First Impressions - Erae II

Erae Touch
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ok, so its here !

arrived a bit late, so I’ll be digging into it deeply tomorrow…and that’ll include comparing it to the Erae Mk1 side by side.

for now, this is just from unboxing , and a quick play with my laptop.

tl;dr; so far, Im very happy, feels really nice, and something I want to play !
it also feels like they have learnt a lot from the erae 1 and acted on it.

so, FIRST, make sure you update firmware immediately :slight_smile:
in my eagerness, I didnt initially, and hit a few bugs, including a lock up!
… but 1.0.1 seems to have resolved them, so all is good !

a) physical
feels pretty premium…
the texture of the cloth surface is really nice, it feels much nicer than playing on a rubber surface, your fingers glide over it. it invites you to want to touch and play it :slight_smile:
buttons have a nice click, display is nice, and the encoder (which I was wary of) is nice too.

ofc, looks, its a much more 'technical look ’ than the Erae I.
I loved the Erae 1 minimal design, but ofc, the buttons etc, have a lot of function.
so its a form vs function one.

a) playing surface feel etc (cloth)
ok, so I really like the cloth surface so far, and it definitely feels more responsive. a lighter touch. I think the ‘give’ in it, also gives a nice tactile feedback.

there is an oddity, which I didn’t notice in the videos… (but you can see in them !)
the first two columns of leds never seem to be used in factory layouts, I think this may be a hang over from the Erae 1.

however, I changed the piano keyboard to use keys with 3 width (instead of 4) and stretch over full surface and it worked fine.

I will also say, first impression is, the 3 led width seems more reliable than on the erae 1.
this will be a big thing for me, as I use a 3x3 grid.
more testing tomorrow, but its looking good.

I will say the cloth surface gives a kind of muted effect on the leds.
also, mine appears to have some ‘dirt’ under the cloth - I think I probably just need to take it off a clean it - the dirt specs move, so appear to be In between leds and under side of cloth.

obviously tomorrow, I’ll dig deeper on this, but first impressions are good.

c) silicon surface (supplied)
k, so Ive not mounted this… not sure I will to be honest…but my impressions of it are,

its seems pretty thick… and heavy, not much ‘give’ in it.
so id expect this is much more aimed at drummers, for durability etc.
(whereas on the Erae I it had to be a compromise between playing/hitting)

ofc, this does not mean its necessary insensitive… that is something we’d need to test.
also its a smooth surface. not ‘grippy’ (so very different to the Erae 1)

I also get the impression the leds might shine thru it a bit clearer than the cloth , but we’d have to test.

d) functionality.
ok, so whilst I like the simplicity of the erae 1…

the buttons, display and encoder make a lot of sense.
its very handy being able to change midi settings on the device, and its very clear on the display.

I can already see the looper being a lot of fun !
its pretty simple, but has multiple layers, a simple undo, overdub.
… in fact, Im going to say, I think its simplicity is whats is going to make it so fun to use.
(they are pretty short - max 4 bars/64 steps)

e) oddities , you can file this under, I haven’t found/ need to check the manual.

I don’t see any reference to CV in the routings, or anywhere else. (erae lab)
I couldn’t find a way to clear a loop

loops seems to transpose according to the octave switch.
(Id expect them to lock when recorded, so you could overdub higher/lower)

brightness, really only does anything between 5-40%, above 40 it seems like its full on.
( I think this may be that the leds of the surface are maxed at 40%, but the buttons seem to get a little brighter… perhaps in a dark room it’d be more noticeable?!)

sorry, above was a bit all over the place, as I just wanted to take notes whilst I was playing with it… Im sure my thoughts will be a bit more structured/coherent tomorrow.

but overall, its looking really promising…

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oh, just found in Erae Lab the bit where you can set the control voltage.

in this area, you can set v/oct , gate, x/y.
you dont explicitly set the cv output for each, rather it looks like the ‘starting output’, then I assume it’ll use one cv out per thing you enable.
e.g. if you set v/oct, pressure, y, that’d use 3 outputs.

