Claude can now be plugged into Ableton to assist with your music projectsClaude – the AI assistant and chatbot from Anthropic – can now be directly plugged into Ableton, as well as a raft of other creative platforms, including Blender and Photoshop.
The move follows the launch of Claude Design, a new product by Anthropic Labs that lets you collaborate with Claude to create “polished visual work” like designs, one-pagers and more.
With the new set of connectors for Claude, the popular chatbot is able to plug into Ableton, and act as an AI assistant within your music projects. Anthropic says its partnership with a “coalition of partners” – which also includes Blender, Adobe (Photoshop and Premiere Pro) and Affinity by Canva.

READ MORE: Focusrite unveils ISA C8X, its first ISA audio interface built on Rupert Neve’s preamp legacy

Interestingly, Splice is also named in the list of brands integrating Claude into its products. It means producers can now search Splice’s catalogue of royalty-free samples directly within Claude.
According to a blog post on the Anthropic website, within these platforms, Claude can be used in a variety of ways. Users can ask Claude complex questions about the software, with the chatbot acting as a virtual tutor to help you better understand your workflow.
Elsewhere, Claude Code can write scripts, plugins, and generative systems for these platforms.
And perhaps most importantly for creatives, Claude can be used to take care of manual, repetitive tasks that get in the way of the creative process.
“Claude can’t replace taste or imagination, but it can open up new ways of working – faster and more ambitious ideation, a more expansive skillset, and the ability for creatives to take on larger-scale projects,” Anthropic says [via The Verge]. 
“AI can also help shoulder the parts of the creative process that eat up time by handling repetitive tasks and eliminating manual toil.”
Check out the video below for a walkthrough on how to integrate Claude into Splice:

Anthropic has also now become a Corporate Patron of the Blender Development Fund, helping the open-source platform to stay free, and to allow developers to “keep pursuing projects independently, and to focus on building tools for artists and creators”. Anthropic will give Blender €240,000 every year.
The post Claude can now be plugged into Ableton to assist with your music projects appeared first on MusicTech.

iZotope RX 12’s focus on improved accuracy and quality pays offElements: $99
Standard: $399 (update from RX 11 Standard $129)
Advanced: $1399 (update from RX 11 Advanced $269)
iZotope.com
Despite impressing me upon its launch in May 2024, RX 11 had already gained a patina of age bycthe turn of the year thanks to the ever-growing crop of machine-learning-based audio tools hitting the market.

READ MORE: Steinberg’s new SpectraLayers 12 has “a strong focus on the needs of the post-production industry”

Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro is RX’s closest competitor — it quickly trumped RX 11 with its own v11 release in June 2024, followed a year later by the even more impressive Pro 12. Also, given one of RX’s biggest draws is its stem-splitting tools, the growth and quality of services such as LANDR Stems and LALAL.AI, not to mention native stem splitting within DAWs, had made RX 11’s stem splitting look – and sound – increasingly tardy in comparison.
This left users wondering how and when iZotope was going to respond, and what that response would look like. Well, wonder no more because RX 12 is here. Is there enough in the update for it to regain its premiere position? Let’s see…
Image: Press
What’s new in iZotope RX 12?
The obligatory user interface update expected of all software updates is, in RX 12’s case, fairly subtle. So much so that one aspect flagged by iZotope – namely a larger spectrogram – is so marginal that I wouldn’t have noticed had it not been pointed out. Nevertheless, features such as an ever-present monitor volume slider, resizable History panel, and a small reworking of the colour palette, make for a pleasing refresh.
I’m more interested in the consequential stuff, though, and here there’s a lot more meat on the bones…
The majority of processing modules now offer difference (delta) monitoring/processing, which reverses what is output from the module. For example, with Dialogue Isolate, engaging difference processing means the dialogue will be removed from the audio, leaving background noise. While this is handy as a way of extending the functionality of modules (sticking with the example, Dialogue Isolate also becomes Background Foley Isolate!), it’s perhaps most useful when configuring module parameters, making it easier to judge the impact of those parameters.
Moving to specific modules, there’s an all-new Trim Silence processor that’s particularly useful when editing podcasts, voiceover tracks and field recordings, making it easier to move between sections of dialogue (or whatever you’ve recorded) during editing. It’s a big time-saver too and, unlike stripping silence in a non-destructive environment like a DAW or NLE, Trim Silence produces entirely new – and often much smaller – audio files, and so can significantly reduce the total file size of a project.
Trim Silence in iZotope RX 12. Image: Adam Crute
Machine learning enhancements in RX 12
Of course, RX’s biggest attractions are its various machine-learning-powered rebalancing and separation modules. New here is the Scene Rebalance module, which does for video production what Music Rebalance does for music production. The new module recognises dialogue, music and effects, allowing the volumes of these elements to be rebalanced in-place or split into separate audio streams. This it does with an impressive degree of accuracy and a minimum of audible artefacts. Moreover, as with all of RX’s separators, Scene Rebalance is 100% lossless – that is, if you separate a source and play it back alongside a phase-reversed copy of the original audio, all you hear is silence. Unfortunately, Scene Rebalance is only included in RX 12 Advanced, the pricing of which I’ll return to later.
Music Rebalance and Dialogue Isolate, whose results had not kept up with those of competing stem separators, now deliver markedly higher quality than previously – as convincing as any I’ve heard! I’m somewhat disappointed that Music Rebalance can still only recognise vocals, drums, bass and ‘other’, but this is because iZotope’s focus was on improving the quality and accuracy of separation in RX 12, something it’s achieved effectively. Extended instrument recognition is very-much on RX’s development roadmap, however.
Scene Rebalance in iZotope RX 12. Image: Adam Crute
The De-bleed and Breath Control modules have both received ground-up rebuilds to embed ML-based features within them. In De-bleed’s case, this allows the module to automatically isolate a variety of common sources from the mic-bleed captured from other instruments, thereby saving you from having to train the module yourself (although this mode is still available). With Breath Control, machine learning makes for a far faster setup, and much more accurate recognition and removal of unwanted breath sounds than previously. Once again, the classic operation mode is still available for those who want to use it.
Alongside improved results, the overhauled ML processing is noticeably faster than previously, even when operating at the highest quality level. For example, splitting a 4’30” test mix in RX 11 took around 2’30”, but the same task in RX 12 took around 1’45”. The results sounded significantly better too. Not only does this mean less thumb-twiddling, it’s also allowed Music Rebalance and Dialogue Isolate to join the suite of real-time RX plugins that can be used natively in a DAW. Nice!
De-bleed in iZotope RX 12. Image: Adam Crute
Stems View
Another common gripe about RX’s stem splitting has been that separated stems are opened in their own tabs. Playback of those tabs could of course be synchronised, but editing meant a lot of fiddling and switching between different screens.
RX 12 addresses this with a new Stems View that displays stems as lanes within a single tab. Lanes can be muted and soloed as needed, and selections – both time and frequency – affect all lanes simultaneously. When you need detailed control over a single stem, you can select that stem from a dropdown menu to switch to a standard full-window view of the audio. Not only is Stems View infinitely better than how previous RX versions handled things, it’s more natural and intuitive than the approach taken by SpectraLayers.
Stems View is also massively useful when working with RX as an ARA plugin in your DAW. Annoyingly, though, RX 12 still only supports ARA in Apple Logic and PreSonus Studio One 7 / Fender Studio Pro 8. Extended ARA support is on iZotope’s to-do list, though.
Stem Split View in iZotope RX 12. Image: Adam Crute
What’s the difference between the different RX 12 editions?
As previously, RX 12 comes in three editions. Elements is the most affordable, providing a set of six RX plugins for use in your DAW, although the standalone RX audio editor and modules are not included. Elements is useful for dealing with common problems like clicks and hums, and includes the Repair Assistant that combines various types of corrective processing into a single plugin.
RX 12 Standard is solid value, including the standalone editor and the vast majority of RX modules along with their plugin counterparts. It only lacks the processors and modules aimed at TV and film post-production – Scene Rebalance, Ambience Match, and so on.
These additional modules are only found in RX Advanced, but are they really worth an additional $1000 over the cost of Standard? They’re impressive tools, for sure, and aren’t widely useful in a music production context, but they are useful to podcasters, streamers, independent filmmakers, and many others who wouldn’t have access to the big studio budgets this pricing assumes. Given that RX isn’t the only rooster in the henhouse, this premium may be costing iZotope sales.
Nevertheless, Advanced is an incredibly powerful proposition, as is RX generally, and this latest version is a big step up from its predecessor. There remain some gaps in its capabilities compared to competing systems, such as the limited number of stem types recognised by Music Rebalance, but RX is very much back to the top of its game.
Image: Press
Key features

