ROLI and the Future of Creativity

The effects of the internet have been practically universal in the modern world. The explosion of technology that has started since the internet’s birth has the potential to become the biggest revolution in technology since the agricultural revolution, thousands of years ago, and our progress is showing no signs of slowing.

Included in the countless industries affected by this growth is music. When my parents were growing up, they had cassettes and the Walkman. Now, I can play just about any song in existence in under 10 seconds with streaming services that are free to use.

The Evolution of Creativity

Beyond music from a consumer’s standpoint, music as a creator has changed drastically, to the point where it’s nearly unrecognizable. In the 60’s or 70’s, you had to get a group of local guys together, write some songs, practice them, pitch them to studios or record labels, and hope that they like your songs enough to make a deal with you. You needed a professional producer to get everything to sound presentable, and you needed to go on tour to promote your band.

Now, almost none of that is truly necessary to gain a following and eventually a living from your music. Especially during the 2000’s and 2010’s, creation has flipped on its head.

As technology progressed, artists no longer needed to record in an external studio. The development of workstation software such as Ableton, Studio One, and Cubase have made music creation possible anywhere you can bring a laptop. This has been accelerated drastically by the development of more accessible studio hardware, such as studio monitors (speakers) and smaller audio interfaces, as well as digital plug-ins for these new DAW’s (digital audio workstations). Fast forward to today, and there are countless musicians making a living by producing and recording music in a spare room in their house. Information and courses on music production, mixing, and mastering have become infinitely accessible for free with an internet connection, and people are vastly more connected to others at or above their skill level, enabling them to learn anything at a must faster rate.

ROLI’s Adaptation of the Technological Boom

ROLI has taken this principle of progress and applied it to instruments. Their flagship product, the Seaboard RISE 2, is an evolution of the standard electronic keyboard. Whereas any standard MIDI (musical instrument digital interface, it essentially translates digital data into audible sound) keyboard has a layout that looks like a piano, the Seaboard RISE has a continuous set of 49 soft keys, with different ways to modify the sounds you’re playing.

There are five distinct ways you can manipulate the keys on the RISE: strike, lift, press, glide, and slide. Strike is the same way any other keyboard or piano is played: you hit the key. Not much to speak of there, but there’s not much to innovate in that area. Press, is to press down harder on the key once you’ve already made contact. Since the keywave is soft, it feels much more natural than pressing down harder on a piano key. This motion (like all others) can be programmed to manipulate the sound in a myriad of different ways, but its main purpose is to “deepen” the sound, similar to blowing more heavily into a wind instrument. ‘Glide’ is my personal favorite feature of the RISE. It allows you to slide between keys, similar to how guitarists can slide between frets on the fretboard. This gives the RISE a very unique edge over all other keyboards, and makes it one of the most versatile electronic instruments in the world. With this feature, you can play a digital violin or guitar through the RISE, and it will sound very convincing. Then there’s ‘slide’ the way the RISE is structured is very unique, spacing out keys more and giving much more space for each key, which is what makes this possible. The motion of ‘slide’ is sliding your finger up on the key to “add brightness, texture, or depth” to the sound. There’s no other keyboard that does this on the market, and it adds a ton of versatility to the keyboard. Lastly, there’s ‘lift’. This one’s a lot more subtle than the others, but it’s triggered by lifting your finger off of the key with more force. It’s difficult to explain and only used for pretty specific circumstances, but it’s still there.

Outside of the RISE 2, ROLI has put out some more portable hardware, such as the Block Studio edition and the LUMI, as well as some excellent software, which I’ll touch on shortly.

ROLI Moving Forward

The RISE and RISE 2 have both been very innovative, but currently ROLI’s audience is quite niche, which is to be expected. They make high quality products for people who are more serious about making music, and there are plenty of companies that make very good money in finding their niche and sticking with it. I mentioned ROLI’s software, which is often overlooked on account of their excellent innovations in hardware, but their software synths are excellent. They’re designed to be very versatile and easy to work with, sparking inspiration in artists much more easily. Their sampling work and synthesizer presets are among the best I’ve seen in any synth, and they only show signs of improving.

The future for ROLI is very exciting. They’re doing cutting edge work and breaking ground in areas that had otherwise been quite settled, and they seem to be garnering more attention for it as the years go on. Their products will continue to improve and surprise the market, and hopefully help more artists than ever connect with what they truly want to make.