A compact MIDI controller that thinks in scenes, speaks in groups, and remembers everything you throw at it.
OXI Instruments has built a reputation for elegant solutions to complex musical problems. Their ONE sequencer redefined what a portable brain could do. Now they’re applying that same philosophy to MIDI control with the E16—a deceptively simple box that promises to reveal its depth the moment you start organizing your studio around it.
The Architecture of Control
The E16’s premise is straightforward: sixteen endless encoders with LED feedback rings, arranged in a 4×4 grid, housed in a sleek aluminium unibody build. The clean, modern aesthetic immediately signals a focus on performance and durability. This isn’t just another grid controller wearing new clothes. The intelligence lies in how OXI has structured the control hierarchy.
Sixteen scenes form the top level—seven accessible directly from the main menu, with the remaining nine available via shift navigation. Each scene holds twelve pages. Each page contains sixteen parameters, and here’s where the numbers get interesting: each encoder offers dual mapping destinations plus a press action, effectively tripling its control potential. The math adds up to 3,072 individual controls across all scenes, accessible from a device barely larger than a smartphone. The OLED screen and bright LED rings are designed to be your primary visual guides, keeping you oriented at every turn and providing the critical feedback demanded by modern workflows.
The shift button embedded in the OXI logo serves triple duty: power control, menu navigation, and access to secondary functions. Combined with the encoders themselves (which both turn and push), the workflow appears surprisingly fluid on paper. Tap to select, turn to adjust, hold shift to dive deeper. The display shows exactly where you are in the hierarchy, with lit encoder rings indicating active controls.
Scenes can be changed manually or via MIDI control change messages, allowing for DAW automation or sequencer-driven scene switching. An autosave function ensures you won’t lose configuration work mid-session.
Groups: The Secret Weapon
Here’s where the E16 distinguishes itself from the crowd of MIDI controllers claiming “advanced” status. Any parameter can join a group—up to four groups are available. But these aren’t simple linked controls. They’re sophisticated relationship networks.
According to the documentation, parameters can be designated as leaders or followers. A leader parameter, when adjusted, affects all grouped parameters proportionally. Followers respond to leaders but can also be tweaked independently without affecting the group. And here’s the part that stands out in the documentation: you can set the amount of control each leader applies to each follower, creating complex macro controls on the fly.
But the system goes further. Followers can have inverted polarity—turn the leader clockwise and some parameters increase while others decrease simultaneously. This opens up creative possibilities for opposite movements: fade three track volumes together, but with one moving in reverse. Or sweep a filter cutoff up while its resonance comes down, maintaining the relationship but inverting the direction.
The implications are clear—tweaking filter cutoff on three synths simultaneously while maintaining their relative relationships, or morphing an entire effects chain by turning a single knob, with each parameter moving at its own rate and direction. These aren’t preset macros. You’d be building them in real-time, during the performance, as the music demands.
Snapshots, Recording, and Automation
The E16 includes a snapshot system that captures parameter states for morphing between settings. Any encoder can be designated as the snapshot fader. Set position A, adjust your parameters, set position B, then sweep between them. It’s a performative approach to parameter control that turns static CC messages into evolving gestures—at least in theory.
Knob Recording adds another layer, promising to let you record and replay gestures for natural, expressive movement across your entire setup. The workflow appears straightforward: arm recording, adjust your knobs, and the E16 captures your movements for playback. But here’s where it gets interesting: each encoder maintains its own independent loop buffer with its own loop length. The recording is intentionally unsynced, creating organic, polymetric modulation as different loop lengths phase against each other. You can layer multiple recordings, overwrite existing ones, or assign play/pause control to any encoder’s press action.
The display shows recorded automation as waveforms, which should make it easy to see what you’ve captured.
Connection Options and Configuration
MIDI connectivity covers every base: dual MIDI TRS outputs (Type A), one MIDI TRS input, wireless Bluetooth MIDI, and two virtual USB ports. This versatile array means the E16 can sit at the heart of a hybrid setup; it has the potential to control multiple hardware devices directly while simultaneously managing software instruments—no computer required for the hardware side, though USB remains available when you need it.
Each parameter can be routed to a specific output (TRS, USB, Bluetooth) or set to follow a global output routing. This flexibility means you could have page one controlling hardware synths via TRS while page two manages software instruments over USB, all within the same scene.
