Embodme new ‘synth’ designed for Erae (though works with any MPE controller),
see here
$89 - 84 presets, virtual analog
thoughts?
Im a bit surprised about this one…though, mainly because I obviously was not paying attention enough when I saw it at Superbooth 
for some reason, I though it was going to be free, and part of Erae Lab as a standalone synth… I thought ‘ok, I guess’, perhaps like expressive-e, Roli and others, a good ‘getting started’ synth.
(ok, Ive noticed it will work standalone too, but still separate from Erae Lab?)
It reminds me a LOT of Roli Equator, at least in UI design.
from what I saw at Superbooth,
its main ‘party trick’, is its integration with the Erae, and allows you to switch Erae layouts along with ‘sound presets’.
example : a synth patch → keyboard/iso morph layout, then switch to a drum patch → drum layout.
I guess, $89 is fine, we will have to see how good the 84 presets are.
but cannot say Im super excited, Ive so many VA already, and this seems pretty basic, and Ive no idea of Embodme expertise in this synth/sound design. demos so far seemed ‘ok’.
The layout switch is ‘cute’, but I cannot say, this is something Ive ever thought I needed / missed.
EDIT: I should say, Im not being negative about Erae Sound,
UI design looks nice, VAs are very popular, I liked Equator - more, I just ‘don’t get it’. - but hell, more choice is always good.
a couple of disappointing things.
- Erae 2 support only, why no Erae 1, seems ‘lazy’ at best.
- It’s not bundled free with a new Erae 2 … why not? bet it will be real soon
overall, I’m not sure if I’ll bother with it…
I think its ok, if you are new to MPE / Erae, for an out of box experience, same reason as Roli and Expressive-E did theirs, but a bit limited for those already into this.
I do wonder about the layout switching, esp, if this was more like Expressive-E E-Ctrl where you could use 3rd party VSTs (etc) which would allow for alot more variety…
then again, you could do this switching (via Program Change iirc) with something like gigperformer.
whats other thoughts?
anyone gone for it yet?
have I missed something?
ok, I’m not going mad…
they were showing it inside ‘Erae Lab’, you can see it in this video from SynthFest France last month…
(I suspect it being inside Erae Lab, was where I built the incorrect assumption it was a free upgrade to Erae Lab)
above video is a nice walkthrough of features, some nice demos of sounds too.
EDIT: continued…
ok, so I noticed we now have Erae Lab 2.0.80 which includes Erae Sound, with a free 5 min trial.
I really do NOT like this…
installing Erae Lab now means, if you don’t buy Erae Sound you now have an app with a built in demo software AND its installing the vst too.
adding ‘bloat’ to someone setup for optional software is to my mind unacceptable @embodme for paid hardware.
this should be a checkbox on the installer…
and also not have the extra tab in Erae Lab if we don’t have it installed, or an option to remove in settings.
on flip side some good news
- Linux version coming in the next few weeks.
- Erae Touch (1st gen) firmware coming soon
- a demo to try it out.
intrigued about the Erae Touch (1st gen) firmware, it be nice to see it get some love.
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Yeah feeling for Equator here. Seems to check many « mandatory » features but at the end….
Not helped by their horrideous launcher/protection imo
OK, definitely not for me
I’ll copy/paste my reactions from a SMS thread…
$89 for 84 presets. They should have charged $84.
Or, you know, nothing. Make it free for their hardware owners. That’d be cool.
I’d say I’m interested, at maybe half the price that they’re asking.
The virtual analog approach is nothing new, though maybe they’ve done something useful with the mod matrix – we need reviews or a tutorial.
What is interesting is the preset interfaces.
Like “this one’s a plucky percussive sound, so you’re going to want harp or drumsticks. no point in focusing on CC generation.”
I think there’s some value in patch surfing to explore those ideas.
But here again, they need to know that this is a showcase to sell hardware; not a product to cut losses.
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yup…
I think the litmus test is simple :
would you pay $89 for this synth engine? (ignoring the erae specifics)
I cannot see it, its a relatively straightforward VA, and theres a lot of good plugins for that money.
The integration (and to some extent presets), I also see as a hardware sales showcase, not something you can ‘sell’.
I cannot fathom why they are not bundling this with new Erae hardware, as its pretty much inevitable in the mid-term.
perhaps if it was $30 for existing owners, that might be ‘justifiable’? even then Im still not entirely convinced… but I guess the presets may make it worth it?!
also, Ive my doubts that Embodme will really develop this synth much, they dont tend to add new features to anything else they’ve created so far.
oh, well, guess we can all give the thing a go, as we have no choice but to install along with Erae Lab (
) , and Embodme, like their sales so perhaps one day?!
had a quick play with this today… (5 min trial)
first observation, the trial is WAY too short, play a few presets and its over.
not a great way to sell your synth
but during that quick time,
- Presets
ones played were ‘ok’, didn’t find anything particularly special / outstanding, but it there were some nice experimental sounds, rather than just the usual VA presets you’d expect. - Erae integration
this was demonstrated quite nicely on some presets, it was nice to have different sliders, cross fades and x/y pads available. - Preset switching
a bit of weakness of Erae 2 design here, you can only switch between 8 presets on the Erae 2.
