ROLI adds to range with Seaboard Rise

ROLI has added to its range of quirky MIDI keyboards with the addition of a smaller version of the keyless controller, called the Seaboard Rise.

According to ROLI, it is the first Expressive MIDI device to offer an easy-to-use multi-platform synth, the first with an integrated user control panel, and the first to perform wirelessly with an integrated battery and Bluetooth over MIDI. It is available in the UK through Sound Technology with a retail price of £599 inc VAT.

Roland Lamb, ROLI’s CEO and inventor of the Seaboard, said: “Finally, musicians have at their fingertips an affordable and accessible tool that lets them create authentic instrumental simulations in real time. Combined with its strengths in creating fresh new sound interactions, the Seaboard Rise is truly a breakthrough for both musical performance and production.”

It comes bundled with Equator, ROLI’s custom-built software synthesiser designed exclusively for Expressive MIDI instruments. In Equator, the Seaboard RISE’s five primary dimensions of touch and gestural control – strike, press, glide, slide, and lift – are independently mapped to a wide variety of sound parameters. Sliders on the left-hand control panel regulate the extent to which these parameters of gestural modulation are utilised, allowing the Seaboard Rise to behave like anything from a conventional keyboard controller – in easy-to-use “piano mode” – to a completely open-ended interactive surface.