I’ll need to test this tomorrow.

edit: some more stuff…

layout button + undo = delete loop !
projects save loop data !
its at full brightness using just my Macs usb-c port, no power necessary :slight_smile:
(manual says, usb power will be only 25 %)

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Thanks for this first report :slight_smile:

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:laughing:

ok, seems I was kind of wrong about the brightness…

it appears one of the usb-c cables they sent me, was a complete dud !

SO… when I was testing, I was powering from the Macbook, even though I thought I had it powered by the brick (I did not, as that usb-c cable was the dead one!)

I have to say, the leds are blinding bright, when using the power brick!
anyway, good news, is goes to show when powered directly from a computer, the leds are plenty bright enough…
(in fact Ive turned down the brightness so the power brick matches - for standalone use!)

oh well, going to go find another usb-c cable…

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ok ,day 2…

side by side comparison w/ Erae 1.

yes, its much more sensitive, you kind of have to ‘lean into’ the Erae 1 to play it.
whereas its a much softer touch on the Erae 2.
the ‘give’ in the Erae 2 (fabric) surface I think really helps this.

the leds are much brighter, and also bigger… the Erae 1 are kind of small dots, say 2.5 mm sq, whereas the Erae 2 are more round , 5mm diameter.
very different, probably why they can be much brighter. more surface areas.
they also appear (but I dont think are) closer to the surface.
Id not say necessarily better, but quite different
(I quite like the Erae 1 look)

fabric, ok, Ive a fear this is going to get pretty dirty… or damaged, its very soft.

also as I mentioned yesterday, you can see marks in it pretty easily, and im not sure if this is partly the ‘weave’ of the fabric… rather than dirt.

its not an issue for me… but if you are fussy about such things looking very clean … it might get to you. ( as I say, I dont think its fault as such)
(when I take it apart, I can see if I can ‘clean it’)

anyway, theres a trade off against the durability of the Erae 1.
that said you could switch to the silicon/rubber surface, which I think is going to be more similar to the Erae 1. still needs testing :slight_smile:

ok… a couple of small issues, which Im hoping are firmware issues.
ofc, as a new product, Im expecting some teething problems, so reporting here, so we can compare notes etc.
Ive, obviously, reported to Embodme.

a) powering on
Im getting a weird issue where sometimes the unit does not power on.
Im hoping this is a firmware issue, that the unit is ‘crashing’ on boot up,
since, the backlight on display is on, but nothing else.

( I was kinda panicking it was a hardware issue, until I realised backlight was on… so that feels like power is there, just not initialising correctly)

b) usb host - not working
this is not working for either my Eagan Matrix Module (EMM) or Osmose.
however, my Squarp Hapax DOES see data.

my fear/theory is it’ll be usb enumeration, due to the fact EMM/Osmose expose two USB ports.

c) Midi output B - hung notes and other issues.
k, this is a weird one.
I connect midi output A to EMM, absolutely no issues what so ever, works perfectly !

but same cable, same EMM, same patch but using Midi Output B, and its getting hung notes, and all sorts of other issues.

(it feels like a midi routing issue, rather than hardware, as its kind of predictable… again fingers crossed!)

feature request.
ok, Im going to say it before anyone else… we need to be able to name projects :slight_smile:

you get 8 ‘fixed’ projects (plus backup?) which hold the layouts.
thats fine… but they are simply numbered 1-8.
if you start having multiple projects, you are going to want to know what each is for…

ofc, Im sure this is not a problem to implement, its just reading off the sdcard, Id also guess eight is a bit ‘arbitrary’.

note: I tried renaming on sd card, and it just ignores it.

anyways, im sure all the above will be figured out over coming days/weeks…

on a more positive note… don’t want to end on ‘issues’ :slight_smile:

its really fun playing the EMM with it…
also being able to adjust the PB range on the device is a god send !

why? well most of MPE defaults to 48 PBR, but Haken have a habit of using 96 … and you cannot change this on the EMM without the editor.
similarly, having Erae layouts dedicated to this was a bit of a pain.

so whilst you have only ‘8’ layouts (per project)
being able to turn on/off MPE, and change the PBR, change the routing - so easily makes such a difference.

