Expressive E Touché

graphical representation of the Skin, giving
excellent real-time feedback on the pressure
applied in all four directions. The button above
sets left/right movement to output pitchbend as
well as their assigned parameters.
Lié’s browser facilitates iltering (by
instrument and tags) and loading of Lié presets.
These aren’t the factory/user presets of the
hosted instruments, but those created within –
and readable only by – Lié, comprising both the
state of the plugin and the stored Touché
controller map. Saving your own patches is easy,
and Expressive E have already released free
preset packs for Diva, ARP2600 V, Massive,
Monark, Prism, Spire, Sylenth 1 and Synthmaster,
amongst others, with more to come. However,
while it’s stable and perfectly functional, the
browser needs some work. The Instrument and
Tag windows are far too small, the inability to
clear multiple selections with a single click is
maddening, and the lack of custom tags hurts.
The rest of Lié, fortunately, is a pleasure to use.
Touché total
Playing Touché is intuitive and fun. Slide your
ingers along it to balance the pressure between
top and bottom; push it laterally to mix in a bit of
left and right; tap it for rhythmic efects – it’s like
a cross between a joystick, the aforementioned
wah-wah pedal and a drum pad. And the
sensitivity of the thing is astounding.
On the downside, the positioning of the
preset buttons on the near edge of the unit
means care needs to be taken to avoid
accidentally hitting them with your wrist. It
should also be noted that Lié only outputs the
MIDI CCs it uses internally for plugin control (CC
1619), not VST/AU automation data. Indeed, the
Lié-hosted plugin is completely invisible to the
host DAW’s automation system.
With those caveats accepted, though, Touché
is a brilliant performance MIDI controller, the
unique physicality and design of which put it in
a class all of its own. We’re addicted!
Web www.expressivee.com
Verdict
For Feels fabulous under the hand
Spectacularly expressive
Lié is mostly very good
UVI Workstation is a solid inclusion
Against Browser’s kinda iddly
Lié automation records as CC data
Previous/next preset buttons are easily
pressed by accident
Clever, original and amazingly expressive,
Touché is a very special MIDI controller.
8 / 1 0
Alternatively
Roli Seaboard Rise 49
231 » 9/10 » £949
The ‘keywaves’ of this weird and
wonderful controller enable all
sorts of performance possibilities
Native Instruments
Komplete Kontrol Mk2
250 » 10/10 » £479/559
A superb keyboard with a similar
‘shell’ control system for NI plugins
As well as working with Lié to control
software instruments in a host DAW,
Touché also functions as a standalone
MIDI and CV controller for use with
hardware synths (and, indeed, software
synths without the niceties of Lié).
On the back of the unit are minijack
sockets for MIDI In and Out, and four
CV outputs, with all requisite cabling
provided in the box.
Six banks of four presets each are
stored in Touché’s internal memory,
and presets are programmed in Lié,
with menus of CCs or CV output
voltages (the two can’t be mixed in a
preset) replacing the plugin parameter
lists. A MIDI preset has up to eight slots,
and a CV preset has four. Dumping
presets to the device memory also
happens in Lié, of course, where the
Memory View window shows you their
layout across the four banks.
In standalone mode, Touché’s two
buttons are used to switch between
stored presets, with four LEDs above
the encoder indicating the current
bank by colour, and the preset within
the bank by the number of lit LEDs. A
ton of presets for a wide range of
synths is included, and the only snag is
that Lié is currently Mac-exclusive, so
not only are PC musos out of luck in
terms of DAW usage, but they can’t
even make and load hardware presets.
Standalone mode
Minor browser issues aside, Lié is a commendably solid host and preset programmer/manager
Lié’s Memory View shows the colours and LED numbers assigned to the onboard presets
“While it’s stable and
perfectly functional,
the browser needs
some work”
December 2017 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 99
expressive e touché / reviews <
CMU250.rev_touche.indd 99 16/10/2017 10:44