ROLI Seaboard Block Wireless Keyboard Controller

When it comes to expression, nothing I've tried beats the Seaboard. If you haven't experienced a Seaboard before, it can be a little weird and awkward at first, but once you realize the potential this things has, you can't wait to explore all the possibilities. Rather than keys, it has a soft silicone membrane shaped like keys, and unlike other experimental expressive keyboards I own this one is highly accurate in all dimensions. It is in fact more accurate to strike velocity and after touch than my Akai Max 49, Korg MicroKey 61, QuNexus and my CME Xkey 37. That says a lot.I owned the Roli Seaboard Rise 49 for about 3 months before this little guy was announced, so I already knew what to expect, but the Rise 49 doesn't fall under my definition of portable, so it never leaves my studio. This little guy fits perfectly in my every day bag along with my iPad, and on days I don't wanna deal with traffic I just go to a beautiful park and make music after work for an hour or two.I highly advice that you buy the Roli Touch Block along with this Seaboard, as it allows instant tactile control of all 5 touch dimensions, sensitivity lock, and a slide/keyboard switch, which I think is crucial.PROS:1. Tons of expression, this instrument is truly inspiring.2. PC and MAC compatibility and high level of customization through Roli Dashboard.3. Equator Player patches sound incredible.4. iOS Bluetooth compatible, just turn on, pair, and play wireless.5. 10 hour battery life is fantastic.NEUTRAL: (Both Pro and Con)1. Cost: It's pricier than your average 25 key portable MIDI keyboard, but what you get is totally worth the money.2. MPE (Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression) compatibility is yet not implemented in a lot of DAWs, and only compatible with a few Synths. It's a little difficult to get it working with Ableton, but it works. With plugin synths where MPE is not compatible, you can turn it off, or make tweaks with Roli Dashboard to make your own version of it, but this is not easy to do for the inexperienced.3. iOS App Compatibility is limited, I can't get this to work with synths like Sunrizer, and iM1, but works fine with others like Animoog, Thor, Model 15, GeoShred. Other synths work but get weird results, Poseidon recognizes it, but modulates the frequency of all patches in a way that makes them unplayable. This is a neutral point because it's not all the devices fault, the manufacturers of the Synths should update to include compatibility, or allow MIDI editing so modulation can be corrected. I just don't want you to buy this thing and expect it to work with everything, it doesn't. Adaptation will take time, this is new technology.4. You lose a key. I think pretty much all 2 octave MIDI controllers have 25 keys (2 octaves + 1 more C note at the end.) The Seaboard Block has 24 keys, no C note at the end. I sometimes get a little frustrated by this, and do miss that last note. This is obviously a Con, but I'm putting it here in the neutral category because if they added that last C note, you'd end up with a retarded keyboard if you stacked 2 Seaboard Blocks or more. Think about it, I'd be hilariously bad. (A# B C C C#) LOL!CONS:1. The soft silicone surface attracts dust, I honestly don't mind, but it is a noticeable thing.2. Can't physically be connect directly to iPad without a powered hub in the middle, although this is more a limitation of iOS than the Seaboard. However, Bluetooth works really well, and the lag, while noticeable to me, doesn't really affect me playing it at all. I only notice the lag because I have experience testing latency, most people won't be able to tell at all.3. Comes with Equator Player instead of the full version of Equator.4. UPDATED: THIS ISSUE WAS FIXED, IAA IS NOW A THING. ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME ROLI.(LEAVING THIS FOR REFERENCE: Roli Noise, the free iOS app with all the amazing sounds, does not have AB (AudioBus) or IAA (Inter App Audio) compatibility. Meaning you can't record anything you play outside of their app, nor import anything into it. No Garage Band, no Auria Pro, no Cubasis, no nothing. This is honestly a bit infuriating for me because it breaks my mobile workflow, and Noise has such amazing sounds that I would love to be able to include in the songs I make on my iPad. C'mon Roli, this is really important for iOS musicians, fix it so I can remove this CON and love you long time.)I can't recommend this to a complete beginner (unless you're very tech savvy or willing to spend time learning and experimenting), but this is a solid creative musical instrument to intermediate or experienced musicians.If you found this helpful, please hit like so we can keep this at the top. :)

