Roli: Equator 2 is here !

[Ploki]

no, their support really went to shit.
Check out this timeline, the last one with them:
14. feb: opened ticked for unglued seaboard block
19. feb: they request proof of purchase etc etc
5. march: I reply with all the documents necessary (i was at seaside at the moment and didn't have stuff at hand)
12. march: they reply they're gonna get back to me with return labels
23. march: I poke them
17. april: i poke them again
20. may: they answer with return labels, i send right away
22. june: i poke them where's my replacement
29. june: i poke them again
7. july: i poke them again
15. july: i poke them again
22. july: they reply with some apologies and how my replacement is in queue. (While there's block stock everywhere and they announce studio edition and idk what else)
21. august: i finally get the replacement shipped to me.

When i first bought the Rise25 in 2016, their support was absolutely stellar. After that, they had a few long responses and some issue but i thought it's just a rough patch.
now i'm completely uninterested. I haven't installed Equator 1, and i'm not gonna buy Equator 2 for same upgrade price as everyone else if i have a rise, block, lightpad M and dev kit, especially since there's radio silence on M1 compatibility - so i'm not holding my breath for that either.

too bad.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Does it normally take a week or so for ROLI support to reply or am I getting special treatment...

I’m so disappointed with this company, last time I emailed them it took nearly two weeks for them to get in touch. Poor!

It depends on the support group it seems. I had quite prompt support when I needed to return my Lumi (because I wanted the studio edition instead). They answered in a couple days. But as my previous posts indicate, it's been really bad (for me) with Equator.

[srcodling]

Well, all the troubles described in this topic, along with the $99 upgrade price, kept me away from Equator 2 until yesterday. But with it being the last day of the upgrade special pricing, and perhaps because it was payday Friday, I took the plunge and hoped that the bugs were fixed... They weren't:
- Equator 2 showed up in my Roli Connect
- installed fine
- tried to boot (both VST and standalone) but got the "Oh No" page saying that Roli Connect wasn't running so as to confirm authorization
- in fact, though, it WAS running (that was how I installed it)
- quit Connect, started it back up - nothing fixed
- logged out of Connect, logged back in - nothing fixed
- waited 3 hours, tried all the above again - nothing fixed
- sent a ticket
- surprisingly, by this morning (PST) I'd gotten a response already (so no long waits as some have experienced)
- however, despite my ticket saying that I'd logged out and logged in, this was the recommended advice from support
- I replied saying that tech support that suggests things I've already said I tried isn't helpful
- I tried booting up Equator 2 again and now it works
- ???????
- so YAY! it works and the sound design is awesome
- but I still don't know WHY it works, other than that when I emailed tech support again to say that it works even though I didn't do anything ("Did YOU do something on your end?") all I got was a cryptic "We're aware of the bug and it will be fixed in a Roli Connect update".

In summary, my experience was similar to some on here:
- the purchasing and authorization process was painful, time-consuming, irritating and something I haven't experienced in years and years of buying VSTs
- the quality of the sound design and the instrument means it probably was kind of worth it...
- but seriously, ROLI, why are you screwing up your brand image like this? I love my Rise25 and want to support you, but stuff like this is just beyond the pale...

[Ploki]

i'd sell my roli gear, but i love rise25 and i find the lightpad m just too handy.

[mikepemulis]

i got the Oh No screen too and contacted their support team, sounds like it will be fixed soon from what they told me

[jazzmess]

I had it also, disconnected and reconnected and opened the standalone, then it did fine in Bitwig, no problems so far.

[Ou_Tis]

Guess there will be an announcement when Equator2 / Roli Studio samples can finally be stored on a secondary hard drive?... The delay has been ridiculous. It shouldn't be a difficult problem. This is standard. Not buying anything more from Roli until this is fixed.

[Cinebient]

Sadly I also must say that Roli gone in a direction that I am not interested anymore in any of their hardware and software but I will see what they do in the future.
I also remember support was super great and friendly (but still not very useful at the end). I also got a replacement once, but it was easy and fast. Their software is buggy as hell sadly, the Rise 25 is build like a tank and so but the provided software isn't that great as it should (for my taste).
They also seems to pretty fast forget about things and go the the next new shiny bling bling thing.

