in August 2017 I walked into my local music store and played the Seaboard rise
for the first time it was inspiring it made me want to play and play
differently play with more expression the rise was expensive and since Roli
had just announced the Seaboard block which was much cheaper I opted for that
one when my Seaboard block arrived I filmed my first unboxing video and
started this YouTube channel today I finally have a seaboard rise 49 thanks
to the Roli fan for sending it to me so what's the difference between the
Seaboard block and the seaward rise let's find out
alright let's get the basics out of the way now both take advantage of the five
dimensions of touch that define Rollie devices strike press slide slide and
lift so they can control sounds in pretty much the same way now at first
glance it looks like the only difference is the part right here on the rise but
there are other differences and price is a big one I'm gonna delve into these
differences to help you decide which is right for you now although I'm working
with the rise 49:49 keys the features are exactly the same as the rise 25 the
Seaboard block has 24 keys let's talk about compatibility both use MPE
MIDI standard which means you get the best results when using an MP II
compatible da like GarageBand logic Cubase bit wig traction waveform and
others Ableton is not MPT compatible but with some setup you can make full use of
seaboards with it watch my video about the MPE utility that I recently found
and when I got the rise the first thing I noticed was build quality the rise
feels high-quality it's heavy much heavier than I expected you've got some
metal parts here even the our logo looks cool I can't say enough about how good
the rise feels the block is light but still feels pretty good it's got a
plastic body which helps to keep things like wak'd and portable the 49 key rise
is not something you want to keep moving around both are really slim keyboards
now both of these are Bluetooth and the Bluetooth works beautifully both of
these come with the Rolly equator software sea board block comes with
around 200 presets in equator player which is a stripped down version of the
software if you want to hear all the sounds that comes with I have a video
demoing them right here the Seaboard rise comes with 500 presets in
the full version of equator now if you've got the Seaboard block you can
always upgrade the equator software later an upgrading only costs $79 have
the great thing about the rise is that you can use it to control equator like a
synth and make use of the touch faders and the XY pad
on the rise you can use the touch faders to control the sensitivity of the
dimensions of touch alright let's talk about the controls the rise has
dedicated octave switcher buttons right here you also have a preset controller
at the top so you can switch the presets in equator
obviously the Seaboard block doesn't have the three touch faders or the XY
pad however you could buy the touch block that can be used to alter your
seaboard locks touch and you can use a light pad block with the Rolly dashboard
to emulate the rises XY pad the Seaboard block is $300 the rise 25 is $800 and
the rise 49 is $1,100 now the biggest difference the touch the rise keys are
slightly bigger and it makes playing it a little bit more natural
do they feel different yes but just a little if you're comparing the two on
touch alone I wouldn't say that the Rhys touch justifies the higher price tag the
Seaboard block
feels really good as well both of these work well with roly's mobile apps like
noise and it also works with GarageBand on iOS
now one really great thing about the Seaboard block is its expansion options
you can easily connect a light Pat block to it and extend the octave range or use
this as a drum pad you can also add the other blocks by Rolly
that help you control different things I've got the loop block right here that
helps you control the noise app a little better but also works really well with
GarageBand on a Mac to record and control faders and do lots of other
things the rise does not have the magnetic connectors that help you expand
your Rolie universe if you liked this video hit the like button and subscribe
keep making the music that you love and I'll see you guys