Studio One and MPE

[dlandis]

I only just now realized neither my Nektar Panorama nor NI Kontrol have poly aftertouch, not that I care as I have a QueNeo, Roli and most importantly an Erae Touch which all do MPE. The Embodme Erae Touch is so by far the best thing I've ever bought and already supported MIDI 2.0 and is just waiting around for DAWs and VSTs to implement it.

Which will be a MAJOR change as the only cavil I have about this deliriously wonderful instrument is that you have to program it's various scenes of assignments in an app on the PC, rather than from the instrument itself. Two-way communication and MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) should solve that nicely, since it is basically a silicon low-rez LED touchscreen. Decades later than it should have been implemented, but I'll take what I can get.

https://embodme.freshdesk.com/support/d ... 0000660368

Hello,

The Erae is ready on the hardware side to run MIDI 2.0

We are just waiting for the MIDI association to finalize the specifications and more importantly to see some compatible plugins or hardware

As of now there is no point of finalizing our development as only Logic Pro embedded this feature and only to "enable MIDI2,0" without any other spec implemented...

But things are moving and we should see more and more products with this feature allowing us to move forward as well.

Thanks for writing!

I have two questions for you: 1) I am looking to upgrade (from Roli Seaboard Blocks, Lightpad Block and Touch Block) to either the Roli Seaboard Rise II or Erae Touch. Does the Erae Touch transmit Lift? 2) How do you like the feel of the keyboard on the Panorama?

[runagate]

Unless you are specifically a keyboard player I cannot recommend the erae touch enough.
If you are a keyboard player it's hard to imagine not saving up an extra $400 or so for an osmose... I have the Touche LE and it's brilliant

I have all of the Roli blocks and cannot even update their firmware due to not owning an iPhone, and only the Lightpad is really worth owning for the price. A QuNeo is actually a lot better investment now that it supports MPE.

[ edit ]

In fact, I wish I had $10k for the next thing they developed:

https://www.embodme.com/superiris

Also, as mentioned previously, it supported MIDI 2.0 before anything else aside from that Roland a couple years ago. So high-rez post-MPE should be coming along soon. I wonder what Multitrack Studio has already implemented for MIDI-CI I should really buy it just to support them supporting MIDI 2.0

[dlandis]

Unless you are specifically a keyboard player I cannot recommend the erae touch enough.
If you are a keyboard player it's hard to imagine not saving up an extra $400 or so for an osmose... I have the Touche LE and it's brilliant

I have all of the Roli blocks and cannot even update their firmware due to not owning an iPhone, and only the Lightpad is really worth owning for the price. A QuNeo is actually a lot better investment now that it supports MPE.

[ edit ]

In fact, I wish I had $10k for the next thing they developed:

https://www.embodme.com/superiris

Also, as mentioned previously, it supported MIDI 2.0 before anything else aside from that Roland a couple years ago. So high-rez post-MPE should be coming along soon. I wonder what Multitrack Studio has already implemented for MIDI-CI I should really buy it just to support them supporting MIDI 2.0

Right, but does the Erae Touch transmit "lift?" I gather that you are not a keyboard player, so you may not have a strong opinion on the feel of the Panorama's keybed, but I'm having problems tracking down whether the Erae Touch includes the transmission of lift.

But, why can't you update firmware for your Blocks via Dashboard? Is this perhaps a Mac thing? I can use Dashboard on my PC for this (but there haven't been any firmware updates, I think, for quite a while, so you may not be missing anything.)

[runagate]

Unless you are specifically a keyboard player I cannot recommend the erae touch enough.
If you are a keyboard player it's hard to imagine not saving up an extra $400 or so for an osmose... I have the Touche LE and it's brilliant

I have all of the Roli blocks and cannot even update their firmware due to not owning an iPhone, and only the Lightpad is really worth owning for the price. A QuNeo is actually a lot better investment now that it supports MPE.

[ edit ]

In fact, I wish I had $10k for the next thing they developed:

https://www.embodme.com/superiris

Also, as mentioned previously, it supported MIDI 2.0 before anything else aside from that Roland a couple years ago. So high-rez post-MPE should be coming along soon. I wonder what Multitrack Studio has already implemented for MIDI-CI I should really buy it just to support them supporting MIDI 2.0

Right, but does the Erae Touch transmit "lift?" I gather that you are not a keyboard player, so you may not have a strong opinion on the feel of the Panorama's keybed, but I'm having problems tracking down whether the Erae Touch includes the transmission of lift.

But, why can't you update firmware for your Blocks via Dashboard? Is this perhaps a Mac thing? I can use Dashboard on my PC for this (but there haven't been any firmware updates, I think, for quite a while, so you may not be missing anything.)

The entire video is a demonstration of Lift on the erae touch.

I love the Panorama's keybed but I am unqualified to give an opinion on it. I own it for the Nektarine which is insanely brilliant.

Come to think of it Presonus's funny little keyboard has poly aftertouch, the ATOM SQ. I love that thing and I imagine it's the cheapest way to get poly AT, though no serious keyboardist would enjoy playing on it.

[dlandis]

Unless you are specifically a keyboard player I cannot recommend the erae touch enough.
If you are a keyboard player it's hard to imagine not saving up an extra $400 or so for an osmose... I have the Touche LE and it's brilliant

I have all of the Roli blocks and cannot even update their firmware due to not owning an iPhone, and only the Lightpad is really worth owning for the price. A QuNeo is actually a lot better investment now that it supports MPE.

