This is very nice and works great with the LinnStrument!
https://roli.com/stories/roli-studio-player
ROLI Studio Player
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 267 posts since 17 Oct, 2005
Duality without regard to physicality
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- KVRist
- 105 posts since 18 Dec, 2018
I am just downloading this ... I have been trying to learn Equator and Cypher ... very impressed by the latter ... hadn't got around to Strobe yet ... and now all being rolled into one ... I can imagine some of my previous go-too VST's gathering dust if it's anywhere near its potential ...
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 267 posts since 17 Oct, 2005
Ah man, sorry about that. I'm sure they'll have a Win version once it is fully released.
Duality without regard to physicality
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- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
They promised a win version. But its just a player with some arpeggios on top. I could not fond much use for it, and its installing too much for my taste...
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- KVRAF
- 1552 posts since 2 Apr, 2015
There is also no way to change how your MPE controller effects the patches either, so no relative mode, no way of setting curves etc.
So for me like Equator player deleted soon after installation.
So for me like Equator player deleted soon after installation.
Bitwig, against the constitution.
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- KVRAF
- 2490 posts since 8 Jun, 2010
- Roger Linn Design
I tried out ROLI Studio Player and liked it. I tend to prefer playing to programming, so I value that it offers quick access to a wide variety of sounds while offering some simple controls for sound modification. I hope they release it as a free app, following the trend toward free players these days as with Kontakt Player and UVI Workstation.
The only negative I’d offer is that the presets seem to my ears to be closer to standard MIDI keyboard sounds that someone added some expressive control to, as opposed to sounds designed for expressive performance. For example, few of the sounds use pressure for full note loudness, using it instead as an added modulation as with sounds designed for MIDI keyboard Aftertouch. And Y-axis seems often to be used similarly to how MIDI keyboard sounds use Mod Wheel. Also, like many modern synths, the sounds seem similar in character and lack a distinctive and complex tonal identity, which I think would have been possible because I think Equator, Cypher and Strobe have complex sound sources and complex filtering. They did keep my favorite Equator sound, “Mellow Duduk”, which I think is an excellent example of a sound created for expressive control. When I step through any synth’s presets, I’m looking for a sound with a strong sonic character/complexity and expressive dynamic/tonal control such that it could be a modern synthesis equivalent of a violin or sax, and I found few such sounds. That said, I suspect that those who created the preset sounds are probably used to creating MIDI keyboard sounds, so it’s hard for them to think outside of that comfortable box. Also, ROLI is probably right to give people the types of MIDI keyboard sounds that they are used to and which are less challenging to adapt to for most MIDI keyboard players. But I think that expressive presets in synths will improve over time as players start to better understand how to play expressive instruments.
The only negative I’d offer is that the presets seem to my ears to be closer to standard MIDI keyboard sounds that someone added some expressive control to, as opposed to sounds designed for expressive performance. For example, few of the sounds use pressure for full note loudness, using it instead as an added modulation as with sounds designed for MIDI keyboard Aftertouch. And Y-axis seems often to be used similarly to how MIDI keyboard sounds use Mod Wheel. Also, like many modern synths, the sounds seem similar in character and lack a distinctive and complex tonal identity, which I think would have been possible because I think Equator, Cypher and Strobe have complex sound sources and complex filtering. They did keep my favorite Equator sound, “Mellow Duduk”, which I think is an excellent example of a sound created for expressive control. When I step through any synth’s presets, I’m looking for a sound with a strong sonic character/complexity and expressive dynamic/tonal control such that it could be a modern synthesis equivalent of a violin or sax, and I found few such sounds. That said, I suspect that those who created the preset sounds are probably used to creating MIDI keyboard sounds, so it’s hard for them to think outside of that comfortable box. Also, ROLI is probably right to give people the types of MIDI keyboard sounds that they are used to and which are less challenging to adapt to for most MIDI keyboard players. But I think that expressive presets in synths will improve over time as players start to better understand how to play expressive instruments.
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- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
Mellow Duduk is my favorite as well, my second loved would be Dulcimer Rosa Mallet, which is missing in the pack... Both are from Equator...
