Hey people 🙂

So I finally got to spend some time with my Terra. I really enjoy playing / learning it, as the controls really invite you to explore playing techniques and it really feels as an instrument. Softly swelling one note while rhythmically tapping another one with the same hand for instance is really not that easy at first but very satisfying when mastered somewhat. I also play some other instruments since I’ve been a child, thus I know it’s difficut to practice “sound” and “expression” on any other instrument as well. I just say this, because I want to stress out that I have no problem with “learning” an instrument and spending time practicing certain aspects of it.

Eventually, I feel that Terra has some shortcomings though, and I’d really like to hear opinions from other Terra users and Soma on that.

• rhythmic LFOs / Sequencers retriggering can’t be turned off – could be very useful while playing with other musicians via a MIDI-Clock
• tapping in a tempo is almost impossible while playing (as you currently need to press a modulator / also playing notes at the same time disrupts the whole thing)
• activating some modifiers (on the triangle) while playing can lead to unwanted clicks and pops – could there be a fade option?
• knob positions change values after 10% movement – a catch-up function would be a lot more useful, especially while jamming live.
• when you ‘hold’ a bass note and you would want to transpose the very same note, you need to turn off ‘hold’ press the same note + the pitch modifier and then press hold again – I think this is a bit tedious.
• Also a held note (via hold button) can’t be triggered again, not even when it’s actually a different pitch (via a pitch modifier) – this takes a lot of functionality out of the pitch modifiers in my opinion.
• I would love to have a dedicated scales bank with some predefined scales I can load onto the machine, also experimental ones (like a gamelan-ish scale or smth) – I know, I can tune everything I want on the machine and load scales from other presets — but yeah … it is tedious. Especially when I try to play along with ‘classical’ instruments at jam sessions. The tuning process would be a little more inspiring if I would have the option to actually see / hear the interrelations between the pitch modifiers and the notes as well, especially when rang out. – I know, this would be a little off the initial concept of Terra, but a thoughtful tuning platform / editor for the computer would be very helpful (with visualization or maybe a selected set of tuning relations and scales to start with)
• Master Tune is fine and useful – but why is there no Master Transpose as well? so I don’t have to transpose each preset by hand (again, would be useful in a band / jam context)
• The FX Section sounds great! But is surprisingly “unplayable”, which came to me as a surprise being an instrument from SOMA 🙂

• It would have been nice to have at least some option to change the modifiers a bit (maybe as well in an Editor) – for example the “pitch down until full stop” modifier is a lot of fun, but in lots of presets I find it too overused and it would be nice to have the option to exchange it with something else.

• The last thing I want to mention is a far stretch, I know: But after a while I started to love using Terra with a looper, sending a dry (no FX) Signal and using external Delays and Reverbs for individual loops. In a perfect world, Terra would have a built in MIDI-Looper (see BASTL) controlled via a foot pedal – like this you could use the pitch modifiers even further down your performance and still use the great sounding internal effects without the need of an external audio-looper.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy this machine, I do not regret buying it so far. This is just a summary of thoughts I had while playing this instrument. I know that electronic instruments always have the issue with not being clearly limited, unlike a double bass for example – no one would complain about missing “features” there like I did here 😀 But after reading through my post again, I think it wouldn’t really destroy the concept of Terra, rather extend the already great immediacy it gives.

I do get the idea that Terra should get you off the “tweaking” and “refining” patches until you stop making music path 😀 But I would really wish for some of those aspects being addressed in updates.

Cheer