I can tweak the sound without having to constantly copy it to the other tracks. Once I have it dialed in, I save it as a sound and load it to the other tracks, kill the poly config and switch to MPE.

Alternatively, try loading different sounds to different tracks, and play with an MPE controller. This is prob my favorite thing to do.

[cretakano]

I’m using a Seaboard Block with the Digitone and Rytm, works great. I’ll post a screenshot of my Roli Dashboard preset later, but got the idea from this video on Instagram:

Scott Campbell

Love playing the Rytm as a polysynth like this, with the same sample copied across a few tracks with slightly different settings. No pitch bend on the Rytm unfortunately, and you can’t record aftertouch without using a DAW, but assigning velocity, aftertouch and slide to fine tune, bitrate and filters etc sounds really cool.

[robotron]

Great, sounds like we’re on the same page (or will be once I get it set up).

The different sounds to different tracks sound interesting, does this mean that you’re triggering different sounds on alternate notes? My guess with the multi channel setup was that it plays on different tracks in a round-robin type way.

Let me know if you have any parameters that are particularly fun to use with this type of control. It really does lead you in different directions being able to control individual chord notes/apply cc changes while playing that automatic spring back to the default when releasing a key.

[robotron]

Very cool. Now if we could only connect the things together without needing a computer…

[dotjayess]

With different sounds on different tracks and the way MPE does round robin on the midi channels can lead to some very happy accidents in improv/composition. Setting the voices to different registers with different sounds- you can end up with interesting call and response type things going on as the notes you play get routed to the different voices.

[dotjayess]

Here is an example (not mine), this video is what made me purchase an A4 and a Linnstrument. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weSZpEgRf4Q

[dotjayess]

Thanks, looks like I need to pick up a block now.

[cretakano]

Here’s the Dashboard settings I use for Digitone and Rytm, guessing they’re good for A4 too.

Multichannel mode, midi start ch 1, midi end ch 4, slide cc to 1 or whatever you want.

On the A4 set the 4 synth tracks to ch 1-4, pitch bend range to 48, and set up what velocity, mod wheel and aftertouch effect in each track’s settings.