Spectral audio editor with advanced processing modules
Many processing modules included as plugins (AU, AAX and VST3 formats)
NEW Scene Rebalance, Stems View and Trim Silence
REBUILT De-bleed and Breath Control
IMPROVED Music Rebalance, Dialogue Isolate, Difference (delta) monitoring and processing, user interface and workflow
Requires macOS Sonoma (14.7.x) and upwards; Windows 10 (22H2) or Windows 11 (24H2)
ARA plugin compatibility with Apple Logic Pro and PreSonus Studio One 7 / Fender Studio Pro 8

The post iZotope RX 12’s focus on improved accuracy and quality pays off appeared first on MusicTech.

Payphone Tag Is Australia’s New National SportAustralia’s payphones are an iconic part of the national landscape, even if they’re not as important as they once used to be. However, they’re having a resurgence of late, in part thanks to a new national pastime—the sport of Payphone Tag!
Created by [Alex Allchin], the game is simple. To play, you first sign up on the website and get your emoji and 5-digit PIN. You then go out and find a payphone, dial the Payphone Tag number, and enter your PIN when prompted. This lets you “capture” the phone, raising your score in the game. If a phone is already captured, no matter—just head out there, dial the number, and key in your own PIN to steal it. You can also push your score even higher by capturing three payphones in a triangle on the map to get bonus points.
It’s a fun geospatial game that’s also free to play, because Telstra made payphone calls free back in 2022. It might cost you a bit to get out to some phones, but there are plenty you can reach with the aid of free public transport at the moment, anyway. Protip—at the time of writing, there are a ton of easy captures to be had on Kangaroo Island. It might just cost you a pretty penny to get out there. Have at it!
We’d love to see some stats from Telstra as to whether this is making a dent in overall payphone usage rates. In any case, there were 800 players in the last 7 days and a full 36,640 captures so far, so a lot is happening out there. We fully expect to see this concept spread to other nations in turn, though it might be less attractive in places where you still need to dig out a coin to make a call.
We’ve featured a few payphone hacks over the years. If you’re doing something rad with these telecommunication devices of yesteryear, we’d love to hear about it on the tipsline.

Bitcoin Coinbase Premium turns negative as BTC price drops, weekly losses top $829MBitcoin price followed weakening US spot market demand as the Coinbase Premium Index turned negative for the first time in three weeks.

BMG+Concord is the music industry’s biggest bet in years. What’s the plan?Thomas Coesfeld and Bob Valentine answer MBW's questions on a mega-merger – and ambitious targets
Source

Amazon is already offering new OpenAI products on AWSA day after OpenAI got Microsoft to agree to end exclusive rights, AWS announced a slate of OpenAI model offerings, including a new agent service.

Focusrite ISA C8X: Vintage Studio DNA Meets a Modern WorkflowThere’s legacy gear, and then there’s ISA—the kind of circuitry that’s quietly shaped decades of recordings without ever needing to scream for attention. Now, for the first time, Focusrite has pulled that DNA into a full audio interface with the ISA C8X.

To understand why this matters, you have to go back to 1985, when Rupert Neve designed a custom console for George Martin. That lineage—the transformer-driven sound built around the Lundahl LL1538—has remained at the heart of every ISA preamp since. It’s not marketing fluff; it’s the same sonic fingerprint that’s been sitting at the front end of countless recordings for nearly four decades. As Focusrite puts it, “ISA is what Focusrite was founded upon… beloved by artists and engineers worldwide for over 40 years.”

