NAMM 2026, no news on MPE?

[GR Baumann]

So far, I've seen no infos on new MPE enabled Midi keyboards. Kinda disappointing, given how man synths are fully MPE enabled by now, Omnisphere starting implementing as well, you would think that the market picks that up, but no.

Two grand for a 61 keys controller with sorta esoteric sound design by a three men company (Haaken), apart from that, Roli's "dead whale", Exquis, and a bunch of half baked poly aftertouch offers?

Sad.

[Mike Greene]

NAMM doesn't start until Thursday, so there won't be any news until then.

[GR Baumann]

You mean, like Apple, Chandler, SSL, Behringer, Yamaha, Korg, Roland, Nord, Fender, Melbourne Audio, Universal Audio, Neve etc. etc. had no pre NAMM news?

[wst3]

I'm sure there will be pre-NAMM announcements, there always are. Timing is the thing, and as I'm sure Mike will confirm, marketing in the Musical Instrument marketplace is becoming increasingly challenging. We have so many tools, with capabilities that continue to blow my mind. Getting to the head of the pack has got to be difficult.

I'm old enough to remember when things started to take off back in the 1980s. It seemed like companies were constantly, and regularly, coming up with the next new thing. It was fun!

How did we find out about the next best thing? We visited the local music store. Some of us had access to the industry trade rags. There was no internet (well, yeah there was, but it wasn't public, and it wasn't commercial.)

So which is it? Are there really no great new ideas? Or has the internet spoiled the surprises? Probably a combination of the two.

There are new ideas. Tonalics from Celemony pops into mind as a really intriguing new product. Will it be improve the quality of music and music production? Time will tell. I think there is a risk that it will further homogenize music. On the other hand, having someone like Brian Sutton or Tim Pierce add their talents to my musical adventures is intriguing.

Here's another thought... the internet has brought studio musicians into the spotlight. That is kind of cool. I regularly check out videos from the aforementioned giants, as well as "Uncle Larry", Brett Papa, Pete Thorn, Josh Scott, Rick Beato, Rhett Shull, Brad Davis, and my new favorite, Aaron Jazon, among too many others. And I do learn things. Who knew an old dinosaur like me could still learn?

[GR Baumann]

I might have missed it, in that case tell me, so far I didn't see any new MPE enabled masterkeyboards. Crazy!