Hey everyone, I noticed this hasn’t been shared here yet and I thought some may be interested:
I decided to back it as I’ve been looking for a controller that I can use to work with Architect and the customizable nature of this thing seems perfect for me.
It seems like they have pretty big plans for the firmware side of things moving forward with this which is always a big thing for me.
Would be curious to hear other peoples thoughts on it!
Pretty interesting! Very glad they included a 1/8" physical MIDI output port…I guess there will be some ability to filter outgoing data to not clog the bandwidth.
Also, I guess there is no possibility of sending MIDI back into the device to trigger the lighting elements? Hopefully the setup tool will have plenty of options for customizing illumination parameters!
They told me that currently the midi is just one directional but the hardware possibility is there and they are very interested by possibilities outside of what they’ve currently mentioned. For my purposes, I definitely need it to be able to respond to midi going in and they said it’d definitely be possible but might just require a bit of work by the user but who knows what they’ll add in the future.
Here’s one for the alternative controller crowd—which don’t get much play at Elektronauts—and looks interesting as a possible advancement over the LinnStrument or Sensel Morph. If it can provide a grid of individually sizable and programmable MIDI note triggers that have a usable playing feel, I’ll back it. I mean where–regardless of the other things it can do, you can ate least:
LinnStrument can’t do #2 or #4, which greatly hamper its usefulness. LinnStrument and Morph both cannot do #3, but where the LinnStrument’s velocity restriction is tolerable, Morph’s is a dealbreaker for serious applications. Sensel says they’re working on that. They both can’t do #4, though they both have workarounds: the LinnStrument’s workaround is super inconvenient, but the Morph will allow printing patterns on a sheet of paper to lay under one of their transparent overlays. The problem there, though, is that the extra materials change the playing response, though it doesn’t overly degrade it.
Then there’s the stretch goal of:
I guess I can figure these things out through discussion, but everything rides on the Erae Touch’s actual playing feel. A harder surface is much better for playing on than a surface that gives too much, but some designers don’t understand this. The demos do look like the players put a lot of kinetic energy into playing the thing, as opposed to a Zendrum’s featherlight triggers, the Morph’s high sensitivity, and the LinnStruments somewhat lesser sensitivity. Of course, those instruments can be adjusted to lower sensitivity if desired, but if the Touch is restricted to playing more like a Seaboard or a Continuum than a Morph, I wouldn’t “touch” it.
Sequencer, arppegiator, etc. added:
Just 19 hours to go! They’ve also upgraded their plans for the hardware so that the sensitivity is improved tenfold but this also means that after the kickstarted campaign, it’s likely these will end up costing more than what they originally projected… so it’s a good chance to grab a great deal on one of these now 
I personally really love companies like this who make a great feature packed product and then take it way further after launch, had great experiences with companies like this so far so I’m feeling really good about this one!
Looks interesting - reminds me of the surface of the roli blocks from the video. I recently got a linnstrument which I have found to be intuitive and have a great playing surface, although not found time to make the most of it yet.
It’s worth noting the linnstrument firmware is open source - I was considering writing some custom firmware to add vertical faders. I imagine adding sizable coured squares with midi channel/note/cc is within the scope of the hardware using the existing 25x8 grid. Pitch bend per grid element also should be possible - would just need to add an offset variable to the firmware and a way to set the pitch offset intuitively.
I reckon that MPE support in Ableton 11 is likely to make this sort of controller a lot more popular.
Welcome! Yes, I think if the LinnStrument had customizable color-, channel-, and—most importantly—note-per pad, that would bring it up to speed with currently competing tech, like this Erae and the Lumatone. Customizing the firmware is a rather daunting task for users, though, with the risk of bricking. It will be interesting to compare the playing feel of the LinnStrument with the Erae Touch, so I won’t mind having both (for a while). I hope you’re also on the Roger Linn Designs forum at KVR.
Had a look over at the KVR forum. Turns out the linnstrument has a 2mm vertical gap in the sensors between the rows so vertical faders and x-y pads are a no-go. Shame as the source code looked well commented and easy enough to work on! Credit to Roger Linn for taking the open source approach.
Look forward to hearing how the Erae Touch compares on playability!
The first thing I want to do is set it up as a percussion controller to see if it responds well enough to replace a ZenDrum. So that would be custom zones with channel, note, and velocity curve assignments. Remember that map I made for the Morph? That, but hoping for a ZenDrum-quality playing response.
Then, MPE configs to see if it can emulate/replace a LinnStrument.
I haven’t looked at ERAE lab at all. I’ve just assumed it will at least do what Morph’s config software does, with additional lighting parameters.
ADDED: Their 3/14 update says they expect to have all components in hand in April, and they’ll start constructing and shipping then.
I funded this on the kickstarter when I had more money than I do now! 
I recently went fully ITB for my sequencing using a program called Architect, the flexibility of the Erae touch was a big selling point for me in that I hope to eventually be able to use it as a way of interfacing with Architect in terms of programming sequencers within it.
I reached out to one of the devs and explained my hopes with it and they confirmed that it’s definitely be possible with how they’ve designed it, just need to be a bit handy with code (which I am not!) but I’m excited to learn when it comes round to it.
I currently have no way of physically interfacing with my synths so I’m really looking forward to this arriving as it everything I’ve seen from them so far looks promising.
Dear Backers,
We just received confirmation that the PCB printing process went well!
We still have to go through the soldering step and final Quality Check before confirming a firm shipping date.
Shipping lead times have unfortunately gone crazy since the issue in Suez Canal (that one was kind of hard to anticipate… actually more than a worldwide pandemic or semiconductor shortage … ), so that will most probably impact the delivery from the factory to our office in Paris.
