MPE Zone Configuration

  • Live Versions: 11.1 and above
  • Operating System: All

You might experience that playing your instrument in MPE mode results in silent notes. The following solutions to this problem apply to certain hardware synths and multi-channel plug-ins:

MPE Zone Configuration for hardware synths

Some hardware synths (such as Sequential OB-6 or Prophet 6) are set up to relate their MPE note channels to hardware voices in a fixed way.

For example, the OB-6 has six voices, hard-coded to correspond to MIDI channels 2-7, which can't be changed. This makes it necessary to configure Live's settings for the instrument to use the lower zone with 6 note channels. This can be done in two ways:

Using External Instrument:

  • Add an External Instrument to a MIDI Track and make sure your synth is set up correctly
  • Select your instrument under MIDI To of the device
  • In the second menu, select MPE first, then click again to select MPE Settings

Screenshot_2021-11-02_at_12.18.42.png

  • The window MPE/Multi-channel Settings will open
  • Under Multi-channel Mode, select MPE Lower Zone
  • Under Last Note Channel, select Channel 7

Screenshot_2021-11-09_at_13.58.22.png

Note: Live uses MIDI channel 1 as a global channel and will therefore never send notes on that channel in MPE mode.

Without using External Instrument:

  • Create a new MIDI Track and make sure your synth is set up correctly
  • In the MIDI track, select your instrument under MIDI To
  • In the second dropdown menu, select MPE first, then click again to select MPE Settings

Screenshot_2021-11-02_at_12.19.45.png

  • The window MPE/Multi-channel Settings will open
  • For Multi-channel Mode, select MPE Lower Zone
  • For Last Note Channel, select Channel 7

Screenshot_2021-11-09_at_13.58.22.png

MPE Zone Configuration for multi-channel plug-ins

Multi-channel plug-ins that aren't explicitly MPE compatible, such as Omnisphere and Kontakt, may still be played with polyphonic expression in MPE Mode. 

If a multi-timbral plug-in is asked to respond to more MIDI channels than it has voices to accommodate, or than are configured to receive MPE data, the problem of silent notes will occur. For example, if a plug-in (such as Omnisphere) has a maximum of 8 voices, failing to constrain the MPE output to channels 1-8 using the MPE settings will result in sending notes on MIDI channels 9-16, which won't be recognized. When following the setup below, to avoid "silent notes," set the Channel Range according to the number of channels you have in use.

Note: Live uses MIDI channel 1 as a global channel and will therefore never send notes on that channel in MPE mode. It is therefore important to refer to the manual of the instrument in order to set it up in multi-channel mode in which there is no global channel and where a specific range of usable channels can be selected.

  • Right-click in the header of the device and select Enable MPE mode
  • Right-click in the header again and select MPE Channel Settings

Screenshot_2021-11-09_at_13.52.17.png

  • The window MPE/Multi-channel Settings will open
  • For Multi-channel Mode, select Multi-channel
  • For First Note Channel, select Channel 1
  • For Last Note Channel, select Channel 8

Screenshot_2021-11-09_at_13.56.25.png

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