Ok, I have done some A/B comparison between Erae Touch and Linnstrument today. They feel different, hard to say which is “better” (I am more used to the Linnstrument touch).
Long story short - I think the unpredictability and consistency issues are now really gone for my device!
I would say the main differences of Erae Touch to Linnstrument (when just considering the use as a grid controller) would be:
- slightly softer, more “squishy” surface on the ET, with the -20…200 mapping one still has to hit slightly harder to hear a ppp note than on Linnstrument (but it doesn’t feel so because the ET surface is a little softer). At 200 the loudest note needs a lot more force. (Can be adjusted at will though, 100 is the default). Linnstrument needs still considerably more minimal force to trigger at all than Morph or Eigenharp - these two can sense any touch, no matter how slight.
- ET always quantizes with the current firmware, like the Roli Seaboard. Linnstrument can switch this off, so you can start at and target any continuous note, play microtonal and non-western scales etc.
- Linnstrument has haptic cell boundaries (with ET one can more easily hit between cells and thus get double notes, particularly with the 2x2 layout - probably a matter of practise though)
- the minimal distance between adjecant detectable touches is a little larger on the ET - so when playing two adjacent cells on the 2x2 layout there is a higher chance to only hear one sound. You have the same problem on Linnstrument though - if the fingers are more on the closeby halfes of the cells it will only trigger one note also. Inherent restriction of the technology I’d say (like with a bound clavichord)
- I have the feeling that the Linnstrument might have a higher xy sensor resolution (could also be the effect of the always-on quantization on ET…)
- Form factor is obviously different - the ET is higher (12 vs 8 2x2 cells), the (large) Linnstrument is wider (21 vs 24 cells)
- For ET it is a little irritating that the cells at the very left (above and below the “notch”) are shown, but don’t react as expected - they are essentially less responsive copies of the adjacent cells to the right. (Not severe, one just needs to know that the really playable keybed starts at the next cell)
But all in all I’m quite pleased with the Erae Touch now regarding predictability and touch consistency. Hard to choose a definite winner, they both have their strengths. (Well, when adding the Morph to the competition it would still win the touch sensitivity competition by a huge margin, but it’s small - and unavailable. Erae team, please consider to license their sensor technology for the Erae2 - I think the result would just be SERIOUSLY awesome!)