Not every MPE player works in Bitwig or Ableton Live. Plenty of composers and producers are built around Studio One or Reaper, and both DAWs handle MIDI Polyphonic Expression — just with meaningfully different levels of polish. If you're deciding where to plug in a Seaboard, an Osmose, or a LinnStrument, here's what actually works today.

Studio One: Solid Recording, VST2-Only Editing

PreSonus added MPE recording and editing support to Studio One several versions back, and it remains genuinely useful for tracking expressive performances. Studio One is compatible with ROLI's Seaboard RISE and BLOCKS controllers out of the box, and its Note Expression system lets you view and shape per-note pitch, pressure, and timbre curves after recording.

The catch, confirmed repeatedly on the PreSonus community forums: MPE support in Studio One only extends to VST2 plugins, not VST3. Since most modern synth developers have shifted their flagship MPE instruments to VST3 as the default format, this is a real practical constraint — some instruments will need to be loaded in a legacy VST2 build (where the developer still ships one) to get full per-note expression through to the synth engine.

It's also worth noting that none of Studio One's stock instruments are MPE-compatible, so out of the box you're always reaching for a third-party synth. Sound on Sound's technique guide is a good primer for getting a Studio One MPE session set up correctly, including how to route a controller's per-note data into the Note Expression lanes.

Reaper: Flexible, But You're Building It Yourself

Reaper takes the opposite approach. True to form for a DAW built around modular routing, Reaper supports MPE, but doesn't hold your hand getting there. There's no dedicated MPE wizard — instead, users configure MIDI channel routing manually, mapping a controller's per-note channels (2–16, per the MPE spec) into a track and confirming the receiving instrument reads MPE data correctly.

Reaper is confirmed to work with ROLI's BLOCKS and RISE/GRAND controllers, and in practice it works with essentially any MPE-compliant controller once the channel routing is set up, since Reaper's MIDI engine doesn't impose the same format restrictions Studio One does. The tradeoff is time: getting a new MPE controller talking cleanly to a new instrument in Reaper is a manual process, not a plug-and-play one. For users who already lean on Reaper's scripting and customization culture (ReaScript, custom actions, community-built MPE tools), this is a minor hurdle. For newcomers, it's a steeper learning curve than Studio One or Bitwig.

Which One Should You Pick?

Neither is wrong — they just suit different workflows:

Studio One makes sense if you want MPE recording and basic editing working quickly, and you're willing to keep an eye on which plugin format your synths ship, favoring VST2 where MPE is essential. It's a better fit for producers who primarily record MPE performances and then do detailed expression-shaping inside the synth itself.

Reaper makes sense if you're comfortable with manual MIDI routing and want a DAW that won't box you into a particular controller ecosystem. Its flexibility means MPE setups can be customized in ways Studio One doesn't allow — useful for unusual rigs combining multiple MPE controllers or non-standard channel configurations.

The Bigger Picture

Both DAWs are proof that MPE adoption in 2026 is uneven but improving. Neither Studio One nor Reaper markets itself as an MPE-first DAW the way Bitwig does, yet both are capable of handling real MPE workflows once you understand their respective quirks. If you're shopping for a DAW specifically because of MPE, it's worth testing a short session in each with your actual controller before committing — the differences in editing depth and setup friction are the kind of thing that only becomes obvious once you're inside a real project.