[ edit ]

In fact, I wish I had $10k for the next thing they developed:

https://www.embodme.com/superiris

Also, as mentioned previously, it supported MIDI 2.0 before anything else aside from that Roland a couple years ago. So high-rez post-MPE should be coming along soon. I wonder what Multitrack Studio has already implemented for MIDI-CI I should really buy it just to support them supporting MIDI 2.0

Right, but does the Erae Touch transmit "lift?" I gather that you are not a keyboard player, so you may not have a strong opinion on the feel of the Panorama's keybed, but I'm having problems tracking down whether the Erae Touch includes the transmission of lift.

But, why can't you update firmware for your Blocks via Dashboard? Is this perhaps a Mac thing? I can use Dashboard on my PC for this (but there haven't been any firmware updates, I think, for quite a while, so you may not be missing anything.)

The entire video is a demonstration of Lift on the erae touch.

I love the Panorama's keybed but I am unqualified to give an opinion on it. I own it for the Nektarine which is insanely brilliant.

Come to think of it Presonus's funny little keyboard has poly aftertouch, the ATOM SQ. I love that thing and I imagine it's the cheapest way to get poly AT, though no serious keyboardist would enjoy playing on it.

So sorry! I didn't watch the video before I answered you. It seems to do lift nicely. Please forgive me for missing this. I guess I just blew right by the video for some reason. It was a weird day overall for me, but that's no excuse for missing it.

I've read great things about Nectarine. I may end up going that way (I'm also replacing an older keyboard and really looking for something that can interface with Bitwig and Studio One.) I've pretty much ceded poly AT over to MPE at this point, so I'm unconcerned about a (for lack of a better word) conventional controller that has poly AT, so Panorama may do it for me.

[dlandis]

Unless you are specifically a keyboard player I cannot recommend the erae touch enough.
If you are a keyboard player it's hard to imagine not saving up an extra $400 or so for an osmose... I have the Touche LE and it's brilliant

I have all of the Roli blocks and cannot even update their firmware due to not owning an iPhone, and only the Lightpad is really worth owning for the price. A QuNeo is actually a lot better investment now that it supports MPE.

[ edit ]

In fact, I wish I had $10k for the next thing they developed:

https://www.embodme.com/superiris

Also, as mentioned previously, it supported MIDI 2.0 before anything else aside from that Roland a couple years ago. So high-rez post-MPE should be coming along soon. I wonder what Multitrack Studio has already implemented for MIDI-CI I should really buy it just to support them supporting MIDI 2.0

Right, but does the Erae Touch transmit "lift?" I gather that you are not a keyboard player, so you may not have a strong opinion on the feel of the Panorama's keybed, but I'm having problems tracking down whether the Erae Touch includes the transmission of lift.

But, why can't you update firmware for your Blocks via Dashboard? Is this perhaps a Mac thing? I can use Dashboard on my PC for this (but there haven't been any firmware updates, I think, for quite a while, so you may not be missing anything.)

The entire video is a demonstration of Lift on the erae touch.

I love the Panorama's keybed but I am unqualified to give an opinion on it. I own it for the Nektarine which is insanely brilliant.

Come to think of it Presonus's funny little keyboard has poly aftertouch, the ATOM SQ. I love that thing and I imagine it's the cheapest way to get poly AT, though no serious keyboardist would enjoy playing on it.

If you don't mind, I've got another question.

When configuring the screen of Erae Touch to have two keyboards (one on top, one on the bottom as in the picture,) can one have each virtual keyboard play different octaves so that one has essentially four octaves available, each with full MPE (I'm assuming)? That would be so cool.

I think I'm seeing why you are so sold on it.

[Tj Shredder]

Of course you can, but these pseudo keyboards have “keys”, very different to a real keyboard. I made a LinnStrument layout, which is easier to play, though not as easy as the real LinnStrument. But its isomorphic and give you a way bigger range than such a double keyboard layout…
The options of the Erae Touch are endless, you can also combine playable grids with faders or xy pads. You can also play it with sticks…
The only keyboard which could make sense for me is the Osmose…
Regarding lift, that was in the Midi specs polyphonically from the very start in 1984… Its called release velocity. Since then very few keyboards implemented it, though it doesn’t need any additional mechanics as velocity, it would have been a few extra lines of code to implement. I have no idea why its so rare…

[dlandis]

Of course you can, but these pseudo keyboards have “keys”, very different to a real keyboard. I made a LinnStrument layout, which is easier to play, though not as easy as the real LinnStrument. But its isomorphic and give you a way bigger range than such a double keyboard layout…
The options of the Erae Touch are endless, you can also combine playable grids with faders or xy pads. You can also play it with sticks…
The only keyboard which could make sense for me is the Osmose…
Regarding lift, that was in the Midi specs polyphonically from the very start in 1984… Its called release velocity. Since then very few keyboards implemented it, though it doesn’t need any additional mechanics as velocity, it would have been a few extra lines of code to implement. I have no idea why its so rare…

Thanks for the note.

I was wondering specifically if each of the two "keyboards" on the Erae could have adjacent octave ranges largely because the other kb I am checking out is the Roli Rise 2 (which has a 4 octave range.) Of course, with the Erae, the configs are so many more. And I think that it's great that one can even play it with sticks if that is the desire.

My old Kurzweil Midiboard would send Release Velocity (as well as poly AT.) For the time, it was truly amazing.

I miss it.