Inventing the ROLI Seaboard

Redefining Musical Expressiveness

By Nick Rothwell

Roland Lamb talks to Nick Rothwell about the inspiration behind the ROLI Seaboard, the challenges faced when creating a new type of instrument and the three product ranges from ROLI: the Seaboard, Block System and LUMI.

Show Notes

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - The Origins Of ROLI
07:41 - Part Of The Keyboard Family
12:26 - Challenges Of Constructing The Seaboard
17:34 - The First Products Launched
18:12 - From Integrated Sounds To Controllers And Soft Synths
22:59 - Standardising MIDI Polyphonic Expression
25:32 - The ROLI Block System
28:33 - LUMI for Education And Performance
30:30 - Improving Playability With The Seaboard Rise 2
33:08 - The Next Generation Of Blocks

Roland Lamb - Biog

Roland Lamb, CEO of Luminary ROLI and inventor of the Seaboard, is a trailblazer in music technology. The Seaboard, blending a keyboard's familiarity with advanced digital capabilities, redefined musical expressiveness. Lamb's leadership at ROLI focuses on innovating music creation tools, merging artistry with technology. His groundbreaking work, recognised through various awards, continues to influence the music industry, shaping new ways musicians interact with instruments and expanding the horizons of musical expression.

https://roli.com/

Interviewer: Nick Rothwell - Biog

Nick Rothwell is a regular Sound On Sound author, composer, performer, software architect, coder and visual artist. He has built media performance systems for projects with Ballett Frankfurt and Vienna Volksoper, composed sound scores for Aydın Teker (Istanbul / Kapadokya), AWA Dance, Luz Mannion Dance (Flamenco) and Undercurrent Theatre, programmed physical media sculptures with Simeon Nelson and Rob Godman, live coded in Mexico and in Berlin with sitar player Shama Rahman, collaborated with the body>data>space collective in Prague, Paris and Dresden, written software for Studio Wayne McGregor, the Pina Bausch Foundation and Nesta's FutureFest, and developed algorithmic visuals for large-scale outdoor projections in Poland, Estonia, Cambridge Music Festival and Lumiere (London / Durham).

https://cassiel.com/