What makes the ISA C8X interesting isn’t that it preserves that sound—it’s that it finally integrates it into a modern workflow without compromise. On paper, it’s a 26-in, 28-out USB-C interface housed in a sleek 2U rack unit, but that spec sheet undersells what it actually does. Two of its eight preamps carry the original transformer design, delivering up to 79dB of gain—more than enough to handle low-output ribbons and dynamics without breaking a sweat—while the remaining six offer ultra-low-noise performance and plenty of headroom. It’s a hybrid approach that balances character and clarity rather than forcing you to choose between them.

The real personality comes through in its analog shaping options. The all-analog Console mode adds harmonic saturation and low-end punch via a soft-clip circuit, while 430 Air mode—lifted directly from the ISA 430 MkII—introduces a high-end shimmer that feels more like expensive signal path enhancement than a typical EQ boost. These aren’t afterthought features; they’re the kind of tonal tools that encourage you to commit to sounds on the way in, which is increasingly rare in an era obsessed with fixing everything in post.

Or, as Jack Cole, Product Manager at Focusrite Professional Solutions explains, “ISA has been a staple in studios for over 40 years and it’s been at the front of the signal chain for some of the greatest recordings ever made. We’re really excited to present the sound and ethos of ISA in an audio interface for the very first time. The sonic signature remains the same but workflows have been updated and modernised, with remote control and recall functionality alongside tonal enhancement features and a vast array of analogue and digital I/O. We hope that users will see, feel and, most importantly, hear the attention to detail that the entire Focusrite team have put into ISA C8X."

And that modernization is where the ISA C8X really earns its place. It’s built to function as the centerpiece of a studio, not just another interface on your desk. With 24-bit/192kHz conversion and up to 125dB of dynamic range, it delivers the kind of fidelity you’d expect from Focusrite’s higher-end systems, while the connectivity—ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI, Word Clock—makes it easy to expand. Monitoring support goes all the way up to immersive formats like 7.1.4, and the ability to control everything remotely via Focusrite Control 2 (even from mobile) means it slots into modern, flexible workflows without friction. It’s equally at home in a hybrid analog setup or a streamlined in-the-box environment.

Even the bundled software feels intentional rather than obligatory. The inclusion of Brainworx’s console emulation and Sonnox’s Oxford plugins ties the hardware back to its roots, giving users access to the tonal philosophy behind the original Focusrite Studio Console. Optional Sonnox bundles push that even further into mixing and mastering territory, making the ISA C8X feel more like a part of a broader ecosystem than a standalone piece of gear.

What ultimately sets the ISA C8X apart is that it doesn’t chase the ultra-clean, hyper-transparent trend dominating much of today’s interface market. Instead, it leans into character—warmth, depth, subtle saturation—while still delivering the precision and flexibility modern studios demand. It’s not trying to be everything; it’s trying to be something specific, and it does that with clarity of purpose. As Cole puts it, “We hope that users will see, feel and, most importantly, hear the attention to detail…”—and that attention shows up in the places that actually matter.

For anyone who’s spent years chasing that elusive “record-ready” tone before even opening a plugin, the ISA C8X feels like validation. A reminder that great sound doesn’t start in the mix—it starts at the source. And now, finally, that classic ISA sound has an interface to match.

The post Focusrite ISA C8X: Vintage Studio DNA Meets a Modern Workflow first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

