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.
Where’s Roli?... Soon, maybe
Not sure what’s going on. Roli site is out of stock on all 25 and 49 models. Grand is apparently discontinued. Any info?
Update: Zzounds has both incoming by mid March.
Comments
Roli is a very strange company. I kind of regret buying the light pad block m now and think I may sell it. I barely use it.
You’ve just reminded me, I’ve got two of the things
The light pad Block was very underwhelming for me too, I bought and returned it.
Yes @LinearLineman, Roli seems badly managed. They have been out of Seaboard Blocks and Rise for months already I believe. There is the pandemic, but even before that they seem to have been short staffed for years and everyone complains how hard it is to get a reply from their customer service. In fairness, I will say that when you finally get through the several weeks wait for a reply, they can be very helpful. But yes, it seems to be a poorly run company that spends too much money on marketing while neglecting other aspects.
If they do come back in stock, get two seaboard blocks if you can afford it. You will be frustrated by the 24 note limit of one, I think. Everyone who has a Rise raves about then. They have 25 notes, which is better but still a bit short, especially if you want to play something like those Trumpets expressively 😍
One of my control blocks died, and I purchased an extra battery, but haven't tried to crack it open yet.
I used to have a bunch of different blocks, but sold them all off except for 2 seaboard blocks. I definitely agree with @Gavinski that 2 of them is ideal and makes a big difference. Roli is nice, but barely functional...but the seaboard is really special and one of a kind. Keep searching, they’re worth it.
Do they still make the larger sized Rise? That would be great. You could look into getting a second hand one @LinearLineman but would need to be careful about the battery. As @johnfromberkeley said though, it seems the battery is replaceable after all, even if that is - criminally - not officially supported.
I have a RISE and a block and I love them both and use them quite a bit. The block is really the only pad controller I use. But, they recently released an update to Dashboard that is completely buggy and for me unusable and doesn't save settings and reverts settings when you switch presets. Luckily someone posted the previous version so I could go back but there has been no response from the company after submitting 2 support tickets. Kinda crazy. In the beginning, their customer support was over the top great. Not sure what all changed...
I heard financial problems. But certainly they have a lot of money still for advertising as I have been bombarded by ads for Equator 2 on youtube, despite already having bought it. I'll tell you a hack for getting customer service quickly - buy Equator 2, request a refund, and someone from customer support will likely contact you within 12 hours to see what the problem is and whether you really want a refund. True story 😂
haha! Thanks for the tip! Wow, indicates a possible desperateness. So crazy. They started out with an amazing Product and seemed to have so much integrity. Can't be easy during these covid times! If you have a Seaboard, I recommend trying Plasmonic, Generate and maybe Vital. Super great MPE integration and whole new kind of fun. First time I ever really paid attention to how each of my fingers were doing independently. Very well designed with MPE in mind... imo.
Even if i still like my Rise 25 i would never buy anything hard- or software from them again.
They gone in a bad direction for me and I see no big future sadly for them.
I bought Plasmonic and am a huge fan. Currently my fave synth! And I am intending to check out those other two as well, cheers Greg
great! Plasmonic is my favorite synth too now! (Arturia Buchla Easel second) I'm getting Generate March 3rd. Can't wait. The free version Pendulate is really fun as well. I don't know Vital very well yet, but my first impression is very favorable. Similar feeling of immersive MPE interaction. I use a K-Board Pro and the Roli RISE and they are actually kind of a good pair. The glide feels very different for each and the overall feel makes for different ways of playing.
^ Interesting, Plasmonic is also my favorite synth now
Thanks for the good advice @gavinski!
Haven't tried the k-board. I will say I prefer the seaboard to the morph, at least for playing these brass sounds. Lucky you having a Rise. Must be nice to have control of glide, slide etc onboard.
Strangely enough, I see Roger Linn is out of stock of his own Linnstruments too!
All of which said, Equator 2 is pretty great.
I wanted to upgrade but as a long time customer with not really a great upgrade offer I feel not good to support them anymore.
