WARBL Forum

Mentioned this elsewhere, but thought I'd also put in a proper feature request.

It sounds like the WARBL is capable of musical expression that is beyond the capability of traditional MIDI to capture completely.

It would be nice to have an optional MPE mode, where the full expressiveness of the WARBL could be captured and played with.

Some info on MPE aka MIDI Polyphonic Expression: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/mpe-m ... 20software.

The actual spec: https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/midi ... MIDI%201.0.

I think I recall you mentioning WARBL was based on Arduino, and that platform does seem to be capable of MPE, e.g. https://github.com/Visuelle-Musik/MPE-DIY-Device

It's certainly a possibility, though as most of the instruments that WARBL mimics are by nature monophonic, I'm not sure how many users would benefit from it. I'll research this.

I have two MPE keyboards and Mac software that supports MPE and a few apps that also support MPE. I have been able to send midi messages to trigger x y and z axis using the WARBL in bag mode but didn't find it all that musical and there is a learning curve to even get it close to musical. If you are after making weird sounds I guess there would be some use. Using MPE with a keyboard is another story as it helps to have finger vibrato on a keyboard along with the ability to trigger other sounds by sliding up the key. These keyboards are designed to send cc and midi messages on a per key basis. The WARBL would have to be programed to have every hole send these cc and midi messages.

It looks like there is basic support for MPE now? The Channel Pressure and Key Pressure expression configuration were added for MPE, right? IIUC, this in combination with changing the Note Channel to 2 is basically "MPE".

However, the only "MPE" mentioned in the manual is in regard to an optional Pitch Bend setting.

I would like to see a paragraph on MPE added to the manual. It should explain what has been done, which I think is the minimum to enable WARBL to control sound modules that were designed for MPE controllers.

By the way, given that WARBL is monophonic, where a combination of fingered holes is used to express a single note, I think WARBL can at best enable XYZ modulation of a single note. It should not attempt to treat each hole as a separate expressive controller.

Thanks for this suggestion-- I'll make a note to add something about MPE to the User Manual. Unfortunately my understanding of it very basic, but yes, I believe the minimum required for controlling MPE apps is turning on Channel Pressure and changing the channel to 2 or higher. Jesse Chappell (author of ThumbJam and SonoBus) added those features in order to be compatible with MPE, and I haven't experimented with it other than basic testing.