mpe midi

BEST MPE VST synths, samplers, effects

Last Updated on January 4, 2024 by IDS Team

Hey guys! Today we are bringing you an ever-updating list of MPE VST products available right now on the market. While the MPE specification has been with us for quite some time, only recently have we seen very good implementations. Ableton for example has implemented MPE in its DAW called Live in version 11, which was released in 2021. Hardware synths, while not the subject of this article, have even less offerings that support MIDI Polyphonic Expression. While some relatively older hardware products have included MPE support via firmware updates (the modern synths from Dave Smith – Prophet 6 and the collaboration with Tom Oberheim – OB-6), there are more and more new instruments coming out with support out-of-the box.

By the way, we are also pleased to announce Ableton’s MELD. 

MELD is a bi-timbral synth that is masterful at sculpting tones. It’s ideal for deep sound-shaping at the granular level, and allows you to layer the sound of one oscillator over another to give super colorful, textural sounds. At least, that’s what we’ve heard. We’re still waiting to see when Live 12 will drop, but when it does, WE DO PROMISE YOU a fantastic in-depth review of this and many more new features.

In this article we will only focus on the virtual side of things, with the VST product marketplace being much more dynamic in terms of MPE support than the hardware counterparts. If you want to know more about MPE in general and also if you want to do some research into MPE devices, this article should do the trick.

So, here we go with our picks on the BEST MPE VST products :

A. MPE VST Synths

Arturia Pigments

Pigments is an excellent VST, equally valuable for novice sound designers and for veterans. The visual representation of the parameters, along with their modulations is astounding, and the possibilities and virtually endless. We have a very nice review of it here, along with a nice article on the latest version (at the time of writing), Pigments 3 here.

You can basically use MPE to alter any parameter that is available, so you can add a lot more expression to your sound offering.

You can buy Arturia Pigments here.

ROLI Equator2

ROLI are the makers of the first ever MPE controller – ROLI Seaboard. While mostly used by keyboard players that want to sound like a guitarist, the Seaboard is actually quite nice to play. So why not pair it with the proper, powerfull sound engine that it deserves? If you want a more in-depth guide and review, check out the excellent article on musicradar here.

The Equator2 is actually great as a stand alone tool as well, as long as you pair it with your favourite MPE controller. It gets stellar reviews and boasts four types of synthesis: Wavetable, Sample-based, Granular and Noise. It also has a lot of emulations of classic subractive synths and the control possibilities are virtually unlimited.

You can buy ROLI Equator2 here.

FXpansion (ROLI) Cypher2

This one, while officially another ROLI product, was developed by FXpansion. We see that all the stores are selling it as FXpansion Cypher2, so this is the name that we are also using. Still, the ROLI badge grants this MPE VST product more weight. Again, getting excellent scores and reviews, this one is an extremely good value proposition.

While not built from the ground up as 100% MPE, it has a lot of MPE compatible presets. The workflow is similar to modular synths, and to be honest it is extremely fun to play with. You can also use MPE to modulate rhythmic controls like the arpeggiator and the sequencer.

You can buy FXpansion Cypher2 here.

Surge XT – A great FREE option

Initially a new development, sound design is now at the point where any great synth worth its salt should have at least some level of MPE capacity. 

However, as a relatively new technology, we realize MPE synths aren’t always cheap. Even in VST form, it’s hard to find something that is high quality, creatively designed, and accounts for the reasons MPE was such a big development in the first place. 

That’s why we want to spotlight the Surge XT. 

This is hands down one of the best FREE MPE synth vsts. Yes, a free mpe synth VST that has legions of diehard fans Why? The Surge XT is open source, created on GitHub, and as a result, it has some of the most creative and outside-the-box features of any synth out there. 

The XT has been famous for challenges undertaken such as the times that successful musicians have made tracks ENTIRELY with this one synth. If you want the versatility and creativity of Arturia Pigments but don’t want to break the bank, this is the synth for you. 
To check out the full range of reasons why the XT has such a big fanbase – apart from its unique concept, you can access it here on their website.

U-he HIVE2

U-he is no small name in the VST synth market. We are very happy that they implemented MPE Support on all their main virtual instrument products. This is no under statement, they make some of the best sounding plugins on the market.

While previously, their plugins were notoriously resource hungry, now not only did the machines we use became much more stronger, but the VSTs themselves have been optimised. Still, do manage the poly count as going above 12 voices can kill your CPU.