NOW… onto the CV side… though I just realised I think I only have one splitter - going to need to order some more.

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ok, finally CV :slight_smile:

first, let me say, I got it working fine … and its very flexible.

but it took me longer than it should have , as the manual needs a much clearer explanation and some examples - but I’ll explain here, so you are covered !

some critical missing information (!)
CV only works if you have EXTERNAL power
it will not work, at all, with bus power only

next is, you have to setup CV within Erae Lab.
except CV splitter setting.

from here’s its very simple…

you have 12 CV output jacks.
by default these are SINGLE outputs, so you can use a normal cv patch cable.
so you get 12 outputs.

however, they can be configured as DUAL outputs where you will use a TRS (stereo) cable and then split to two cv signals , thus getting up to 24 cv outputs.

theere is a setting on the Erae which controls this, called CV Splitter. (default 0) - this says how many of the jacks (starting from 1) you want to be dual.

so if you say 2…

then
jack 1 = cv 1 & 2
jack 2 = cv 3 & 4
jack 3 = cv 5
jack 4 = cv 6
etc, etc.

(unfortunately, the manual confuses this… talking about output 5 implying this sets the number of dual ports - nope :wink: )

then in Erae Lab, you can enable CV on control, and set the output number
where output = cv number above , so in above case output 5 = jack 3 .
(but if your not using splitters, obviously jack and output are the same!)

every control only has one output number, so something like a keyboard will output consecutively…
so if you output gate/cv,/pressure/y , and output = 1, you’ll output on cv 1-4 in that order.

looper - works great, seems to record every data stream as we’d expect.

so the Erae 2 will work great as expressive modulation surface for modular, with a looping function for modulation - yay.
Im really happy about this, given this was the main reason for upgrading to the Erae 2.

ok, some things to be aware of.

there is nothing stopping you assigning multiple controls to the same CV output
I need to test how its going to handle this… hopefully it’ll sum them.
but this means you need to be careful in Erae Lab, as to find out how CVs are being used, you have to go to each control in turn see if its enabled etc.

if you change cv splitter setting, then your output numbers are going to ‘change’ … and that means changing your layout (potentially).

I kind of wish they gone output 1-12 = tip 1-12, 13-24 = ring 1-12,
that way changing cv spitter would not alter output numbers.
but, in practice, I think most will set n’ forget cv splitter settings, depending on number of Y cables they have available etc :slight_smile:

finally, except setting cv splitter, there is no UI on the Erae 2 for CV.
unlike midi, you cannot assign CV jack etc for a control, or even see if its routing to CV on the Erae 2 itself (only in Erae Lab)
hopefully one day… but its not a big deal :slight_smile:

overall (once I figured out you needed power) it was pretty easy to setup.
and looks like its going to be a fun surface to use with modular… and the looper is a really fun addition…

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Thanks for all this :slight_smile:

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Thanks so much @thetechnobear !! So helpful and will be even more helpful once I get mine.

I do have 2 questions.

Do you feel the drum skin is mainly for fast hard impact drumming type use, or could it be useful to use for a different style of playing with your fingers?

Also, can you confirm that the CVs output v/oct? I’m sure they do since it wouldn’t make sense for them not to, but… just to confirm for peace of mind :slight_smile:

So glad you got yours first. I would be banging my head against a wall without this information you are giving us!

