Roli Seaboard RISE

[prismprocess]

Wow!! That's really awesome!! I own a RISE 49 too and because I use linux as my main os (but have a win 8.1 installed on external hard drive which I boot into when I want to use a VST or app which can't be run via Wine), I was really disappointed about Seaboard's Bluetooth incompatibility with my setup...
Now I have a big hope!! But still, WiDi Bud is not available in my country (yet?). Right now I'm begging our online music shops to import this product and make it available

You can buy one on ebay. Thomann (a very well known german music store) sell them.

However, I have a suggestion for you, why not make a video of yourself playing Seaboard via WiDi?! That would showcase the possibility of wireless operation of RISE for virtually *any* operating system
Since that's a barrier (or at least a concern) for many people considering buying a RISE and don't have or want apple hw. (Like me )

My concern was about making the Seaboard work using Midi over Bluetooth on Windows. I use Windows and the method I found (by risking buying a Widi Bud without knowing if it would work) has paid of. If you want to play the standalone versions of Equator or Strobe2 wirelessly on Windows it is a solution. No amount of me playing Black Hole Sun or Synthetica is going to change that. Using a Widi Bud works better than the native support for Midi over Bluetooth in a Mac (or Windows for that matter). Why? Latency for one. Conventional Bluetooth uses software and its integrated circuits. The Widi Bud has all the software and firmware in the dongle, Your BLE 4.0 card/receiver in your Mac/PC/Laptop is quite slow by comparison with a Widi Bud (7.5-15ms). The Roli sends the information to it at <30ms (wbich is the advertised figure) so a case can be made for using it as a substitute connection anyway.

It's not all rosy on the DAW front tho......

I'd like to hear from anyone who uses Windows, has a Seaboard and has set the Equator vst up in Cubase 9 Pro. The reason why is that Slide and Glide are not working. Lift, Press and Strike seem to work. Before you ask I have done all this.....

https://support.roli.com/article/using- ... th-cubase/

Has anyone here got this working? I mean wired btw not necessarily wireless.

[saeidscorp]

You can buy one on ebay. Thomann (a very well known german music store) sell them.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. But no store would ship in my country. I have to either buy one indirectly and pay the freight (minimum is 0.5 Kg which is too high for a €50 product weighing only 2 grams!!), or just wait till it gets available directly.

Conventional Bluetooth uses software and its integrated circuits. The Widi Bud has all the software and firmware in the dongle, Your BLE 4.0 card/receiver in your Mac/PC/Laptop is quite slow by comparison with a Widi Bud (7.5-15ms). The Roli sends the information to it at <30ms (which is the advertised figure) so a case can be made for using it as a substitute connection anyway.

Right. The thing is, my laptop doesn't have BLE chip and I have an android phone, which isn't supported by ROLI (they say older phones don't have Pro Audio(?), but I have some apps running perfectly which use SAMSUNG Pro Audio as their backends)

However, I meant these complaints about RISE bluetooth issues can be addressed if people know of a reliable alternative solution

[tapper mike]

Midi over bluetooth is a terrible idea. If anyone wants serious wireless midi they should consider wifi. Wifi is secure, it's faster it has a longer range and isn't plaged with dropouts that are common with bluetooth.

[SteveElbows]

Midi over bluetooth is a terrible idea. If anyone wants serious wireless midi they should consider wifi. Wifi is secure, it's faster it has a longer range and isn't plaged with dropouts that are common with bluetooth.

I thought it sounded bad when I first heard of it but having tried it I am a convert - its actually superb, at least with certain equipment. I think midi over bluetooth is a winner that should stick around a good while.

[thetechnobear]

Equator now available for general sale!

what do owners think of equator as a synth?
Good sound quality? Flexible?


I'd be teaming it up with an Eigenharp and Soundplane, so MPE enabled

I've been intrigued with equator, but in the time they've take it to be released quite a few MPE enabled synths have been released.
Does it offer anything over ML synths, Falcon, u-he synths?

[prismprocess]

Midi over bluetooth is a terrible idea. If anyone wants serious wireless midi they should consider wifi. Wifi is secure, it's faster it has a longer range and isn't plaged with dropouts that are common with bluetooth.

That may well be the case but it is what the Roli has. On the positive side it does make you wonder about something else tho.......

Suppose you get a fast wifi dongle.....and plug it in to the normal usb port of the Seaboard then surely you could do this.......

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/ ... orial.html

With this.......

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/rtpmidi.html

OK so it means you must re-enable the rubbish that is Bonjour on a windows machine but this might be it's one redeeming feature. In theory it should work....no?

[SteveElbows]

My concern was about making the Seaboard work using Midi over Bluetooth on Windows.......

Using a Widi Bud works better than the native support for Midi over Bluetooth in a Mac (or Windows for that matter). Why? Latency for one. Conventional Bluetooth uses software and its integrated circuits. The Widi Bud has all the software and firmware in the dongle, Your BLE 4.0 card/receiver in your Mac/PC/Laptop is quite slow by comparison with a Widi Bud (7.5-15ms). The Roli sends the information to it at <30ms (wbich is the advertised figure) so a case can be made for using it as a substitute connection anyway.

Although I dont personally need my seaboard block to work via bluetooth on my windows machine, I am very interested in getting as many different systems working with seaboards as possible, and I've been waiting for a chance to try windows midi bluetooth since microsoft announced their version of support for it in the creators edition of windows 10.