NatLife Sounds True Trance Sounds V4 for Arturia JUP-8000 VLet's welcome True Trance Sounds V4 for Arturia JUP-8000 V by NatLife. Version 4 is an absolute True Trance blockbuster of sounds for Arturia JUP-8000 V. An exceptional set of diverse sounds was created for this installment, which perfectly complement each other. Every sound is steeped in the atmosphere of 90s Trance, the era when it was born and sounded incredibly inspiring. The soundbank contains 70 Trance presets & patches for JUP-8000 V, which are: 4 Special voice-type AAH sounds. 2 new ARP's. 17 Punchy Basslines, which include special Uplifting Trance Basses and the deepest Basses. 3 Unusual FX's for your transition. 13 absolutely incredible Leads, in which you will find everything from new Supersaw's to Vintage-inspired, poignant Lead sections. 14 super deep Pads that will take you from Classic Trance pads to the most unusual and deep atmospheres. 12 of the Most Beautiful Plucks Ever Created. 3 Sequences packed and ready to go. 2 Synth sounds All of this was created with absolute love for the true and divine Trance music that we all fell in love with in the 90s, and so that you could enjoy these beautiful sounds that take us back to that golden era.\. https://youtu.be/2a_qwcmOhd4?si=lgTaNTzshzs0iAmr Read More

Chaos Tones releases Deviant Drums FREE II, a FREE acoustic drum kit for Kontakt Player
Chaos Tones has released Deviant Drums FREE II, a free acoustic drum instrument for Kontakt Player 8.1 and up. It’s the sequel to the Deviant Drums FREE Edition we covered last July, and it builds on the same concept. You get one kit pulled from the paid version, served in a 2GB download. The thing [...]
View post: Chaos Tones releases Deviant Drums FREE II, a FREE acoustic drum kit for Kontakt Player

Focusrite unveil the ISA C8X Focusrite's new audio interface is a 26-in, 28-out unit equipped with digitally controlled versions of their popular ISA design, and includes new Console and 430 Air modes that expand the iconic preamp's tonal range.

Splice is now integrated with MCP: Artist-made sounds, wherever you create
Splice embraces extensibility by supporting MCP, which allows users to build new creative experiences with Splice Sounds.

Focusrite unveils ISA C8X, its first ISA audio interface built on Rupert Neve’s preamp legacyFocusrite has launched the ISA C8X, the first audio interface to carry its iconic ISA name.
Built around the Lundahl LL1538 transformer circuit originally selected by audio engineer Rupert Neve in 1985, the new 26-in, 28-out USB-C anodised aluminium rack unit blends classic analogue character with modern workflow tools, multichannel monitoring, and full remote control.

READ MORE: Shure’s MV7i USB mic might be your go-to audio interface for mobile recording

The interface features two ISA mic preamps with up to 79dB of gain, switchable impedance, balanced inserts, and high-pass filtering, making them suitable for a wide range of microphones including ribbons and low-output dynamics. The two ISA preamps also include two analogue processing modes: Console mode, which adds subtle saturation and low-end punch, and 430 Air mode, inspired by the ISA 430 MkII, which adds high-end shimmer through an inductor-based high-shelf filter.
Credit: Focusrite
Alongside these are six ultra-low-noise Focusrite mic preamps offering up to 69dB of gain, all of which can be controlled remotely through Focusrite’s Control 2 software (available as desktop or mobile app). Two front-panel instrument inputs also run through the Lundahl transformer circuitry for a console-like feel.
Conversion is handled by the same 24-bit/192kHz AD/DA converters used in Focusrite’s RedNet range, delivering up to 125dB of dynamic range. On the output side, 12 balanced line outputs support monitoring setups ranging from mono through to 7.1.4, with up to three monitor groups switchable from the front panel or via Focusrite Control 2. The unit also includes two independent class AB headphone outputs, plus ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI, and word clock I/O for further digital expansion.
Focusrite says the ISA C8X is designed to bridge its heritage with modern workflow demands.
“ISA is what Focusrite was founded upon, and it’s been beloved by artists and engineers worldwide for over 40 years. The essence of the ISA sound remains the same, but we’ve taken big leaps forward in modernising the workflow,” says Jack Cole, Product Manager at Focusrite.
The interface ships with the Hitmaker Expansion bundle, which includes the Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC and Oxford Reverb by Sonnox plugins, alongside additional production tools. Focusrite is also offering optional Sonnox ISA Essentials and ISA Elite bundles for deeper mixing and mastering workflows.
The ISA C8X is priced at $2299.99/£1899.99/€1848,73.

Learn more at Focusrite.
The post Focusrite unveils ISA C8X, its first ISA audio interface built on Rupert Neve’s preamp legacy appeared first on MusicTech.

