Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Comments
Oh, I believe they do care, as we are starting to see the folly of our ways with regard to the climate. Is it too late, to negate the effects completely, I fear it is, but to reduce it’s impact and make sensible plans, is a gift that humanity possesses.
I really hope you’re attitude towards business can be fostered throughout the wider business world, the whole aspect of life is a symbiotic one. One of mutual respect and you have my respect.
Well I really hope that you are right about me being wrong.
Are we talking about the same thing here? Because one of us has lost perspective. Every person on the planet would need to discard 10,000 Roli devices every year for 100 years for the earth to experience any negative impact.
Apple are a big company. Roli are not.
According to Companies House they have a net worth of -£4.4m. That’s negative net worth.
If they’re ‘partnered with apple’ that gives even less excuse for them not offering after sales service.
That’s ridiculous. A seaboard rise is over £1000. That’s not a gadget it’s a musical instrument (by Roli’s own description) that you would expect to last.
Just because other companies are making shitty products that can’t have their batteries replaced doesn’t make it right.
And you expect a lot less from a no name Bluetooth speaker than, say a Bose. If I bought a Bose Bluetooth speaker I’d expect them to be able to replace the battery. If they refused i would be angry about it. When my Anker Bluetooth earphones died they went into the bin without a second thought.the £13 price tag brought with it far lower expectations.
The light pad is £200. If you think £200 buys you a disposable gadget then I wish I’d also won the lottery.
I can’t see how people will expect to use these Live as Roli suggest it they don’t offer proper service and backup.
Roli should Have a policy to replace dead batteries.
It’s amazing to think they haven’t considered what will happen when all their products inevitably die due to dead batteries.
There are no credible excuses for not being able to support your own products.
Thanks for the heads up
I try to be mindful of Ewaste.
Sorry Roli - I just lost the gas for all your products.
Throwing tech away due to battery ageing is SERIOUSLY WRONG.
My interest was piqued with the new Roli seaboard blocks and lightpad. They look perfect for mobile music making.
If I am to seriously consider buying one I’d definitely want to speak to Roli first and find out what they expect to happen when (not if) the batteries die.
Do you call her Ayn, Ms. Rand, or mommy?
I'm definitely not excusing Roli here. Just saying be wary of tech/devices relying on batteries.
Indeed.
I wonder what’s going to happen with old AirPods. And apple watches.
Also, all this wireless stuff will one day become obsolete anyway. There will come a time when companies such as Apple stop supporting bluetooth 4, etc.
Brave new world. :-/
In the meantime I’m getting older and more nostalgic. I’ve just got my old fostex reel to reel 8 track out of storage.
I wonder if it’s compatible with iOS 12? ;-)
And my automatic watch will last a lifetime. And more.
Funny you should mention vintage Fostex gear, I’ve been watching a lot of the YouTuber Hainbach today and he’s inspired me to get into tape.
A quick eBay search later reveals it ain’t what you’d call cheap. Time to scavenge some second hand stores ...
I think I’m missing the hands on low fi appeal that a pile of apps can’t replicate (although the convenience factor can’t be denied).
He’s worth a look to anyone uninitiated.
Roli should have paid repair/service for their products. I’ve been burnt by a faulty seaboard with a dead keywave that’s now a $299 paper weight. Sucks, but I’ve chalked it up to being an early adopter for trailblazing tech. It’s happened with many products throughout the years so at this point I’m hardly burning tiki torches over it.
People who like to be on bleeding edge of tech understand it’s a risk...thus the term “bleeding edge”. Not excusing Roli, just understand the market and am confident quality and service will improve as the company grows. It’s clearly not widespread nor is battery dying on light pads as they sold scores of these suckers but you can’t find folks complaining of many hardware issues at all so one must conclude overall, Roli is a quality product.
Those who’ve been around remember when much of the same could be said about Apple pre Apple Store days. Is what it is until it ain’t.
That said, I have 3 light pads, live and loop blocks all going strong post warranty with no issues. I’m told they will run plugged in whenever the battery does die which ive always known is inevitable considering all batteries, including the human heart, will perish at some point.
What if God made it so we can just tether ourselves to an external power supply and keep ticking indefinitely? Where’s the customer service line for that?😂
Overall Roli maintains high grades from me and Lightpads are definitely my favorite mobile controller by a wide margin even compared to Sensel Morph.
@TheVimFuego
There’s a YouTube video of Alessandro Cortini showing how he has some of the backing tracks for nine inch nails gigs on a 4 track porta studio and uses the varispeed and faders to provide more variety to the set which is really interesting.
I saw anR8 and 812 mixer go for £340 on eBay the other day. I don’t was looking for an 812 which I sold back in the day but is the perfect mixer for the R8 (8 busses and not too big). There aren’t too many 8 bus mixers around anymore.
Portastudios have gone way up in price. You can spend as much as the R8 + 812 for a cassette 4 track with varispeed. Crazy. They were literally worth nothing a few years ago.
@johnfromberkeley : do they run when connected to power?
The other year I bought a secondhand Lightpad M for a really low price (can’t remember the number, but it was such that you don’t walk out of the shop without it, even if you didn’t want it). The first time I tried it I plugged it in on the Mac and it tried updating itself and the software (or it) crashed, and since then it has been unable to be recognised by any ROLI software on iOS or macOS at all. It does, however, work as it is supposed to in the normal-usage mode that it was left in.
