MPE & expressive sounds

MPE setup in Live 12: ports, tracks and devices

Three switches, in order: the input port must be in MPE mode, the clip records expression automatically once that is true, and the instrument must be an MPE-capable device (or have Expression Control in front of it). Push 3 handles the first switch itself.

1. Preferences › Link, Tempo & MIDI › MIDI Ports: for the controller's input port, enable the MPE column. Push 3 does this on its own when it is in an MPE pad layout; third-party controllers need it ticked.
2. MIDI track: MIDI From that port (not All Ins when several controllers are connected, or channel-1 master messages get mixed). Monitor Auto, arm.
3. Instrument: Wavetable, Drift, Meld, Sampler or Granulator III. In Wavetable and Sampler the MPE-related settings live with the MIDI/MPE settings of the device (Note PB range for per-note bend, pressure and slide as sources in the matrix). Set Note PB to 48 semitones for Push 3 pad sweeps, 12 for a keyboard-style controller, 2 for subtle vibrato-only playing.
4. Record a few notes and open the clip: the Stacked detail view shows each note's pitch, slide and pressure lanes under the note. If the lanes are flat, the port's MPE switch is off.
5. For a non-MPE device (Operator, Analog, a plugin without MPE), put Expression Control before it and map Pressure/Slide to parameters; the per-note dimensions collapse to the last-played note but the mapping still works.

Variations: Chord or Scale MIDI effects before an MPE instrument pass expression to the generated notes too (all generated notes inherit the source note's expression). See Tuning, scales & MPE for the port and clip details.

Wavetable: pressure, slide and bend in the mod matrix

Wavetable's matrix lists Pressure and Slide alongside Velocity and Keytrack as MIDI sources; any destination takes them with an amount, and one source can go to several destinations. This is the template every other MPE patch copies.

1. Osc 1 Basics › Saw at Position 20%, Osc 2 Collection table (something with motion across the table), −12 st, −6 dB. Sub on at −12 dB for bass registers only.
2. Matrix, MIDI section: Slide → Osc 1 Position +60%, Slide → Osc 2 Position +40%, Slide → Filter 1 Freq +35%. Sliding up a pad now scans both tables and opens the filter: one gesture, three movements.
3. Pressure → LFO 1 Amount +50% where LFO 1 is Sine 5.5 Hz → Osc 1 Pitch ±20 ct (vibrato by pressure). Pressure → Filter 1 Res +15% for bite at full press.
4. Velocity → Env 2 amount +40% with Env 2 → Filter 1 Freq: the attack brightness comes from how hard you hit, the sustained brightness from where you slide.
5. Note PB range 48 (Push) — per-note bend needs no matrix entry; it is pitch. Unison Classic 2 voices 15% stays per-note (each note's unison pair bends together).
6. Amp env Attack 10 ms, Release 600 ms; Filter 1 MS2 LP 24 at 700 Hz base, so there is room for slide to open it.

Drift: MPE in the matrix and the built-in pressure/slide slots

Drift's modulation matrix has Pressure and Slide as sources, and its analogue character (drift, MS2 filter, Shark Tooth and Rectangle shapes) makes it the most "played" sounding MPE synth in Live. Keep it simple: three mappings, big ranges.

1. Osc 1 Shark Tooth, Osc 2 Saw with sync on (Osc 2 can sync to Osc 1), Osc 2 pitch +7, mix 40%. Noise 3%. Voice mode Poly, 6 voices. Drift amount 25%.
2. Filter MS2 LP 24, 500 Hz, Res 20%, Env 1 → cutoff 30% for a pluck-ish attack, Env 2 as amp (A 5 ms, D 400, S 0.6, R 500).
3. Matrix: Pressure → Filter Cutoff +45%; Pressure → LFO Amount +30% (LFO Sine 6 Hz → pitch, small); Slide → Osc 2 sync/pitch +40% (the hard-sync sweep lives on slide); Slide → Osc 1 Shape (pulse width where applicable) +30%.
4. Pitch bend range in Drift's global settings 24 for pad glides on Push; Glide on with 60 ms if you also want legato slurs in Mono mode.
5. Roar Single Soft Sine 15% after: pressure now pushes harmonics into saturation, which is what "leaning into" a real instrument does.

Variations: Voice mode Stereo with Drift 50%: each pad note is a wide, unstable voice; pressure → Drift amount so a hard press makes the note wobble more. Mono + Legato with per-note bend for a monophonic MPE lead that still slides per note.

Expression Control: MPE for everything else

Expression Control is a MIDI effect that takes incoming expression (velocity, mod wheel, pitch bend, aftertouch/pressure, slide, keytrack, random) and maps each with its own curve and range to any parameter on the track, including devices that know nothing about MPE: Operator, Analog, Roar, Echo, a plugin.

