Erae Touch - A versatile MPE controller with customizable elements

The Lounge Other Gear
#21

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’ :wink:

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 :slight_smile:

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 :wink: … 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 :slight_smile:

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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#22

Hey thanks a lot for the kind word! I appreciate what you’re doing for the community. :sparkles:

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! :slightly_smiling_face:

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#23

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 :slight_smile:

I really should try this with VCV Rack… oh dear, I can feel another late night tonight :wink:

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#24

I made a new jam with the Touch if anyone’s curious :

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season<3

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#25

Wow just saw your vid. Is the ERAE Touch controlling the Digitakt?

#26

Only for the drums and some FX, the synths/vocal chops are coming from Ableton. :slightly_smiling_face:

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#27

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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#28

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…

#29

come look at the PolyExpression forum…

lots of ‘real’ users … including me :slight_smile:

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 :wink:

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#30

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.

Firmware now at 1.25

#31

A bunch of questions :

Is it possible to program an arp with it ?

Can it have macro like: I have 4 independant sliders and a 5th to control them all ?

Finally how many cc can it send per unique function ?

Thank you very much ! :grin:

#32

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.

#33

Thx ! :ok_hand:

#34

Question for those who’ve used it:

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?

#35

Each widget can have its own midi channel.

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#36
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#37

Cuckoo has a 10% discount code: ERAE-CUCKOO10 :smiley:

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