For years, MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) support has been split along fairly predictable lines: Bitwig built it in early, Ableton and Logic caught up with per-note modulation and MPE-aware devices, and Pro Tools stayed conspicuously quiet. That changed, at least on paper, at NAMM 2026, where Avid previewed a wave of MIDI improvements for Pro Tools that includes native MPE support.

What Avid showed at the booth

Running the show floor at booth 15102 during NAMM's January 20–24 run, Avid demonstrated several upcoming Pro Tools features together: a new MIDI Editing Mode, MPE support, a feature called Track Pin, MIDI Playlists, and enhanced Speech-to-Text tools. The company also highlighted deeper Splice integration and a set of Inner Circle rewards tools (Triaz Player, AutoBeat Lite, and Rendition Lite) aimed at subscribers.

Full details of Avid's official NAMM recap are available on the Avid press room, and Sound on Sound has a rundown of the broader Pro Tools, Sibelius, and VENUE updates shown at the event.

It's worth being precise about what "preview" means here: as of NAMM, MPE support in Pro Tools had not yet shipped. Avid showed it as part of a forward-looking roadmap alongside the other MIDI editing improvements, without committing to a firm release date. For a DAW with Pro Tools' installed base in post-production and professional recording, even a preview is a signal — MPE is no longer being treated as a niche feature relevant only to boutique DAWs.

Why Pro Tools has lagged on MPE

Pro Tools' MIDI implementation has historically prioritized traditional editing workflows — comping, playlists, and tight integration with audio editing — over the kind of per-note expression editing that MPE requires. Competing DAWs took different paths: Bitwig built native MPE and Note Expressions handling into its core MIDI engine years ago, giving each note independent pitch, pressure, and timbre lanes. Ableton and Logic have added their own layers of per-note control more recently. Reaper has offered flexible MPE routing through its scripting and MIDI editor for a while as well.

Avid's MIDI Editing Mode appears to be the vehicle for closing that gap: rather than bolting MPE onto the existing MIDI editor, the company seems to be rebuilding the editing experience itself, with MPE as one part of a broader modernization that also includes Track Pin and MIDI Playlists.

What this means for MPE musicians

If you're a composer or sound designer who already works in Pro Tools for scoring, dialogue, or hybrid audio-MIDI sessions, native MPE support would remove a real friction point: right now, getting expressive per-note data from a controller like a ROLI Seaboard, Haken Continuum, or Expressive E instrument into Pro Tools generally means working around the DAW's limitations rather than with them.

It also matters for the wider ecosystem. Plugin developers like Arturia and Native Instruments have been steadily expanding MPE support across their instrument lines — Arturia's V Collection and Pigments now support MPE and MTS-ESP tuning broadly, and Native Instruments' Absynth 6 responds to MPE controllers directly. Full support in Pro Tools would mean composers scoring film and TV, a segment where Pro Tools remains dominant, finally get first-class access to expressive playing without switching DAWs mid-project.

What to watch for next

Avid hasn't published a release timeline for MPE support beyond the NAMM preview. Musicians who rely on Pro Tools for expressive work should keep an eye on Avid's release notes and the Pro Tools product page for beta or point-release announcements. Given how much of the DAW landscape has already normalized MPE, Pro Tools closing this gap would mark one of the last major holdouts falling in line — a small but telling milestone for how mainstream expressive MIDI has become.