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Version: Beta

MIDI

Floe responds to MIDI the way you'd expect from a software instrument: notes and velocity, the sustain pedal and pitch wheel, CC controllers mapped to its parameters, and MPE for expressive controllers.

  • Velocity — how hard you play sets each note's volume, shaped by each layer's velocity to volume curve on its CONFIG tab. On multi-sampled Instruments with velocity layers, it also picks which samples play.
  • Sustain pedal — CC-64 holds notes after you release the keys, until you lift the pedal, just like a piano's sustain pedal.
  • Pitch wheel — how far it bends is set per layer with Pitch Bend Range on the layer's CONFIG tab, so one layer can bend a whole tone while another underneath it stays put. A range of 0 disables pitch bend for that layer.
  • All Notes Off and All Sound Off — the channel messages that DAWs and controllers send to stop stuck notes. All Notes Off (CC-123) releases every note on that channel, including sustained ones, so they fade out naturally; All Sound Off (CC-120) silences them immediately.

MIDI CC​

All automatable parameters can be assigned to a MIDI CC, so you can move them with the knobs and faders on your MIDI controller.

Creating a mapping​

Right-click a parameter (a knob or slider anywhere on the UI) and select MIDI CC Learn, then move the dial on your MIDI controller that you want to assign. To remove a mapping, right-click the parameter and select Remove MIDI CC (followed by the CC number). A mapped CC works on any MIDI channel.

You can also add and remove mappings from the Performance Controls panel, which lists every mapping on the current instance in one place.

MIDI CC tab of the Performance Controls panel

Default mappings​

Unless you have changed your default Performance Controls, these mappings will be assigned:

  • CC 1 (Modwheel) — Macro 1
  • CC 7 — Master Volume
  • CC 11 — Master Timbre

How mappings are saved​

MIDI CC mappings are part of the Performance Controls system. They apply only to the current instance of Floe, but you can set up a default configuration that all new instances start with. Presets never touch them, so you can browse presets without your settings changing each time.

MPE​

MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) lets compatible controllers, such as the Seaboard, LinnStrument, Osmose and Haken Continuum, shape each note independently.

To switch it on, open the Performance Controls panel with in the top panel, click the MPE tab, and tick MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression).

The MPE tab of the Performance Controls panel

Once it's on, each note responds to the standard MPE per-note messages:

  • Glide: pitch bend on a note's channel bends just that note, following the MPE ±48-semitone convention (or whatever range your controller negotiates). The master channel's pitch wheel still bends everything, using each layer's pitch bend range parameter.
  • Press: each note's channel pressure (aftertouch).
  • Slide: each note's CC74.

Choose what press and slide control for each layer with the MPE button on its CONFIG tab. Each has a target (Volume, Filter, Timbre or LFO Amount) and an amount. The amount can be negative to invert the response, or beyond 100% to reach the full effect with a smaller gesture.

With the Volume target, press brings each note up to the level of the layer's Volume slider, and slide works like a fader for each note, topping out at the slider's level. So until you apply expression, notes play quieter than the slider. The Filter, Timbre and LFO Amount targets nudge a setting for each note individually: Filter moves the layer's filter cutoff, Timbre the master Timbre control, and LFO Amount the layer's LFO Amount. Press adds to the setting, while slide can move it either way, with its centre position leaving it unchanged.

The MPE smoothing setting in the Performance Controls panel sets how gradually press and slide respond: lower is more responsive, higher is smoother.

While notes are sounding, each active voice gets a red line on whichever control press or slide is routed to — the filter cutoff knob, the LFO Amount knob, or the master Timbre knob in the top panel — so you can see the expression from each voice.

The MPE Configuration Message for zone setup is supported too, and a sustain pedal on a zone's master channel sustains the whole zone.

CLAP note expressions (per-note pitch, pressure, and brightness) work the same way in supporting hosts regardless of the MPE setting.