Category: Hardware

Roli announces the Seaboard Block

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Well this is a really interesting development for Roli. They’ve extended their Blocks range today with a new Seaboard Block and it’s very reasonably priced indeed at £279 / $299. That makes the Seaboard Block very accessible and reachable for musicians, and will make a good addition to anyone who’s already got a Lightpad Block.

What’s more they’ve updated their iOS app too as follows:

Introducing the Seaboard Block, Touch Block and My Studio!

  • You now tap on the instrument icon to switch to a Seaboard View and either play on-screen or connect a Seaboard Block
  • Configure what Block controls what track and extend your BLOCKS playing surface using My Studio. Also use it to manage your hardware, such as checking your BLOCKS hardware are up-to-date
  • Adjust the 5D settings for each connected Block by either attaching a Touch Block or in the advanced settings of My Studio

Other updates and fixes:

  • 6 new exciting soundpacks that showcase the expressive capabilities of the Seaboard Block
  • Updated onboarding screens, allowing you to skip and replay them at any time
  • Visual improvements throughout app

NOISE on the app store:

On Kickstarter: Audio Injector Zero sound card for the Raspberry Pi

More good Raspberry Pi news today. Audio Injector Zero sound card for the Raspberry Pi launched on Kickstarter and it’s very reasonably priced too. This one works with the Pi Zero as well, so it’s tiny! You can find out more on their campaign page.

All you Circuit owners need to check this out

I’ve seen a lot of proprietary controller apps over the years, but since Novation brought out their circuit I can’t say that I’ve noticed very much for it. So I’m sure that circuit owners will be pleased about this app. Here are the details:

MIDISynth Circuit provides full editing of the two synth engines on the Novation Circuit Synthesizer.

Patches can be retrieved and uploaded to the Circuit using the editor and transferred to a computer for archiving. Using this mechanism it is also possible to upload patch sets available from Novation Components.

Full control of the session sections of the synth are provided and presets can be saved and recalled( due to technical limitations, no interaction for Novation Components is available for session settings).

Additional functionality is available in the form of in app purchases for random generation/tweaking of patches, morphing between patches, 4 XY user-definable XY controls and 16 user definable controls.

The 4 XY controls, 16 custom controls and the macro controls are brought together on the performance screen for easy control of your favourite parameters whilst performing.

Please note this app requires a Novation CIrcuit to operate – it goes not generate any sound itself. Please note that due to technical limitations this app requires a USB connection to Circuit in order to operate correctly. Please note this is an independent product and there is no link or affiliation with Novation Music.

MIDISynth Circuit costs $14.99 on the app store:

Arpeggio is still moving forward

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This seems to be moving forward well now. Which is excellent news. Between this and the KDJ-One I’m looking forward to getting some new hardware in the not too distant future.

And there’s more KDJ-One news

I’m really glad to see that this little device is really coming along nicely. I’m far more hopeful that it’ll see the light of day now.

KDJ-One is looking more and more like it’s really going to happen

Which is brilliant news for everyone who backed it, and also for anyone who’s interested in seeing this come to life. The KDJ-One could be an amazing device for mobile music making, so it becoming a reality is a big deal as far as I’m concerned.

minijam studio – portable music machines arrives on Kickstarter, from the makers of Patchblocks

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You might remember me talking about Patchblocks, originally when the hardware first launched, then again when they crowdfunded for equity. Now they’re back on Kickstarter with a whole new set of hardware. The mini jam studio. You can find it on Kickstarter now, and it’s already doing well. You can also listen to below:

dadamachines arrives on Kickstarter and is already funded!

I saw these amazing machines at MMM2017 just a few weeks ago and was pretty taken with them. Then I had no idea that they were going to be available on Kickstarter. That is, not until I got an email from Johannes Lohbihler a few days ago, and today they’ve launched on and they’re funded already!

So go take a look at the campaign page here. You’ll be hearing more about dadamachines, believe me.

Roli releases Blocks Dashboard as a beta

I’ve mentioned Roli’s Blocks product a few times and today they’ve released something new. Now you can connect Blocks to:

  • Apple: Logic Pro.
  • Ableton: Live.
  • Native Instruments: Kontakt, Massive.
  • Steinberg: Cubase.
  • Bitwig: Studio.
  • ROLI: Equator.
  • Spectrasonics: Omnisphere.
  • FXpansion: Strobe2, Synth Squad.
  • SampleModeling: Swam.
  • Cycling ’74: Max MSP (although there are already Max objects for Blocks I believe)

Whilst this isn’t strictly speaking about a mobile product it is a really useful way to use Blocks. You can find out more at Roli’s site.

pisounds is now at 81% of its target

That didn’t take long at all. pisound has reached 81% of its target funding on its first day. If you haven’t already checked it out on Indiegogo then here’s the link. I think it’s a very fitting end to Pi day.