Roli Seaboard RISE

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Cinebient wrote:Especially the synth parts in the rise videos are still too static and i can get more out of some of my iPad synths.
The point is not to show off dramatic changes, but to be musically expressive. Listen to how well Parisi mimics (in realtime spontaneous playing) the guitar. That is very impressive how accurately he captures the nuance of what the guitar player is doing. There are lots of little slides and other techniques being used by the guitarist to make it hard for him to replicate.

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deastman wrote:And not to quibble, but the iPad does not do pressure. Yes, you can look at the surface area of a touch and more or less derive something similar to pressure from it, but that isn't remotely the same thing when it comes to detailed expressive performance control. It's more like the conductive surface area of my Make Noise eurorack modules- yes, I can kind of mash my finger down to alter a CV out, but the experience isn't at all the same as using a proper force sensing module.
besides not having pressure or velocity, the smooth surface gives no tactile feedback. On the Seaboard, you have to play the note in the center of the wave to be right on pitch. Without the wave shape giving that tactile feedback, your fingers would not be able to discern it and you would always be having to look with your eyes to some visual reference.

The Seaboard is like a fretless bass.

The iPad is a crude instrument by comparison.

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I think i will give it a go. Maybe i sell some of my other MIDI controllers when i love the rise :D

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Now they will release equator for iPhone! I think on an iPad Pro 2 with hopefully 3d touch it would be a killer app!

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Just received my rise about a week Ago. It's really not a keyboard but rather it's own unique and more expressive instrument. The equator synth is pretty nice as well. At 799 it's pretty hard to say no to the rise. I Haven't used it with other synths as yet but I will.

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I'd be interested to hear your impressions of it so far... feel, playability, pitch accuracy... how does the material feel when sliding notes? does the material stick or slide smoothly?

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Also, do you feel limited by the two octave keyboard? Do you find it is mostly suitable for leads and one handed chords?
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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Yes, it's so hard to purchase music equipment and software based only on videos and anecdotes, and that goes double for the actual physical interface one would use to create music. It's such a personal, tactile thing.

That said, what I'm wondering about is similar to some of the other questions, and that is regarding sliding. I notice on the guitar call-and-response video, that quite often the guitarist would start a phrase by sliding up to a note. While the Seaboard player did in fact seem to capture a lot of nuance, on this particular thing he generally seemed to just start the note with maybe a grace-note rather than a significant slide.

Is there a physical/performance reason for this? From what I've seen so far, it does appear that players do the sliding on the separate slide strips rather than right in the middle of the keyboard. Makes sense because of the waves, but I too am wondering if this does not make a player sort of have to choose between playing on the waves (and thus having full use of the Y axis), or playing on the slide strips (limiting use of Y axis)?

Or do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works?

Secondly, how does it work when controlling VST synths over midi? How will it do "theremin" type playing that is comprised of a lot of sliding (sometimes over wide intervals)? So far from my (limited) experience, this is where midi kind of falls apart. It seems to try to convert everything into Note-On, then a bunch of subsequent pitch bending that doesn't always work real well (on the VST end).

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The sliding is just easier on the ribbon.
I've seen videos of slides on waves too.
I guess you can argue this makes it not continuous like the continuum or Soundplane, and if this matters will depend on what your playing.

VSTs, the slides are done on individual midi channels with pitchbends ( has to be like this to avoid retriggering envs), the pitchbend range of the VST is set high usually +/- 48 (or 24 probably on rise) semis, this defines the longest possible slide. since pitchbend is 14 bit this gives sufficient resolution.

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Yeah... you can slide on the waves too... but I guess it is harder to slide an octave on the wavy surface. I've seen easy semi-tone or 2 slides on the waves though

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pdxindy wrote:Yeah... you can slide on the waves too... but I guess it is harder to slide an octave on the wavy surface. I've seen easy semi-tone or 2 slides on the waves though
That´s what i wanted to know too. I saw one video where someone slides in the middle of the keywaves.
But i ask me also if i can use diagonal slides and change the pressure at the same time. Means i want to slide one note via X axis, while changing the modulation via Y axis and also change the pressure via Z axis.
F.e. i didn´t saw a video yet where someone slide a note over the whole 2 octave keyboard and changing the Y axis at the same time. I just saw they using the Y axis on one finger and the X axis on another.
The waves makes it harder for diagonal X/Y slides compared to a synth like Animoog on flat iPad but i would buy a Rise finally if that will work.
So i want to play it like a harken continuum.... does that work?
I wish i could try one but that´s not possible for me.
When i can´t use all 3 continous axis on one note it would be lacking a lot of the expressivness i want to get out of it.

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Cinebient wrote:
pdxindy wrote:Yeah... you can slide on the waves too... but I guess it is harder to slide an octave on the wavy surface. I've seen easy semi-tone or 2 slides on the waves though
That´s what i wanted to know too. I saw one video where someone slides in the middle of the keywaves.
But i ask me also if i can use diagonal slides and change the pressure at the same time. Means i want to slide one note via X axis, while changing the modulation via Y axis and also change the pressure via Z axis.
F.e. i didn´t saw a video yet where someone slide a note over the whole 2 octave keyboard and changing the Y axis at the same time. I just saw they using the Y axis on one finger and the X axis on another.
The waves makes it harder for diagonal X/Y slides compared to a synth like Animoog on flat iPad but i would buy a Rise finally if that will work.
So i want to play it like a harken continuum.... does that work?
I wish i could try one but that´s not possible for me.
When i can´t use all 3 continous axis on one note it would be lacking a lot of the expressivness i want to get out of it.
Polyphonic X + Z + a 50% usable Y is still vastly more than we have had up until now.

And of course, expressiveness is not just in the theoretical control but also how it feels to play it. The give, feeling of applying pressure and so on all play a part. The wave is there so you have a tactile reference for hitting the pitch correctly.

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I will try to get my hands on one today. I think i really need to feel the "skin" before i put a bunch of money on it.... maybe i take it with me then as my christmas present, even when the Mrs. rolls with eyes :D

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My seaboard rise will ship tomorrow :clap:

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How easy is it to transpose octaves on the Rise?

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