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your welcome, happy to help, and answer questions.

ofc, we should all remember this is day 1… im giving feedback to Embodme etc, and they say they are already working on some of the things I mention :slight_smile:

ok, so without fitting it, it feels like this might be the case - but honestly, I dont know till I actually fit it and try.
its evident from the fabric surface, Embodme spent alot of time selecting the surfaces - so Im sure thats true of the silicone one too… so may surprise me yet :slight_smile:

ok, yes… things like the keyboard control put out v/oct.

however, my early observation is the calibration (at least for my quick test) appeared to be a bit off…

C was not generating 0v… which is strictly speaking ‘ok’ (its not part of v/oct spec), but unexpected for such a device - it was about a semitone out.
also the scaling seemed to be about 50 cents out.

now… thing is, I didn’t test all the cv outputs, and I didn’t test over a variety of voltage ranges. I just noticed this on jack 1 around the 0-1v area.

So, Ive asked Embodme what the deal is… have the cv outputs been calibrated at the factory?
(no point in me testing something, thats kind of ‘expected’ ;))

from my experience with these things, I think Erae Lab needs a CV calibration function. v/oct needs some accuracy but CV never is, it always needs tweaking.
a minimum of a scale and offset for each CV jack.
but really, you should have a number of voltage points e.g. 8 points over 8v and then scale/offset for each point. this allows you to build a kind of ‘curve’ which allows for variations that naturally occur in the electronics.

tl;dr;
functionally v/oct is implemented
but, its not quite there at the moment but its something they can fix (or may already be aware of)

you can ofc. workaround this, with scale/offset modules (and quantiser if you need it bang on), but its fiddly, as the scale/offset required are tiny movements.
(its easier obviously in digital modules ;))

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Thanks so much! I’d like to think they are on it. I hope and assume they are or will be! Fingers crossed.

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hmm, really enjoying the E 2 with the 4ms Meta Module and Haken Eagan Matrix Module

really nice pairings here…

IMG_1360
IMG_13601920×2560 295 KB

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Hey thanks a lot for the in depth reports!
I’m curious, what’s your backer number? :smiley:
Seems like people who got their unit didn’t receive a tracking number… I’ll be on vacation over Christmas and I worry I won’t be here to receive the package.

I wonder what feature updates they have planned, it seems impossible to get clear information about the roadmap and the state of development… I have posted my requests on the forum (acceleration data and area of contact), and got an answer but I hope they set up a community polling page for voting on features.
Anyways I am happy your impressions seem to match mine from Superbooth and that it seems to be working reliably so far!
Cheers

Edit: that photo you posted seems to make the LEDs look oddly 3D, looks kinda interesting though, I guess that’s just visible on a photo and not so much in real life?

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I was backer #7 … I got an email with tracking number on the day they sent it out.
If you are concerned, email embodme.

they’ve not talked about any feature updates (afaik) nor roadmap.
frankly, given previous experience , Im keeping my expectations in check on this side.

as Ive mentioned above, generally, Erae 2 seems to function as expected.
there are a few ‘minor’ issues, which Ive been told have been passed to the devs.
I was told they are working on a few things in these areas.

honestly, If they resolve these then Im happy.

I guess, the only thing I see ‘missing’ currently is the API zone.
(as the API is mentioned in the marketing, so I expect it to be added)

all that said… I can only talk about my experience (so far) and my expectations.

ofc, as we all get more time with it, and more users get theirs, no doubt other things will crop up, and we will have to wait and see if we all have a similar experience.
similarly, things which are a ‘minor’ inconvenience for me, might be more important to others.

but its a promising start.

yeah, true - I think its partly the camera, partly the angle… its made them ‘pop’ more.
for sure, in reality, they don’t look as raised as this, they are under the surface, and look like it.

as I mentioned, the leds are quite a bit bigger and rounder than the original Erae 1 and looked domed - the camera has emphasised this a bit more than irl.

but for sure, very different from Erae 1, which were fairly small rectangles.
(still looked cool though!)

