Tonverk, Elektron's 16-track polyphonic multisampler and audio processor, has settled in as one of the more ambitious hardware releases the Swedish company has put out in years — a deep sampling and resynthesis engine wrapped in Elektron's familiar sequencing workflow. What it doesn't have, at least not yet, is MPE support. And based on activity in Elektron's own feature-request channels, that's the update a meaningful slice of its owners want most.

What Tonverk Is

Tonverk combines a 16-track polyphonic sample-based engine with granular and resynthesis processing, built around the same sequencer logic that's defined Elektron's Digitakt and Octatrack line for years. It's positioned as a standalone sampling workstation rather than a MIDI controller, which is part of why MPE wasn't necessarily assumed to be on the launch feature list — but it's also exactly why players want it added.

Full specifications, the current OS release notes, and the user manual are available directly from Elektron.

The Request

Feature requests logged on the Elektronauts forum lay out a fairly specific ask: per-note pitch bend, per-note pressure, and per-note timbre or slide data (the Y-axis in MPE terms), with the ability to route those per-note MPE sources into Tonverk's existing modulation matrix alongside its other mod sources. Some owners have noted that even partial support — pitch and pressure alone, without full three-dimensional per-note control — would already be a meaningful upgrade over Tonverk's current flat MIDI handling.

The logic is straightforward: a 16-voice polyphonic sampling engine with granular and resynthesis capability is well suited to expressive, per-note manipulation. Sliding a finger to open a filter on one note while a chord sustains underneath, or applying pressure to trigger a granular texture shift on a single voice, are exactly the kinds of gestures MPE was designed to carry — and Tonverk's synthesis engine has the modulation depth to make use of them if the data could get in.

Where Things Stand

As of the most recent OS documentation, MPE is not listed among Tonverk's supported features, and Elektron hasn't published a public roadmap confirming it's in development. That puts Tonverk in the same position as a number of other deep polyphonic instruments this year: architecturally capable of expressive per-note control, but not yet wired to receive it, while an MPE controller market — from Expressive E's Osmose to the Haken Continuum line — continues to grow around instruments that can't fully use their output.

Why It's Worth Watching

Elektron has a track record of extending instruments meaningfully after launch through OS updates rather than treating release firmware as final — the Digitakt and Octatrack both picked up substantial functionality well after their initial ship dates. Tonverk's modulation architecture already resembles what MPE routing would need, which narrows the gap between "feature request" and "plausible update" compared to hardware that would need a more fundamental voice-architecture rework.

It's also worth noting that Tonverk wouldn't be the first Elektron instrument to gain expressive control after launch in some form — the company has steadily added deeper per-track modulation and MIDI routing options to its other flagship boxes over successive OS releases, usually in response to exactly this kind of sustained, specific community pressure rather than as part of an announced plan. That pattern is part of why the request keeps resurfacing on the forum rather than fading out: owners have seen Elektron respond to detailed, well-argued feature threads before, and Tonverk's synthesis engine gives them a stronger technical case than most.

What Owners Can Do Now

For now, Tonverk owners with MPE controllers are limited to standard MIDI CC mapping — routing an MPE controller's pitch, pressure, and slide data through a translation layer or accepting it as global rather than per-note control. It's a functional workaround, but it strips out the dimension that makes MPE controllers worth using in the first place. The request remains open on Elektron's community channels, and current downloads, OS release notes, and support resources are available directly on Elektron's site.