That’s okay, none of the other features were that useful to me (other than I can’t shift the lights from the scale it’s on, but the pads work chromatically even if the lights aren’t – the ‘scale’ is simply a display mode for the lights to light up in).
I had it kicking around in my bag most of last year and in fact some of the lead lines of my album Electric Ian were made using it. It’s a bit flakey now, giving false triggering in one corner or edge, but that’s to be expected, it was never in a case or anything, just loose. I might tear it apart one day to see what’s in it. For the moment I’ve forgotten about it. Might dig it out and use it again.
8000000000000000, probably an underestimation with population growth. Only this amount and we would only just start experiencing a negative impact. Lost perspective!
Not overly enamoured by Roli's approach to second-user kit that is only months old. I bought a lightly used Block M that had not activated the downloads of the free bonus soundpacks yet, and the account had been de-registered. Roli said, "nope - you can't have them". Within their terms and conditions? Yep. Makes me want to buy more Roli gear? Nope. Somehow earned Roli more money? Nope.
ROLI are a "bit special" in this regard. I've had a RISE 25 for years - magnificent bit of gear but I was bitterly disappointed in the Blocks... basically Roli beta tested the hardware then walked off and released a new model - no replacement, no recall - just tough luck.
The initial relase of the lightpad was utterly unusable - met with hostile reactions on-line. Roli reacted by buying their critics off. Blocks have only won one award - their marketing strategy picked upan PR industry award for "effective use of on-line influencers". In other words how to manipulate their target audience by buying influence. Not a single award from musicians. And decent musicians are putting some distance between themselves and Roli.
Tragic when a brilliant company is taken over by accountants and hungry speculative investors. Seems they have tried to capitalise on a complex pile of disparate technologies and concepts ... too quickly by half. All aimed at kids and young musos... dreadful.
So here's a tip: You will get a much better controller out of an old iPhone 6 on eBay ...$30 and flexible as all heck.
Keep well away from Roli until they are taken over again by the old brilliance that gave us RISE ... the ideas might emerge as a different brand and elsewhere. Roli no longer deserves to keep them.
It's a strange approach as it also means that it effectively reduces the value of the products for new buyers as well - and of course means that they are corrupting their user database by encouraging new buyers to do things like register with burner email accounts so they can transfer ownership without penalty.
How long should a loop block take to fully charge ?
How long via usb to computer please ?
I got one used but it won’t charge or power up. Think it may be a brick :-(
It’s a brick :-(
Just catching up with this thread. Yes, I HATE the fact that these have irreplaceable batteries. I have a few korg midi controllers / keyboards, they both run for 20+hrs on a couple of AA batteries, I use rechargeables and its not a big inconvenience. I'd vastly prefer if Roli adopted this. Who gives a shit that the bottom is smooth and there is no line of a battery section to destroy this flawless piece of metal. They have tried too hard to copy Apple, with annoying repercussions for functionality. I like my seaboards a lot but ai seriously doubt I would buy Roli again, not reliable enough (stuck notes and other issues, their firmware is unreliable, silicon layer is becoming slightly loose at the corners after just a year, they take weeks to reply to support requested). One time they did really step up, one guy gave me a call and we discussed a few issues at length. They also ended up giving me a free copy of Equator because I had had so many problems. I'm grateful for that, of course. But I still wouldn't buy them again.
Now my Loop Block battery is dying.
Anyone know what this means? I tried googling to find the battery to see if I could hack my mine open:
"UNID Code: 3841 Lithium ion batteries contained in equipment"
from:
ROLI hardware battery information
I think you mean 3481. It's just an international hazardous material identifier, see https://www.hazmattool.com/info.php?submit2=search&info_name=3481&info_hazclass=+&info_sp01_log=AND&info_sp12_log=AND&info_sp23_log=AND&submit=search. Lets the fireman know what he's dealing with. Doesn't say anything about the actual battery. Sorry.
Agree entirely I'd be avoiding everything Roli tries to flog these days ... "mobile" toys, unique plugs and low quality builds. Designed by marketing and the accountants I reckon. New hungry investors.
Wasn't always so. In fact this pile of recent rubbish stands on the shoulders of a superb Roli instrument - the original Roli RISE. Built like a tank, no corners cut and a truly remarkable bit of gear - groundbreaking at tectonic significance. Designed for Equator.
So if you see one of these magnificent RISE gadgets on eBay or at a pawnbrokers at a decent price - grab it. But a warning - RISE just makes Blocks and such even more disappointing. 24 keys??? Unforgivable. Not serious. You'll never touch them again. Merely an input device - never an instrument.
Try doing this on the mean little pale shadow.
I bought a NanoKey studio off @WillieNegus in a Whole Foods parking lot! A+, would do business again. Lmao, good to see you back man. 😂
Connectivity / Ports
USB-C port (MIDI out and power).
Full MIDI compatibility over USB and Bluetooth LE.
ideas for seemingly bricked batteries:
Leave them plugged in (wall adapter) for longer time (2 days, through the night).
Wrap them in plastic and put them in the freezer over night, let them warm up again naturally (leave them alone for some time, depending on weather conditions, don‘t put them directly in the sunlight), then plug them in, again, and for a long time, too.
Repeat the process (until you‘re finally fed up).
I‘ve had quite a few batteries (different devices) come back to live this way. Takes patience, though.
Good luck!, cheers, t