The media could not be loaded.  The keybed feels amazing, squishy and soft. But it gets dirty very fast from dust and skin cells. The unit itself is nicely weighted, but tends to slide around a bit even with its rubberized bottom. The Equator app that it comes standard with leaves a lot to be desired. The soft-synth patches are just not that interesting save for s few. You barely get any free String patches as well. As for hardware devices like Analog synths, they have tutorials on their website but they lack a lot of detail. It feels like it was written by someone who knows what their talking about but is failing to explain to someone that doesn’t know even the basics of how to get it working. Maybe some YouTube tutorials would help. The body of the unit is magnetic and has little prongs to connect to other Blocks, this is an issue because it can latch on to other gear and scrap it, be warned. Battery life good, well made. But I question how long this material and the top texture can last. With fingernails and everything deeply embedding to get the modulations out of it.

After a month of light use and kept in a protective case the rubber is peeling off on the bottom right corner of the keyboard exposing the insides. The keyboard is fun to play, very expressive and you can get a little lost in a good way playing with it.Edit - Replacement coming, ROLI gifted full version of equator for the inconvenience, will review again after seeing if the replacement fares any better or if it was just a defective unit.

This "keyboard" midi interface is very interesting. I ordered the block version to see if I wanted the full size one and it sold me. Quite the learning experience. While based on a keyboard form factor, it is more like a keyboard shaped/textured touch pad. I like this little guy specifically because it will allow mobility when I want to take it somewhere. The only thing I don't like about the block is that is is NOT a full 2 octaves. I want that high C. No, it can not replace a regular keyboard. It is forcing me to learn computer midi operations and software manipulations that I have put off for so many years when I could simply sit down at a piano, or synthesizer with presets. I recommend the Roli, but it does not replace a regular keyboard. It is an expressive midi interface.

This thing amazes me every time I play it. My only complaint is without shelling out another $80 you cannot make custom 5d sounds for this thing. Yes you can use it in limited functionality to control other software synths, but Equator is the only program designed to fully utilize MPE (midi polyphonic expression) with 5 dimensions of expression. The equator player is so limited its frustrating because some sounds will play smooth as silk while others have limited functionality and less expressiveness. Also there is no way to "favorite" a sound in the equator player, so if you like a sound you better write it down on a piece of paper to find it later. They really should give users a full version of equator with this, and just keep the IOS noise app free, imagine all of the crazy sounds that would appear on the scene if EVERY roli owner had the power to make their own custom sounds! How about instead of knocking $50 off the price next year, add equator full to the package!

Awesome product. I wish I could find tutorials for it, but doesn't seem to be any. That said, having no tutorials kinda makes it's newness more exciting.You definitely will need to pay for Strobe 2 upgrade (~$80).

In the end I have opted to return this. This is mostly because I don't really like the feel and action of the keyboard - something that is not easy to test when buying online. There are also some other issues: the product comes minimally packaged in the "iphone style" - and this means very minimally documented. That is a real shame because not only are the basics missing (how to find the "on" switch was my first problem) - but there is a missing chance to explain how the instrument can be used.The keyboard looks very minimalist - but would benefit greatly from more in the way of a display. For example there is nothing to tell you which octave you are on - very important when playing an instrument with a limited set of keys like this. I would encourage potential buyers to download the "Noise" application for free to iOs. This lets you hear the sounds that are provided with the Equilibrium in its default state.There undoubtedly some ways in which the seaboard wins out over ordinary keyboards or onscreen touch keyboards in terms of expressiveness - it can do some things that these other devices simply cannot. But it was not for me.

