Roli Seaboard reviewed here: A totally unique piano keyboard, with a soft, continuous surface that puts expression back at your fingertips. Allows unprecedented creative possibilities in a joyfully-crafted avatar of the keyboard. The Roli Seaboard is an innovative rubber-keyed Piano that lets you control Pitch, Volume and even Timbre via just touching the keys, and not using any knob. Available in 25-key and 61-key models.
ROLI Seaboard: Innovative USB MIDI Keyboards
ROLI Seaboard Review
Musicians, especially who use keyboards, would love an instrument where you can alter the dynamics of a sound (such as adding effects, altering pitch, volume) while playing the keys, without having to touch any knobs or sliders. There is no doubt that technology has had a profound impact on entertainment, and that includes music as well.
Most musicians use a 37 or 25-key keyboard/controller for travel convenience, but then those can only be used for editing music and not really for playing. For serious playing, you at least need 5 octaves. So in that regard, this one is a welcome development.
But how about making it rollable and making it weigh less than a kg or so? I am sure that would be dream come true for many.
ROLI has reinvented the keyboard with a pressure-sensitive continuous-touch surface.
ROLI Seaboard: Features
- Available in 25-key (RISE) and 61-key (Grand) keyboard models
- Built-in MIDI, USB as well as over Bluetooth, frees you from cables
- Start with the basic keyboard techniques and take it from there. You can customize sensitivity to match your playing style.
- Use it as a keyboard controller to work with a variety of software and hardware synthesizers.
- Comes bundled with Equator, a powerful software synthesizer
- Simulate the authentic dynamic range of any instrument and make your favorite sounds come alive.
- Personalize patches using the touch sensitive trackpad and faders.
- Create more flexible sonic possibilities by mapping sound parameters to unique gestures. Perform and record tracks with subtle and sensual details (that was only possible during post-production earlier).
- Durable, built-to last
[easyazon_link identifier=”B071G73J1T” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]
Various features, In’s & Out’s on Roli Seaboard 25-Key RISE & 61-Key GRAND models.[/easyazon_link]
ROLI Seaboard Demo Videos
Watch: Seaboard RISE in action at home, and on the stage
Watch: Seaboard RISE controller’s features:
ROLI Seaboard RISE, 25-Keys
The ROLI Seaboard RISE is a 25-key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller. Now you can play your synths a whole new way on this keyboard with a pressure-sensitive, continuous-touch surface.
Inputs: Continuous pedal input (1/4″ jack)
Accessories: USB B port (MIDI out and power) USB A port (for charging peripherals)
The Rise has a custom sound-editing software, is compatible with a host of sound-editing software platforms and audio workstations. It also supports a mobile emulator app, which allows users to design music remotely, and transfer it later to the Rise when you’re back in front of the ROLI.
Buying Links
- ROLI Seaboard RISE 25-Key USB Controller: Buy on zZounds | [easyazon_link identifier=”B071G73J1T” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Buy on Amazon[/easyazon_link]
ROLI Seaboard GRAND, 61-Keys
The Roli Seaboard GRAND is a 61-key MIDI controller that gives you continuous touch control over pitch and expression through a soft, continuous surface that puts expression back at your fingertips.
3 continuous pedal inputs (1/4″ jacks), 2 balanced audio out jacks (1/4″), Stereo headphone out mini-jack (1/8″), USB 2.0. The Seaboard Grand is quite popular with jazz keyboardists who love being able to play piano, bass, and sax sounds on one surface.Buying Links
- Buy on zZounds | [easyazon_link identifier=”B011VIRZIO” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Buy on Amazon[/easyazon_link]
Roli Seaboard: Guide
What is the Roli Seaboard?
Instruments such as the piano and the guitar are quite popular with music enthusiasts. And though guitars are available in several trendy designs, keyboards have more or less remained the same over the years.
There are options in terms of number of keys available, synths or plain pianos, rollable pianos, but none have been drastically very different.
Here’s a company that has come up with an innovative design, with the intention of solving a real problem that exists with several synths and keyboard controllers.
It’s called the Seaboard GRAND (developed by London-based design start-up ROLI), looks similar to a conventional keyboard but the keys are flexible, and able to track your every gesture.
Idea for the Seaboard
Roli CEO Roland Lamb says he came up for the idea for the Seaboard while sitting at a piano at the Royal College of Art in London and “thinking about music and design.” He closed his eyes, he said, and played a handful of notes. It didn’t quite make the sound he wanted, though. Instead of playing three notes together, he wanted to be able to press the key once and change the note instead.
Famous German Hans Zimmer, who has scored over 150 movies including “The Lion King,” “Gladiator,” and “Inception”, had called ROLI office, “Hi, this is Hans Zimmer,” the voice said. “I heard about your Seaboard, I’m in London, I want to see it.”
ROLI to Operate from London
Many of ROLI’s famous customers are based in Los Angeles. So is ROLI planning to move its team to the US?
No, says Lamb, and here’s the reason.
“The reason was that I fell in love with a woman and she was in London and I had to be near her so I moved over here. Fortunately, she’s now my wife so Britain is not just great for business, it’s also great for love.”
Ryan Gosling played ROLI’s Seaboard Grand in La La Land
In the film La La Land, Ryan Gosling plays a jazz pianist, and the actor received a lot of praise for his impressive piano skills.
However, the scene where Gosling performs on stage with John Legend has caught the eye of musical fans – in that scene, he plays a futuristic looking keyboard. That keyboard is ROLI.
Here’s how the futuristic keyboard made its way into the movie.
Marius de Vries, executive music producer for the film, chose the Seaboard Grand for this scene, and calls it “the pinnacle of cutting edge music technology”. It seems, even Ryan Gosling became a “firm Seaboard aficionado” after his experience on the keyboard.
Marius de Vries was familiar with the Seaboard Grand and Seaboard Rise and thought that the Seaboard Grand would be a great futuristic looking musical instrument that a classic jazz pianist – Ryan Gosling’s Sebastian – would play.
So, did the makers of ROLI had even the faintest idea how big La La Land would become and how much attention its futuristic keyboard would get?
“The whole ROLI team has been delighted to see the critical and box office success of La La Land, which we didn’t anticipate when we first collaborated on the film. The Seaboard Grand is almost a character in the film! It’s a marvellous way for hundreds of thousands of people to see and hear Seaboard technology for the first time,” ROLI spokesman.
Also Read: Ryan Gosling shows his piano skills in behind-the-scene shots from La La Land.
More Videos of ROLI Seaboard
ROLI Seaboard: Buying Links & Pricing
Looks impressive. This is more of a synth keyboard and not really a piano. Having said that, this keyboard does look impressive. The contoured, movable keys that affect pitch and other variables was something that many didn’t expect. Now you can touch and shape sound timbres in an astonishingly and intuitive way.
Buying Links
- ROLI Seaboard RISE 25-Key USB Controller: Buy on zZounds | [easyazon_link identifier=”B071G73J1T” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Buy on Amazon[/easyazon_link]
- ROLI Seaboard GRAND 61-Key USB Controller: Buy on zZounds | [easyazon_link identifier=”B011VIRZIO” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Buy on Amazon[/easyazon_link]
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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