After that there would be some 5D Cypher 2 sounds from Himalaya...
After that there would be some 5D Cypher 2 sounds from Himalaya...
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- KVRAF
- 2490 posts since 8 Jun, 2010
- Roger Linn Design
Thanks for the tip, Tj. I’ll try those sounds.
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- KVRAF
- 5627 posts since 23 Mar, 2006 from pendeLondonmonium
Hi all,
It's a nice conversation about the finer details of expressive sounds, so may I take the liberty and join you to expand on a few topics.
The sounds in the Roli Studio Player represent only a small subset of the complete libraries available in each synth, and overtime, you might see all presets being made available in one way or another. In the meantime, it's the full synths (Equator, Cypher2 and Strobe2) where we can experience the complete palette of 5D sounds. Here, you will find some of the most expressive sounds on the MPE market.
So moving on to the expressive nature of some of the patches. The factory content of any of these synths is designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, covering as many genres and themes as we can make. This is a tall order made challenging by the fact that these sounds are multi-dimensional. The challenge is to make these sounds expressive and yet practical for as many people as possible. So, the factory presets contain patches that provide deeply expressive sounds, and those where expression is less dynamic in some way. Or any combination thereof.
The reason for creating presets that appear to be less expressive than others stems from several factors all of which are intertwined. I’d like to explore this topic below. It’s a long read with a lot of technical info but I hope that it will be useful to some as it touches on the very fundaments of 5D sound design.
On the outset, I need to underline that the sounds in all Roli synths/apps are designed for the Seaboard, and they are fine-tuned to the silicone surface of the Seaboard RISE/Block/Grand. Using them on any other MPE controller may or may not give satisfactory results. However, beyond this, there is a much stronger aspect that informs how we make 5D sounds at ROLI, and this is, a Seaboard is a keyboard-based instrument. It is approached by most people as a keyboard. A Seaboard RISE or Block makes it possible to use all the standard keyboard playing techniques (not the Grand though), and so we find people come in to the Seaboards and start playing with full force, maybe by using too much velocity, or exerting too much pressure for the Silicone surface of the Seaboards. Maybe this force is just perfect on a MIDI keyboard with plastic keys or a weighted piano, but the Seaboard requires a much gentler touch.
So why is all this relevant to the expressive nature of the presets? It is relevant because, if you use traditional two handed keyboard techniques, and select a preset which is very responsive to extreme volume boosts/modulation via pressure then you will experience a very unplayable sound. What will happen is, as you play, the amplitude of the sound will ’bounce’ up and down, and the player will find it difficult to balance this modulation as they play. In short, the continuous pressure modulation of MPE controllers is not that well suited to traditional keyboard-based sounds, which do not require deep modulation via pressure. Is this only my own view? No. It's an observation acquired through 6 solid years at the forefront of multi-dimensional sound design and observing how amateur and professional players react to these sounds. It's about collecting their feedback and requests and then creating sounds that they can use.
So, if I take a traditional Electric Piano, how do I make it 5D? How do I make it expressive via continuous pressure? People love pianos and they want to play them on the Seaboard with some of this new ‘MPE’ stuff.
In its basic form we can modulate the envelope sustain stage(s) via pressure and create this strange new entity: an EP that sustains (and the sustain could simply control the amplitude, or the timbre in more advanced forms). Here comes the first challenge I mentioned above - if this modulation is made to be very deep and expressive, the player will experience a very unstable sound, one that keeps modulating with each new note/chord. I mean, EPs are played with strong dynamic gestures and often with a lot of force, and so if such is applied on the Seaboard, the player will 'dig' into the PRESS (pressure) dimension and most likely reach its max value of 127 on the every onset of a note. So, what would happen in this scenario? The player no longer experiences a typical Electric Piano sound which decays in amplitude, but one that keeps fluctuating in amplitude, uncontrollably. It starts to behave more like a 'pad' than a 'keys' sound.
