5 of the Best Hardware Synths With MPE

Broaden your range of expression and explore MIDI polyphonic aftertouch with these five hardware synths with MPE.

Synthesizers are constantly improving. For the price, the ones we have at our disposal in 2025 are magnitudes more powerful than those from 40 or 50 years ago. Onboard effects, sheer variety of synthesis architectures, and modulation possibilities are but three of the areas where we’re currently blessed. Another is MPE. 

Also known as MIDI Polyphonic Expression, MPE gives you new ways to play keyboards, with per-note control over parameters in three dimensions: horizontally, vertically, and instantaneous pressure. MPE does this by changing how the machine uses MIDI, assigning each note to a separate channel. Crazy stuff.

If this all sounds expensive, it doesn’t have to be. While MPE tends to be more common in higher-end units with fancy keyboards, you can also find it on plenty of sub-$1K machines – and if you’re willing to go desktop, the price comes down pretty fast (although you’ll still need an MPE-equipped controller to take full advantage).

Here is my selection of five of the best hardware synths with MPE available now. There are plenty of amazing synths with MPE that didn’t make the list, but I’ve tried to include synths from a variety of manufacturers, with different synthesis types and form factors. 

And if you’re confused about the difference between MPE, polyphonic aftertouch, and MIDI 2.0, check out this story...

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