Erae Touch is an expressive MIDI 2.0 controller that’ll make your fingers dance

Touchscreen apps have made musicians rethink the nature of instruments, but even Apple’s 12.9in iPad Pro is a relatively dinky canvas. Erae Touch (£528), though, brings 18 inches of low-latency silicon-topped goodness to your fingertips. Its surface supports up to ten points of contact, be that your dexterous digits or you whacking it with drum sticks. As you play, LEDs light up as 1000 force sensitive resisters capture the full expression of your input. But your personality is infused beyond adding some vibrato or pitch-bend: through the Erae Lab app, you can customise multiple layouts, enabling you to switch between launcher, step sequencer, X/Y pads and any other instrument from the future you can imagine. Add to all that MIDI 2.0 support, standalone playback functionality (with up to 32 stored layouts) and a free copy of the Continua plug-in and you’ll be composing and bopping away until traditional instruments are but a distant memory.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.