Yes, it’s very calm here…Have you stopped using ET, or did you go for other gear ? I’m wondering what to do with my ET
Aha, quite the opposite!!
Expressive E - Osmose is out and lots to explore/ combine; and the ERAE touch is one of them;-)
Things need time…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn6tTftNUcV/
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Yes, it is also very calm on embodme’s forum…
My ET is still in its sleeve, waiting for the hypothetical update that will adress the pressure problems 
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mmm, pressure not really a problem, more are the ghost notes and general feeling. ET is probably easier for pianists, people with a strong touch. What do you think ?
for me, its a combination of time and certain limitations of the erae touch.
as I pointed out here , I do believe the 1.3 firmware was a step in the right direction.
a few weeks back I did try using the ET with the Osmose/Eagan Matrix, and it performed pretty well.
but still the inconsistencies I mentioned in the above post were ever present.
I love the ET hardware, I think it has huge potential.
but Im extremely disappointed that Embodme has not focused on solving these fundamental touch issues… its simply not enjoyable to play with an instrument, that occasionally breaks the flow/immersion due to fundamental issues… even if they only occur occasionally.
however, increasingly, Ive started to take it for ‘what it is’…
if you look at the marketing, and those that seem to be enjoying it…
then they don’t really use it as playing surface… many use it as an midi controller (sliders/buttons), or as something like a drum surface… things which do not need the precision.
and so , whilst I think that is a real waste of the potential/capabilities, and not really why I bought the ET.
I do see, that if I went that route, it would at least get some use.
Perhaps I will approach @embodme at Superbooth about this…
but frankly, I hold little / no hope of this changing…as I fear one of two realities…
the issue is a hardware issue, and so cannot be resolved… perhaps limited to early units, perhaps not.
the main focus of the product is not as a playing surface, thats not what most buy it for, so Embodme cannot focus development on it.
or most likely its a combination of both, the hardware is not as accurate as they hoped/expected.
to make it more reliable, would required significant development effort, and would bring marginal improvements… so they don’t see this as the ‘target market’ , and instead go for a market where accuracy is less important.
tl;dr;
due to accuracy limitations, Im trying to ‘re-imagine’ how I might use the ET, so I can work within its capabilities… but as its tinged with ‘disappointment’, Im not super motivated about doing this.
(I have to say @keymanpal is a master at this… at focusing what IS creatively possible, rather than dwelling on ‘what might be’ … its a super attitude, which does inspire me!)
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more positively…
I will say, I have used the ET as a 8 pad tap/drum surface, playing my eurorack a few times…and it works really well for physical modelling sounds, like Rings/Elements. this was a LOT of fun.
so, I could definitely create some interesting Eagan Matrix presets for it too in this area.
(but its a shame I cannot use it as a melodic surface for my Eurorack, which really was why I purchased it)
100% agree. We mostly see examples as MIDI controller or drums surface…
I’m quite disappointed too. I
I appreciate my Morph a lot more, but it’s the opposite : no visual (except thru Innovator somehow) but àmuch more playable instrument for me. But not as much comfortable to program. I liked having ET Alt layour feature, enabling having instant MIDI standard / MPE access. And the RT editing. But hey, unfortunately, this is not enough…
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yeah, the Morph was nice when I tried it (though, I know it has issues too) but it was too small a playing surface for me… (and of course, now not supported… so moot point)
the form factor of the ET is almost ideal, in terms of size etc.
but as is too often the case with these kind of controllers, they attempt to be a jack of all trades, they end up as a master of none… or at least the one you want.
over the years, Ive now come to realised if you want a really good expressive controller, you have to pay for it… and it has to be its focused.
Continuum, Linnstrument, Eigenharp and now Osmose, all share the characteristics that they are focused solely on a good playing experience, not features… and their price (frankly) reflects the real costs involved to build a ‘real’ instrument… they are not so much built to a price point.
of course, Id love Embodme to prove me wrong… perhaps if they really focused on the accuracy of touch, then it could meet expectations ( * ) - but we have not seen much evidence of this being an important focus, and the ET has been out for quite a while now.
( * ) when the ET was first released, I did have hope. the Linnstrument’s touch was improved considerably after initial release. so it can be done.
but the difference is, it was obviously a prime focus for the linnstrument, playability was the #1 priority.
and thats just not been the case with the ET! the updates we’ve seen have been all over the place…trying to do too many different things.
I still cannot believe they thought developing a sequencer, or ableton integration was worth focusing on, when many are still complaining about fundamental issues with touch and ghost notes.
BUT thats because my priorities obviously do not align with theirs.
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What creators choose as materials, sensors, cpu etc and then how all data is “massaged” , time invested in perfecting does dictate what is an instrument indeed.
Users role? support, push development…what I do and as @thetechnobear mention, choose what’s its best for, but don’t forget how fortuned we are as this all as come a looong way forward in existence!
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obviously very tempted by Osmose, but as often, it is a $$$ issue
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also why not focus in just a single octave, like a pedalboard but for hands/drumsticks - big touch areas?
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yup this aspect of ET does work well… and Ive used and enjoyed it in this way.
its funny, its not really the MPE side, I actually miss… we have others 
really its just I needed/wanted a smaller/more portable melodic playing surface for the modular.
e.g. Id considered the CME XKEY and alike, and so thought/hoped ET would cover that use.
but really its not worked out well for that…
so now just need to focus on what it does work well for…
as I said, the drum pads , and indeed sliders, x/y do actually work nicely with the modular, giving a hands on feel. so just have to commit, focus, and enjoy that 
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Interesting effect - just did a factory reset of the presets on my ET. Currently I am unable to reproduce the “bounce back retrigger effects” that @thetechnobear also experienced. Can you please also do the same experiment on your side?