1. Expression Control before the instrument. Slot 1: source Pressure, Map to Operator Osc B Level, Min −40 dB, Max −10 dB, curve slightly exponential: pressing adds FM brightness.
2. Slot 2: source Slide, Map to Auto Filter Frequency, 300 Hz → 6 kHz. Slot 3: Velocity → Roar Drive 0 → 30%. Slot 4: Keytrack → Hybrid Reverb Dry/Wet 10 → 40% (higher notes wetter).
3. Because Expression Control sits before a non-MPE instrument, pressure and slide are the most recent note's values: fine for leads and basses, blurry for chords. For chords use Wavetable/Drift/Meld instead.
4. The Random source with a Smooth setting as a fifth mapping on Operator Fine gives per-note analogue scatter: each note lands a few cents off.
5. Expression Control maps to parameters on its own track only. To reach an effect on a return or audio track, put the effect in an Audio Effect Rack on the instrument track instead, or map to a Rack macro and send that track to the return.

Variations: Expression Control before an External Instrument: Push 3 pressure → the TD-3's Cutoff via CC, or → a eurorack VCA through CV Tools. See Hardware & modular integration.

Expressive Chords, Glissando and LFO MIDI tools

Three Live 12 MIDI tools generate or transform expression itself. Expressive Chords builds chords from single notes with the expression carried to every chord tone and shaped by it; Glissando writes per-note pitch glides between consecutive notes; the LFO transformation draws periodic shapes into the pitch, slide or pressure lanes of existing notes.

1. Expressive Chords (MIDI effect, 12.2): play single MPE notes; the device adds chord tones. Its mappings let slide and pressure alter the voicing — slide spreads or shifts the chord's intervals, pressure thickens it — so a chord is a gesture rather than a shape you have to finger. Follow it with an MPE instrument so each generated note keeps its own expression.
2. Glissando (MIDI transformation, 12.1): select notes in the clip, open Transform › Glissando, set the glide time (60–200 ms) and apply. It writes per-note pitch-bend ramps so each note starts where the previous one ended. Set the instrument's Note PB range to cover the biggest interval (12 for octave leaps). Apply, then audition; it is destructive to the pitch lane so keep a duplicate clip.
3. LFO (MIDI transformation, 12.1): select notes, Transform › LFO, choose the target lane (Pitch, Pressure, Slide or Velocity), shape, rate (synced or per note) and depth. A 1-bar sine into Pressure on a held chord becomes a swell through whatever Pressure drives in the instrument. A fast triangle into Pitch at ±30 ct is drawn vibrato you can edit note by note.
4. Meld after: Pressure → Engine A main amount 40%, Slide → Engine A filter 30%, Note PB 12. Meld's Scrambler (12.2) → a per-voice stepped random on top gives each chord tone an independent flicker.

Variations: Strum (transformation) before Glissando: a strummed chord whose notes then glide into the next chord — a lap-steel gesture. See MIDI tools.

MPE pad with slide to filter

The archetype: a four-note chord where each finger has its own filter. Slide one finger up and only that voice opens. On a keyboard this took a separate track per voice; on Push 3 it is one pad layout.

1. Osc 1 Vintage category (a warm analogue-ish table) Position 40%; Osc 2 Basics › Triangle +12 st at −10 dB for a soft top.
2. Filter 1 MS2 LP 12 at 350 Hz, Res 10%, Drive 10%. This is deliberately dark: slide is what opens it.
3. Matrix: Slide → Filter 1 Freq +55%; Slide → Osc 1 Position +25%; Pressure → Unison Amount +40% (Unison Classic 4 voices at 10% base); Pressure → Amp +15% for a little swell.
4. Note PB range 2: pads do not need big bends, and 2 st turns pad wobble into chorus-like detune instead of out-of-tune chords.
5. Amp env A 400 ms, D 1 s, S 0.8, R 1.5 s. Filter env off: all filter motion comes from the hands.
6. Push 3: relative slide mode so each note begins at its own filter position; absolute mode if you want pad height = brightness for the whole chord.

Variations: Record the chord, then in the Stacked detail view draw a slow slide ramp on only the top note: a voice-leading swell you could not perform. Granulator III version: Slide → File Position, Pressure → Spray, on a vocal sample — each chord tone scans a different part of the word.

MPE lead with pressure vibrato and slide brightness

The gesture every wind and string player has: a note starts straight, then vibrato grows as you lean in, and the tone brightens as the phrase peaks. Pressure drives vibrato depth, slide drives brightness, per-note bend does the scoops and falls.

