Why ROLI’s Seaboard Block M is an ideal companion for making music on-the-goAd feature with ROLI
One of the best things about today’s technology is that it lets you create and produce music on the move in ways that would have seemed like an impossible dream not so long ago. While we all like to get hands-on with controlling our music software and hardware, most systems are pretty conventional; a keyboard, some knobs and sliders. Plus they generally need to be plugged into your laptop. But what if you want to go beyond those limits – way beyond, in fact?

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”

ROLI pioneered a new and revolutionary form of MIDI control with its Seaboard, Seaboard RISE and Blocks instruments in the 2010s, and now the company has unveiled the Seaboard Block M, combining powerful aspects of those instruments with brand new capabilities of its own. As well as being a powerful five-dimentional MIDI controller in its own right, it integrates seamlessly with ROLI’s software family — such as Equator 2, Studio Drums and Studio Player, as well as a host of soundpacks that take advantage of Seaboard Block M’s advanced abilities.
The controller is designed for ultimate portability, weighing just 650g and, despite featuring 24 keys (known as keywaves here), it remains compact and thin enough to easily carry in a rucksack or laptop bag. Nothing is truly portable while it’s reliant on cables so, as well as operating over USB, it has a wireless option too and is powered by an internal battery with 10 hours of battery life. Any time you connect it via USB, it will charge the battery, while the Bluetooth MIDI connection means you can play and create from anywhere in the room. And for the gear heads, a 2.5mm TRS MIDI output port is available for connecting MIDI-triggered hardware like modular synthesizers. So whether you use it wired, wirelessly or without a computer, it’s an awesome solution.
The 24 keywaves that make up the top surface are a very advanced system for performing, a little like regular keys but soft to the touch with flexible and tactile feedback. The octave buttons on the playing surface let you quickly move between seven full octaves, while you can also use the DNA connectors on either end to connect more Seaboard Block M units or the smaller Blocks units, should you own one, to build an even bigger tactile performance surface.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Ths instrument uses MPE MIDI which is a recent and more powerful specification allowing digital instruments to be played and controlled in a more natural way compared to standard MIDI — that’s available here too. Specifically, using an instrument like the Seaboard Block M, you can modulate parameters like pitch, timbre, pitch bend and amplitude all at the same time while playing notes. Many DAWs are compatible with the MPE format including Logic Pro, Bitwig and Cubase, while a lot of software instruments from developers including Arturia, Moog and UVI are as well.
Then there’s ROLI’s own instruments and apps, which have been designed specifically to harness the power of the Seaboard Block M. ROLI Studio is a standalone app and also a plugin that can run inside your DAW of choice and contains an essential selection of sounds from the company’s Cypher 2, Equator 2 and Strobe 2 instruments. As well as providing tools to tweak the sound and its effects at the source, it provides a Smart Chord feature for performing complex chords with a single press, a configurable multi-layer arpeggiator and a handy keywave display that mirrors your performance on screen. The full versions of those synths as well as a host of add-on sound packs are also available, all specially designed to work with MPE MIDI.
The ROLI Dashboard software that runs on your Mac or PC provides a way to customise the behaviour of your Seaboard Block M and make it respond in just the way you like. For example, while in fully expressive mode, your finger movements have complete control of bending between notes in addition to all the other gestures you can do. But activate Piano Mode and it behaves more like a conventional keyboard with notes retriggering as you glide between them. The first mode is hyper creative, while the second provides a more conventional though still very expressive way to play.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Central to all this is ROLI’s innovative 5D Touch system which maps the instrument’s many sensors onto five dimensions of MPE MIDI control and through to multiple parameters in your software instruments. The first of these is Strike, which plays a note at different velocities depending on how hard your initial strike is. Next is Press, which modulates and deepens a sound as you press harder into the tactile Keywave surface.
The third dimension is Slide, where sliding a held finger up and down can add brightness, texture or depth, and then there’s Glide, where gliding a finger from side to side can bend pitch and create a vibrato effect – gliding up and down the upper and lower edges of the top surface also has different creative results depending on the mode you’re in. Lastly, Lift will affect a sound’s resonance differently depending how quickly or slowly you lift your fingers.
All of these touch dimensions mean that performing with the Seaboard Block M is much more expressive and powerful than using a regular MIDI controller. Suddenly the kind of expression that has always been associated only with acoustic instruments is available to you in a MIDI instrument that can connect in wired mode or wirelessly, powers itself and is compact enough to take anywhere.
Paired with the awesome power of modern laptops and the advanced capabilities of ROLI’s software as well as MPE-compatible DAWs and instruments, the Seaboard Block M allows unparalleled levels of musical control and expression, helping you not only take your compositions to new heights but also in directions you might not have even dreamed of. It’s a unique piece of studio hardware and also a truly new way to make music on the move.
Find out more about the ROLI Seaboard Block M at roli.com
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