This is a huge challenge to solve, ie: to make an expressive sound, and one that is controllable and understood by many people. This scenario will affect many different sounds. The EP is only an example, but the same applies to all kinds of 'synth' sounds too.
We can use various synthesis tools to help fine tune the sound. The first one is the ‘expression curve’ or envelope. This is a must in an MPE synth. A deep exponential shape can help to control modulation and make it less ‘immediate’ to touch. The second is a ’slew’ limiter. But, if I use these to slightly 'curtail' the response of modulation assigned to pressure, the musician may think that:
a) the sound is not as expressive as they thought it should be and so it’s 'bad'.
B) the Seaboard is not sensitive and so it’s a bit rubbish (the Seaboards are extremely sensitive).
It’s a no-win situation for the sound designer when it comes to certain sounds.
However, moving away from such ‘keyboard-based’ patches, we can look at more exciting sound categories, and you have already mentioned one that works extremely well on the Seaboard and any other MPE controller like the Linnstrument. The category is question is Reeds/Wind with sounds that are real, hybrid or imaginary. The sound that you mention above and one which belongs to the reed/wind category is the Mellow Duduk preset. It’s an old sound of mine made in Equator many moons ago, but one that I also like very much. Since this sound is not keyboard-based, I was free to explore pressure in a more dynamic manner, attempting to mimic what a real reed instrument would do. Here, continuous pressure is a perfect companion to the modulation that we need to create. A reed instrument is controlled with continuous breath, and so the same can be accomplished with continuous pressure. Thus, in stark contrast to the EP mentioned above, this sound works really well with deeper amplitude and timbre modulation via pressure where we can create beautiful volume and timbre swells but also authentic tremolo. The full version of Equator has several such hybrid reed-brass sounds, all of which are very expressive.
So, above you have two examples of completely different approaches of how pressure is used in many of the 5D presets. This is then further expanded in other sound categories. Some will be very dynamic with strong modulation, some others will be more subtle. But this difference is not the outcome of our unfamiliarity with the subject, but rather a deep understanding that we have to cater to so many different sound categories and playing techniques...and how to do so with the given synth engine in any of the synthesisers. The synth engine is also crucial here. I could expand on this but I fear it would make this post even longer. Maybe later.
Then we can talk briefly about how SLIDE (Y-axis modulation) performs. Here again, many of the decisions are made according to the type of sound, and how it is intended to be played. Two hands? Solo? Is it a sound that should appeal to the masses or one that takes modulation to extremes. In short, it’s about something for everyone.
How about hybrid sounds that are not keyboard based, nor reed/wind or bow? How about plucks. How do we make a meaningful 5D sound out of a pluck? The pluck presents the same challenges as the EP. However, since this post is already long, I will not dwell on the boring details in text, but instead, I will add a video that shows how a pluck can be made into a beautiful multi-dimensional sound. And interestingly, this sound is similar to the above mentioned Dulcimer Rosa Mallet, they use the same underlying sample as far as I remember - I should know as I made all of those sounds. (Just disregard some of the out of tune notes
). The preset is named: Arkadia Rosa Zither.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_SMW9PCqYs
There is a pluck in the video sound, a reed-like sound on SLIDE and a bell on LIFT. The bell's frequency is controlled by the strength of note-off, so with weaker gestures the bell becomes more clangorous (you just don't hear this clangorous tone in this video because I played 'lift' with max force). That's a lot of expression to think about, but do notice, I'm not using pressure here. This sound is less about 'Pressure' and more about 'Pitch', 'Slide' and 'Lift'. And this would apply to other sounds too.
Certain sounds minimise the use of one dimension to the benefit of another, and so the orchestral preset Strings and Horns focusses on the SLIDE dimension (Y-axis) which allows to crossfade from a string ensemble to a horn ensemble. Since the main gesture is that of sliding, pressure is minimal in order to help make smooth transitions from strings to horns and back as we slide.
So there are many such considerations when designing 5D Seaboard sounds. At this point I could provide some real life anecdotes of how some of the sounds were created and how certain (high calibre) musicians reacted to them and how they wanted to limit(!) the expression on pressure. But maybe that’s better left for another occasion.
