Seaboard Rise 49 £950
These UK manufacturers have literally been making waves in the MIDI controller world, first with the Grand, and now the more affordable Rise
Replacing conventional piano-style keys with a continuous, rubbery playing surface of ridged ‘keywaves’, ROLI’s Seaboard concept is designed to bring the control and expressiveness of acoustic instruments to their software counterparts. Their first and flagship venture, the Seaboard Grand, comes in 37-, 61and 88-note sizes with built-in sound generation courtesy of the Equator synth engine, and the Rise series delivers the same expressive capabilities in more compact 25- and 49-key USB MIDI controller form, with the Equator synth supplied as a software plugin for OS X and Windows.
Rise and shine
The very first thing that strikes you about the Rise 49 is the sheer weight of the thing. At 4.2kg, it’s seriously heavy – no matter how frenetic your playing style, you can be sure that the Rise isn’t going to budge. Included in the box is a high-quality soft case, USB cable and no-nonsense quick-start guide. It’s possible to use the Rise as a standard keyboard controller straight out of the box, but harnessing its uniquely expressive features means downloading a 2.7GB software bundle. This includes the Equator soft synth, and the ROLI Dashboard For Rise app, which lets you customise the sensitivity of the playing surface and map MIDI CC’s to the onboard controls. You also get a download code for the Bitwig 8-Track DAW.
Connectivity-wise, on the left-hand edge of the device is a socket for an optional 9V power supply, a sustain pedal jack and two USB ports (type A and type B). Either of these can be used to connect to a computer or iOS device, and the B port is also used to power the unit and charge its internal battery, which gives up to eight hours of wireless operation – yes, handily, the Rise can also transmit MIDI over Bluetooth.
Ridge rider
The big question, of course, is: what’s that bizarre surface actually like to play? Our immediate impression was that it felt like playing a row of cocktail sausages through a wetsuit – weirdly, addictively tactile! The lack of the usual physical boundaries between keys means that, at first, you find yourself having to focus your attention on accuracy in order to hit the right notes. Joyously, the top and bottom edges of the entire playing surface are huge horizontal pitch ribbons along which you can easily create swooping pitch dives and soaring rises. The playing surface itself is suitably resilient, and remarkably resistant to fingernail marks and scratches, although ours did reveal itself to be a bit of a dust magnet – ROLI recommend the regular use of baby wipes to keep it clean.
The key to the Rise’s expressive control is that it interprets a total of five playing gestures (or “dimensions of touch”), transmitting a different MIDI message for each. Strike is the initial Note-On, generated as velocity when you hit a keywave. Glide represents horizontal movement and generates pitchbend messages. Slide (which the Seaboard Grand doesn’t have, notably) represents vertical movement up and down each keywave, transmitting MIDI CC74 (usually Brightness). Press is the equivalent to polyphonic aftertouch on a regular keyboard, generated by applying pressure to the keywaves, while Lift transmits the speed of liftoff from a key.
Like the keywaves themselves, the Rise’s onboard controls are minimal. To the left of the playing surface are three touch faders, illuminated white when the device is powered. Their function depends on which of two operating modes you’re currently in – if
“The key to the Rise’s expressive control is that it interprets a total of five playing gestures (or ‘dimensions of touch’)”
you’re in Expression mode, they set the responsiveness of the glide, slide and press gestures. If you’re in MIDI mode, however, they behave like MIDI faders on a regular controller, transmitting whatever MIDI CC you choose to define in the Dashboard app. Above the faders is a switch for selecting presets in the accompanying Equator soft synth, while below is an X/Y touchpad, an octave selector and a power switch that also doubles as a mode selector when pressed briefly.
Finger flickin’ good
The architecture of the surface allows for some unique playing techniques. For example, the black note pitches are replicated in the valleys between the ‘white’ keywaves, so you can play a sharp or flat simply by moving across horizontally from a white key. This makes pitchbending supremely intuitive, as you can achieve a semitone bend just by moving your finger in the appropriate direction. Similarly, beautifully precise vibrato can be had by wiggling your hand, guitarist-style, from side to side. Once you’ve practised enough to get these techniques down, the expressive potential of the Rise is truly revelatory.
Kind of the keyboardist’s equivalent of a fretless bass, you can do things with the Rise that just aren’t possible with a regular keyboard controller, and the longer you spend with it, the more you discover what it’s capable of. It’s at the higher end of the price spectrum, but as a more affordable, soundless alternative to the Grand, and with the benefit of the additional Slide gesture, it’s a sound investment, particularly for the studio environment. We wouldn’t necessarily suggest it as a replacement for your regular keyboard, but as an instrument in its own right, there really is nothing else quite like it. The Rise is simply brilliant.
“Once you’ve practised enough to get the techniques down, the expressive potential of the Rise is truly revelatory”