👐TouchMe — deep dive
MIDI output, scale presets, hardware tuning, and performance tips.
Parent page: TouchMe — complete guide. Start there if you have not set up the device.
⚠️ Handle only the parts shown in the main TouchMe guide. Touching solder joints, exposed chips, or the underside of the PCB can damage the device permanently — even when the device is unplugged.
This page is for musicians and developers who already have TouchMe playing and want more control over the device.
Scales and tunings
TouchMe ships tuned to C major, playing notes from C3 to C6. You can change the scale in two ways: with the SCALE and KEY touch rings on the back of the device, or at settings.playtronica.com/#/touchme (open in Chrome).
There are 12 scale presets: major, natural minor, chromatic, Dorian, Mixolydian, Lydian, whole tone, minor and major blues, minor and major pentatonic, and diminished. The full preset table — with the notes each scale plays — is on the tuning page.
After picking a preset, click Send to push the mapping to the device. The choice is stored on the device. You do not need to set it again on another computer.
MIDI output
TouchMe sends on MIDI channel 1 by default. You can change the channel (1–16) on the settings page. A touch produces:
- Note On / Note Off — the note depends on the scale, the key, and how much skin touches the pads. Light contact plays low notes. More contact plays higher notes.
- Velocity — fixed at 127 by default. Set a minimum and a maximum and turn on Humanize to get a random velocity inside that range for each note.
- CC 90 — touch intensity (0–127), sent with each new note. Map it to filter cutoff or effect depth for expressive control.
To play notes outside the built-in scales, set a custom note range (lowest and highest note, 0–127) on the settings page, or remap incoming notes in your DAW.
Use TouchMe in a DAW
TouchMe is a class-compliant MIDI device. No drivers are needed. Select TouchMe as a MIDI input in your DAW, arm a track to record, and play.
See the DAW setup pages:
Performance tips
- Two players, one TouchMe. Each player holds one gold pad. Touch the other player on bare skin. The circuit completes through both bodies. This is the workshop demo that gets the loudest reaction.
- Increase room humidity if the pads feel less responsive. Dry skin and dry air both reduce the signal.
- Clean the gold pads with a dry cotton cloth after sessions. Skin oil dampens conductivity over weeks of use.
Firmware
Update the firmware at settings.playtronica.com/#/touchme in Chrome. The full firmware update flow and the Nuke recovery procedure are on the main guide and the Firmware reset page.
Want more?
We expand this deep-dive page based on real questions. If you have a use case that is not covered, email [email protected] with the subject TouchMe deep-dive suggestion. We will add it.
Ask the community
🤝 Other Playtronica users have probably hit this before. The Playtronica Friends Facebook group has 4,400 members and is the fastest source of creative and technical help. Search the group's history first (use the magnifying glass at the top — try
playtron mobile no sound,all leds lit,touchme biotron no sound,koala sampler midi, or whatever fits your problem). If your question is not already answered, post a new one with a[Device]prefix in the title. See the community page for what to ask there and what to email instead.
Still stuck
Email [email protected]. We aim for 24 hours, but a reply may take up to 3 business days.