Now, how to create expressive sounds on the Linnstrumnet, that’s another question. But it’s a question that leads to a deeper exploration: do people play genre X with the Linnstrument? How do they play such genre X sounds, with both hands, one hand, poly or mono? Do they play genre Z too? Is Linnstrumengt played by complete novices to music or just experienced players? Many questions that will affect, or should affect, how a factory sound set is designed. What it provides. Does it make it easy to explore the instrument with a wide range of practical sounds, or does it only follow a uniform template of ‘we only use volume to pressure, full on. full stop’. In my experience such stringent approach ‘amp-to-pressure-only’ is not the best approach. Instead, each sound should be approached individually and expression assigned according to what the sounds ‘needs’.
How expression is 'baked' into the sounds is dictated by the preferences of each sound designer, and there are many who were involved in the factory sounds and each brings his or her own interpretation of the Sound Design Guide.
Sorry for the long post. However, I hope that it illustrates some of the more intricate aspects and deeper thinking behind a commercial preset library for a complex MPE controller.
Lastly, even though Equator is very dear to my heart (having overseen its development from the very first line of code) I would invite MPE musicians to explore Cypher2. I believe that here you will find some of the most striking, most expressive MPE sounds yet. The Wind sound category alone has about 19 beautiful presets.
To finish, here are two sounds from the Plucked String category. Both have the pluck and the sustained 'bow' articulations. All at the same time, depends how you play it. In this first example, its the bowing/sustain articulation that comes to the fore:
https://soundcloud.com/fxpansion/ps-cos ... udio-demos
https://soundcloud.com/fxpansion/ps-lut ... udio-demos
I think these would work very well on the Linnstrument. Although, I keep planning to convert some of these sounds to the Linnstrument so that they are perfectly tuned to its playing surface.
Signed,
Your friendly sound designer from Roli.
It's a nice conversation about the finer details of expressive sounds, so may I take the liberty and join you to expand on a few topics.
The sounds in the Roli Studio Player represent only a small subset of the complete libraries available in each synth, and overtime, you might see all presets being made available in one way or another. In the meantime, it's the full synths (Equator, Cypher2 and Strobe2) where we can experience the complete palette of 5D sounds. Here, you will find some of the most expressive sounds on the MPE market.
So moving on to the expressive nature of some of the patches. The factory content of any of these synths is designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, covering as many genres and themes as we can make. This is a tall order made challenging by the fact that these sounds are multi-dimensional. The challenge is to make these sounds expressive and yet practical for as many people as possible. So, the factory presets contain patches that provide deeply expressive sounds, and those where expression is less dynamic in some way. Or any combination thereof.
The reason for creating presets that appear to be less expressive than others stems from several factors all of which are intertwined. I’d like to explore this topic below. It’s a long read with a lot of technical info but I hope that it will be useful to some as it touches on the very fundaments of 5D sound design.
On the outset, I need to underline that the sounds in all Roli synths/apps are designed for the Seaboard, and they are fine-tuned to the silicone surface of the Seaboard RISE/Block/Grand. Using them on any other MPE controller may or may not give satisfactory results. However, beyond this, there is a much stronger aspect that informs how we make 5D sounds at ROLI, and this is, a Seaboard is a keyboard-based instrument. It is approached by most people as a keyboard. A Seaboard RISE or Block makes it possible to use all the standard keyboard playing techniques (not the Grand though), and so we find people come in to the Seaboards and start playing with full force, maybe by using too much velocity, or exerting too much pressure for the Silicone surface of the Seaboards. Maybe this force is just perfect on a MIDI keyboard with plastic keys or a weighted piano, but the Seaboard requires a much gentler touch.