1. Drift: Osc 1 Saw, Osc 2 Rectangle sync on at +12, mix 30%. Mono voice mode, Legato on, Glide 40 ms (pad-to-pad legato slurs; per-note bend handles the rest). PB range 12.
2. LFO Sine 5.8 Hz, base amount 0 → Osc pitch. Matrix: Pressure → LFO amount +60% (vibrato appears at ~30% pressure and is full at 100%). Pressure → Cutoff +25%.
3. Slide → Osc 2 level +50% (the synced rectangle adds the upper harmonics; sliding up = brighter) and Slide → Filter Res +10%.
4. Filter MS2 LP 24 at 1.2 kHz, Env 1 → cutoff 20% with a 200 ms decay for a small attack bite. Amp env A 8 ms, D 300, S 0.7, R 250.
5. Saturator Analog Clip 4 dB: pressure now also adds grit because the harmonics it brings in clip. Echo 1/8 dotted, Modulation 10% for tape-ish wobble.
6. Scoops: on Push 3, start the note one pad down and slide into pitch within 80 ms; with PB 12 and a 1-pad-per-semitone layout that is a semitone scoop, like a guitar bend.

Variations: Wavetable version with Osc 1 Formant table: Slide → Position scans vowels, Pressure → vibrato, a talking lead. Auto Shift (12.1) after a non-MPE lead with its vibrato tied to an Expression Control pressure mapping for vibrato on Operator.

MPE bass with slide to FM

A bass whose growl is on the Y axis: slide up the pad and the FM index climbs from sine to snarl, note by note. Pressure holds the sub steady so the low end does not change while the timbre does.

1. Meld Engine A: FM engine, ratio 2:1 (or 3:1 for metallic), FM amount base 10%. Engine B: Swarm Sine one octave down at 0% swarm as the sub, level −6 dB. Voice mode Mono (or Poly 2 for power-chord basses).
2. Matrix: Slide → Engine A FM amount +70% (the growl); Slide → Engine A filter +30%; Pressure → Engine A level +20% and Pressure → Engine B level −10% (press harder = more growl, slightly less sub, keeps total level even).
3. Engine A filter LP 24 at 800 Hz base, Res 15%. Env 1 amp A 2 ms, D 200, S 0.8, R 120.
4. Roar Multiband: low band clean, mid band Fold moderate, high band Soft Sine — the slide-driven FM harmonics get folded in the mids, the sub is untouched.
5. Utility Bass Mono below 120 Hz; the sub comes from Engine B and must not move with slide (no slide mapping on Engine B pitch or filter).
6. PB 24 so a pad slide of two octaves is possible for dubstep-style drops; set 2 if the bass should never bend.

Variations: Wavetable version: Osc 1 Distortion category with Slide → Position, Osc 2 as FM modulator (Wavetable’s Osc 2 can FM Osc 1 via the matrix) with Slide → FM amount. Sampler with a growl multisample: Slide → sample-start or Osc FM amount. See Wobble & growl bass.

Push 3 pad layouts for expression (incl. XYZ layout, 12.3)

Push 3 pads send per-note pitch (X: sliding across pads), slide (Y: position on the pad) and pressure (Z). Which layout you choose decides what X means: in a chromatic layout horizontal slides are pitch, in the 12.3 XYZ-style layout each pad is a three-axis controller for a single note. Pick the layout per patch and save it with the set.

1. Chromatic / In-Key: horizontal slides bend pitch continuously across pads (with In-Key, across scale steps), Y is slide, pressure is pressure. Use PB 48 so a full-row slide stays in tune. Best for leads and basses.
2. XYZ layout (12.3): each pad holds its note and treats X (left–right within the pad), Y and Z as three continuous controls — per-note pitch becomes a small-range X wobble (set PB 2) rather than a pad-to-pad glide, which suits pads and drones where you want timbre control without pitch accidents.
3. Drum / 64-pad layouts with Drum Rack: pressure per pad maps (via Expression Control inside the Drum Rack chain or Drum Sampler's own settings) to decay or filter: a hat that opens the harder you press.
4. Per-pad sensitivity and aftertouch threshold in Push's settings: raise the pressure threshold a little so resting fingers do not trigger pressure mappings; set the slide mode (absolute/relative) per layout.
5. Save the layout choice as part of the set; a patch designed for XYZ behaves wrongly in chromatic (big bends) and vice versa (no bends).

Variations: Chord mode on Push with an MPE instrument: each pad triggers a chord and the whole chord takes the pad's expression; combine with Expressive Chords for pads that voice themselves by slide.

Recording and editing MPE in the Stacked detail view

Live 12 shows per-note expression as lanes under the note editor: Pitch, Slide, Pressure, Velocity and Release Velocity, each editable per note with breakpoints. A performance is a draft; the lanes are where you fix a bend that overshot or add a swell on one chord tone.

