Yeah at this stage the main hope for finding anyone that already tried it would be if anyone in this community tried one of the prototypes at NAMM this year. And then there is the question of whether they’ve changed th surface at all since then.
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we did learn a few things from Embodme in their KS QA for ET mk2
-
they are happy with the surface they have now, but are still finalising the surface.
so likely some changes still to come. -
improved sensitivity and accuracy… talk of being able to accurate play on 2x2 grid.
(3x3 was ‘ok’ on mk1, but they tended to focus on 4x4), so perhaps 30-50% improvement?
honestly, my ‘expectation’ is it’ll be a bit more reliable and playable…
frankly, because I think embodme are fully aware of the feedback from mk1 users in this area, and the limitations they had in the tech, so will have attempted to improve.
however, whilst I think it’ll be noticeable, I doubt it’ll be a night n’ day improvement - fundamentally its the same sensor tech.
anyway, Im keeping my expectations deliberately very low…
for me, it just needs to be ET mk1 + CV outputs, as luckily for me, the upgrade will be worth it for the CV outputs alone… as I want it 90% for my eurorack.
also for eurorack the looper is useful for automation, though id not be surprised if that comes to the mk1 too…
( * ) though for first time in many years, I decided to give SB a miss this year, needed a break to rebuild my enthusiasm for it.
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Even though it would have been cool to meet you there again, it’s understandable. You can either go to SuperBooth to try the Erae II - or just buy it right away for probably pretty much the same money 
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yeah, costs do add up - although this year, I could have worked a few hours on a booth to cover my costs.
rather, its just that Ive been for the last 5 (?) years,
and last year, I just found myself not that interested when wandering around.
I hardly looked at the ‘products’, and very few of the talks interested me.
sure the musical acts were good, but Id seen many of them in previous years.
frankly, the main enjoyment was catching up with others, which is always great.
so, I was just feeling very jaded by it all… need a break.
I’m thinking, I might aim to go every other year, and hopefully that’ll keep it a bit more fresh.
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I thought 4x4 was the smallest option offered, at least on the keygrid element. Hopeful that this development leads to tighter resolution / broader MPE note range.
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You can hold one of the modifier keys (not sure anymore which) and change the size of the cells down to 2x2.
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Interesting.
(All I have is the editor, which to my mind should display such parameters.)
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Yeah, it’s a little hidden (perhaps because you cannot reliably play two adjacent notes on a 2x2 grid at the same time with Erae I anyways). Just tested it, it’s Shift on Windows.
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yes, you an go down to 2x2 on the Erae 1 (always were able to), but you dont have the accuracy to play.
I tried this early on with the ‘piano’ layout, with 2, 3, 4 width keys, quantised to semis.
4 is perfectly reliable.
3 is mostly reliable, with a conditions that will cause issues.
2 was not really reliable enough to play… it’d kind of work, but to many fails.
I think part of the issue is the surface, it obviously has a kind of bounce/rebound. around your finger… this is why the change of surface may aid melodic playing.
also the variation in precision across the surface, means some areas were ok at 2, but others areas reliably failed at 2…
note: its likely later firmware improved this, but given my experience on 3x3, Id be surprised if 2x2 was feasible.
(but all credit to embodme, the firmware changes did help alot )
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given there is only 5 days to on no the KS…
thought id dig up some more info on Erae 2 from comment replies on KS
I do find the tone, generally now more practical than the mk2,
I think they are have a learnt a lot from the mk1 , that theory and practice can vary tremendously…
so, they are not giving as many tech specs as the mk1. e.g. ET 1 claimed 10uM x/y at 2khz. probably a lesson learnt, quoting theoretical limits (of sensors etc), will bite you, as you won’t get this in practical use.
also good to hear they’ve got someone on board, so they can study the theory vs practice… and have a better understanding of real world constraints.
all good stuff here…
good to hear the refresh rate of the CV is high… and 13bit is fine
again, I like the comparison with the Continuum, recognising its differences at lighter forces - again, that ‘practical’ experience shining thru.
overall, good stuff… I think this’ll help set expectations much better!