So why is all this relevant to the expressive nature of the presets? It is relevant because, if you use traditional two handed keyboard techniques, and select a preset which is very responsive to extreme volume boosts/modulation via pressure then you will experience a very unplayable sound. What will happen is, as you play, the amplitude of the sound will ’bounce’ up and down, and the player will find it difficult to balance this modulation as they play. In short, the continuous pressure modulation of MPE controllers is not that well suited to traditional keyboard-based sounds, which do not require deep modulation via pressure. Is this only my own view? No. It's an observation acquired through 6 solid years at the forefront of multi-dimensional sound design and observing how amateur and professional players react to these sounds. It's about collecting their feedback and requests and then creating sounds that they can use.
So, if I take a traditional Electric Piano, how do I make it 5D? How do I make it expressive via continuous pressure? People love pianos and they want to play them on the Seaboard with some of this new ‘MPE’ stuff.
In its basic form we can modulate the envelope sustain stage(s) via pressure and create this strange new entity: an EP that sustains (and the sustain could simply control the amplitude, or the timbre in more advanced forms). Here comes the first challenge I mentioned above - if this modulation is made to be very deep and expressive, the player will experience a very unstable sound, one that keeps modulating with each new note/chord. I mean, EPs are played with strong dynamic gestures and often with a lot of force, and so if such is applied on the Seaboard, the player will 'dig' into the PRESS (pressure) dimension and most likely reach its max value of 127 on the every onset of a note. So, what would happen in this scenario? The player no longer experiences a typical Electric Piano sound which decays in amplitude, but one that keeps fluctuating in amplitude, uncontrollably. It starts to behave more like a 'pad' than a 'keys' sound.
This is a huge challenge to solve, ie: to make an expressive sound, and one that is controllable and understood by many people. This scenario will affect many different sounds. The EP is only an example, but the same applies to all kinds of 'synth' sounds too.
We can use various synthesis tools to help fine tune the sound. The first one is the ‘expression curve’ or envelope. This is a must in an MPE synth. A deep exponential shape can help to control modulation and make it less ‘immediate’ to touch. The second is a ’slew’ limiter. But, if I use these to slightly 'curtail' the response of modulation assigned to pressure, the musician may think that:
a) the sound is not as expressive as they thought it should be and so it’s 'bad'.
B) the Seaboard is not sensitive and so it’s a bit rubbish (the Seaboards are extremely sensitive).
It’s a no-win situation for the sound designer when it comes to certain sounds.
However, moving away from such ‘keyboard-based’ patches, we can look at more exciting sound categories, and you have already mentioned one that works extremely well on the Seaboard and any other MPE controller like the Linnstrument. The category is question is Reeds/Wind with sounds that are real, hybrid or imaginary. The sound that you mention above and one which belongs to the reed/wind category is the Mellow Duduk preset. It’s an old sound of mine made in Equator many moons ago, but one that I also like very much. Since this sound is not keyboard-based, I was free to explore pressure in a more dynamic manner, attempting to mimic what a real reed instrument would do. Here, continuous pressure is a perfect companion to the modulation that we need to create. A reed instrument is controlled with continuous breath, and so the same can be accomplished with continuous pressure. Thus, in stark contrast to the EP mentioned above, this sound works really well with deeper amplitude and timbre modulation via pressure where we can create beautiful volume and timbre swells but also authentic tremolo. The full version of Equator has several such hybrid reed-brass sounds, all of which are very expressive.
So, above you have two examples of completely different approaches of how pressure is used in many of the 5D presets. This is then further expanded in other sound categories. Some will be very dynamic with strong modulation, some others will be more subtle. But this difference is not the outcome of our unfamiliarity with the subject, but rather a deep understanding that we have to cater to so many different sound categories and playing techniques...and how to do so with the given synth engine in any of the synthesisers. The synth engine is also crucial here. I could expand on this but I fear it would make this post even longer. Maybe later.
Then we can talk briefly about how SLIDE (Y-axis modulation) performs. Here again, many of the decisions are made according to the type of sound, and how it is intended to be played. Two hands? Solo? Is it a sound that should appeal to the masses or one that takes modulation to extremes. In short, it’s about something for everyone.