The E16 handles everything from standard CC and NRPN to 14-bit control with both relative and absolute modes. The OXI App brings configuration, backup, and sharing capabilities, promising fast setup and less time spent mapping parameters. The app includes instrument definitions—pre-made MIDI CC maps for popular hardware that you can load directly or customize and save for later. This addresses one of the most tedious aspects of MIDI controller setup: hunting down CC numbers in manuals.
Power comes through the USB-C port with minimal current draw—any USB power supply above 100mA works, making battery operation completely practical for portable setups.
Two Flavors of Tactile Response
OXI Instruments offers the E16 in two encoder configurations, catering to different performance needs and preferences:
E16 (Non-Detented Standard Edition): Smooth encoders with no clicks or steps when turning—designed for ultra-fluid, silent rotation. This is the main version, ideal for sweeping adjustments and subtle parameter changes where you want zero mechanical feedback.
E16 Detented (Limited Edition): Clicky encoders that provide tactile feedback with every step. Each turn produces a satisfying click, giving you precise, countable increments. This limited edition suits those who prefer physical confirmation of every value change, especially useful for parameters with discrete steps or when working without looking at the screen.
Without hands-on time with either version, it’s difficult to say which feels better in practice, though the mere option of choosing your encoder style is a significant, welcome feature.
Physical Presence
The E16 measures 114×143×36mm and weighs just 370 grams. It ships in its own travel case with a USB-C cable, emphasizing its studio-to-stage portability. The aluminium unibody construction appears engineered to provide durability without adding unnecessary bulk.
The OLED display specifications suggest crisp readability, with contrast that should work equally well in bright studios or dim stage environments. The LED rings around each encoder provide visual feedback with configurable colors per parameter—how readable and effective they are in various lighting conditions remains to be fully seen in practice, but they are clearly positioned as central to the E16’s visual feedback philosophy.
In the Context of the Market
The E16 enters a space occupied by capable devices like the MIDI Fighter Twister and Faderfox EC4. The Twister offers similar encoder-based control at a lower price point, while the EC4 provides extensive functionality with a steeper learning curve and higher cost. What distinguishes the E16 on paper is its hierarchical organization (scenes, pages, groups), the sophisticated leader/follower relationship system with polarity inversion, dual destinations per encoder, and the instrument definition library—features that suggest a different approach to parameter control rather than just more of the same.
Whether this translates to a meaningful workflow advantage remains to be tested in practice, but the design philosophy appears distinct enough to warrant attention from those who’ve found existing controllers limiting.
Context and Potential
The E16 appears to offer a solution that scales with your needs, from managing soft synth parameters to complex hardware chains. The grouping system alone deserves attention—if it works as documented, it’s not just controlling parameters, it’s creating evolving relationships between them. The polarity inversion opens up musical possibilities that would require external MIDI processing to achieve with conventional controllers.
The dual destination capability per encoder effectively doubles the control surface without adding physical space. Combined with the sixteen scenes and twelve pages per scene, you’re looking at a system that can grow with your studio for years without running out of mapping space.
The E16 should complement the ONE sequencer perfectly—one generates notes and CV, the other shapes the parameters of whatever receives those signals. Whether the reality lives up to the documentation remains to be tested, but on paper, OXI Instruments has designed something that addresses real workflow frustrations. The grouping system, in particular, represents thinking beyond simple MIDI CC mapping—it’s a framework for building control relationships that most controllers never consider.
The instrument definition library in the OXI App suggests OXI is thinking about the entire ecosystem, not just the hardware. Pre-made templates for popular gear could turn hours of manual mapping into minutes of drag-and-drop configuration.
The E16 is available now at €449.00 from oxiinstruments.com. Choose your encoder preference, design your scene structure, and see if those parameter relationships work as elegantly in practice as they appear in the manual.
Available at oxiinstruments.com — €449.00
With first shipments expected in January 2025, the E16’s real-world performance remains an open question. If you get your hands on one, share your experience—the MIDI controller community thrives on honest field reports.
About Me
Hi, I’m Canoy Dang. I grew up in Granada and now living in Málaga, in the south of Spain. Sound has always played a central role in my life — from early home recordings to the deeper, ongoing exploration of the modular synth world. Modular, semi-modular, and desktop synthesizers have become my main tools for expression, experimentation, and sometimes, simply for getting lost in the process.