given this is a ‘custom integration’, it’d be nice if you could have browsed thru presets on the device.
overall, I think the experimental sounds actually showed the concept off better than the pads etc.
why?
because, having a custom layout for pads/leads, is simple enough for a VST etc. just stick a few sliders, x/y pad, assign to vst / hardware cc/cv - and your done.
but the experimental sounds were more interesting, here having custom layouts, kind of forming a custom instrument I think is intriguing.
it’s an idea explored a bit in the past, about how to use these surfaces in less conventional way.
ofc, the issue here is the VA is not the most exciting way to do this, e.g. I think there is more fun to be had here in with things like granular…
but its still interesting, and I think, it demonstrates the concept Embodme have of linking surface to sound quite nicely.
Did it make me think its worth $89, nope …
rather, I just thought, they could be more generous with the trial, if they really want to sell it.
OR, g
Bonus
as an aside I noticed embodme did a livestream yesterday (not until it was finished - lol)
see here, I skimmed thru it.
one interesting point was they mentioned in the future supporting microtonal scales on Erae,
(though, I’ll not hold my breath ;))
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ok, had a long play with this now …
lets say the demo 5 min is ‘per install’, and with a bit of ‘tinkering’ you can make it assume its always a fresh install - so, the 5 min limit is still in place, but means you can have a few ‘tries’ by restarting app.
frankly how it should be
ok, so what does it feel like without reading the manual, is it intuitive?
Sound Engine / UI etc
yeah its as basic as it first appears, but it does sound pretty nice, the fx are quite nice - its a typical VA sound.
you can consider it as 2 generators, (A/B, kind of like layers)
each with 2 oscillators , 2 fllters
osc 2 can be cross mod thru 1. each has shape mod plus folding, so pretty nice.
filters , 2 state variable, 2 or 4 pole, run in series of parallel (either with sep osc or summed)
4 fx slots, nice variety, including shimmer reverb. sends from A and B.
the modulation is the fun side…
add a new control on surface and it appears as a modulation source.
then just select a parameters and add the ‘amount’ to whichever modulation you wish.
env/lfo seem to have per voice, and then 4 shared (global - A/B/C/D).
also features cross modulation, but I found that a bit ‘confusing’ in UI (bug?)
theres also an overview of modulation tab.
there are some small issues / bugs here, but basically works.
EDIT: I did have to RTFM the manual, as the dots on modulation source are not like U-HE usage.
Surface → Sound linkup
Im a little confused on this… I thought the surface layout would be ‘embedded’ along with the sound, but Im not sure it is - it may be rather more ‘linking’ them.
more experimentation needed (or RTFM).
either way it works, just had few issues with sometimes Lab complaining sound / layout were out of sync.
EDIT: checked manual, each layout has an id, then it links this to the sound.
Sound will then look for sound preset with that ‘layout id’ when a layout is loaded.
Presets
overall, I think given engine, designers have done a good job here.
has, some nice variety from pads, leads, bass and more experimental.
as per first impression, the more ‘experimental’ ones are the stand outs for me.
they kind of show off, why you might use this as an instrument with a custom surface.
Plugin
not much to say here, its as you would expect.
unsurprisingly, it is limited to the sound engine, so no surface editing capabilities.
you can map modulations to host parameters from control within daw (untested)
they mention on the live steam (?) that you could have multiple instances (e.g one per track) in daw. but the whole ‘live switching’ just got very confused with this… Id guess, you’d have to turn off sync… and then remember to switch layouts manually as you switch tracks?
kind of klunky, but perhaps theres a trick and I need to RTFM
Stability / Bugs
a few bugs are present but its ‘usable’, not bad for 1.0 really.
Overall
Nice presets and a demonstration of the idea of linking surface to sounds.
It is also nice that you can quickly design the surface and sound in once place, which I guess is the ‘main idea’.
I think the weakest point is the lack of variety in the VA, what it does, it does well, sounds good.
(though, again credit to sound designers they did a good job on the presets)
but I think this tight link of surface with sound would be much more interesting with additional engines e.g granular, physical modelling, deeper FM etc.
and frankly, at the $89 price point, I think we could expect a bit more !?
anyway, if your new to Erae/MPE, don’t have many MPE capable plugins, its a pretty nice introduction (should be bundled with new Erae 2 for free ;))
personal take away…
For me… I think more ‘inspirational’ than something I’d use.
Ive got a ton of MPE capable plugins, so nothing new here.
but has some nice ideas.
again, I kind of wish they’d gone the E-Ctrl route like expressive e.
It’d be interesting if the Erae API also covered information about the surface layout e.g. it appears Erae Sound gets info about current layout e.g. you add a fader, it becomes a modulation source. and also shows up in preview.
note: it just maps this to a CC, for actual modulation.
But yeah, a bit inspiring, Ive been playing with the Erae API so gives me some more ideas in that direction
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