Midi Poly Grid App

What is the Midi Poly Grid?

The Midi Poly Grid is an app for Android and iOS. You can use it for Finger Drumming, instead of using a hardware pad controller. Not only does the app cost a fraction of a hardware pad controller. It also comes with the three most important XpressPads Finger Drumming layouts by default. Those are the Standard, Latin & Jazz, and Xtreme layouts and that makes it the ideal Finger Drumming app for the XpressPads technique. However, it doesn’t end there. The Midi Poly Grid app by default also includes a layout for the XpressPads Magic Tone Network and chromatic and in-key layouts that remind of those found on an Ableton Push or Novation Launchpad. Being in touch with the Zeitgeist, it can be configured to send MPE, which stands for “Midi Polyphonic Expression”. Applying polyphonic aftertouch is also an option, which makes the app a modern and valuable MIDI controller tool in the studio.

Where do you get the Midi Poly Grid?

The Midi Poly Grid app for Finger Drumming is not a native XpressPads product. Therefore, it isn’t sold on this website, just linked to:

Get the Midi Poly Grid app for Android from the PlayStore.

Get the Midi Poly Grid for iOS from the Apple Store.

What’s the fastest way to learn how to use the Midi Poly Grid?

Because I like the app so much I’ve recorded a comprehensive video tutorial series that explains how this app works. I also explain how you can set it up for Finger Frumming with the XpressPads technique, the Magic Tone Network, and other musical purposes. Quite importantly, I cover aspects such as how to make your Android device send MIDI data via USB to your computer. This is not as easy as it may sound. Next, I cover how you should configure the app for Finger Drumming on both a 4×4 and 4×8 pad section. Also, I give a little introduction to the Magic Tone Network. The Midi Poly Grid app will tremendously help you understand and experience the concept behind it. Furthermore, I explain how you can set up MPE, polyphonic aftertouch, and other trigger types on the app. Lastly, I explain what the chromatic and in-key layouts are all about. All that combined will make you master this app in the shortest time possible.

Who developed the Midi Poly Grid?

Andreas Müller

The Midi Poly Grid was developed by Andreas Müller. Andreas is a finger drummer himself. He bought the XpressPads Finger Drumming eCourse several years ago and next to the Finger Drumming, he came across the free Magic Tone Network Course, which back then was based on the first Novation Lauchpad. The first Launchpad allowed to assign a specific note to each and every pad, which was very important because the Magic Tone Network is meant to be a playable version of the Circle Of Fifths and Leonhard Euler’s Tonnetz and thus requires a non-standard pad layout.

It started with a Max4Live Device…

With the later advent of the Ableton Push and the new generation of Novation Launchpads, there was almost no chance for people without a coding background – like myself – to get the Magic Tone Network layout setup on a Push or Launchpad, but luckily, Andreas Müller knows how to code and back then he reached out to me to tell me that he had built a Max4Live device for Ableton which made it possible to use the Magic Tone Network on the Push and on newer Launchpads. Of course, I was super-stoked about that. I created a page for it on the XpressPads website and made a video about it to explain how to set it up.

… and ended with the Midi Poly Grid app.

And lately, Andreas contacted me again to tell me that this time he had built a MIDI controller app that he primarily built for people who like to play pads in any form, and that he had implemented the XpressPads Finger Drumming pad layouts as well as the Magic Tone Network layout as default presets in his app. He asked me if I’d like to take a look.

Of course, I gladly did, and he offered me to share with him my thoughts, ideas, and wishes and take them into consideration when further developing this app.

And now – here it is!!

I still have difficulties believing it.