Hardware Overview: Expressive E Touché

Background

The first thing I thought when I did a drive-by the Expressive E booth at NAMM this past year was ‘Expression Pedal for the Hand’, but there had to be more to it. After all they had a pretty decent swarm of people around their booth and the sound coming from it was great!

Upon getting home, I did some more research and found that this device was much, much more than your basic guitar style expression pedal. Expressive E’s Touché is a multidimensional controller with a generous range of I/O that covers all bases from modern to vintage platforms capped off with a slick computer interface for even more finite control, and the ability to load/save and modify a huge amount presets onto the Touché, then unplug and go.

Alternatively, it allows expressive input into your DAW or plugins like no MIDI controller I’ve seen before, and - of course - you can use all of that data in unique ways when using it with Max. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that Max was involved extensively in the development of Touché. The early prototypes consisted of a Max-based interface combined with an Arduino hardware setup that allowed Expressive E to develop their working prototype and take it out into the field for direct artist feedback before developing the final product.

How I've Used It (so far)

I have three CV outputs running from the Touché into my modular setup. One is controlling the playback position from within a single sample inside the ER301 module, another of those CV outputs from the Touché is controlling a wavefolder and the last CV input is adding some reverb to the mix after it returns from Max, courtesy of a Clouds module.

The audio output from the ER301 Module is running into the Expert Sleepers ES8, where we’re taking that signal into Max. This is where the Touché excels: Because of its hybrid I/O options, we can essentially control two different devices (Modular hardware system & Max on a computer) at once. I have a granular Max patch setup that allows the same expression input controlling parameters inside the Modular to control grain length, position playback of said grain, and enveloping of the grains. The manipulated audio is then routed back out through the ES8 into Clouds for reverb.

This kind of control setup, with just one controller over a hybrid hardware/software setup is only possible with a few existing controllers out there, many of which run you into the thousands of dollars (see Cirklon) and/or lack this level of expression and finite control.

What’s really impressive though is that the Touché can simultaneously send MIDI over USB, MIDI over DIN and CV at the same time, this controller has the ability to be the glue between a diverse range of hardware and software at the same time. You have an astounding amount of control over the data within the software editor, but you can also remove the top board easily (it’s held on by magnets) to fine tune the elasticity of the pressure from left/right and up/down. It’s this level of refinement along with its solid build quality and wooden-topped touch board that makes this a controller I ‘feel’ like touching (Trust me - I’ve had some controllers that provided great flexibility that I hated touching), not to mention that it’s the perfect talking point when people drop over.

Conclusion

This is a streamlined, multidimensional controller that allows finite controller of hardware, software, or both in unison while still maintaining a humanized feel and shape from direct user input.

Ok, back to pressing and playing…