Press: Press into the keywaves to deepen sounds or simulate the effect of breath on a wind instrument 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. Connection and battery-wise, the mobile music studio can last for up to 10 hours of battery life and comes with 15-meter Bluetooth range so the users can wirelessly connect to devices even if they are slightly far from them. Aspiring electronic musicians can also play around with the ROLI Studio, a software accompanying the MiDi controller, where they can choose from 400 distintinctive sounds and presets for their production. The software also offers Drums which creates its own drum beats with around 15 drum kits, each with 16 distinct and controllable parts.

How does MPE do this? When modulating pitch or tone with traditional MIDI, modulation is applied equally to each note being played. But MPE makes it possible to modulate parameters independently across multiple notes, vastly expanding the expressive possibilities! 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. RISE 2: Equipped with precision frets for enhanced playability, a unique Semitone Legato setting for microtonal performances, and on-device controls such as XY Touchpad, Touch Faders and preset browsing options. RISE 2 also comes with the powerful Equator2 synth engine and ROLI Studio, providing an infinite range of sounds and creative possibilities. Things get more complicated when we look at the Lightpad’s velocity, pressure and location sensing. Sustained pressure and finger movement warp the basic sounds in different timbral directions, adding a variety of modulation and effects depending on the preset. While drums aren’t known for their sustain, Noise’s drum sounds either contain a continuous sound component, which can be modulated, or come with some kind of internal delay line to add rhythmic or stuttered effects. And the patterns in the groove kits mutate into different forms depending on finger position. I’m reminded very much of my experiments with various models of Korg Kaoss Pad, or of the sounds I’ve heard coming out of a Korg Wavedrum.

Moving from left to right in the Studio Player interface, next to the preset selector and macro controls, is the ‘Smart Chords’ panel. The chording function works in two stages: first, all played notes are constrained to be within a specific scale on a root note (both selectable — there are 19 scales to choose from). Then, for each note in the scale, you select the chord to build (triad, sus4, sixth and so on). The chords relate to the scale rather than being chromatic, so in C major, the ‘Triad’ chord on B is diminished. There’s an option to add an additional root bass note, and also to generate chord inversions, though there’s no obvious indication of which inversion gets selected, and with inversions enabled you often have to play staccato otherwise it’s rather too easy to get the same note triggered twice, causing voices to cut off.

RISE 2: Features 49 Keywave2 keys, designed for detailed expression and control, suitable for both studio and stage environments. It's larger in size, catering to comprehensive play and professional use, and finished in a Platinum Blue metal chassis. ROLI Studio Player has over 500 sounds, 300+ of which are specifically designed to work with the Seaboard's 5 dimensions of touch. Equator Player has become part of ROLI Studio Player, with new features like Smart Chords and a multi-layered Arpeggiator, as well as combining the Strobe2 and Cypher2 Players into one, unified plugin. Think of ROLI Studio Player as the next generation of the older Players!The ROLI Studio software suite is a comprehensive platform for creative potential, offering inspirational features such as Smart Chords, Multi-Layered Arpeggio, and Macros, all specifically tailored to enhance musical output and production. ROLI Studio Player provides a curated selection of 400 distinctive sounds and presets sourced from ROLI’s powerful sound engines.

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. Its 24 keywaves are smaller – about 80% the size of the RISE's – so the playing experience is a little different (see keywave surface comparison above). Advanced customization of keywave response through a firmware upgrade, offering more nuanced MPE control. Yes – the Octave Switch buttons double as preset switches. Simply hold the Mode button and press the lower or upper Octave Switch button.

The latest Seaboard is here! This time, it’s part of the ‘Blocks’ modular range

Chord generation and multiple arpeggiation shown in the Studio Player instrument, exactly as shown on the LUMI itself. The first port of call from here is ROLI Dashboard, which is the configuration program for all of ROLI’s hardware. The LUMI has a number of global settings involving MPE setup and sensitivity, and its root key and scale: these latter settings are purely to specify how the keys are coloured, with one colour for the root and another for the rest of the scale keys. Each of the four modes, which are selected in sequence by the button on top of the unit, has its own on/off settings for pitch‑bend and pressure, and a choice of five possible colour schemes: two rainbow displays, two scale patterns (one with customised colours) and a conventional piano appearance. It seems a bit odd to have so many modes when, colours apart, there’s very little functional difference between them. If the root key and scale display could differ between modes, that would make a bit more sense.