VSTOPIA announce Dynamic Split Module for Ableton Dynamic Split Module promises to allow users to extract, process, modify and reuse audio significantly faster than any conventional stem-separation tools.

ROLI Piano Learning System review: A whole new way to learn keyboard and pianoHardware bundle (Piano and Airwave): £678
Ongoing subscription for lessons on app: £14.99 / month, or £8.33 / month if billed annually
roli.com
In 2021, ROLI started to focus on music learning, while also developing new versions of its advanced Seaboard instruments at the same time. Now the company has released a series of products again centred around learning piano, but this time with a slightly different angle. The Piano Learning System consists of three elements; a keyboard, the company’s Airwave device and an iPad app, all of which work together. It’s not the only piano learning system on the market but it is the only one with an advanced camera system and AI assistant combo. The question is, does all this tech justify the price?]

READ MORE: ROLI on the Seaboard BLOCK M: “MPE has become accepted in many producer’s workflows — MIDI 2.0 will be another big step forward”

Let’s get it out of the way. There is a steep upfront cost involved with this system. We’ll assess its potential value later but here’s what your outlay gets you. The ROLI Piano and Airwave —available in a bundle deal for £678— are both required to get the best from the Learn app (although it does work in a more limited way with just Piano). A third-party MIDI keyboard won’t work, though using the Airwave separately as a MIDI controller does support any keyboard. The app runs on a USB-C iPad or Android tablet, so you’ll need to supply that too.
ROLI is offering the hardware bundle for £678. Crucially, access to the actual in-app lessons beyond the very first one is not included, so there’s a rolling cost of £14.99 per month or £8.33 per month if billed annually. Honestly, there’s little point in buying the system if you’re not going to also have the lessons.
Image: Press
Returning to the practicality for a moment, there is some setup involved in registering the hardware and plugging it all together. The Airwave acts as stand for the tablet which connects to the Airwave over USB-C for data and power, while the Airwave plugs into the mains via its bundled 65W external power supply. The Piano connects to the Airwave through a proprietary magnetic connector and powers and charges its internal battery that way. The Airwave also has a dongle for a sustain pedal input (though no pedal is supplied) and a 3.5 mm headphone output, acting as an audio interface for playing while listening on wired headphones. Otherwise of course, sound is output by your iPad’s speakers.
The software side of the setup is smooth, with easy-to-follow questions about your skill level and prompts to connect everything at specific times. The camera system in the Airwave needs you to calibrate it on first use but this is quick and easy and simply involves moving your hands around over the keyboard. 3D visual representations of your hands appear in the app as they move, with no noticeable lag at all. The system is extremely snappy and responsive running on my M1-powered iPad Pro.
If you tell the app you are an absolute beginner it starts you off with basic instructions and lessons. The reason ROLI’s Piano is required to use the Learn app is that they both use a colour co-ordination system to show you which notes to play and when. That’s a bit of a simplification – actually there’s a very clever and dynamic interplay between the backlit keys and the scrolling note display on the tablet, again with no latency.
Image: Press
The cameras watch your hands and the onscreen graphics guide you as to where to place your fingers while also telling you note names to reinforce learning of these basic ideas. If it senses you are unsure or making a wrong choice, the app generates ‘strings’ to show you which direction you should be moving your fingers. The scrolling display will also adjust its speed to account for your level of confidence, slowing down if you are less sure and speeding up as you do. Additionally, the company’s AI Music Coach (currently in beta) can, if you like, ask about which kinds of music you’d like to learn and then call up specific lessons, offering positive feedback when you play well.
Once you start to progress, the app provides access to video lessons from tutors, more advanced tutorial projects and theory as well as a more conventional stave-based view when you’re ready to move on from the Star Wars-style scrolling note view. ROLI says that the system uses machine learning to adapt to your personal playing style and the app lets you slow down and loop sections until you’ve nailed them, undertake challenges and the like. More lessons and content will be added over time via the app.
What this product does, it does well. The camera system is extremely accurate and integrates seamlessly with the app. While apps like Simply Piano listen to your playing via a phone mic, this one has far deeper insight into what you are doing thanks to the bespoke hardware and software. In terms of costs, ROLI’s website makes some (necessarily) broad brush comparisons with in-person piano lessons, citing a theoretical cost of £2,740 for a year of lessons at £45 a time versus £778 for ROLI’s gear and a one-year membership.
As someone who had years of lessons as a child (going on to become a professional pianist) and now uses technology all the time, I have a few thoughts on this. As a learner would I have preferred a technological teacher like this had it existed at the time? Probably yes. No travel, no waiting. But as an adult looking back, did having human teachers and a real physical piano add value that goes beyond the simple comparison of costs? I would say that it did.
Image: Press
In an era when we all have more screen time than we probably should, you might ask if another screen-based pursuit is a good idea. On the other hand, this system is absolutely more convenient and in the long run, less costly than in-person lessons, even if the upfront cost is significant. On a practical level there will come a time when your skills outgrow the 49 keys available here and at present that’s the limit for the Learn system, even though the Piano does have octave shift controls. It should also come with a sustain pedal for the price, as that’s another component that no serious player could be without, and a core part of learning expressive playing skills.
The Piano Learning System is an intriguing product—or trio of products —that takes a new approach to learning keyboard skills, theory and playing. It won’t be for everyone— there is still much to be said for human interaction— but it’s certainly more convenient than driving to lessons and back every week. And it does give you a (49-key) piano to practise on at home.
It feels like ROLI should include more software lessons to give users a more extensive taster. A few extra lessons or an introductory week before charging, for example. This is something the company could implement fairly easily, so I hope they’d consider it. One final thought is that the Piano and Airwave also work as controllers outside of the Learn app, so as your skills develop you will be able to use them for other musical endeavours too.
Image: Press
Key features

