🎹Roli Seaboard RISE 49 MIDI Controller Review & Demo - The Ultimate Expressive Keyboard🎹

#Roli #Seaboard #RISE49

Hi everyone, and welcome to another piano video at the Merriam Pianos YouTube channel. Today we’ll be taking a look at a very un-piano-like piano, the Roli Seaboard Rise 49.

The Rise 49 has been out for almost 5 years now, and it’s actually part of my own personal piano collection. While there was a period of time where it didn’t receive much use, over the past 7 months I’ve used it a lot, so we thought why not make a video about it? There’s probably a lot of folks out there who have no idea something like this even exists, so hopefully you find this video interesting.

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Piano Background

Roli is a company that hit the scene in roughly the last 10 years, and their entire philosophy has been centered around building a piano-like instrument that has all of the same expressive possibilities of other instruments, such as a guitar or saxophone. Acoustic pianos especially only offer two real control parameters over the tone - pitch and volume. Of course higher level pianists will argue that a piano is far more nuanced than that, but in general, this is the case.

A guitar for instance offers the ability to bend notes or add vibrato. While synthesizers have given the piano this ability too, in lots of cases, the controls themselves are not part of the creative process. Roli has come up with a new way to expand expression and improve the control by adding three new dimensions to the tactile playing experience - expression depending on how deep or shallow a key is played, the ability to bend notes on the keys themselves, and the ability to affect the volume once a key has been played.

For myself, I really started using mine again frequently once the COVID-19 lockdowns hit as a different creative tool. I’ve found it to be a very interesting, different textural compositional tool.

Piano Touch

Usually, we start by talking about the sound in these videos, but since the Rise 49 is actually just a MIDI controller in the sense that there is no on-board sound engine and you operate it with software sound engines, we’ll jump right into the touch.

The keyboard itself is 49 notes, C to C, for a total of 4 octaves. It looks like a real piano with white notes and black notes. It’s covered with a rubber texture (likely latex), that offers good grip, and generally feels good on your fingers once you get used to it.

I found myself intuitively using the extra forms of expression after only a couple of hours of experimenting on the instrument, and it was like I was playing an acoustic guitar.

You can minimize or turn off some of the extra parameters as well, so there’s quite a bit of control. There’s also a programmable pad that offers X axis and Y axis parameters, as well as octave control and compatibility with a sustain pedal.

Software Compatibility

Roli offers their own software to take advantage of all of the Rise 49’s possibilities, which I’m running through Logic Pro in the video. I’ve got the Roli Studio Player open, which serves as a home base to select sounds from any of the various 5 dimensional synthesizers Roli has come up with. I’ve picked some I’ve really liked, but there’s a ton of possibilities.

Some of the ones I like are ‘Ambient Chrome’, ‘Autumn Valley Pad’, ‘Cathedral Solo Horn’ and ‘Classic Acid Bass’. You can then mix these with more traditional tones, such as a piano patch. With Logic, there’s also a drummer function, so it makes it super easy to play along with some drums.

Obviously, this instrument is excellent for pads, but it’s also super useful for leads, especially from a production standpoint.

Conclusion

This is a super cool instrument with all sorts of extra expressive possibilities, mated with some great software by Roli. If you’re in the world of production and you’re looking for some new inspiration, the Roli Seaboard Rise 49 is a really nice creative tool for the toolbox.

Thanks for watching!

Connect with Merriam Music:

[dgsoundCA]

I was never so early just to watch Stu messing around with the Roli seaboard.

[steinwaygoat]

Two questions: How do you deal with the note-on sticking problems? How do you program the three sliders on the left to control parameters, such as phase depth?

[afteram]

Very pleasant and fresh presented kind of a review, thank you!
Put my hands on a used purchased one tomorrow ;)

[alexthompson]

Really enjoyed this! Never come across them before was cool to see

[kajeellworth]

Great overview, i was the same, it took me a while to get my head around the possibilities, now im loving it, you should check out the Equator2 update even bigger stranger sounds with granular and multisamples etc.

[maramé.r]

On 31 May 2021 they are still not in stock at Roli and are not obtainable at any retailers

[josersa]

Just out of comuriosity, did you have any issue with the octave and preset shift keys on your Seaboard Rise? Because on mine, maybe due to firmware update (?), doesn’t work, and don’t know the cause... Overall, an amazing keyboard!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[benr]

I remember hearing about this when it came out it looked so cool. Then I never saw it until LA LA LAND had it as a featured synth, and now Finneas has been using it since at least making WWAFAWDWG with Billie Eilish.

[JoeLinux]

The ultimate "Hearts of Space" keyboard?

[HermesTrismegistes]

This keyboard is not for everyone. No matter how limitless an instrument may be, if the persons mind playing it is limited, you will never reap the benefits from it.

[anotherlook]

You have to be a pianist to use this material, no???

[DiscoveryWonders]

I don't like the ambient chrome spa sound you used for this demo. sound like bells not piano. wish you used the classic piano or a proper synth or a guitar.

[sendsaaron]

Please clean your greasy MacBook keyboard and re-record this video. Thank you kindly.