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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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
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No offense but this is an ad, not a review
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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.
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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 :
- a kind of ‘generic controller’ , keys, drums, launching, control
@AldoVino showed this nicely in his video - a drum pad controller
Ive been pleasantly surprised at how fun it is to use for this. - an expressive controller
this is my primary use-case, and why i bought it.
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.
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Hey thanks a lot for the kind word! I appreciate what you’re doing for the community. 
I feel pretty much the same about the ERAE, its versatility is really seducing. Regarding its use as a drum pad, it’s worth mentioning that it reacts very well to drum sticks! You can get a descent bounce out of it and play some snare rolls if you want to<3 (I’m no drummer though so maybe take this with a grain of salt)
I definitely agree on the keyboard part too, one should probably not buy this as a replacement for a proper keybed, especially if he’s a skilled player. In my video I have a row of 2 octaves and it was still pretty comfortable but if you need more range the keys get super tiny and quite hard to play. But yeah that’s definitely not ERAE’s main purpose! 
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yeah, I’ve never had any interest in drum pads… but have really enjoyed trying the Erae in this area.
I cannot compare to other drum pads (never tried them), but not only does this ‘feel’ nice,
but I love that we can modulate via the x/y/z axis.
this means I can have (sound) variations over a single pad… which makes it feel alive.
in my case, I had Erae going into a midi ->cv /modular… connected to things like Plaits, Rings and Plonk with x/y/z subtly altering timbre/decays etc … lost quite a few hours just ‘tapping’ away
I really should try this with VCV Rack… oh dear, I can feel another late night tonight
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I made a new jam with the Touch if anyone’s curious :
Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season<3
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Wow just saw your vid. Is the ERAE Touch controlling the Digitakt?
Only for the drums and some FX, the synths/vocal chops are coming from Ableton.
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Has anybody who is not an influencer or famous musician has received his unit if ordered post-crowdfunding campaign or even has successful communication with them ??
I’ve ordered mine in November with an expected delivery in December. I contacted them in February, received blurry answers about delivery time. Contacted them again earlier this months because I saw they were telling in the comments of their ad on Instagram to someone who was interested that if he order (this was very early March), he would receive his unit in March, and got an even blurrier answer.
So I asked for a refund last week and got no answer at all… meanwhile they are showing off all the famous people who tries it and are very impressed… It feels more and more like they want to sell their technology, not the actual product, and go live on some tropical island or something… ^^
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I was looking at ordering one of these- the firmware seems to being developed (1.2 now) and they claim delivery in June (so I am guessing in 2 weeks?)…any more actual experiences? There are no real ‘reviews’ by the usual suspects which is a bit weird, love to hear some real word use stories…