Can the mpd16 slider actually send pitch bend messages?

The manuals mention pitch bend messages but I'm confused because they also seem to describe it as a midi cc #. Anyhow I'd be grateful if this cheap box could actually send real pitch bend messages. Anyone know ?

What are you trying to send pitch bend messages too?

m56p87 wrote:What are you trying to send pitch bend messages too?

I should clarify, it's not that I'm having trouble with the mpd16, I don't even own one. I could get a lot of use out of the box if it is does in fact send out MIDI pitch bend data, (even if the values are scaled). I can't think of anything in this price range and size that does pitch bend data.

you can change 3 things with the mpd16..

midi channel number (only 16 choices here.. and 16 pads..)

you can change the midi CC# of the pads

and you can change the midi CC# of the slider.

you can only choose CC numbers from 0 to 127.. so I dont believe you can make it do pitch..

You could send to a software pitch bend if your daw has midi learn or something similiar?

OK yeah, I'm just going to accept that it's too good to be true.

What gets me is the MPD16's pad 11 clearly labels "pitch bend" as an available option for the slider. I bet they're only referring to some CC# related to pitch effects but unrelated to actual pitch bend messages.

Thanks for the replies!

m56p87 wrote:You could send to a software pitch bend if your daw has midi learn or something similiar?

that's true, I guess if I just end up using mpd16 for computer anyway, I might as well be able to convert a CC# into pitch bend.

it probably has to do with the mpd16 software app...

the thing is, the driver is not compatible with windows after windows xp (not sure at all about mac os) and if you install it anyways in windows vista... as soon as you enable the midi input in your daw it blue screens the computer.

I use it in a daw with the midi output which is just as good as using midi over usb (my firewire interface has a midi port)

you can do midi learn on the pitch of a vst I suppose... that works.


Im not sure, but I seem to remember seeing a pitch/mod wheel only controller somewhere... all it had was a pitch and modulation wheel on it and that is it... I dont remember where I saw that though.

in the manual it seems that you can do it though but I have not tried... it seems like when you hold down bank you can choose pad 11 to assign it to pitch bend... and pads 1-10 act as a keypad for entering in a cc number... so essentially, pad 1 through 9 and pad 10 is 0... ie: you put in pad 10, pad 4, pad 2 if you want the slider to be cc42, or you push pad 11 if you want it to be the pitch bend, pad 12 for mod wheel, etc..

I think these are actually like assigning midi cc numbers higher than the notes (higher than 127)