My feeling is that the thresholds for triggering a note are slightly higher now(?) At least that might explain why rebounces don’t retrigger notes anymore.
Will have to experiment with the thresholds tomorrow (to see whether the effect returns when lowering the threshold again).
A higher trigger threshold might actually be preferrable to both the unpredictable behavior from before as well as to higher latency (that some hysteresis solutions might introduce). At least it is something one can get used to…
Edit: The (new?) text on the sensitivity slider is a further indicator that the initial impression might be true - this is apparently not a per-preset setting though(?) Interesting tidbit - even at -20 I don’t get this ghost note effect anymore now… Looking promising!
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yeah, I play with pressure range too… and indeed zero does feel conservative.
(and as you pointed out, this is a ‘global setting’, not affected by preset)
when you say you did a factory reset… do you mean you just loaded the factory presets again, or some how reset the ET?
Im pretty much using my own custom presets now… so not sure reseting presets will help.
ok, some were derived from a factory preset.
however, Id assume, if you save a preset back to the ET with current editor, if there was a backwards compatibility issue, this would resolve it… though of course, no guarantees when it comes to bugs.
anyway, let me know exactly what you did and perhaps I can give it a go.
esp. if there is an option for me to backup ALL my presets before I do it ;). ( * )
( * ) that said, really I only need a couple of presets, on the ET… so could reset it,
then clear all the presets, and load the ones I actually use.
I’ve actually come to dislike having lots of ‘presets’ on it that I dont use … or rather know how they are set up.
Curious to see what will happen…or if anything will happen
Im honestly not sure if Embodme recognise there is an issue…
(as I said above, we dont know if newer units are better in this area?!)
however, in fairness, I’ve not pushed this beyond my initial reporting of issue (and tagging here )
Id say, reach out to @embodme via their support email, see what they say…
do they know there are still issues?
are they limited to some hardware units?
are they working on improving this area?
on my part, Im going to Superbooth, and hope they will be there…
and so it’ll be easier for me to have a discussion there with them, something a bit broader about their plans.
what I will also do (if I remember, someone remind me ), before I go in May, I’ll try to have a longer play session with the ET, to remind myself exactly of the issues, try to create some specific examples.
then with luck, I can try these on the stand at Superbooth !
this will either :
a) show Embodme the issues that are present.
b) reveal, that perhaps, its more/only an issue with older units.
either will be useful info to the embodme devs.
Will contact them…Good you go to Superbooth…
Curious to know where you did get the « feeling » that there could be a different with recent vs initial units ?
I heard some returned their first ET but did not hear someone claiming a clear enhancement ?
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no, Ive no idea if there have been any changes
however, its 100% normal for manufacturing revisions to be done over time (for a variety of reasons)/
so, if embodme, did get a number of returns, and recognised an issue, its possible they could make slight manufacturing tweaks to try to alleviate… similarly, if they were finding ‘variations’ between units, they could improve the QA process, to ensure more fall into acceptable tolerances.
(frankly, I would expect this of a company, and be disappointed if they didn’t do this!)
Note you would not see this on early returns, because these revisions would only be available once new manufacturing batches were produced.
however, this is ALL speculation
thats why I said, Id like to try on a new unit, to see if its the same or not.
again, I re-iterate all companies do this with all products. its not something ‘shady’ to be doing it.
and to some extent , you can say this is one potential downside of being an early adopter.
(this is not an excuse for faulty early products… but something that is a reality for some products)
What I did:
- I downloaded the latest official firmware (think it was 1.3.0)
- I set a checkmark before “reset presets to factory default” in the upload manager and uploaded the firmware to the ET
- During the process it offered to download the presets that are currently on the device. Initially I chose that option - but it failed. So in the end I overwrote them without downloading. (My custom presets to that point were only experiments anyways)
After understanding now that sensitivity is a global feature anyways, I am not sure whether it’s worth to repeat the experiment on your side - particularly if you spent a lot of time with custom presets…
Can the factory presets be downloaded individually, so you could e.g. upload the factory “MPE-grid preset” on one slot that doesn’t contain a custom preset yet?
Didn’t spend much time with the updated device yet, will do some A/B comparison between ET and Linnstrument later today. (Also with smaller 2x2 grid again instead of the default 4x4 one). At least the first experiment was promising (with the old firmware inconsistencies and hanging notes were obvious, neither occurred now on first sight). My device is also from the “first batch” - so there is hope that it can be/is fixed by firmware - but variation between devices (even in the same batch) is also imaginable as an explanation…
If you want we could also do a short A/B comparison session on Skype (with the same synth, preset, firmware and settings).
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Can the factory presets be downloaded individually, so you could e.g. upload the factory “MPE-grid preset” on one slot that doesn’t contain a custom preset yet?
You would have to save them one by one 'manually"…
Didn’t spend much time with the updated device yet, will do some A/B comparison between ET and Linnstrument later today. (Also with smaller 2x2 grid again instead of the default 4x4 one). At least the first experiment was promising (with the old firmware inconsistencies and hanging notes were obvious, neither occurred now on first sight)
It was the same for me, strangely. Just after 1,3, I had a better feel, but after a time…
My ET is not from the first batch I guess as I ordered it after kickstarter end