You can buy U-he HIVE2 here.

U-he Diva

Another U-he superstar, this time in a more Virtual Analog flavour, is Diva. They also updated it so that it has MPE support. Diva is a staple in all studios, mostly because of its superb sound quality. If you like the analog sound that hardware synths produce, you will love Diva. Also, there are a lot of under the hood things that make it stand out of the crowd.

Three oscillator goodness! Again, while in the past Diva was known to hog even the most expensive CPUs, today this issue is mostly resolved due to optimisations to the product. Also, note that there are a lot of nice presets available right now for Diva, that could use a bit of expressive play made possible by MPE.

You can buy U-he Diva here.

U-he Repro-1

Again coming to the land of software emulations of the analog synth sound, Repro is U-he’s line of Sequencial/Dave Smith Instruments Prophet line of instruments. Again, updated to support full, per-note expressive play with MPE. This one is either hit or miss, if you want the Prophet sound then yes this is for you, but if you already have a hardware Prophet synth (especially if you have the Prophet 6 which has received the MPE treatment via firmware update) or another emulation then there is no point in getting this.

Specifically, the Repro 1 is actually emulating the monophonic line of Prophets, mimicking the Pro-1 and to some extent the DSI Mopho.

U-he Repro-5

This is basically almost the same thing, but with a polyphonic dimmension to it. Sure, the sound is a bit different because it imitates a different line of gear, the polyphonic Prophet 5, Prophet 6, the Rev-2 and to some extent the DSI Tetra. Still great with MPE, but there is no point in getting this if you already have access to the sound it emulates.

You can buy U-he Repro (which contains Repro-1 and Repro-5) here.

U-he Bazille

You may have noticed that indeed U-he updated all their flagships to support MPE, with enhancements coming everyday. Bazille, for those that don’t know, is their modular-like synth approach. Here, MPE shines due to the sheer parameter tweaks and combinations possible. Just assign, and use.

MPE and real. hardware modular synths don’t really work well because polyphony in modular is extremely difficult to achieve in the way it works with regular synths. Still, if you want very deep sound design, you should give Bazille + MPE a chance.

You can buy U-he Bazille here.

Before we go onto the best mpe vst samplers, to round up this list of best mpe synth vsts we must mention you can check out some comparisons between synths here

It would be extremely difficult to go into every single great mpe and empe-compatible synth out there, but in the above article we also consider options like the XFER Serum and UVI Falcon, so check it out. 

However, without further ado, let’s move onto the best mpe vst samplers

B. MPE VST Samplers

Audio Modelling SWAM

Going into the composer and traditional sound design, SWAM is a collection of sample-based (well, actually physical-modelled sound but let’s just call it sample-based for the sake of simplicity) plugins replicating real acoustic instruments. MPE is a huge added touch, because like actual musical instruments, you get to imprint your own play style and technique to actually sound unique. If this is your cup of tea, you can check out the extremely detailed review below:

Audio Modelling SWAM includes strings, brass, and other acoutstic instruments and comes in an extremely diversified product line-up.

You can buy Audio Modelling SWAM here.

ROLI Studio

For those that want the MPE collection (and not only the MPE sounds) from ROLI but don’t need the full customisation that can be achieved by Cypher2 and Equator2 (discussed above in this article), ROLI were kind enough to give you a sample-based variant. Equally useful if you are looking for MPE on a budget.

With a huge collection of 500+ sounds (out of which more than half support MPE), this one is your one-stop shop if you are just getting into the world of Midi Polyphonic Expression sound design.

You can buy ROLI Studio right here.

Audio Damange Quanta

This MPE VST is a granular synth, so it is more sampler than synthesiser. Yes, you can do a lot of things with it, probably more than you can do with a regular subtractive, but still the source sound is based on samples so it fits in section B of our article on expressive plugins.

As with most granular synths, they encourage a rather “wild” approach, never “mild”. Experimentation is key with Quanta as well, and the fact that it supports MPE gives it extra edge over other plugins.

You can buy Audio Damage Quanta here.

Conclusion

While in no way a full list, this article shines the spotlight on which MPE-compatible plugin is actually great to use. There are other offers of course that did not make our list, and also there is the possibility to setup other VST products to work with MPE signals, but we will discuss this in another article.

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