So our estimate is that we will most probably start shipping (by Air) to the first backers around the last week of June/early July.
Meanwhile, practice makes perfect, and our new sound designer started to play with the Erae Touch and we recorded the sessions.
You should be able to experience the full expressive potential with some more acoustic and classic sounds using the extremely realistic SWAM plugin:
And some more agressive Thunderstruck :
More videos and updates in the coming days!
Here’s today’s update:
The Electronic Board of the Erae Touch will be delivered in a few days to our office and thanks to our recent talk with Roger Linn we have been able to upgrade the quality and smoothness of our Silicone surface.
We are really thankful of all the help and great feedback we have received from people of the industry so far.
This gives us confidence that the Erae Touch can change the game in the electronic music in the studio as much as on stage!
You can see two great examples here of our friends and french artists MYD for his Release Party album:
And DeLaurentis mixing several controllers and using the Erae Touch on a stand as a single instrument:
We will be ready to deliver our first production batch in about a month.
So if you want to benefit from the pre-sales offer make sure you book it before the end of July!
Meanwhile, our sound designer has worked on several Factory and custom layouts and came with lot of creative ideas on how to use MPE to create complex time varying effects using XY position and Z-pressure.
The video below is an example of a Trap track played with a Keygrid object, several effects mapped in Ableton Live with 2D faders and using Serum, Vital and Swam as instruments.
The whole set is controlled with the Launchpad controller object and four faders controlling track volume over the surface allowing for a smooth and continuous fade out.
With those unexpected delays, we are more than ever looking forward to deliver our first customers and see how they will come with their own creation using our instrument!
All the best.
–
The Embodme team.
ADDED:
I’ve taken delivery of mine. It does have a very nice feel, very dynamically responsive. I’ve been setting it up as a percussion controller, and it plays really well with both BFD3 and my Roland TD-50. I’d say about 90% as dynamically responsive as a Zendrum, but it differs in response—you can get low MIDI volumes by pressing, but a Zendrum responds to strikes only—so that in the long run it might only be a matter of getting more used to it. A percussion controller that follows the trigger with a modulatable MIDI note suits a Pulsar-23 much better than a triggers-only Zendrum. My Zendrum works fine with my Pulsar-23, but it can’t take advantage of the Pulsar’s expressive potential.
One issue with the Erae Touch is that even though the software app works fine, they don’t allow constructing completely arbitrary collections of zones like the Sensel Morph. Everything has to be consecutive sequences of MIDI notes. Even though there’s some flexibility there, the limited number of widgets you can add to any preset forces you to economize so that percussion setups will require re-doing the MIDI maps on all plugins and hardware—major pain in the ass. It’s no problem with keyboard-type instruments, but forcing the keyboard paradigm on percussion configurations doesn’t make any sense; from a user’s standpoint, it’s counterproductive.
Does anyone actually have hand on with one of these at this point and care to provide a review?
I’ve had one for a few weeks. You can check out thetechnobear’s PolyExpression for more info.
Hey, here’s my first jam with the Touch! :
Full disclosure, this one was kindly lent by Embodme so I could make a bunch of videos with it, I didn’t pay for it. But hey here’s a short review if anyone’s interested :
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I have no experience with isomorphic or MPE controllers but so far I’m loving this thing a lot. I stuck with the most basic features so far but being able to create my own personalized layout is already a game-changer in my setup!
It also feels really great, especially for drums! Playing the keyboard takes a bit of practice but is not as bad as I was expecting. I’m guessing it feels more natural with the isomorphic note layout.
The software is working very nicely, there’s room for improvement but creating a layout from scratch is already pretty fast. I really like that you can change the colour and animations of everything too. The Touch looks amazing and it makes me wanna play with it all the time<3
No offense but this is an ad, not a review
None taken, even though I’m not really sure what makes you think that. I don’t work for them and didn’t get any money from this, I just honestly think it’s a cool piece of equipment. Not perfect and definitely expensive but still amazing in my humble opinion.
nice video @AldoVino !
it’s really interesting to see how you integrate it with your setup … i can see a lot of opportunities given the flexibility.
@Anfim , i think thats a bit ‘rough’ 
come over and check out user experiences at polyexpression.com , you’ll quickly see @AldoVino comments are pretty much in line with other users (who paid for the Erae Touch).
but you’ll also find there, issues/suggestions/improvements being requested… so its not all ‘shiny new thing’ = best
I’ve had the Erae Touch for a while now (bought on KS with my own $).
I’d echo overall its very good, and for v1 firmware, its very solid.
What’s more is that I’ve been making suggestions and reporting small issues to Embodme and they have been very responsive… many of which were ‘fixed’ in the recent 1.1 release.
It’s also quite a tricky product to pull off…since its got quite a varied set of use-cases.
for some it’s :
of course, many of us mix it up between all of these use-cases.
and, Im quite surprised how well it actually manages each of these, without sacrificing others.
for sure, in my case as an expressive controller , there are some small features I ‘need’ for microtonal uses, but it was very close from day 1… which is unusual!
(and yes @AldoVino, id say the isomorphic grid layouts is where you want to be … its ‘ok’ as a keyboard at a pinch, but id prefer some keys)
perhaps the one thing thats hard to see from videos, is the size/scale of the controller.
its a really nice size - big enough to get two hands on, or to use sticks on, yet not so big it takes over an entire desk
for sure, comes at a price… (esp. now component prices have caused a bit of a price increase)
but its nice size control surface, that is highly configurable … its a very good combo.
(and… nope, no connection here… i paid for it with my own $ ! )
if anyone’s got any questions, wants an honest opinion, feel free to ask … either here or on polyexpression. Im happy to oblige.