ROLI Seaboard Block Studio Edition: Super Powered Midi Controller Keyboard, Includes desktop software suite with 400+ sounds, effects, and production tools, Compatible with leading DAWs and plugins

Product Information

However, for monophonic lines it’s great, although we still hope that Roli will offer wider keywave options in the future for those with wider fingers and to suit players more used to standard size keyboards/layouts.

RISE, for the uninitiated, is a keyboard like no other. It features Keywaves, which replace standard keyboard keys. You get 12 per octave as on a regular keyboard and you can even play them like a regular keyboard – but you’d be missing out on a few extra dimensions, because what makes RISE stand out is the way you play it. With ‘Five Dimensions Of Touch’ you can Strike, Glide, Slide, Press and Lift keys, adding several new layers to your playing and performing. Yes. ROLI reformed as Luminary ROLI in 2021. This restructuring brought new investment and a renewed commitment to create and support the very best MPE instruments and software. We are in a better position than ever to deliver the very best expressive instruments available.

Rather impressively, both the chord generation and arpeggiation are indicated not only in Studio Player’s keyboard display, but also on the LUMI itself, flashing up pink keys for the chords and yellow for the arpeggios, against blue highlights showing the chosen scale. Until and unless everyone buys a LUMI and this effect becomes old hat, it would look pretty impressive on stage. I found Studio Drums to be quite addictive for organic soundscaping, but that setup really requires at least one and ideally two Lightpads, and the LUMI isn’t that good a fit here. Conclusions Depending on your DAW, you may be able to capture the MIDI notes generated from the chording and arpeggiation. Some experimentation revealed that capturing chords and arpeggiator output worked fine, but the MPE expression data caused issues: MPE glide for chords got turned into plain pitch‑bend by Ableton Live and ignored completely by Bitwig Studio.

RISE 2: As a more feature-rich and professional-grade instrument, it is positioned at a higher price point. You’ll need some kind of Seaboard if you want to explore all of the sonic performance options that MPE-based instruments offer, and this is the cheapest. If you just want to play regular synths, you can make do with a regular keyboard, but these things do push a boundary in sound well worth exploring. ROLI Connect provides access to the FXpansion MPE‑capable instruments (though you have to go online to buy them): Strobe2, Cypher2 and the brand‑new Equator2. However, we’ll concentrate on the bundled Studio Player and Studio Drums. Both of these will run standalone or as VST (2 and 3) plug‑ins.

As a Block

Despite its compact size, this instrument enables infinite musical discovery, allowing users to play any sound imaginable and express themselves with unprecedented freedom. With 10 hours of wireless battery, they can play and perform on the Seaboard wherever and whenever inspiration strikes.