M-Audio EX-P

The M-Audio EX-P is an expression pedal, the treadle-style foot controller used to sweep a single parameter in real time. M-Audio positions it as a controller for any assignable variable MIDI controller value, naming volume, modulation, panning and filter sweep among the uses, and it works with all M-Audio MIDI controllers that have an expression pedal input¹. If you are new to the category, see the site's page on Expression Pedals for how these differ from Volume Pedals or Wah-Wah Pedals, which look similar but shape the signal itself rather than sending a control value.

Controls and connection

The EX-P keeps things simple: a treadle you rock with your foot, a hardwired 1/4" cable that cannot be separated from the pedal, and a built-in polarity switch. M-Audio explains the switch's purpose directly: "A built-in polarity switch insures compatibility with most other brands of controllers and keyboards."¹ That matters because expression pedals from different makers wire their potentiometers differently, and the wrong polarity makes the pedal work backwards or not at all. With the switch, the EX-P can be matched to non-M-Audio gear as well as the maker's own controllers.

Because the cable is integral, there is no jack to fail and nothing to forget, but the pedal's reach is fixed by that cable's length. There is no battery or power connection to consider: the pedal sends its control signal down the 1/4" cable and draws no power of its own¹.

Compatibility beyond M-Audio

Quilter Labs lists the EX-P by name in the user guide for its Stereo Effect Pedal, under the treadles "the Expression Inputs have been tested to work with," using the Expression Input Adapter Cable². That makes it one of the few inexpensive expression pedals with a documented, maker-tested place on an amplifier-focused rig as well as in a MIDI setup.

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