Review Roli Seaboard Block or Roli Seaboard Rise 25?

Roli Seaboard Rise 25 review

Is this keyless keyboard the future of electronic music making?

White notes and black notes, plinky plonk, plinky plonk. The Roli Seaboard Rise aims to revolutionise something that's barely inverse since Bach: it'south a keyboard without keys.

So what does it have instead, and in the name of Rick Wakeman's beard, why? Well, the command surface of the Rising is an expanse of squidgy black silicone rubber, its wavy grade (and fine white lines) enabling you to make out the notes merely, crucially, not forcing your fingers to stick to them.

You lot tin can slide up and down for much more natural portamento furnishings than you could always achieve with a pitch bike, y'all can do violin-style finger vibrato, and you can even push button downwardly harder on a note you're already playing to make it louder. In other words, you lot can practice all the tactile, responsive, expressive stuff that'south usually reserved for acoustic instruments.

Are yous thinking 'wow'? Y'all should exist.

Touch on ME I'M SLICK

This is a British invention, assembled in Ireland, and it's clearly non been chucked together on the cheap. It'southward sleek all the same reassuringly heavy for a 25-note controller (there's also a 49-note version) and has an air of make clean, understated class – although the way its soft blackness finish attracts dust, the 'make clean' office doesn't stay around for long.

The onboard battery keeps topped up via USB so at that place are no other cables to worry nearly – and in fact, if you're using a Mac that supports MIDI over Bluetooth, y'all don't even need to worry about that ane. We did find a tiny scrap of latency in wireless manner, mind you.

Y'all can commencement prodding away at the 'keywaves' without worrying too much virtually the bits on the left, merely it's worth knowing what they all do. The three touch on faders control the parameters of the Rise's all-important extra dimensions – so, for example, you can adjust how much the audio will modify when you lot slide your finger up and down on one note – while the square beneath them is a Kaoss-style touchpad for manipulating FX in real time.

THE SOFT BULLETIN

Don't enquire us what the Ascent sounds similar – information technology'southward a controller keyboard, not a cocky-contained musical instrument. But by all means inquire us what Equator sounds like – this is the software synth that comes with it, and it'south a hugely powerful tool that's defended to making the nearly of the Rise's multidimensional abilities.

Information technology comes with over 100 presets, from squelchy basses to ethereal flutterings, and virtually all of them are capable of insanity on a 'that Donald Trump talks a lot of sense and likewise I like his hair' scale. There is at least ane fairly conventional piano sound, but y'all're not going to exist using this matter every bit an everyday MIDI controller.

Information technology takes a while to get comfortable with the stiffly spongy feel of that control surface, but the cardinal affair is, this is an interface you lot tin can really 'play'. Think, y'all're a musician, non a programmer, then every conceivable sonic chemical element tin be tweaked on the fly, making the Rising/Equator pairing a potentially fantastic live performance instrument.

Just watch where you put those fingers, though: the ridged form of the keywaves is a large assistance in hit truthful notes, but it is still possible to drift out of tune – especially if you're using the flat part along the peak for Theremin-style glides.

IS YOUR DAW OPEN?

A normal MIDI controller tells your recording software which note has been struck, how hard, and for how long… and that's most it. Because the Rise is sending and so much more information than that, information technology needs to use multiple MIDI channels – so if you're planning to use it for recording, you'd meliorate brand certain your software is set. Helpfully, at that place are instructions for setting up the required multi-channel functionality with a range of DAWs (using Equator as a plugin) on the Roli support site.

It'due south complicated, and lightweight DAWs such as GarageBand are not on the listing, but maybe the futurity'southward going to set that. Roli and various other synth pioneers are currently pushing a universal standard for multi-channel MIDI, known as MPE (multidimensional polyphonic expression), which will make it easy for devices like the Rise to communicate with any recording system.

ROLI SEABOARD Ascension 25 VERDICT

What has Roli washed here, exactly? Information technology's a physical keyboard with something like touchscreen interactivity… and the event is a strangely successful alloy of modernity and old-fashioned 'realness'.

This is musical tech existence used the right manner: non just to make gimmicky new noises, but to offer the electronic musician a more personal, emotionally engaged playing experience. Who knows where information technology could atomic number 82?

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Source: https://www.stuff.tv/review/roli-seaboard-rise-25-review/

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