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First post here, shaking off some of my mpe data Very excited about this one Is there a layout that is similar to a continuum - the keyboard seems less practical than equal keys would be but I haven’t seen many real performance demos. Can it be set up as one or two rows of equal keys rather then with smaller “black” keys?

How do you think the new surface compares to the continuum (understanding that’s a unique instrument with way more z give than just about anything else I’ve ever played). Interested in this as something getting me close to a more rugged (and affordable) instrument to play on with some of those techniques.

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You’ll want to download the Erae Lab editor. Start a new layout, and add the keygrid component.

This will default to an interface more in line with the Linnstrument than the Continuum. And when you drag the edges, it will maintain that configuration, only resizing when enough distance has passed to add or remove a whole row or column.

If you hold the shift key while dragging, it will instead change the internal dimensions of how big a row or column is.

You’re going to want to use one of those controls to make it a single row, and shrink each key down to probably two columns. Maybe three. Then adjust the height to fill as much real estate as you’d like. And extend the width to cover more notes.

Getting the colors where you like will take a minute, as you have to adjust each pitch class individually. But this can definitely be done.

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yeah, as you say the Z axis is SO deep on the continuum, and for me is its defining feature.
… that you wont get elsewhere.

but indeed, the fabric surface and its ‘spongy’ feel on the Erae 2 did remind me of the Continuum, compared to other surface (like Linnstrument, erae 1, soundplane etc) which tend to be more rigid/firm - but its still a shorter travel (5-7mm?)

layout, yeah, you can do as you wish on the Erae 2 (and Erae 1), as the key grid is customisable in terms of number of rows. I like a 3x3 for cells, but if you want you can make 3x6 or even up to a having it full height (though it’d be a bit of a waste, imho)

download Erae Lab, and have a play :slight_smile:

so yeah, Id always be hesitant to compare expressive controllers esp as the feel is such an important part of expressive playing, and that is usually where things differ the most.
so, the Continuum and Erae 2 are their own beasts.

that said, Ive been primarily been using the Erae 2 to drive an Eagan Matrix Module… and Ive enjoyed that a lot.

btw: funny you mention the keyboard being ‘less practical’ (than linear//keygrids), I do agree. but its strange that I still quite often play with it. perhaps my enjoyment of the Osmose has influenced this a bit !?

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Thanks. That’s super helpful. I am a continuum guy. There’s nothing like it and I’m fortunate to have lived long enough and had the finances to afford one several years ago

I have a number of other (more affordable?) mpe controllers, it don’t really have anything else to do the linear layout like the continuum that I can take on the go to practice on- so I think the compromise here seems pretty swell plus getting all of the additional expressive flexibility. My other stupidly weird instrument is the harpejji, so also getting to work with that whole tone semitone layout is wonderful.

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Any second impressions after some time? :slight_smile:

You were so thorough, I’d guess not but curious enough to ask.

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not really, it pretty much does what it says on the tin when Ive played with it.

I think Ive mentioned the bugs Ive had (which are all a bit minor for me), generally still happy with it.

my only one concern, is Ive an odd power issue… (again think I mentioned)
basically, sometimes, when using ‘standalone’ (so not usb powered), it does always power on first time. its almost like it crashes on startup. but power cycle again, and it’ll work.

that said, I mentioned it to embodme, and they aren’t so sure its a firmware issue - so they might want to replace unit. so thats a concern for me.

but for now, we are leaving it, wait till they get the other units shipped, they have supply etc.
also (imo) this gives them time to see if this is an isolate case, or something they start seeing with other users.

whats interesting is, from above, it sounds like they have delayed shipping a bit, so perhaps like me … those that got it early, has a few issues, and embodme want to check these things out before shipping the majority of units?!

ofc, now we are getting close to holidays, so not really expecting too much from embodme in next few weeks, hopefully in Jan, things will become bit more active.

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Thanks Mark for all insights and impressions, what about a side by side with ERAE TOUCH 1?

Wild idea they could even compliment each other? ET1 more “controller” duties and ET2 playing…

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