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from what i’ve read they have increased the amount of sensors from about 1000 on mk1 to about 16000 on mk2, which sounds pretty remarkable.
despite the fact that i’ve been living my whole life in berlin, this is actually the first time that I’m going to superbooth… pretty excited 
Anyways I’ve decided to join the kickstarter. I’ll do my best to give a description of the difference in feel between linnstrument and erae mk2, as well as how close it comes to what I’d consider to be an “ideal” mpe controller after I’ve tried it.
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I was a little surprised by the 60 g as minimal weight to trigger a note. A usual grand piano is in the 47 to 55 gram range and the Sensel Morph is said to have a 5g trigger force (I never measured it but it reacts to the slightest touch). Linnstrument is afaik at around 50 g (and putting your finger on the Linnstrument without triggering a note is pretty easy).
So, no “light touch” apparently, but as long as it is predictable one can probably get used to it, like one can get used to different piano actions.
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Yes, as you say, 60 g is not so great by itself, compared to the other ones you mentionned.
I did some raw comparisons with my MPE controllers :
Des sons dans l'air - les controleurs gestuels (in French)
What will be the most important with Erae2 is how it is distributed over the whole surface.
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Very interesting, thanks for writing this up
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cool resources @PrS , nicely formatted and comprehensive 
(are the details all from your personal experience?)
I think your assessment of the ET mk1 is a little harsh… and you’ve seen my vocal criticism, so no fan boy
later versions of the hardware have improved it a lot.
I also think there was (initially?) quite a variation in units.
so hard, I guess to give a ‘balanced’ view, as everyones mileage will vary.
overall, as Ive said, Its certainly playable, but id find it hard to recommend (for melodic play… other uses, I think its very good)
but back to mk2, and in relation to the above…
yeah, 60g is not a light touch…and that has its ‘issues’
but the 10% variation over the surface is definitely acceptable.
I do believe they’ll hit this, as they have automated the assembly process, and worked on the materials… all things that I think likely caused the variations we saw.
( I’ll also say, everything ive tried has some variation… its fine within certain tolerances)
one word of caution, these demos of the surface sensitivity for the mk2… we did see similar videos for the mk1… though, iirc, they were more stylised/marketing.
note: Im also a bit concerned, as I noticed, I kind of misread… it actually says ±10% variation, that actually means potentially ~20% variation from worst to best points, thats not so great.
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erae 2 demo ( paid promotion)
Teatro shows the Erae Lab with the Erae 2, which highlighted a limitation we kind of knew… 8 presets, down from 32!
presets can now be change by the 8 buttons on the top panel, this is a nice QoL change - but it now means there are only 8 presets available, as can be seen in Erae Lab.
now whilst, I don’t use 32, or frankly even 16…
I definitely can see 8 being a bit of a limitation.
… perhaps you can load banks of 8 from the sdcard, in which case, it’d not be an issue (for me)
(i.e. perhaps screen/encoder + sdcard means ability to load ‘projects’)
edit: ok, looks like you can load from sdcard, I found a reply on the KS project
all good, not sure you how you get to the ALT , no button - perhaps something like long press = alt.
this’ll work fine for my needs…
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Sorry if the values and the comments in my page seems a little harsh, but they must be placed in the context of gestural control of 3D space, where it is important to be able to maintain the pressure within a small margin of variations during the movement of the fingers.
With the Erae 1, taking into account that the minimum can be in certain areas 200 g and the maximum in others 250 g, we arrive at possible variations of 100%, which makes this aspect of the MPE practically unusable for me.
This was with my second unit, which was a little better than the first one since the more important variations are located rather near the edges.
The +/- 10% announced, therefore 20%, seems very good to me if it is real and shared with every unit. That’s pretty much what I get with the Morph.
So I am also crossing my fingers (while trying to sell my mk1 !)
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I don’t think thats anything to do with contextual use… that’d not be playable for any musician using it for melodic purposes… and frankly, i doubt its even any use for percussion
but as I mentioned, thats not everyones experience…
I’ve never seem it to a point where one area of the surface min was anywhere near close to the max in another area.
however, its fair enough you can only base on what you have experienced, withunits you have received.
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Hello again,
As I mentioned, I‘ll be at superbooth next week and will get to try the controller.
If anybody has specific questions, feel free to collect them here and I’ll do my best to get them answered.
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