Erae Touch - All-around MIDI 2.0 controller?

[SLiC]

I got some good news and bad news today. My Erae Touch is in the country but I have to pay DHL another $225 before they'll deliver it. That kind of blows out the unexpected discount I got but it's all good, really.

Glad you will have yours soon- I think the unexpected discount was the price before tax, it now shows as 700 Euro excluding tax on the website (I wrote and told them there without tax price was wrong previously, not sure if that changed anything!!)

I may also get hit with tax if customs catch it (some times you get lucky) - about 21% in the UK

[BONES]

Yeah, 21% will hurt. Unfortunately, DHL will just make sure their arse is covered so they won't try and slip it through. Our GST is only 10% but there is an extra $80 for some other "government charge", plus DHL's fee for having to do the paperwork. THey alwayss get you coming and going.

[BONES]

I had a closer look at the tracking history and my package left Embodme last Tuesday, which was still August, like they promised. It got to Sydney via Paris, Leipzig, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, which is definitely the long way around. But it's cleared customs now so I might get it tomorrow if I'm lucky, otherwise Wednesday.

[SLiC]

I chased up why mine wasn't posted and got told they had run out of UK adaptors and were expecting to get them in soon...at least they got strait back to me but a bit disappointing

[BONES]

Mine's on board for delivery "by end of day"!!

[BONES]

Got it! Just as I was getting ready to head off for work. I got it out of the box and checked it out but I didn't have time to connect it up and I didn't think to turn it on. (Does it have an internal battery?) So all I can tell you is that it comes with a nice padded sleeve (with a waterproof zip), a small wall-wart PSU, a good quality braided USB-C cable and a MIDI adapter (mini-jack to 5 pin DIN). There was no paperwork whatsoever, which is interesting.

It's heavy and it looks very different to a Lightpad Block, probably because it's grey, rather than black. It is also considerably wider than my 14" laptop. It doesn't come close to fitting into the laptop compartment of my messenger bag, which is supposed to accommodate 15" laptops, but it will fit into the main compartment, albeit with bulges on both ends of the bag.

More to follow...

[BONES]

Right now I am feeling pretty disappointed. It's not very good. From the start: there's no on/off switch so you have to unplug the power to turn the lights off. I set it up i Studio One but I couldn't get any response from it, so I went through the firmware update prcoess, which was simple enough, but it still wouldn't work. So I loaded up a few standalone synths. It started working with Korg Odyssey and after that it was working with everything.

That's when the problems started. Controls down the right edge of the device are flaky. If you press the key in the bottom-right corner, the key in the top-right corner also sounds and the response is very inconsistent. Some layouts are worse than others but there are issues with every layout I've tried.

90% of it seems to work as designed but that is also disappointing because it's not as responsive as my Roli stuff. In terms of squishiness, it's about mid-way between the original Lightpad Block, which is quite hard, and the much squishier Lightpad Block M. So it's firm but not uncomfortable. The big issue is that the response is not as customisable as the Roli stuff. You can set a pressure range but that's it. The sldie range on the standard size keyboard is quite short and you can't glide up and down the keys like you can with a Roli controller, but there are other layouts tha tdo glide much better.

It all sounds pretty miserable but, apart from the fact it's broken, the rest of it is stuff I'm sure I'll learn to get the most from and the customisability of the layouts is a big positive over anything from Roli. Honestly, though, if we can't get it working properly remotely and I have to send it back, I'll ask for my money back rather than a replacement unit. Ultimately it's not really what I was hoping for.

[SLiC]

That sounds worrying (as I wait for mine)- let me know how you get on....

[SLiC]

Right now I am feeling pretty disappointed. It's not very good. From the start: there's no on/off switch so you have to unplug the power to turn the lights off.

At lease a chap in line switch can sort that problem, something like

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Inline-S ... 28&sr=8-14

[BONES]

That's a good idea, if I can get one with the right plug.

[BONES]

OK, so I decided this morning to ignore the problems and just play some songs and the experience was actually really good. The surface is quite hard but I don't feel like I have to bash it as hard as I bash the Rolis, so it doesn't hurt my poor, old arthritic fingers as much. And for things like doing wobbly finger vibrato, it's actually way better than either the Lightpad Blocks or the Seaboard. Doing Glide/Slide across the whole massive surface is also pretty cool (and you need big gestures to get the range of modulation you expect).

It's nice to have something approaching full-size keys, too, so I found I didn't have to look down at the board as much as I thought I might. (I really have to concentrate with the Lightpads and their small buttons.) The Layout I used has an upper and lower keyboard and you can independently set the octave ranges for them, which is really handy.

The bottom line is I have softened my attitude a bit and if the device needs replacing, I've decided I'll ask for a new one, not a refund. The next step is to try my hand at my own custom layouts, which I shall get stuck into tonight. I want to see if I can get two full octaves of keys across the bottom, instead of just the 1.5 octaves it does as standard. I might also see if I can set it up so the black and white keys are aligned - i.e. All the keys in the same line, just using different colours to differentiate them. I think that might work really well with the surface.

[BONES]

I got some advice on the Embodme forum yesterday that has mostly fixed the problem I was having. I just had to lower the sensitivity. It hasn't fixed it 100% but you have to go out of your way to create a problem now, which is good enough for the moment. It also hasn't affected the playing experience noticeably.

I also tried my hand at making my own layouts and it is stupidly easy, although a bit time-consuming if you want to use custom colours. The only problem is that you can't have the Erae Lab application open at the same time as your DAW or any standalone synth, so you can't try things out as you work. If Erae Lab is running, nothing else can see the device and if you have your DAW open, Erae Lab can't see the device.

So after a very frustrating first night, I'm really starting to enjoy this thing. It's probably better and worse than my Roli gear in equal measure, so some may prefer it, others will not. Right now I'm still on the fence but I see more potential in the Erae than in Roli's offerings.

[vurt]

glad to hear it improved for you.
after the wait you had for it too.

[BONES]

I knew up front that I'd have to wait so it didn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I'd kind of forgotten about it until SLiC resurrected this thread a few weeks ago.

[BONES]

It seems that everyone is having the same problems with this new batch of devices. Embodme says they have isolated the problem and will be issuing a firmware fix for it in the coming days. Apparently this batch of devices are slightly different to previous batches and they were probably really keen to get them out to customers, so they may not have tested them too thoroughly. (Just my take on the situation, nothing they have said.)