1. Record with the track armed; every note gets its own expression data. Open the clip, show the Expression lanes (the view switcher in the clip editor) and choose Stacked to see Pitch, Slide and Pressure stacked under the notes.
2. Select one note: its curves are editable. Double-click to add breakpoints, drag to reshape, hold Alt to curve a segment. The pitch lane is in semitones relative to the note; the slide and pressure lanes are 0–127.
3. Fix overshoots: a bend that landed 30 ct sharp gets its last breakpoint dragged to 0. Quantise the note starts as usual; expression moves with the note.
4. Add what you could not play: pressure swell on the top voice only, a slide ramp that lasts 4 bars on a held chord, a pitch fall on the last note of the phrase.
5. Batch moves: select several notes and apply Transform › LFO or Glissando to all of them; velocity lane edits and Velocity Shaper work on MPE notes like any other.
6. Copy expression between clips by copying the notes: expression travels with them. Duplicating a clip to a non-MPE instrument keeps the data; it just collapses to channel messages.

Converting MPE expression to ordinary automation (and back)

Sometimes you need the result as track automation (to hand a stem to a collaborator, to use a non-MPE plugin, to run the modulation on an audio track) or as audio. There is no one-click converter; three honest routes cover it.

1. Route 1 — render it: Freeze then Flatten (or Bounce in Place, 12.2) the MPE track. All expression becomes audio; the modulation no longer needs to exist. This is what you do for stems and for sets that must be light.
2. Route 2 — re-record as automation by hand: play the clip, and in Arrangement with automation arm on, move the target parameter (or its macro) with a controller while listening; or simply draw the automation to match the expression lane shape. Monophonic parts translate directly; polyphonic pressure has no single-lane equivalent, so choose the lane of the voice that matters.
3. Route 3 — keep it modulation, make it portable: map via Expression Control to a Rack macro; now the macro is the single point where the expression lands, and any instrument inside the rack can be swapped. The clip stays MPE; only the destination changes.
4. Back the other way: a non-MPE track's mod-wheel or aftertouch automation can be moved into a clip's note expression only by re-recording: route the MIDI track into a new MPE-enabled track (MIDI To) and record while it plays; channel pressure lands in each held note's pressure lane.

Sampler MPE: per-note sample position, filter and pitch

Sampler is MPE-capable: pressure and slide appear as modulation sources in its modulation section, so each note of a chord played on a multisample (or a single long sample) can have its own filter, sample start or loop length. Great for vocal chops and found sounds played polyphonically.

1. Load a long sample (a sung phrase, a cello line) in Sampler; Loop on, loop region the sustained part, Crossfade 50 ms.
2. Modulation section: Slide → Sample Start (or the loop position) with an amount that spans the useful part of the file; Pressure → Filter Frequency +40%; Pressure → Volume +20%; Velocity → Filter +25%.
3. Pitch/Osc section: Osc on in FM mode at a low level with Slide → Osc FM amount for a metallic edge at the top of the pad.
4. Set the MPE pitch bend range to 12; Sampler's per-note bend re-pitches the sample per voice (expect formant shift — fine for texture, use Granulator III if you need the formant kept).
5. Play chords: each finger is at a different point in the phrase with a different filter — four singers from one take.

Variations: Granulator III with the same mappings (Slide → File Position, Pressure → Spray and Grain Size) for formant-correct results; see Granular rack.

Performance patches: ranges, curves and fail-safes

An MPE patch that works at the desk fails on stage for predictable reasons: pressure at 127 from adrenaline, slides that leave notes out of tune, bends that hit the sub. A performance patch limits what expression can do and gives every mapping a musical ceiling.

1. Keep every pressure mapping at or below 60% amount; map the amount itself to a macro (Wavetable's matrix amounts are automatable) so a "Sensitivity" macro scales all expression at once for a different stage or a tired hand.
2. Pitch: PB range to the smallest value the music needs (2 for pads, 12 for leads, 24 only for bass drops). Use In-Key layouts for pads so a slide cannot land off-scale.
3. Level: pressure that raises amplitude needs a Limiter after the rack (ceiling −1 dB) and a compressor with slow release so a hard press swells instead of spiking.
4. Macro Variations: one per song section (Intro: slide → filter only; Drop: slide → filter + FM; Outro: pressure → reverb send). Recall from Push with the variation launch buttons.
5. Fail-safe: a "Flat" variation with all expression amounts at 0 so the patch is playable if the controller misbehaves (a stuck pressure value is the common one).
6. Test with the pads at the stage's gain: if the patch only sounds right when you play gently, raise the pressure threshold on Push instead of lowering the amounts.

Variations: See Performance rack and Performance & live.