Erae Touch - A versatile MPE controller with customizable elements

The Lounge Other Gear
#44

Not on mine…Bought end of march, received early april. The right side of the unit was smelling a strong female perfume, which took almost three weeks to disappear and the serial was 0091…Curious…

The unit had the bottom left corner not working correctly and sending unwanted midi trigs every 30 seconds with the unit untouched. I tried every possible calibration preocedures etc…

On other thing that bothered me was that the surface presented some irregularities and I often brushed it with my hand while playing like you would try to remove grains of sand…To no effect of course…

But to be honest when I sold my half size continuum, the new owner thought it had a problem because it had a way less expressive touch compared to his first one. ( Both were lightouch, mine was a Lx6 from the last batch b4 release of the slim version.) After a talk with haken, they said that there was sometimes huge difference between units. When I put my hands on another one, I found it really better ( I mean really ! ) than the one I had…

I’ll try the exquis soon…:slight_smile:

#45

serial 91? march this year? thats really odd…

mine is serial # 20 , and is from the very first batch shipped for kickstarter, and I received in Sept 2021… how could you only be 71 units on from that?

look at their kickstarter page… here , they where shipping well over 100 units, across all rewards… which you’d have assume would all been fulfilled not long after mine.

I wonder if you had old stock? or they have reset the serial numbers at some point … perhaps using a new product id/sku?
impossible to know… but given your experience, its suspicious to say the least.

I had some inconsistency in the surface though this did improve with later firmware, but from stories Ive heard, mine was never that bad… definitely within the realms of ‘calibration’

unfortunately, this is the issue with sensitive surfaces, they need really good calibration routines, and things like filtering routines, as all surfaces are imperfect, and you need to account for this.

this was what Id hoped Embodme would focus on post release (Ive seen this on other similar products), and whilst they made some improvements, I don’t think its as good as it could be.
though, of course, as an outsider, is impossible to know if it can be improved much more thru firmware/calibration/filtering etc… or if they are hitting the hardware limits. or a bit of both.

… again, goes back to what I said about them focusing (or not) on the core (playing) experience, rather than adding more features… unfortunately, often the later sells product better :frowning:

anyway, glad you at least got a refund, better than having a product you don’t feel you can use, even if its not the perfect outcome.

#46

Erae Touch or Linnstrument? Just on the surface material. How it feels. Not on options or cost. Using sticks for drum programming is really cool to see, but not something I would do often, if ever.
Linnstrument is something I wanted to get for a while (I wish there was a darker surface option), until I recently heard about this project.
For those who own both any feedback is welcome.

#47

If you want playability, something that’s built to last, and good support, get a LinnStrument and don’t look back… It’s that simple.

The Arae Touch is a useful utility. The LinnStrument is a finely-crafted instrument.

Cheers!

4 Likes
#48

Thanks :robot:

#49

Send them an email and who knows. :slight_smile:

#50

There is no dark version of the LinnStrument’s playing surface available; so, I wouldn’t burden Roger Linn with that enquiry.

However, a couple people have attempted modifications, replacing the stock surface with fabrics and plastic sheeting, to create a darker aesthetic, to varying degrees of success.

These customizations are not trivial though, and can have an impact on the LinnStrument’s performance.

Cheers!

3 Likes
#51

No need to bother them right now. I’ll wait for the Ebony Anniversary Edition :robot:

#52

I was interested in this but the last posts in this thread are kinda negative. I’m gonna think twice about it.
Meanwhile, are the people who own this happy with it ?

#53

I use mine almost every day as a control surface for sketching and triggering desktop synths to do sound design. I like the ability to rearrange controls for different projects.

My one attempt with it at a jam session (fortunately with no audience!) was a train wreck, because I did not practice much with it ahead of time. Touch sensitivity seemed more than in the studio, or I’d programmed it wrong, or likely both.

I think I’m getting my money’s worth, although just. I would buy it again, but if you’re on the fence you might want to see if you can try one first or at least get a used one.

#54

So I got a hold of an Erae Touch a few months ago, after seeing one in person at a shop, being impressed, and harassing Embodme for ages to let me check it out. I think they ran into supply issues, though I’m also a nobody so not surprised it took a while for me to get a preview unit.

