NAMM 2026 delivered no shortage of new gear, but two announcements stood out for anyone paying attention to expressive playing surfaces: ASM's Leviasynth and Dog Paw's weighted grid controller. They couldn't be more different in approach, price, or intended audience, but both put MPE-style per-note control at the center of the instrument rather than treating it as an afterthought.
ASM Leviasynth: A Flagship With Polyphonic Aftertouch Baked In
Ashun Sound Machines unveiled the Leviasynth, the spiritual successor to its popular Hydrasynth line, in both keyboard and desktop versions. The keyboard model ships with a 61-key polyphonic-aftertouch keybed with full MPE support, alongside a four-octave ribbon controller for pitch and modulation gestures — a combination clearly aimed at players who want the expressive depth of instruments like the Haken Continuum without abandoning a traditional keyboard layout. The desktop version swaps the keybed for sixteen velocity-sensitive, polyphonic-aftertouch pads, keeping the same 16-voice algorithmic engine and carrying over ASM's Polytouch engine and signature vowel-formant filter from Hydrasynth.
Pricing sits at the higher end of the market: the keyboard version lists around $2,999 and the desktop around $2,199, with both models expected to ship globally through early 2026. For studios and composers who already lean on MPE-aware software instruments, Leviasynth's appeal is that the expressive controller and the sound engine are one and the same box — no separate MPE keyboard and synth pairing required.
Dog Paw: Weighted Keys Meet the Grid Layout
At the opposite end of both price and form factor sits Dog Paw, a project that started as a two-person Kickstarter and is now shipping its funded campaign. Dog Paw describes itself as the world's first weighted grid instrument: an 8x8 layout of patent-pending weighted keys that behave more like a piano action than a typical rubber pad, while still transmitting individual pitch bend, timbre, and aftertouch per note over MPE. The instrument runs on an internal Raspberry Pi 5, so it functions as a standalone synthesizer straight out of the box, but it's also built to integrate with Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Bitwig, and Reaper as a controller.
Backers on Kickstarter locked in early pricing around $995 against an expected retail price of roughly $1,500, and the team is targeting a Fall 2026 shipping window following its NAMM 2026 showcase at the Anaheim Convention Center. For grid-instrument fans who found existing MPE pad controllers a little too flat and uniform under the fingers, weighted resistance is a genuinely new variable to play with.
Two Different Bets on What Players Want
Set side by side, Leviasynth and Dog Paw make an interesting statement about where expressive controller design is headed. ASM is betting that established players want polyphonic aftertouch and ribbon control layered onto a familiar keyboard shape, backed by a serious synth engine — a "no compromises" flagship approach. Dog Paw is betting that grid-based, isomorphic playing still has unexplored territory, particularly around physical feel, and that a standalone, DAW-friendly instrument can find an audience without needing a $3,000 price tag.
Why It's a Good Sign for MPE Generally
Neither of these products would have made commercial sense a few years ago, when MPE hardware was mostly the domain of niche manufacturers like ROLI and Haken Audio. Seeing an established synth brand and a scrappy two-person startup both ship MPE-native hardware in the same NAMM cycle suggests the standard has genuinely crossed over from experimental to expected. Whichever end of the spectrum you're drawn to, both instruments are worth a demo if you get the chance — the difference in feel between a weighted grid and a ribbon-equipped keybed is something no spec sheet fully captures.