ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit offers a new take on music creation
The ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit is an incredibly intuitive music-making environment designed for the modern musician on-the-go.
ROLI BLOCKS is a modular environment that offers a new take on both portable music creation and professional studio control. The Songmaker kit is their new flagship package made up of three components that magnetically attached together to forge a music making powerhouse.
The system integrates seamlessly with laptops and desktop computers, and also offers Bluetooth connectivity to tablets and phones for the ultimate portable experience. ROLI offers a whole suite of intuitive software, and also works with standard MIDI for all other DAWs the market.
ROLI first took the stage when they released their award-winning “Seaboard”, a forward-thinking approach to one of music’s oldest instruments. The Seaboard incorporated ROLI’s patented 5D touch technology, which allowed the player incredibly expressive touch-response and sound morphing capabilities. ROLI’s 5D touch system grants the player five different gestures to perform expressive sounds – “Strike” and “Press” are much like piano and drum pad style response, while “Glide”, “Slide” and “Lift” offer a more string-style feel.
From mobile to computer…
One of the major drawbacks to mobile sound applications is getting your project onto your laptop or studio computer, but ROLI’s got you covered!
“Noise” is the free mobile app designed to be used with the ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit, it comes with a host of sounds and pairs wirelessly with your Songmaker Kit, and the best part, when you’re done playing around with your project you can either drag-and-drop to your laptop via Apple’s AirDrop or export as wav files or an Ableton project.
Seaboard block is the smallest and most portable in ROLI’s Seaboard series, it incorporates their 5D touch system and allows you to expand by adding more octaves or any other style of ROLI BLOCK. The Lightpad Block M is an incredibly intuitive MIDI touch surface that morphs into whatever you needed to be, it has 225 pressure sensors loaded with the 5D technology.
It also offers full colour LED for Visual feedback, think Novation Launchpad or Ableton Push that can fit into the palm of your hand. Loop block is ROLI’s production controller, it handles all your transport functions along with a whole host of other features such as looping.
The ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit Ships complete with a protective snap case, all the software and sound packs including Ableton Live Lite, and 2 USB cables. So, if you’re looking for a portable all-in-one production solution The ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit is a serious contender.
The ROLI BLOCKS Songmaker Kit will retail at USD$599 (around R 7,200 Excl. duties), it hasn’t hit South African shores yet, but for more information visit their website.