I’ve shared a video here if you want to watch me ramble on:

For a summary though… I was excited about it as a general, customisable controller which would let me use it with a bunch of different weirdo devices. Video synthesizers, triggering clips, controlling faders on my Dirtywave M8, all that kind of thing. I thought it would look cool on stage (important), but also - most importantly - it has an actual physical MIDI output in addition to USB! That alone was cool enough, and I think makes it really useful.

I’ve been generally impressed with it for that use case. The build quality feels really nice - nicer than expected - and it’s done what I want it to. There are always weird quirks and the risk of things going wrong with touch sensitive devices (I’ve had problems with both my Linnstrument and Seaboard before), but once I got the sensitivity dialled in to my liking, the Erae Touch seemed responsive and reliable enough.

I can see how for certain applications folks wouldn’t love how it operates, e.g, for really specific, granular control. That has the potential to be frustrating, though with practice, it gets easier as you get more accustomed to the surface.

The firmware is generally pretty good, though there are some UX issues (like having to select CC values from a giant dropdown or a slider) that I’ve fed back to them. A couple of the layouts are confusing, and the sequencer is still in beta. So long as they keep upgrading and developing the firmware (which they’ve assured me they intend to do), then those things can be ironed out.

Overall, I like it. There isn’t anything else quite like it, and it’s filled a very particular spot for me. It is definitely going to be something that folks should try out first though, as it is a bit of a jack-of-all trades device, and it’s very possible that folks looking for a specific thing might be disappointed.

6 Likes
#55

Maybe it’s me but it’s really easy to make ugly looking layouts on this thing

1 Like
#56

A quick tour on their official forums combined with their social media publications shows the “state” of their intentions unfortunately…Last fw is more that one year away and dev is focused on their giant touchscreens…Promising ? Surely ! But clearly failed to deliver the full experience at least to me.

My interactions with them have taught me that you cannot trust a word they say…

#57

Maybe it comes down to what we expect …

I liked the idea to get an isomorphic controller and the option to design my own layouts. Having more expression options with a single finger-touch - compared to a classic keyboard - has also been interesting. The optics of layouts is simple dot-matrix design, but functional.

This said, I bought it - as is. It was not cheap, but it delivers the things I was looking for.

#58

I’m sorry to hear that! I haven’t really been on the forums - mostly just trying out the thing for myself. So far I haven’t encountered any of those issues other than it taking a while to get a unit (which was fair enough, since I’m a nobody and wasn’t buying one).

I think you’re probably right. For me the big thing was the customisable layouts, plus the minijack MIDI connection (as opposed to just USB). That alone meant it fills a gap that no other device I’ve come across has, and why I was interested in it.

#59

If you consider it as a controller or a drumpad eventually, you’re less prone to disappointment.

As a playing surface it is still not quite there IMHO.

I made a review in audiofanzine but it is in French…

All in all, I’m happy some are enjoying it !

2 Likes
#60

I think that’s probably a fair assessment! I was definitely viewing it through the lens of a general purpose controller, and haven’t really been using it as a playing surface for granular motion (like the MPE side). Mostly because I am crap at expressive play.

I would read the review but unfortunately despite six years of French at school I can’t read a word.

#61

This is the only part relevant to the original question, but I found this video considering the SWAM software because of this post. Excuse me if it isn’t at all helpful, It’s a good watch anyway.

Embodme has other video with SWAM.

#62

New hardware version with a ton of new features and improvements.

ERAE II

What is shown here is a prototype.

You can change the skin, which adjusts the sensitivity, for finger touch or drumsticks. There are separate control buttons with a knob and a separate small screen for control, so that control stays separate from the playing surface. The buttons also let you switch layouts for changing the playing surface controls quickly. The play surface can be split for separate parts. There is multiple CVs out, so would be nice controlling modular systems. It also has two MIDI outs.

It has looping, with separate loops running on each of the eight layouts. ( Not clear yet if the loops are separate or simultaneous. )

There also will be an arpeggiator with dimensional controls ! ( I think this will be similar to what is on the new Korg Keystage controller. ) Perhaps these sorts of controls work with the loops as well.

I’ve probably missed some things in this description, and also they are obviously in a very fluid part of their development, so expect more and improved features through to the Kickstarter shipment scheduled for this summer.

Notice too in the middle of this video, the use again of the SWAM synth with MPE.

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MPE Synth/Controller options
NAMM 2024 -- (January 25 - 28)
#63

People waiting for bugfixes and firmware updates will certainly be happy to hear that.