[Dirk Diggler]

I still can't get over the fact that you can't use Program Changes to change sounds in Equator 2.
Fine if your setup is right on top of the computer, in my case the computer is across the studio room. So auditioning sounds is a painful trot across the studio.
They claim they are working on it, yet my tickets seem to just disappear.

[Noumena]

I love my rise 49. I bought a 5 year 3rd party warrantee with mine, which was expensive: about $280. It was the best $280 I've ever spent. Guitar Center (as long as they stay in business) either replaces my unit with one from their stock, no questions asked, or refunds all my money if they can't.

I would never, ever ever buy a ROLI if I needed to rely on their support/service. My RISE Block came DOA and they took **five months** to get me another one, which was used, didn't come with software, etc. That said: with the 5 year warrantee I am pretty happy. I hope that they stick around and get things stable... I don't know what I would do without mine.

[ehdyn]

Not much to add, just wanted to counterbalance things a bit by saying I'm really happy with Equator 2 and my Seaboard..
Had some issues and Roli took care of me better than I thought they would.. Equator 2 is a friggin' beast synthesizer.. basically what MassiveX should've been imo.

The way I finally got into the Seaboard was by getting high one day and just not approaching it as a piano style midi controller anymore.. once I was able to let that go, and start letting the sound guide how I interact with the sensor/surface I was able to put all my old massage skills to use.. used to be a licensed therapist and we're trained how to skillfully apply precise pressure for long periods of time by adjusting heights, angles, diameters, etc.. really helps to get the most out of these things.

Sounds odd, but that's what finally made it click for me and I'm looking forward to whatever they do next and hoping the tie-up with Bitwig and Max/MSP, Reaktor, etc.. continues and strengthens.

Wish that all of my FXpansion stuff would get transferred over to my Roli account or vice-versa once and for all but not a big deal really. Also, looking forward to the promised update for Cypher and Strobe where its supports expansions and presets but again no biggie.

Another nice thing would be if they actually incorporated higher dimensional geometry 4D, 5D, etc.. into their products rather than just the kind of marketing angle they take now.. I've got some ideas about how to do this and am creating systems/methods in Max and Reaktor to do this for my own needs.. but it would be nice to have more support for physics and wacky stuff from them.. more off the wall approaches would be welcomed but I guess they don't want to turn people off with even more complexity.

Overall, just happy I can do things that would be really tricky without their products and hope they keep pushing forward despite the complexity and troubles along the way.

[Echoes in the Attic]

They keep closing my support tickets. I was asked a question and then they never replied after saying they would advise on next steps. Maybe something is wrong with their email system or something. I don't know but it's annoying.

[BONES]

I love my rise 49. I bought a 5 year 3rd party warrantee with mine, which was expensive: about $280. It was the best $280 I've ever spent. Guitar Center (as long as they stay in business) either replaces my unit with one from their stock, no questions asked, or refunds all my money if they can't.

And how many times have you had to take advantage of that? We'll see how clever your $280 warranty purchase was after the five years has elapsed. I always see those kinds of things as con-jobs and I bet GC get a big commission on every one they sell.

I would never, ever ever buy a ROLI if I needed to rely on their support/service.

I wouldn't buy anything if I'd have to rely on the service of the company I bought it from. I buy stuff with the presumption that it will just work and keep on working for as long as I need it it. So far, I am well over two years in with Roli and I am completely happy with the six hardware products I have purchased, and with the software I got as part of that deal.

My RISE Block came DOA and they took **five months** to get me another one, which was used, didn't come with software, etc. That said: with the 5 year warrantee I am pretty happy. I hope that they stick around and get things stable... I don't know what I would do without mine.

Did you buy direct from Roli? I always try to buy from a local reseller so if something is DOA, I can just take it back to the shop and get another one on the spot. Over the (many) years, I've found that stuff either works or it doesn't. I can't think of any occasion when something has broken several months or years in but I've had a few things that just wouldn't switch on when I took them out of the box.

I'm a very happy Roli customer and look forward to being able to buy a Lumi Keys or two when they are finally available in Australia.

[Examigan]

I would like to be able to turn the retrigger of oscs on or off if I want. I asked them about that and they said it's on their feature request list.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Yeah looks like something is wrong with email responses. They don't get support ticket responses via email (at least not from me), they only get the replies if it's through their site. Maybe microsoft mail app problem or something. So they closed the ticket because they didn't get a reply.