Airwave camera system for hand tracking
Learn app running on USB-C iPad or Android tablet
Piano with 49 full-size backlit keys, with full spectrum colour
USB-C format power and data, Airwave is mains powered
Keyboard has polyphonic aftertouch, pitch bend, octave shift, 6 hour battery
Airwave has headphone output and pedal input
Airwave is a class compliant audio and MIDI interface
Magnetic connector between Piano and Airwave
Virtual lessons and video tutorials via app
AI-based assistant in-app

The post ROLI Piano Learning System review: A whole new way to learn keyboard and piano appeared first on MusicTech.

ROLI Airwave review: Prepare yourself for hyper-expressive MIDI control in six dimensions£299, roli.com
I recently tested ROLI’s Airwave as part of its Piano Learning System, but the hardware controller also works with any MIDI setup, using the same technology to enable expressive MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) control rather than teaching you to play the keyboard. In this context, Airwave operates alone and you don’t need a ROLI keyboard—they do recommend one for the extra MPE features they offer, but any MIDI keyboard will do for playing notes. The idea, as will be familiar to Seaboard users, is to allow greater expression than regular MIDI gives you. In this case it’s not pressure that generates it, but movements in the air.

READ MORE: ROLI on the Seaboard BLOCK M: “MPE has become accepted in many producer’s workflows — MIDI 2.0 will be another big step forward”

The Airwave looks sort of like a music stand and indeed, in other configurations is used to prop up a tablet. In standalone mode you arrange it to point its multiple cameras down at the keyboard, which means positioning it as you would a reading light. Plug it into the mains using its power supply and then into your computer over USB-C and it becomes a MIDI input device and also an audio output— a 3.5mm headphone jack is available as is a dongle for a sustain pedal input, though a pedal is not supplied. Actually a computer will power it over USB-C but, if you want to also connect a ROLI Piano magnetically, you’ll need to use mains power.
Registering the unit online unlocks access to the software downloads you will need in order to set up and use it. ROLI Airwave Control is a lightweight app that lets you change modes and recalibrate the sensors while the Airwave Player is a standalone and plugin instrument specially developed for the hardware, with a 6 GB sample library.
Image: Press
On first run the software will ask you to calibrate the hardware based on whichever MIDI keyboard you are using. Up to a full 88 notes can be tracked with the cameras, but you’re likely to be using gestures in a more central zone of somewhere around 49 keys. The software wants you to move your hands around a few times during calibration but the process is incredibly quick and simple.
After this, the five ‘air dimensions’ that the cameras track are shown separately in the Airwave Player and tagged by colour to make them easier to see:

