The Roli absolutely looks sleek and sexy compared to most of the others (even the Continuum has a certain boxy quality). For a time I was hoping the Osmose would forego traditional black/white keys in favor of something darker, maybe even like a walnut or expresso theme for the keybed.
It's hard to describe unless you've actually experienced the surfaces for yourself: the rubber texture of the Roli, at least for my fingers, discouraged smooth gliding. It actually started to hurt my fingertips, like the skin was constantly being pulled. IF one wants to try one of these I'd suggest buying from a retailer like Amazon where you can easily return it with minimal hassles.
Something else to mention: all of these devices that are designed to have very fluid pitch control require a very different style of playing. You might notice that even in La La Land, his hand shape and fingering doesn't quite look "typical." MPE devices require a lot more care with things like finger position, even how much/little you move once on the key. For example, on a piano if I want to stretch and hit an interval 3 or 4 keys above the octave, my thumb might roll a bit on the lower held key. On a piano this is a non-event but on an MPE device this can suddenly cause the lower held key to drift sharp in pitch. Or if the Y axis controls something like filter cutoff (Y axis being where you touch a key, be it closer to the lower (front) or upper (back) of the key itself...if you play a chord where your fingers naturally land on very different positions on that axis it can have unexpected results (for example, a Db chord where the black keys might be near the front but the white keys might be close to midway or back).
None of these are fatal flaws, and most of these MPE controllers include ways to adjust curves and sensitivity to accommodate your particular playing style: just as an example, you can set the Continuum to quantize the initial pitch when you touch the fretboard but then track relative to that position. So, when you first play a note it will be on pitch but you can still then glide to another note or even wiggle your finger for vibrato. Best of both worlds
I can see this sort of tech not being for everyone; for me personally it's amazing stuff and well worth the learning curve.
Originally Posted by battema
The Roli absolutely looks sleek and sexy compared to most of the others (even the Continuum has a certain boxy quality). For a time I was hoping the Osmose would forego traditional black/white keys in favor of something darker, maybe even like a walnut or expresso theme for the keybed.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks