Roli Seaboard RISE

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6 of one half a dozen of the other.

A keyboard player doesn't have to relearn or learn a new instrument using a Seaboard.
From a guitarist's perspective the linnstrument everything is upside down and backwards for the left hand. Because I tap everything on the ztar the right hand learning experience has been minimal compared to the left. Yes it's well laid out.

With the linnstrument you have three primary chord "Shapes" It's all 1-3-5 order of notes but you can play that simple chord using three different forms. Once you learn the simple finger origami it transposes across all keys. The three shapes correspond to different fingerings as they would on a keyboard. The same holds true for scales. You have three different fingering approaches starting on the root and ending on the root. In that regard it's easier to learn than say learning the 5 scale positions. And yes easy to transpose across all 12 keys.

What's funny is that I developed several approaches to playing the ztar which...looked flashy and I could play fast/well involving using both hands for "pseudo sweeps/rakes" and more. Since I've gotten the linnstrument I've had little desire to pursue developing those approaches to the linn.

That's not to say I don't have my challenges. I spend a great deal of time trying to develop my left had rhythm and chords/scales. Much more so than my right. If you come from a guitar background and have no tapping experience you'll still play a better right hand then you thought possible


In many ways I wish I could have afforded a Starr Labs ZB2 rather then the linn.
The ZB2 is a 12x24 grid as opposed to an 8X25 grid. The extra octave and a half is the cat's pajamas to me. Yes I can use octave keys on the linn but I'd rather develop the fuller scaling. As well I'm less interested in row slides prolly because of my lifetime of playing bends and slides through various means on guitar. I'm also less interested in up/down Timbre. Although I use both quite often on the linn. The Z board does have velocity and pressure sensitivity Mostly with the ZB it's about the keys. The keys on the ZB are smaller and more rectangular. Which makes spanning the columns and scaling easier.

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It also makes for easier organ type gliss as well as spikes and what I refer to as "finger painting" approaches.

They (the linnstrument and the zb2) are apples and oranges. I'm more content with the linn for the most part until I win the lottery and can afford a Zboard.

I've had a lot of fun with the linnstrument and various virtual instruments however I find myself reaching for piano and organ plugins on most days. My goal isn't to run the instrument into a Daw and then mess around with multitrack ideas. I'm not fascinated by that anymore as I've been doing sound on sound and later 4 track recording since the 70's I'm much more interested in "soloist" "Chord/Melody" jazz in all of it's splendid forms.
Dell Vostro i9 64GB Ram Windows 11 Pro, Cubase, Bitwig, Mixcraft Guitar Pod Go, Linntrument Nektar P1, Novation Launchpad

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Just want to add that beside my troubles the support from Roli is outstanding and they try to solve everything. So the support team gets def. a 5 stars :D I´m a strange customer and their patience is very large :lol:
Thank you for that. :D

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Cinebient wrote:Just want to add that beside my troubles the support from Roli is outstanding and they try to solve everything. So the support team gets def. a 5 stars :D I´m a strange customer and their patience is very large :lol:
Thank you for that. :D
Good to know! :)
Blue Phase Music

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Cinebient wrote:Just want to add that beside my troubles the support from Roli is outstanding and they try to solve everything. So the support team gets def. a 5 stars :D I´m a strange customer and their patience is very large :lol:
Thank you for that. :D
Seconded!

I just bought a Rise 25 from them while I was traveling in the UK and had a bit of a hardware glitch. Nothing that kept it from playing, mind you, just an inability to update the firmware that ultimately seems to be a hardware problem. I traded about a half dozen emails back and forth with their tech support people in the space of a couple of hours, which is by far the most responsive email support I've ever received from a music hardware company.

Once it became clear that it really was a hardware problem, they offered to send me a new one and a mailing label to send the old one back, all shipping covered by them. That's doubly awesome, because I don't have to send the old one until the new one gets here, so I can keep playing with it! Not only that, I mentioned that I had wanted to buy a flip case bundle but they didn't have any in store, so they sold me a flip case at the bundle price (more than half off) and just threw it in with the replacement Rise so the shipping on it is free. Why is that such a big deal? Because I live in Australia, where shipping is never free, or even affordable, on anything. Ever.

All of that is just delicious icing on the cake that is my Seaboard, though. It feels amazing, and is every bit as expressive and cool as I thought it would be. I haven't been this pleased with a musical equipment purchase in many, many years.

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I think i have def. a faulty hardware. So i hope i will get a new one. There is a buggy overlap in between keywave D# and E when playing higher velocity on mine. So means when i press the D# (but only on the right side of the surface) and push it down it often jumps to E, even in piano mode which should not happen.
I have done all things and updated everything but it´s like a damaged key...point.
Maybe that´s the price of such a hybrid surface between keys and a touch surface.
Strange is that is also just happen in the middle of this keywave.
But it´s a no go for me. I hope it get´s solved or i get a new one because i want to enjoy it finally rather than waiting months for a fix.
I´m also pretty sure this can´t be fixed via software since it seems to be a hardware fault.
How i said, the support is great but if they can´t solve it soon..... :cry:
Not sure how the guarantee works here. I will try to contact the reseller (musicstore in this case) before the guarantee is over :? Not sure if even "damaged" keys are included.... :roll:

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Does anyone know if they plan on ever adding a way for users to map the 5 dimensions to other soft synth plugins, even if it's in a hacky way? I notice some people mentioning being able to map a dimension to pitch bend; is that giving you 3 dimensions for third party synths, in that case?

