KVR Audio

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:59 am

https://roli.com/products/blocks
So waddya think?

I'm actually quite excited about this now. At first I just thought it was iOS crap, which it is, but using two of these stacked vertically as a midi controller would actually be really cool. You'd get 4 octaves in a tall guitar like layout (assuming you can adjust the octave range of each). Sort of like a linnstrument but going taller rather than wider. Would be perfect to the right of another keyboard. But I still want to get equator so I'd better get a rise 25 too. But I think that combined with a couple blocks would be super cool.

The thing in curious about though is whether the slide works over the change from one block to another when connected side to side.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 6:47 pm

Once I realized it could be used as a regular midi controller over usb, then I thought it could be interesting. Really depends on the implementation. Like your question, can you slide across blocks? Different articles claimed different capabilities. Some said 4 can be connected and others said only 2

bronxsound · Post by **bronxsound** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 7:28 pm

what is so special about them? blocks i mean. i did not read too much about it so what are the highlights?

peter_neo · Post by **peter_neo** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:03 pm

From the way the blocks are connected, it looks like there will be a space between the modules so sliding between blocks is probably a no-go. PC/Mac support looks extremely basic compared to the app. I don't have high hopes for a bigger version either. Having only leds to indicate the location of a note is probably only usable on a smaller surface.

Fun idea tho. Modular midi controllers are always cool. A $179 MPE controller is a cool achievement in itself.

igoramos · Post by **igoramos** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:31 pm

peter_neo wrote: Fun idea tho. Modular midi controllers are always cool. A $179 MPE controller is a cool achievement in itself.

yeh, I think so too. I got one coming. Can't wait...

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:53 pm

There were similiar ideas for some years. It all depends on feature set and workflow.

For sure having portable, modular multi-touch device with color display can't be wrong

Ticks all the boxes I can imagine.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 9:46 pm

A friend pointed out that Roli really messed up by making this a 5x5 grid, which is not inherently musical in the conventional sense at all.

Daags · Post by **Daags** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:03 pm

am I understanding it right that these are essentially touchscreen controllers primarily for touchscreen devices ? ... if so , am I missing something ? why is this a good idea ?

sprnva · Post by **sprnva** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:11 pm

deastman wrote:A friend pointed out that Roli really messed up by making this a 5x5 grid, which is not inherently musical in the conventional sense at all.

I don't know about that. It's 25 "notes" so basically the same as buying a 25-key controller.

Daags · Post by **Daags** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:55 pm

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:12 am

deastman wrote:A friend pointed out that Roli really messed up by making this a 5x5 grid, which is not inherently musical in the conventional sense at all.

Has your friend ever seen a guitar or bass guitar? The note on the string directly above is 5 notes higher. So a 5 note wide grid is what is necessary to get all notes in a small space, for this style of isomorphic layout that is popular (Ableton Push, linnstrument, many ipad apps etc.). And when you go up two rows and over two cells (or strings/frets on a guitar) you get to a new octave. So the bottom left to the top right is exactly two octaves on the light block. 25 notes, just like a 25 note two octave keyboard.

How is that messing up? Makes perfect sense to me. For s small space that is. The issue with it, is that because the notes don't repeat in different places, like other larger ones, there will be some notes where you can't slide up and some where you can't slide down. The answer to this would be to extent it sideways with an additional block, however if you can't continuously slide from one block to the next, then that won't work. Maybe they have some fancy algorithm that can detect sliding from one block to another, in which case cool, otherwise meh.

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:16 am

Daags wrote:am I understanding it right that these are essentially touchscreen controllers primarily for touchscreen devices ? ... if so , am I missing something ? why is this a good idea ?

Yeah I think you're missing the fact that it is velocity sensitive, pressure sensitive, release velocity sensitive as well as the other dimensions that you could get on a touch screen (X and Y).

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:02 am

Echoes in the Attic wrote:Maybe they have some fancy algorithm that can detect sliding from one block to another, in which case cool, otherwise meh.

Yeah, if it cannot slide from block to block, then it is way too limited in range... and even assuming you can slide from block to block, buying 4-6 of them to have a wide enough range starts getting expensive enough that one might just prefer the Rise anyway.

Cinebient · Post by **Cinebient** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:08 am

Echoes in the Attic wrote:
Daags wrote:am I understanding it right that these are essentially touchscreen controllers primarily for touchscreen devices ? ... if so , am I missing something ? why is this a good idea ?
Yeah I think you're missing the fact that it is velocity sensitive, pressure sensitive, release velocity sensitive as well as the other dimensions that you could get on a touch screen (X and Y).

But you get all that already on the latest iPhones (but not on iPads yet).
I don´t know if there is midi out in the app.....but that would make this obsolete.
So the blocks would make even more sense for notebooks and desktops.
They work on it but there is "dashboard" for it or?

Echoes in the Attic · Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:43 am

Cinebient wrote:
Echoes in the Attic wrote:
Daags wrote:am I understanding it right that these are essentially touchscreen controllers primarily for touchscreen devices ? ... if so , am I missing something ? why is this a good idea ?
Yeah I think you're missing the fact that it is velocity sensitive, pressure sensitive, release velocity sensitive as well as the other dimensions that you could get on a touch screen (X and Y).
But you get all that already on the latest iPhones (but not on iPads yet).
I don´t know if there is midi out in the app.....but that would make this obsolete.
So the blocks would make even more sense for notebooks and desktops.
They work on it but there is "dashboard" for it or?

I haven't tried the latest iphones with any note triggering apps, but my understanding was that the pressure sensitivity was very limited to sort of light and hard, and I didn't think there was really much continuous pressure sensitivity. Am I wrong about that? Is there actually a usable range of velocities that can be captured? And a decent range of pressure levels?

Roli Blocks