ROLI Songmaker Kit Studio Edition: The Complete Kit for Creators, Includes Seaboard Block Midi Controller Keyboard, Lightpad Block Drumpad and Loop Block DAW Control

The first thing I noticed when taking the Block out of its box was its excellent build quality; it feels like a solid, premium piece of kit. Setting it up was super easy, and it paired instantly with the NOISE and ROLI Play apps on the iPad (both of which are intuitive and simple to use: great for having a bit of fun but it also seems like you can use them to create something more complex). The ROLI Play app has a great tutorial to get used to the 5D touch so it’s worth starting with that. The Block itself is very responsive to touches, and it’s easy to get used to the different ways of playing. It’s versatile: I’ve also used the Block as a drum pad on Ableton Live. Configuring and customising the Block as a drum pad is easy to do in the Blocks Dashboard, and there are a couple of ‘Easter eggs’ in there too, which kept me entertained for longer than I’d care to admit. It’s a shame the Block isn’t compatible with more Android devices, but this wasn’t too much of an issue for me. Overall this is a great product, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can create with it in the future.

Great piece of kit, such an expressive input device to make sound, and looks like a traditional keyboard almost. Seam really well made have had great fun playing about with it using garage band, and it’s own apps. I’m not a musician, this is great fun for stealing your time. My only comment is don’t buy it at full price it seams to regularly drop by over fifty point to about £170. I did get stung and paid the full price.

ROLI Lightpad Block M - Super Sonic Surface I bought this product as I am a drummer and I’m interested in combining digital software with performance, as well as composing my own stuff. I really like the Roli Lightpad Block M as it’s a very interesting product in terms of the different types of sounds and effects you can create from simply the way you press and move on the pad. The Pad itself has an intriguing ribbed rubber surface that is thicker than the original Lightpad Block, so it’s more sensitive to your touch, which creates more modulation on the sounds. Also, if you drag your finger whilst holding a note it changes the pitch and harshness of the note, so there’s lots to play with, and for me the drums sound nice and punchy. The product is quite easy to use, especially with some useful training videos if you download the ROLI PLAY app to get you started, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a musician or not it’s pretty fun to use. However, I realised afterwards that I bought the product from a non-authorised Roli dealer from Amazon, who had already activated the product from its serial number, so I couldn’t even register it. I had to email Roli support proving my payment, then they wiped the records clean and I was able to activate it. Moving on, with the Block it advises to download an app called NOISE which works as a loop station to record sounds from the block. You connect your phone to the Block via Bluetooth, which sometimes took a struggle to connect, and then you can record a multitude of sounds including drums, synths, acoustic instruments and more. The app itself took me some time to figure out, but once I watched some videos on YouTube I started to understand it. Overall it is an exciting product that is very portable and useful for anyone who want to create their own music. It’s easy to use and great fun. If I had more money I would buy more blocks so you can attach them together to have more sounds, and if you own a Roli Seaboard then you pretty much have your own home studio. Worth the buy.

I am sorry to say, as a professional sound engineer and music producer, I cannot bare this produc in so many different aspects. very difficult to work with specially with Logic X or any DAW, the expression of the key is killing your creation instead if making any. the bult quality seems vey good but and I tried to convince myself to keep it but it is no no no. don’t try it if you think it gives you more options to your creativity

Bought this in a Roli sale period and very glad I did. It’s a quality product and feels really nice in your hand, offers Bluetooth connection to apps and works as expected (near enough) as you might expect. However, the down points are, it’s not as useful as you might expect, this is because the light lock is not as sensertive to light touches as I thought it would be, setting it up is somewhat a drag for midi, as each time you use it within a set/project you have to open the Roli dashboard to connect it up, I.e not just your DAW. I’m exploring the light lock more with custom designs and Max for Live so in the future I will find a home for it, but out the box in a studio set up, you may very well have something better already. Roli iOS apps work well with the block and are fun and different to use with the MPE mode’s of the lighblock, however I find iOS music production is often reduced to sketches of ideas rather than anything for the studio but that may change, especially if Roli make homebrew pack production and sample import available to the apps. All in all, a nice product for fun and portability, but not really that useful in the studio.

Portable, robust, expressive, light, Bluetooth, USB C, OS X/Win/iOS, standalone and plug-in software included and most importantly - modular. Got it for £197 on sale and could not be happier. Beatmaker Kit is a great addition to the Seaboard.

Fantastic idea. Fantastic to play. However, build quality of mine was terrible as was after sales response. It wouldn't switch off (acknowledged as a 'hardware fault') and the base rubber was poorly fitted and detached in one corner. Just not good enough so returned.

Terrible!!!

Excellent product - love the expressions - seller was good - packaging was good

Il Lightpad Block si comporta egregiamente. L'approccio è immediato, la connessione con iPad non dà alcun problema, ed è presente un discreto numero di suoni (altri si acquistano a parte tramite l'apposito shop). Non sono presenti istruzioni, ma a questo si rimedia online. Però è anche divertente andare a tentativi premendo a caso! Promosso, e consigliato anche per un regalo.

love it! its easy to use and the sounds are great. Some problems with the app though, but all in all it's very user friendly

Awesome product. A bit weird to figure out, but lots of tutorials online. I ultimately sent it back. I found a cheaper used variation and long and McQuade and kiboshed the looper for my boss 212. Very cool device tho. Good response, interesting design.