I am sorry to say, as a professional sound engineer and music producer, I cannot bare this produc in so many different aspects.very difficult to work with specially with Logic X or any DAW,the expression of the key is killing your creation instead if making any.the bult quality seems vey good but and I tried to convince myself to keep it but it is no no no.don’t try it if you think it gives you more options to your creativity

I bought this because I wanted a keyboard that offered more control when playing or recording instrumental parts such as orchestral sounds.I have to say that the Roli does this admirably. The after-touch pressure can be used to control expression, which enables instruments such as string samples to be played intuitively and... well, more expressively.One downside- the keyboard is not compatible with all VST instruments. It can be used with Kontakt and Omnisphere, once you have spent time figuring out how to configure it (there are many helpful YouTube videos on the subject) but does not integrate with East-West's Play software. It works best of all with Roli's own VSTs, but you are then limited solely to the sounds that they produce- some of which are very good.Don't expect to play it like a normal keyboard. You probably weren't expecting to anyway, but if, like me, you're primarily a pianist, stick to a regular keyboard if you want to play piano or other traditional keyboard sounds.A hugely important feature, and one which I will enjoy exploring further, is the pitch control strips, which run along the top and bottom of the keyboard. These allow you to play glissandi from one note to another, or can be used to play the keyboard without using the keys at all, rather like an Ondes Martenot. As far as I know, there is no other instrument in existence today that allows you to do this.Conclusion: I like it. Its unique features make it a good complement to a more traditional keyboard, and I will, not doubt, become better versed at playing it as time goes on.

Da es bereits etliche Rezensionen im Netz gibt gibt’s von meiner Seite nur ein paar Anmerkungen/Ergänzungen und keine vollständige Rezension.Gleich vorweg: Ich wollte den Controller in erster Linie mit dem iPad verwenden. Zur PC-Nutzung kann ich gar nichts sagen. Und obwohl der Controller eigentlich gar nicht schlecht ist, haben mir ein paar Dinge dann doch nicht so gefallen. Als da wären:Je nachdem welche App man verwendet, reagieren die virtuellen Instrumente unterschiedlich auf die Anschlagstärke. Im Extremfall hört man nichts, so dass man in der Roli „Noise“ App die Druckempfindlichkeit zunächst einstellen muss. Und genau da liegt das Problem: Sobald ich eine andere App bzw. ein anderes Instrument auswähle muss ich erneut die Empfindlichkeit ändern bzw. auf das jeweilige Instrument anpassen. Es gibt leider keine speicherbaren Profile. Auf Dauer ist das sehr nervig.Daneben störte mich die Bluetooth Latenz, die bei schnellem Spiel perkussiver Instrumente doch stärker wahrnehmbar ist, als erhofft.Und als letzten Kritikpunkt tue ich mich mit dem Keyboard-Layout schwer. Ich kann mich nicht wirklich damit anfreunden, dass man dort, wo sich auf einem traditionellen Keyboard zwei weiße Tasten nebeneinander befinden (ohne schwarze Taste dazwischen), auf dem Seaboard plötzlich eine Taste dazwischen gequetscht wurde (z.B. zwischen den Noten „H“ und „C“, wobei die zusätzliche Taste den gleichen Ton abspielt wie die „H-Taste“, man spielt also auf zwei nebeneinanderliegenden Tasten denselben Ton! Entweder habe ich da was völlig missverstanden, oder das ist tatsächlich Teil des Konzepts. In der Roli-Seaboard-App ist das übrigens nicht möglich. Man kann die Taste dort schlichtweg nicht anspielen, so als würde sie nicht existieren! Ehrlich gesagt weiß ich nicht, was ich davon halten soll.

I have changed my review on the seaboard after owing it for some time now, its a waste of money, doesn't work like it should, over priced, after buying the full version of software I only had 64 presets and half of them are the same as you get 5D sounds and none 5D sounds so I payed nearly £500 for software and keyboard for a mere 32 sounds, there is no customer support as im still waiting after raising a ticket, its been a few months, also on the forum o there site what ever you post has to be okayed by a moderator so you can't say what ever you want, that's why you only have good things on the site about there products, I would never in a million years buy another roli products.