Your widibud solution is very interesting and I am interested to compare it against alternative options that exist for some windows pcs (ie ones that already have the right bluetooth hardware and the right windows 10).

The big issue for the non-widibud solution is the whole situation with what developers want to do vs what microsoft has been trying to get them to switch to for ages now (uwp), with rather limited success. And the microsoft native midi bluetooth LE solution is only accessible in uwp apps, not the older sort that most devs including daw & instrument devs have stuck with.

So I assumed someone had written a bridge between these two worlds, ie a uwp app that allows connection to midi bluetooth devices and then makes a midi port of this available to traditional apps using the traditional midi api's. It took longer than I had hoped to track one down, but it seems there is one called MIDIberry in the microsoft app store that is free, so I shall try it soon and report back.

As for latency, I would like to compare the two because I can't just rely on CME's marketing info alone. Especially since in some of their other words they are making a comparison between the widibud and older forms of bluetooth, I cant be sure of how much better their latency is than what I've experienced with other solutions using modern bluetooth LE. It does sound like their device is a winner in terms of ease of use, and I was also reading about how if you want to connect multiple bluetooth controllers etc to one computer, just add more widibuds! But I want to know if it is really much better in terms of latency than the microsoft solution paired with a modern motherboard I got last year that has bluetooth.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for me trying to measure latency between a controller and a computer via bluetooth? I've no experience of measuring latency of any sort at all, save for my brain obviously recognising when latency is way too noticable and starts to really spoil things.

I shall also mention, because the issue came up recently, the modern midi stuff microsoft put in windows 10 creators edition also gets rid of the traditional problem on windows of only one app having access to a particular midi port at one time. But again, even most windows 10 users have likely not reaped the rewards of this yet because most apps they use on windows have not followed microsoft down this uwp path and its unclear how many will in future.

[SteveElbows]

Suppose you get a fast wifi dongle.....and plug it in to the normal usb port of the Seaboard then surely you could do this.......

The 'normal' usb port on the seaboard rise is not a host controller port, so that wont work. If memory serves me correctly its just a gimmick charging port, so you could recharge your phone using the battery in the seaboard rise.

[prismprocess]

Suppose you get a fast wifi dongle.....and plug it in to the normal usb port of the Seaboard then surely you could do this.......

The 'normal' usb port on the seaboard rise is not a host controller port, so that wont work. If memory serves me correctly its just a gimmick charging port, so you could recharge your phone using the battery in the seaboard rise.

Fair enough was just thinking out of the box. I have never used that one, I just assumed it was the same and only the connector type was different.

What about the usb-b one then? I have a USB 2.0 B Male <-> USB 2.0 A Female adapter. In theory that should work.

[SteveElbows]

What about the usb-b one then? I have a USB 2.0 B Male <-> USB 2.0 A Female adapter. In theory that should work.

Unless you are talking about some kind of special wifi dongle that acts as a usb host rather than a usb peripheral, then no, in theory that wont work at all either. Because changing the gender of the usb from male to female is not enough, you are still connecting two usb peripherals to eachother instead of a usb peripheral to a usb host.

[prismprocess]

What about the usb-b one then? I have a USB 2.0 B Male <-> USB 2.0 A Female adapter. In theory that should work.

Unless you are talking about some kind of special wifi dongle that acts as a usb host rather than a usb peripheral, then no, in theory that wont work at all either. Because changing the gender of the usb from male to female is not enough, you are still connecting two usb peripherals to eachother instead of a usb peripheral to a usb host.

I was thinking about Wi-Fi Direct. I'm sure there is a way whether or not that is it remains to be seen.

[Terrafractyl]

Well I'm pretty interested in getting the full version of Equator.

Just got my seaboard block a few days ago, and the equator player just wasn't what I wanted.

BUT synthmaster never did it for me, and Strobe seems fairly welll featured but again I remember trying it out a few years back and it didn't blow me away.... So I still feel like I need a fully MPE synth!
I was working on making something in Reaktor yesterday, but that will take some weeks or months and the sounds coming out of Equator player make me think it will be a worthy purchase... Anyone going to tell me why i shouldn't?

In terms of the Seaboard, I must say I am pretty impressed. Playing polysynths has never been so much fun!
Taking me a little while to get used to things like the pressure needed to keep the glide from retriggering new notes etc... but overall I am in

[tapper mike]

I'm fairly sure I didn't post that... Regardless....

I know it's expensive but I'd go with Starr Labs AirPower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2qIvp0GJqs

[pdxindy]

Equator now available for general sale!

what do owners think of equator as a synth?
Good sound quality? Flexible?


I'd be teaming it up with an Eigenharp and Soundplane, so MPE enabled

I've been intrigued with equator, but in the time they've take it to be released quite a few MPE enabled synths have been released.
Does it offer anything over ML synths, Falcon, u-he synths?

I'm curious about it too... to play with the Linnstrument.

[pdxindy]

The Linnstrument seems to have better build quality and has midi but seems better for people who want to do guitar on a controller where I actually play guitar. I haven't heard a single demo that doesn't sound clunky and I believe I have listened to pretty much every one online.

Here is an older video from winter NAMM 2015. Jordan Rudess trying out the Linnstrument for the first time. Doesn't sound clunky... even on the very first play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXstNdIEGPw