Home › Forums › Instruments › TERRA › is no MIDI in a definitive choice?
I just want to say I respect and understand the choice.
I’m considering purchasing a Terra but I’m hesitant because I’m worried I will miss the ability to sequence it.
I know it’s not the point of this instrument.
The problem is that MIDI is extremely limited compared to what Terra is capable of, so the choice was between severely compromising/reducing Terra functionality and include MIDI in, or letting Terra really shine with its unique capabilities and sacrificing MIDI.
Best of both worlds unfortunately was not an option, but of course it would be amazing to be able to get full Terra sound and functionality while sequencing from your favorite sequencer.
So the problem is the technical limitation of MIDI, which is not that surprising considering it’s an almost 40 year old protocol now.
-The Soma team
Thanks for the reply. I was hoping that MPE would help but maybe Terra is ahead in terms of expressiveness.
I don’t really get that. They’re touch capacitive knobs, so they propose less variations than what MPE is capable of. For example, velocity is not registered at all. (I’m assuming the internal engine uses the amount of change over time as velocity)
Location of your finger on the buttons is not registered so that removes x and y values of MPE.
So the only thing I can think of that could be different is the values of “touch amount” being greater than the MIDI 128 values.
Pitch changes on the device look like just “on/off” values.
Etc.
That’s ok 🙂
Terra does offer an MPE output mode. MPE input was examined and considered during the development of Terra, but also proved to be too limiting/incapable from a technical point of view.
From the manual:
TERRA can be synched to an external MIDI clock, but there is no way to control TERRA
via external MIDI due to how radically different and more complex TERRA’s synthesis
control is. It’s a constant and multilayered high-resolution data stream, conveying
the smallest motion of a finger. Confining that unique synthesis to a cage of on/off
MIDI messages would kill 70% of TERRA’s charm, and even MPE wouldn’t help. So we
dropped that idea.
While I get that MIDI IN might not be suitable for playing notes, it’s a pity that one just can’t plug in a Midi Footcontroller to use it for sustain, stop, switching effects, controlling the decay knobs and such.
Could this be smth for an Update maybe? 😬
While I get that MIDI IN might not be suitable for playing notes, it’s a pity that one just can’t plug in a Midi Footcontroller to use it for sustain, stop, switching effects, controlling the decay knobs and such.
Could this be smth for an Update maybe? 😬
Thanks for the input, it’s been added to the wishlist!
I understand the die-hard philosophy behind this to encourage playability…but the inability to add Terra’s unique live expression whilst midi notes are triggered via a sequencer seems very restrictive.
With free-flowing ambient music, it’s great to lose yourself in the long and intricate expressions of Terra…easy for recording the full performance.
BUT…with a bassline/percussions etc…the expressions are so delicate, that to concentrate playing in time AND adding expression is tough – esp with the supersensitive sensors over keys. To have the ability to trigger just notes, then expressions can be recorded live, would be amazing…and many, many people, given the option, would want to do this.
And I know…a lot of ‘real’ instruments are recorded live on the fly, but it’s a bit like having the pulsar 23 without no midi in. We could play all the drums in-time, manually without a sequencer…but it would just be a time-consuming vibe-killer.
Anyhow, I love this machine…just a shame about the lack of flexibility in this area.
We are happy to announce we found a way to implement some MIDI in functionality! Terra firmware version 1.4:
Added “OmniChord” mode.
While setting MIDI mode (L+Y(TUNE)+H(Parametric Hold)) press ECHO sensor for toggling “OmniChord” mode on\off.
When the mode is on it receives notes from the MIDI IN on the channel that is set as Terra MIDI channel number (see MIDI OUTPUT)
and assign it to TERRA sensors from 1 to how many keys you pressed simultaneously.
This way, you can turn TERRA to a harp that changes its tuning according to the harmony of your composition.
You can connect a MIDI sequencer that sends to TERRA notes of the current chord, using up to all 12 TERRA’s sensors
with octaves, 7th and all richness and just make a stroke across the notes sensors and TERRA will play in the perfect tune
with your composition.
After powering on TERRA, the “OmniChord” mode is in off state (default state).
