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!
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
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… ^^
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…
as you will see there, some of it depends on what you want to use the ET for.
its one of those devices that does many different things, so different users use it in different ways.
e.g some for expressive control, some as a simple control surface, others for drum pads.
given its still relatively new (for such a device), its behaving better/worst in some of these areas.
I think one thing some of us are still have ‘issues’ with is the calibration side… something we hope to have improved in a firmware update.
note: Ive not installed 1.2 at the moment (others on the forum have) , as Ive just been snowed under with other projects. I plan to check it out soon though.
note2: embodme also now have thier own support forum, but its very quiet at the moment
Well, I ordered one two weeks ago when they said they had stock (as they still do on their web site) It states delivery in 3-7 days from order…
So, 2 weeks so far since I paid, and they acknowledged the order (auto responce) but nothing has been dispatched and now no one is replying to my emails. …not impressed so far, I’ll give then a few more days to replay to either my email or support ticket….
Edit - was posted Monday, arrived today….it seems like a great bit of kit, built well expressive with hands or sticks…update firmware no problem (new one out today coincidentally), seems like a pretty custom powerful controller for sliders, joysticks and clip launching as well.
There is a “simple” ARP function for up, down, up - down etc., but no “user programmable” functionality like on the Arturia Brutes.
No, AFAIK … nothing about “macros” in the manual either.
Each “field” can send five CCs corresponding to the “movement” of a “finger” on the surface: X,Y,Z and abs(X), abs(Y), but only one CC per function, meaning, sliding in X direction generates only one CC.
Could I set this up to control different devices with different zones? Like could I have a keyboard controlling my Peak on midi channel 1, and pads controlling a drum machine on channel 10?
My adventure with embodme came to an end unfortunately. Due to no unit in stock ( despite what mentions their website ) I sent them back my defective unit and they refunded me…Product had potential but seems almost abandonned by now…
I’ll be honest, Im a bit ‘disappointed’ by the Erae Touch…
I think I can best sum up the issue I have with it is …
“jack of all trades master of none”
in particular I think many of us got it as an MPE controller, but its a little ‘inaccurate’ for this, thats where my main disappoint is.
the issue is, I think Embodme are more focused on its other uses, as a general controller, as a drum pad, etc … and it is quite good at that side, and for sure, its extremely flexible in its use.
and yeah, I think most of their current efforts are on marketing, rather than continuing firmware development, so I doubt this’ll change, short term at least
SO… for now, Ive changed my usage of it, to try to use it for what it is better at…
and not so much for MPE usage. (fortunately, I have a few MPE controllers, so thats not a big deal)
and, frankly, I got it on kickstarter at a heavily discounted price, so really, for that price, and what its capable of… its ok for me, even if it doesn’t reach its potential esp for MPE.
It is a shame, frankly, at this price, there are not many controllers of this SIZE (and capabilities), most are pretty small, which is why I was attracted to it… its a fantastic form factor.
I do still have some hopes for using it more… the Erae Touch firmware has a ‘api mode’ and I have some exciting ideas on how to use it beyond whats possible with the midi layouts.
but yeah, its a very hard to recommend, esp at current price… unless you are very sure you know what you want to use it for. but perhaps, embodme will surprise us all, with another firmware update at some point?!
My gripes exactly ! As a drum pad/controller for the 1010 black box or Battery, it was really glorious…
Using it with essence fm or other mpe synth, hardware or software led to disappointment…
They’re all in marketing, big names, big venues, social medias…An erae is always lit somewhere…lit, but not played on…
And their Creative Director, shouldn’t take care of support…Most painfull experience I’ve ever had with a customer support…You can’t trust a word of what he says…
oh, in fairness, they do have quite a few musical demonstrations and performances.
quite a good example here at NAMM
but it highlights, what we have said above… they are not often shown being used as dedicated MPE controllers, rather as more generic midi controllers.
of course, lets bare in mind… the midi controller market is much larger than the niche that MPE is… so perhaps thats where they feel they need to push the marketing/support etc.
(lets remember a large part of the ET experience is focused around its flexible layouts)
also a couple of point about MPE controllers, and the Erae Touch
a) I feel even if the MPE was improved on the Erae Touch, the pressure is a little on the heavy side for my taste… its ok, but its not as light a you’d hope… and I suspect thats down to the technology.
b) unfortunately with MPE controllers you get what you pay for
Ive tried many (most?) mpe controllers, and the lower the price, the less responsive and accurate they are … and I cannot think of a single exception to this.
for some, it doesn’t matter, particularly if its not their main instrument/surface,
but if you are familiar with things like Linnstrument, Haken , Eigenharps etc… it will be frustrating.
this is not ‘elitist’, I think the issue is getting good sensors, good surface materials and developing the firmware to account for imperfections , is a long and costly endeavour AND its a niche market, so you wont sell in volume - so thats reflected in the price.
of course, this may change over the years, as MPE (etc) becomes more popular, but its where we are today.
of course, Erae Touch is not cheap (at retail price), and thats why Id hoped for better…
but we then have to understand, that much of that dev effort has been going into being more general purpose… hence back to the ‘jack of all trades’,
(frankly, when Embodme added the sequencer and arp functions, is when I started getting worried they were not ‘focused’ enough on the ‘core experience’)
so for MPE, we have to go to those that have the experience and track record…
and Erae Touch for now doesn’t really cut it for me…
(though in fairness, I do connect it sometimes to the Osmose, and thats a bit of fun)
But I do like it for drum pads, and connecting to my eurorack, either for modulation or inputting a bit of midi…
… so it does have its uses, but buyer beware.
(oh, and I’ve seen a few returned their units, so there have been some quality issues… not sure if this has improved with newer units?!)