Dimension name
How to use
How it’s calculated

Air Raise
Hand movement up
Absolute wrist height above the keyboard surface

Air Tilt
Hand rotation around the wrist
Absolute wrist position left or right

Air Glide
Hand movement left or right
Absolute wrist position forwards or backwards

Air Slide
Hand movement forwards or backwards
Absolute hand angle relative to the keyboard surface

Air Flex
Hand angle downwards
Absolute hand angle downwards

Air Grasp
Make a fist
A flat hand is 0% and a fist is 100%

The first thing you will probably want to do is play some of ROLI’s own sounds in the Player, since these have been created to respond to the multiple control channels generated by Airwave. There’s an impressive selection covering a range of types of sound from conventional to experimental, with an emphasis on morphing and changing sounds through gestures rather than necessarily playing overly complex keyboard parts.
As ROLI’s videos demonstrate, you will find yourself playing MIDI keys then using hand gestures to experiment with changing the sound, perhaps holding notes with a sustain pedal or with one hand while creating movements with the other. It’s a little bit like a Theremin, though much more advanced. The visual feedback is invaluable too, with the six dimension sections showing you in real time how your hand movements are being interpreted.
Of course this all takes a little practice—these are largely new ways of interacting with sound and the presets all respond differently, so some time is required to get the hang of it. Like the Seaboard it’s also very much of a style—fairly experimental, not necessarily something you’d use on all your tracks. But still, the camera tracking is incredibly accurate and also without latency, so everything feels pin-sharp. Some dimensions end up being used more and others a little less by their nature and although the hand gestures initially feel strange, you acclimatise quickly.
Image: Press
You can set up Airwave to work with most leading DAWs by following instructions online. Some like Cubase, Logic and Live natively support MPE MIDI. Reaper and FL Studio are also listed, with more limited support for MPE. When using Airwave as a controller for third-party plugins you need to change its mode since by default it sends constant MIDI data, which would overwrite existing MIDI clips.
Follow the setup instructions and you can use the Airwave Control app and MIDI Learn or mapping mode in your DAW to assign individual dimensions to specific parameters inside a plugin or instrument. As a process this could be a bit smoother but it’s not really ROLI’s fault – indeed, custom mapping MIDI channels from any hardware into plugins is usually a multi-step process and often DAWs won’t save that mapping globally either.
The Airwave Player is an innovative and expressive software instrument that, as you’d hope, unlocks the power of Airwave’s hardware. Sadly, at present Airwave isn’t fully compatible with ROLI Studio Player or Studio Drums for MPE (only via manual MIDI mapping), which is a great shame. There may be a technical reason they’re not compatible but I’d hope to see the developer expand the existing instrument offering and potentially add more that work natively with Airwave too.
A few other movement-based MIDI trackers do exist but though cheaper, none approaches the sophistication of Airwave. Leap Motion, Kaos and AirBending rely on iOS devices, phones or webcams to work and are less powerful—often significantly so. At £299, Airwave is reasonably priced for a pretty unique kind of controller with a solid build quality. It’s debatable whether you’re going to use it all the time—what it does is far more expressive than a regular MIDI controller but also maybe something best used for effect. At the price though it’s probably a controller you can add to your studio for just such occasions without breaking the bank.
Image: Press
Key features

Expressive controller
ROLI Vision hand-tracking camera
3.5 mm TRS headphone output
3.5 mm TRS pedal input (including 6.35 mm dongle)
2 USB-C ports (data and power)
Magnetic USB port for use with compatible ROLI hardware
Class-compliant MIDI over USB

The post ROLI Airwave review: Prepare yourself for hyper-expressive MIDI control in six dimensions appeared first on MusicTech.