I'm strong considering purchasing the Rise, but I can't justify the cost if I'm stuck using just their one synth. It does look like a high quality and full-featured synth, but I still don't like being limited.

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That should all be midi learn cc on your plugin. Somethings I still prefer faders, pots, touchstrips for. Though lets not forget that softstep is still on the market and imho seriously underrated.
Dell Vostro i9 64GB Ram Windows 11 Pro, Cubase, Bitwig, Mixcraft Guitar Pod Go, Linntrument Nektar P1, Novation Launchpad

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Cyclomatic wrote:Does anyone know if they plan on ever adding a way for users to map the 5 dimensions to other soft synth plugins, even if it's in a hacky way? I notice some people mentioning being able to map a dimension to pitch bend; is that giving you 3 dimensions for third party synths, in that case?

I'm strong considering purchasing the Rise, but I can't justify the cost if I'm stuck using just their one synth. It does look like a high quality and full-featured synth, but I still don't like being limited.
Roli , like Haken, Eigenlabs, Roger Linn and Madrona Labs, supports both MPE and VpC midi, which many other soft synths support.

I think Roli misleading describes 5D, since the others marketed 3D , since only 3 are continuous, (and 5>3 :dog: ) ... Roli's 'extra' 2d, strike and lift, are what every one else calls velocity and release velocity, which are supported by many synths/controllers.

anyway, the upshot is.. since none of this is new (or unique) to Roli , there are a good number of synths out there supporting it already... I think Roger Linn's list is probably as good a list as any, though still incomplete ;)

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/ls-mpe-synths.html
Last edited by thetechnobear on Mon May 16, 2016 12:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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oops double post

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I bought a Roli Seaboard Rise 49 on Saturday. It's deffo a nifty piece of gear that I look upon as a nice addition to all my other keyboards. It will never replace any ordinary keyboard, but for situations where you need that extra expression it's unbeatable (considering it's reasonable price tag).

1. The downside as far as I'm concerned are
The included soft synth is a CPU-hog, they need to make it more CPU-efficient if it's to be included in larger projects (Cubase etc...).

2. It's very dark. OK - I can play it utter darkness because I've been playing keyboards for 52 years.. however - then you also relize that my eyes are not what they once were.. to play it with easey I'm placing a light source that enhances the shadow effect of the keywaves. I'd like Roli to add a power-output to the extra USB connector.. for attaching a small LED thingy to light up and enhance the contrast of the keywaves.

Playing the iPAD NOISE software via Bluetooth worked well.. until I connected the iPAD via HDMI to my TV.. it's fun to sit in the comfy chair and play it in my living room, but the HDMI connection proved to add unacceptable latency. No big deal really.. it was just for practice.


That aside - I'm having a lot of fun with this device.
Computermuso since intel8086
http://www.fivelsdal.no/

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Regarding CPU.
Disable animations and see if this helps. It's in the top right menu. The GUI shows the effect of modulation on each and every assigned parameter, which consumes CPU. There is an option that disables this which should help. Once switched off in one instance, it will affect and disable parameter animation for all loaded instances in your DAW.
http://www.electric-himalaya.com
VSTi and hardware synth sound design
3D/5D sound design since 2012

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I finally got around to installing NOISE on my iPad. It is really fairly awesome how my RISE 49 instantly connects over Bluetooth and boom, just like that I'm making music on the Seaboard and iPad, everything wireless and battery powered. It would be great if I could load my own Equator patches into NOISE, but I'm guessing that isn't possible, since they also sell in-app patch banks.
Incomplete list of my gear: 1/8" audio input jack.

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himalaya wrote:Regarding CPU.
Disable animations and see if this helps. It's in the top right menu. The GUI shows the effect of modulation on each and every assigned parameter, which consumes CPU. There is an option that disables this which should help. Once switched off in one instance, it will affect and disable parameter animation for all loaded instances in your DAW.
Thanks a lot. Good tip! I will try that. :)
Computermuso since intel8086
http://www.fivelsdal.no/

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But I also wanted to be able to have the absolute position of my finger (slide) on the key sent... This would allow me to, say, strike the key farther back to achieve a different initial sound (cutoff) than if I strike up front...
I agree. I have a Rise 25 and exchanging it for a 49 I love it so much.

I've been thinking it's a missed trick here. How great would it be to get cutoff by where on the key you played?

I wouldn't always want this but I hope they hear us and can offer a mode or something...

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wilcofan wrote:
But I also wanted to be able to have the absolute position of my finger (slide) on the key sent... This would allow me to, say, strike the key farther back to achieve a different initial sound (cutoff) than if I strike up front...
I've been thinking it's a missed trick here. How great would it be to get cutoff by where on the key you played?

I wouldn't always want this but I hope they hear us and can offer a mode or something...
so the Y position is only relative to where the initial touch is placed?

is this only in equator? has anyone looked at the midi messages it spits out? or tried it with another MPE enabled synth? (e.g. Falcon, Strobe 2, Aalto etc)

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