![]() ![]() However, if necessary, the unit can also be recalibrated manually by pressing its two buttons simultaneously and holding them down until their LEDs stop blinking. The Touché automatically recalibrates itself each time that power is applied to it, making stable and level positioning essential. In Stand-alone mode, with no presets loaded, the Touché sends its default data of MIDI CC16 to CC19 (Rear, Front, Left and Right Shiftings respectively) and 0V to +5V on each of the four CV outputs. Stand-alone mode is slightly misnamed in that Lié is essential not only to program the Touché’s internal 24-preset memory, but also to automatically upgrade its firmware when necessary. ![]() The Touché has two operational modes: Stand-alone, in which it functions independently to control hardware instruments via MIDI or CV, and Slave, where its functionality is under the control of the Lié VST/AU plug-in. In addition to a high-quality USB lead, Expressive E also supply an adaptor lead that allows you to power the Touché from an external source whilst it is connected to a computer. The Touché’s other controls consist of a circular encoder knob with integral push switch and four associated miniature LEDs whose variable intensities and colours denote various functional states, and two rectangular, stylishly illuminated multi-functional switches (‘Buttons’ in Expressive E-speak).Īll connectors reside on the rear edge of the base, and there you’ll find four independent CV outputs on TS mini-jacks, each of which corresponds to one of the control surface’s directions of movement MIDI in and out/thru on TRS mini-jacks (TRS to DIN adaptors are supplied) and the USB2 connector that can be used to connect either to a computer or to a source of USB power, should you be using the Touché in Stand-alone mode. It is worth noting that all shiftings have to be accomplished by pressure in the desired plane as any attempt to twist the control surface will simply result in it coming off in your hand. A Left or Right Shifting moves the wooden surface in the horizontal plane, and a combination of the two types of shifting produces that which you’d expect. Depending on where and how hard you press it along its length, you can produce either subtle or extreme Shiftings of either type. A slider concealed under the control surface sets the physical ‘sensitivity’ of the lateral movements via a pair of steel springs.Įxpressive E call these vertical and horizontal motions ‘Shiftings’ and, since the wooden control surface is suspended at either end, a Top Shifting describes a tilt down at its far end and a Bottom Shifting a tilt at the near end. Four independent sensors detect these vertical and lateral movements. A second suspension, sitting within the first but independent of it, allows the control surface to be moved left or right in the horizontal plane. Its smoothly tactile wooden control surface almost appears to hover above the base, but closer inspection reveals that it is attached by magnets to an underlying assembly that ‘floats’ on a pair of silicone cylinders, thereby allowing the control surface to be pushed downwards at any point along the length of its longitudinal axis. Physically, the Touché is an attractive and well-built unit whose black, soft-touch base measures a fairly substantial 24 x 10 x 2cm. A Windows 10 Lié beta is imminent, but no release date for the actual program has yet been set. Currently the Touché and its supporting Lié software (recently upgraded to v1.2) are limited to working under Mac OS (10.10 and above). With the release of the Touché, French company Expressive E have brought to market a USB/MIDI/CV hardware controller whose raison d’être is to deliver an intuitive, touch-based approach to controlling the parameters not only of hardware synthesizers, but also of VST software instruments running within a DAW. Once synthesis arrived on the musical scene, note production and the modification of pitch and sound began to be mediated by relatively crude, mechanical means that often struggled to become an integral part of the musical process. The use of touch to control music has a history as long as that of music itself, giving musicians a physically intimate and essentially intuitive relationship with their instruments. Expressive E’s Touché is a hardware controller like no other. ![]()
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