Equator Player has become part of ROLI Studio Player, with new features like Smart Chords and a multi-layered Arpeggiator, as well as combining the Strobe2 and Cypher2 Players into one, unified plugin. Think of ROLI Studio Player as the next generation of the older Players! The ROLI Studio software suite is a comprehensive platform for creative potential, offering inspirational features such as Smart Chords, Multi-Layered Arpeggio, and Macros, all specifically tailored to enhance musical output and production. ROLI Studio Player provides a curated selection of 400 distinctive sounds and presets sourced from ROLI’s powerful sound engines. Let’s move on to the Studio Drums application. This presents itself as a simpler‑looking cousin of the Studio Player. There’s a selection of preset kits, each containing 16 sounds on a traditional four‑by‑four grid. A generous selection of individual parts is provided, any of which can be swapped onto any of the grid pads. ROLI Studio Player has over 500 sounds, 300+ of which are specifically designed to work with the Seaboard's 5 dimensions of touch. Things get more complicated when we look at the Lightpad’s velocity, pressure and location sensing. Sustained pressure and finger movement warp the basic sounds in different timbral directions, adding a variety of modulation and effects depending on the preset. While drums aren’t known for their sustain, Noise’s drum sounds either contain a continuous sound component, which can be modulated, or come with some kind of internal delay line to add rhythmic or stuttered effects. And the patterns in the groove kits mutate into different forms depending on finger position. I’m reminded very much of my experiments with various models of Korg Kaoss Pad, or of the sounds I’ve heard coming out of a Korg Wavedrum.

RISE 2: Features 49 Keywave2 keys, designed for detailed expression and control, suitable for both studio and stage environments. It's larger in size, catering to comprehensive play and professional use, and finished in a Platinum Blue metal chassis. Yes – the Octave Switch buttons double as preset switches. Simply hold the Mode button and press the lower or upper Octave Switch button. RISE, for the uninitiated, is a keyboard like no other. It features Keywaves, which replace standard keyboard keys. You get 12 per octave as on a regular keyboard and you can even play them like a regular keyboard – but you’d be missing out on a few extra dimensions, because what makes RISE stand out is the way you play it. With ‘Five Dimensions Of Touch’ you can Strike, Glide, Slide, Press and Lift keys, adding several new layers to your playing and performing.Rather impressively, both the chord generation and arpeggiation are indicated not only in Studio Player’s keyboard display, but also on the LUMI itself, flashing up pink keys for the chords and yellow for the arpeggios, against blue highlights showing the chosen scale. Until and unless everyone buys a LUMI and this effect becomes old hat, it would look pretty impressive on stage. Durable design that has been refined to withstand the rigours of touring and extended studio sessions. Yes. ROLI reformed as Luminary ROLI in 2021. This restructuring brought new investment and a renewed commitment to create and support the very best MPE instruments and software. We are in a better position than ever to deliver the very best expressive instruments available. Downstream from the chord generator is the arpeggiator. In fact, Studio Player sports three arpeggiators running in parallel, each individually configurable from the same selection of parameters. You can select how many hits you want out of a cycle of 16 — they are distributed evenly over time in the style of a Euclidian sequencer — and the hits are indicated in a circular graphic. The pattern of hits can be shifted in time, in case you want to offset arpeggiators against one another. And the rate (note division) and octave range can be varied for each. There’s a note‑timing control (straight/triplet/dotted) and a range of pitch patterns (up, down, random and so on).

With these dimensions, sounds can be warped, pitched, and moulded in pretty much any way you like; and these sounds come from either the Equator soft synth, which runs as a regular plug-in, the ROLI Noise app (one that runs on iOS via Bluetooth, if you wish) or any compatible soft synth. By ‘compatible’, we mean that it has to respond to these extra dimensions via MIDI, so has to be MPE (Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression) compatible. No, only LUMI Keys is compatible with the LUMI Music App. — I’m a professional musician / influencer and I’d love to make content for you. How can I submit a partnership / collaboration proposal? Compared to the keyboard‑oriented Studio Player, The three parameter faders are per part, though there’s no accompanying X‑Y control with the two additional parameters. The global effects section is exactly as in Studio Player, across the entire kit. You’ll need some kind of Seaboard if you want to explore all of the sonic performance options that MPE-based instruments offer, and this is the cheapest. If you just want to play regular synths, you can make do with a regular keyboard, but these things do push a boundary in sound well worth exploring.

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Yes. Since the launch of the first Seaboard RISE in 2015, the number of music software companies adopting MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) has grown considerably. Depending on your DAW, you may be able to capture the MIDI notes generated from the chording and arpeggiation. Some experimentation revealed that capturing chords and arpeggiator output worked fine, but the MPE expression data caused issues: MPE glide for chords got turned into plain pitch‑bend by Ableton Live and ignored completely by Bitwig Studio. ROLI have taken their forward-thinking multitouch technology and applied it to an imaginative modular control system. Advanced customization of keywave response through a firmware upgrade, offering more nuanced MPE control.