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The MP-201 is well-built, and its controls are well-spaced.

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The MP-201 looks very cool with its simple angled top, large silver/grey footpedal emblazoned with the Moog emblem, monochrome paint scheme and four footswitch LED surrounds that pulsate in yellow and red.

The two data buttons and the rotary encoder knob are all from the current Moog design stable and the build is up to the sturdy, well-crafted spec one expects from the synth giant of North Carolina.

Overview

As a foot-controller, the MP-201 is a wholly unique product. It has four channels assigned to the four footswitches with three possible control modes.

The first mode is Expression, which will send the footpedal value as CV (Control Voltage) to the associated CV output (one of four ¼" TS jacks) as well as to any MIDI CC. Each of the four channels can also send MIDI Bank and Program Change messages when a preset is selected.

The second mode is LFO, which produces an oscillation (triangle, square, saw down, ramp up sample & hold and noise) as both CV and MIDI CC. The final mode is Gate, which can be assigned as momentary (single on/off trigger when the footswitch is pressed) or latch (toggling an on or off state each time the footswitch is pressed), again, via CV and MIDI.

For visual feedback, each footpedal has a ring of LEDs around it, the upper quarter of which is red and indicates on/off status, while the lower three quarters are yellow and equate brightness to the value being sent.

As well as sending/receiving MIDI information via the MIDI In/Out sockets there is also a USB connection so the MP-201 can be plugged directly into a computer and picked up as a MIDI device. The standard MIDI In/Out is run parallel to the USB, though there are options to change how the MIDI is split.

Control

The controls on the MP-201 are simple, with plenty of foot-sized room around them. The expression pedal is large and sturdy, staying firmly in place once it has been set.

The pedal can be assigned to any combination of the four channels and has individual value settings (from 0 to 4095) for the heel/ toe positions as well as the initial setting when a preset is selected. This value is down-scaled to the relevant 0-127 MIDI and is anti-aliased for CV.

The four footswitches are used in several ways depending on which mode is being used. In Single mode footswitches 1 and 2 navigate through the presets, while switch 3 toggles through the four control channels and switch 4 turns the selected channel on/ off or is double hit to set tap tempo.

In Quad mode the switches turn their respective channels on/off as well as becoming tap tempo entries when hit twice. Toggling between Single and Quad mode is achieved by pressing switches 1 and 3 simultaneously, while pressing both 2 and 4 enters Edit mode for setting the preset parameters. This is handy for those who need to adjust on the fly, and the LCD screen is large enough to see comfortably when standing up.

Though you can edit with the footswitches by hand (with the pedal used for setting values) there are also two finger sized edit buttons and a rotary encoder for this purpose.