I must say Equator is really still one of the greatest tools when it comes to MPE but I never was really happy with the synth engine and especially the filters are not great.
Is v2 a step up here or is to mainly workflow and GUI?
It depends what you> @Clueless said:
It depends what you're looking for, but it's certainly been a step up for me; the synth engine now has six rather than two of the old source slots and offers wavetable and granular engines as well as the existing sampler, and the effects chain has more modules and a more customisable path. And there are a few more filter types, though it's not one of the big changes. One thing you notice at once is the insane number and quality of new presets; the old set were always a bit of a mixed bag, but the Equator 2 ones are really top-notch. But as you say, it's ultimately about the MPE expression mapping and UI, which was hard to improve on and for the most part they've been wise enough not to mess with it except in cosmetic ways and to cram a few more elements into the interface. Screenshots of the Synth view below for comparison; I still get a rush of love for the original Equator UI:
This explains it, I think...
https://roli.com/stories/covid-19-support-times-and-product-availability
Feeling inspired. I will let you know how it goes:
Why has this battery the devils numbers 👹🥺
Watch out 😁
Well, I assume the "BURN PUNCTURE" is referring to stabbing with a red-hot pitchfork.
Away with your facts, let’s get back to mindless speculation and conspiracy theories.
@AlmostAnonymous, the thing is indestructible! I want one!
Indeed that is true. Not that I tried these things with my Seaboard Rise but it is really build like a tank and the material is high quality and feels so. If I would trow it into the wall, my wall maybe bricks and the Seaboard just laughs.
The hardware is really awesome (if it not failed or is faulty like mine but got fast a replacement) but the software and especially the dashboard to set-it up is supper buggy. And why the hell seems no one makes these dashboard/editing software for iOS because if I want to change something but want to use it for an iOS app, I have to use the Mac, connect it and change things, then go back to the iOS device...wait, I wan to change some other things....back to the Mac, oh dashboard did not save the changes and mixed something up.....mhhhh, forget that thing...put it in the corner...maybe my cat use it as scratch tree.
@Clueless, what about playing the SWAM brass with it? Will you try?
Just spoke to Zzounds. They indicate new shipments from Roli by mid March, both 49 Rise and Seaboard Block.
At the moment Plasmonic has all my focus, its so good and almost as great and expressive for brass (and much much more) as SWAM....if you like also not exact emulations hybrids but with almost the same organic feeling. I am not sure if I could ever play SWAM better since it is really up to the player to let them shine. Most demos even from great players did not convince me that an amateur like me would sound it really good to come even close to all my sample libraries but I am up for this challenge maybe. The demos from Alistair ParnelI performing these with an Aerophone are so far the best I saw yet and almost as real as it could get, so that shows that in theory these tools are really there. I also did not bite yet on one of the iOS SWAM apps since I already save up to get maybe the all-in bundle on desktop.
But since I then have to buy the iOS apps too if I want them I am not sure yet until they offer a buy on desktop, get on iOS for free which seems to work for some others.
I am also even more interested in their coming v3 for the strings which I also might start with on desktop since they offer also an upgrade to all-in later.
I might test one but wait for the iPhone version since I think 3d touch fits well.
The good thing on iOS is that I can buy single instruments and also could just upgrade to the bundle without loss which does not work on desktop where it seems you can just buy a full bundle of 5 instruments of the same category.
Since I am using and liking still both platforms I am still not sure if I like how they handle the cross platform thing.
On one side its awesome to have the option to have them on both platforms if needed but then my brain says no to buy anything again just for a different platform. So I would accept the higher desktop prices to get it across the board.
But not sure if that happens and if I buy now some apps on iOS I def, have to pay again on desktop or have to use IDAM which I do not want. And as they might look cheap, we know it can pretty fast sum up on iOS plus IAP maybe to complete something and then you are stuck if something is not working for you, on desktop I could resell (which again could be in trouble with something like buy on desktop get free on iOS).
I personally would start with the french horn....will see while they are still on intro sale.