I am, mainly, a guitarist. Dabbling in keyboards and synthesizers has always seemed a little unnatural to me from a physical point of view. A keyboard doesn’t respond like a fretted instrument does. This is neither surprising nor bad. It’s just not what I’m used to. Nearly a decade into my journey with synthesizers, I still find myself moving my fingers as if to create vibrato, or trying to “bend” one note while keeping the other rooted to create shifting harmonies.
I tried some MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) controllers, which can capture some of those nuances. But the Roli Seaboard Rise 2 is the first one I’ve played that manages to deliver all that expressiveness without somehow being an absolute pain in the ass. It’s probably my new favorite MIDI controller. But I still have a hard time recommending it to most people.
The immediately obvious issue is price. $1,399 is a lot of money for a MIDI controller. There are some MIDI controllers that come close, but they generally have more generous software packages; more extensive controls (including faders, knobs and pads); transport controls for your DAW; built-in arpeggiators or sequencers; and screens to view parameters and explore presets.
Of course, what those controllers typically lack is MPE functionality. And it’s not like him Coastal elevation 2 It is not a premium device. It’s constructed almost entirely of metal, save for the silicone keyboard and the small selection of controls to its left. It feels extremely durable and I’m pretty sure I’d have to go to great lengths to cause significant damage to it. Despite that, it’s also surprisingly thin and light. At about 33 inches, it’s a little longer than your average 49-key controller, but it’s less than an inch thick and only weighs a hair more than 12 pounds. And that’s despite having a battery that can last eight hours when connected via Bluetooth. In comparison, the Arturia without battery Keylab 49 MKII It’s almost 3 inches thick and tips the scales at 14 pounds.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it portable, but it can certainly be carried around. I’ve moved it around my home studio quite a bit and it seems easy enough to drag to a gig, especially if you grab the $100 soft case.
However, you’re not buying the Seaboard Rise 2 for its portability. You are here to see the continuous surface “Keywave2”. And let me tell you, once you get over how weird that feels, it’s pretty amazing.
It’s important to note that I never played the original Seaboard Rise. But I’ve used many other MPE controllers, including Roli’s Blocks line. They have all had some sort of major defect and the Roli blocks were on the verge of being unusable. Almost everything I have tried has seemed like a novelty or a prototype, rather than a ready-to-consume product. (The two exceptions to this are the latest Ableton Push and the Expressive E Osmose, although they are very different devices with their own drawbacks.) So while I’m fascinated with MPE and think there’s a lot of potential in the technology, I came into this review with pretty low expectations.
But Seaboard Rise 2 looks like the first time a company has done almost everything right in a standalone MPE MIDI controller. The subtle “Precision Frets” make it much easier for you to feel the keyboard. I’m not an expert pianist or keyboardist who’s doing ultra-fast scales based entirely on muscle memory. Still, I appreciated his addition. They made it much more obvious when I should stop a slide and helped me make sure my hits were centered on the keys so I didn’t end up sounding out of tune.
The soft silicone keyboard also provides excellent feedback. Most other MPE devices I’ve used have very little travel, if any. You could also try playing on a coffee table. Not the coast. The “keys” (if you can really call them that) stick out, giving you an idea of where to put your fingers. The surface resists smoothly and pools under your finger when you slide, providing much-needed tactile feedback. There is also a lot of depth to the surface; This is not just a thin layer of silicone placed over the top of some sensors. It’s not as satisfying as feeling a key bottom out under your fingers, but it’s actually easier to extract nuances from velocity and aftertouch than on more traditional controllers.
That ability to get subtle changes in timbre, pitch and pitch is what makes the MPE, and the Seaboard in particular, special. With the right combination of hardware or software, each note played can have its own unique expression. A basic example of this is controlling the filter cutoff of a synth patch with the slide parameter in the Seaboard. That means that when you move your finger from the bottom of the control surface to the top, the filter opens up to create a brighter sound. But in this case you can increase the cut on the higher notes just to emphasize the melody, while keeping the lower register muted and humming.
Give each note its own speed, cutoff, etc. unique ones can add incredible depth to even the most simplistic interpretation. In a more advanced example of how this might work, imagine a software instrument based on orchestral strings. On something like the Seaboard Rise 2, quickly tapping the keys and immediately releasing them could be used to play pizzicato for stabbing chords. But lightly pressing the silicone surface would produce a slower attack, allowing you to play languid melodies over high harmonies. Sliding your finger up could add a soft vibrato to emphasize particular notes, and dragging it left or right would produce realistic slides that are normally only possible on a fretless string instrument, not a keyboard.
I highlight that example because the Seaboard seems especially suitable for scoring work. While it’s fine for playing typical lead and bass patches, it separates itself from the rest once you start exploring sounds that are slower and more evolved. The slight dissonance that could be introduced by barely moving a finger slightly from the center of a key created this eerie atmosphere that I kept getting lost in. Maybe it was just the season I was doing most of my testing, but the only thing I kept thinking about was how much I wanted to score a horror movie.
Clearly, Roli knows this is a strength, because many of the presets on his Equator 2 soft synth seem geared toward soundtrack work. Normally the add-on costs $249, but luckily it’s included for free with the Seaboard Rise 2. It easily does the best job of showcasing the controller’s various powers. The unfortunate thing is that only a little over a third of the presets support MPE. And while it’s certainly a powerful instrument, the Equator 2 has a number of quirks that prevent it from feeling completely polished.
Perhaps the biggest of those problems is that when you first install it, many of the factory presets are completely broken and don’t work. This is because there are two additional libraries you need to install. But these are in a dropdown list and there’s no indication that anything else is needed until you open the app and it repeatedly tells you that files are missing. I uninstalled and reinstalled Equator and all of its pre-built packages, hoping that would fix the problem. It was only after some Googling that I discovered that there were more necessary downloads hidden within the Roli Connect app.
The Roli Dashboard at least feels a little less sloppy and is arguably a more essential part of the experience. This is where you’ll do all the necessary setup, such as choosing whether the Seaboard is in MPE or standard MIDI mode, selecting which MIDI CC the XY pad controls, and setting the sensitivity levels for things like slide and glide. Basically, you’ll always want to have the Panel open because, the unfortunate truth is, MPE is still a bit messy. Non-MPE compatible instruments and plug-ins may not work properly if you do not switch the Rise to single channel mode. I’ve found it a bit tricky to get MPE-enabled plugins to work correctly in Ableton Live 11.
Even when you have an MPE-enabled instrument (hardware or software) paired with a controller like the Seaboard Rise, you’ll probably need to make some adjustments to fully sync them. For example, you’ll need to make sure that the pitch bend range on both the Panel and whatever you’re controlling match. If the Seaboard is set for a 48 note range, but, say, pigments is set for only two, the slides will never land where you expect them to land, and even narrowly missing the dead center of a key will result in painfully out of tune chords.
However, when it all works, it’s pretty special. He Coastal elevation 2 It’s easier to play and more versatile than any other MPE MIDI controller I’ve tried. It is probably the most successful example of what is possible with this technology.
Sure, it’s expensive, it can be complicated to set up, and there are limited options for instruments that take advantage of their full expressive capabilities. But MPE-compatible softsynths are likely to only grow in popularity in the coming years. Most people should probably wait and see what the reviewer consensus is on the more affordable Seaboard Block M. But if you just want the best MPE MIDI controller you can currently buy and don’t mind shelling out for a premium device, the Roli Seaboard Rise 2 is it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/roli-seaboard-rise-2-review-i-wish-i-had-a-horror-movie-to-score-150028305.html?src =rss