How about hybrid sounds that are not keyboard based, nor reed/wind or bow? How about plucks. How do we make a meaningful 5D sound out of a pluck? The pluck presents the same challenges as the EP. However, since this post is already long, I will not dwell on the boring details in text, but instead, I will add a video that shows how a pluck can be made into a beautiful multi-dimensional sound. And interestingly, this sound is similar to the above mentioned Dulcimer Rosa Mallet, they use the same underlying sample as far as I remember - I should know as I made all of those sounds. (Just disregard some of the out of tune notes
). The preset is named: Arkadia Rosa Zither.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_SMW9PCqYs
There is a pluck in the video sound, a reed-like sound on SLIDE and a bell on LIFT. The bell's frequency is controlled by the strength of note-off, so with weaker gestures the bell becomes more clangorous (you just don't hear this clangorous tone in this video because I played 'lift' with max force). That's a lot of expression to think about, but do notice, I'm not using pressure here. This sound is less about 'Pressure' and more about 'Pitch', 'Slide' and 'Lift'. And this would apply to other sounds too.
Certain sounds minimise the use of one dimension to the benefit of another, and so the orchestral preset Strings and Horns focusses on the SLIDE dimension (Y-axis) which allows to crossfade from a string ensemble to a horn ensemble. Since the main gesture is that of sliding, pressure is minimal in order to help make smooth transitions from strings to horns and back as we slide.
So there are many such considerations when designing 5D Seaboard sounds. At this point I could provide some real life anecdotes of how some of the sounds were created and how certain (high calibre) musicians reacted to them and how they wanted to limit(!) the expression on pressure. But maybe that’s better left for another occasion.
Now, how to create expressive sounds on the Linnstrumnet, that’s another question. But it’s a question that leads to a deeper exploration: do people play genre X with the Linnstrument? How do they play such genre X sounds, with both hands, one hand, poly or mono? Do they play genre Z too? Is Linnstrumengt played by complete novices to music or just experienced players? Many questions that will affect, or should affect, how a factory sound set is designed. What it provides. Does it make it easy to explore the instrument with a wide range of practical sounds, or does it only follow a uniform template of ‘we only use volume to pressure, full on. full stop’. In my experience such stringent approach ‘amp-to-pressure-only’ is not the best approach. Instead, each sound should be approached individually and expression assigned according to what the sounds ‘needs’.
How expression is 'baked' into the sounds is dictated by the preferences of each sound designer, and there are many who were involved in the factory sounds and each brings his or her own interpretation of the Sound Design Guide.
Sorry for the long post. However, I hope that it illustrates some of the more intricate aspects and deeper thinking behind a commercial preset library for a complex MPE controller.
Lastly, even though Equator is very dear to my heart (having overseen its development from the very first line of code) I would invite MPE musicians to explore Cypher2. I believe that here you will find some of the most striking, most expressive MPE sounds yet. The Wind sound category alone has about 19 beautiful presets.
To finish, here are two sounds from the Plucked String category. Both have the pluck and the sustained 'bow' articulations. All at the same time, depends how you play it. In this first example, its the bowing/sustain articulation that comes to the fore:
https://soundcloud.com/fxpansion/ps-cos ... udio-demos
https://soundcloud.com/fxpansion/ps-lut ... udio-demos
I think these would work very well on the Linnstrument. Although, I keep planning to convert some of these sounds to the Linnstrument so that they are perfectly tuned to its playing surface.
Signed,
Your friendly sound designer from Roli.
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- KVRist
- 145 posts since 9 Sep, 2018
Nice and detailed answer!
Maybe one day we’ll also have a dedicated Linnstrument synth/sound source as Roli has and that takes in consideration the expressive possibilities of such an amazing instrument.On the outset, I need to underline that the sounds in all Roli synths/apps are designed for the Seaboard, and they are fine-tuned to the silicone surface of the Seaboard RISE/Block/Grand.
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- KVRAF
- 1552 posts since 2 Apr, 2015
Hi Himalaya,
Thanks for the details.
I think what Roli Player is missing is the ability to edit the Strike, Glide, Slide, Pressure and Lift curves.
Without this the user is stuck with the preset settings which may not map well to the controller; in this case the Linnstrument, or to the players preference if using a Roli board.
Every factory preset I use from Cypher2 has been edited by me in this way for my Roli board and Linnstrument.
Thanks for the details.
I think what Roli Player is missing is the ability to edit the Strike, Glide, Slide, Pressure and Lift curves.
Without this the user is stuck with the preset settings which may not map well to the controller; in this case the Linnstrument, or to the players preference if using a Roli board.
Every factory preset I use from Cypher2 has been edited by me in this way for my Roli board and Linnstrument.
Bitwig, against the constitution.
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- KVRAF
- 35297 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Can it import additional presets if you have the full Equator or Cypher?
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- KVRAF
- 5627 posts since 23 Mar, 2006 from pendeLondonmonium
One synth that can be a great match for the Linstrument is the already mentioned Cypher2. The main reason is the actual tool-set it provides for balancing the sound across all 5 dimensions. So, it has easily accessible 'expression curves'. One for each dimension, and 3 additional assignable curves (these are not the actual ADSR envelopes as seen on the GUI).tiantong wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:51 am Nice and detailed answer!
Maybe one day we’ll also have a dedicated Linnstrument synth/sound source as Roli has and that takes in consideration the expressive possibilities of such an amazing instrument.On the outset, I need to underline that the sounds in all Roli synths/apps are designed for the Seaboard, and they are fine-tuned to the silicone surface of the Seaboard RISE/Block/Grand.
It also has a very deep maths module which allows to do all sorts of tricks that are sometimes needed when fine tuning the sound.
However, even without the maths module, Cypher2 has a very easy way to balance dimensions and any controllers. This method involves multiplying mod sources by each other. An example: if you find that by pressing and sliding the volume becomes unwieldy and maybe also clips the output, we can do the following trick in the TransMod:
Select a mod slot, then in the top part choose slide, and in the bottom part choose pressure. Then assign a negative value to the volume fader, as much as is needed to reduce the volume clipping. Then, as you slide and press, the sound becomes more balanced. This trick can be applied to all parameters and it allows to very quickly deal with any complex issues, without having to use maths.
So, all of the above should really help in fine tuning of the sounds made for the Linnstrument.
Equator does not have this depth of modulation. It does have 4 'master' expression curves per dimension and then in the Mod Matrix, each modulation line can have its own expression curve (albeit slightly more limited, without nodes). But crucially, Equator1 does not have this flexible way to multiply a modulation source/destination by another.
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- KVRist
- 145 posts since 9 Sep, 2018
Watching the video at Roli Studio Player's website I see how different the business models of Roger Linn and Roli are.
It's nice to note that it is in beta and that they are asking for feedback to improve the product.
My main problem however is the "always connected" feature: You have first to download and install the Roli connect app; there are all those packages you can download and/or buy... rising all those privacy issues, which, in the end, in my case it comes to "I just want to be left alone with my sounds".
That is also the reason I don't have the Roli apps (or Synthmaster One, for that case) in my iPad, despite the good sounds I'm missing.
But cheers to the passionate and friendly sound designer for Roli. I will definitely have a look at Cypher 2.
Also thanks to Roger for the thoughts about creating expressive sounds without falling into the traps of "standard MIDI keyboard sounds".
It's nice to note that it is in beta and that they are asking for feedback to improve the product.
My main problem however is the "always connected" feature: You have first to download and install the Roli connect app; there are all those packages you can download and/or buy... rising all those privacy issues, which, in the end, in my case it comes to "I just want to be left alone with my sounds".
That is also the reason I don't have the Roli apps (or Synthmaster One, for that case) in my iPad, despite the good sounds I'm missing.
But cheers to the passionate and friendly sound designer for Roli. I will definitely have a look at Cypher 2.
And respect if you do this. Please, post it here when you do. It would be great to hear how it went.I think these would work very well on the Linnstrument. Although, I keep planning to convert some of these sounds to the Linnstrument so that they are perfectly tuned to its playing surface.
Also thanks to Roger for the thoughts about creating expressive sounds without falling into the traps of "standard MIDI keyboard sounds".
