ROLI TouchBlock MIDI Control Surface

Music is a language that everyone understands but few people can speak. Roli Blocks changes that. It lets you make music naturally through intuitive gestures on a touch-sensitive playing surface. Each individual Block fits in your hand or your pocket, and they’re incredibly powerful. Just connect Blocks to Noise, the free iOS app, and you have a wide array of sounds and effects to explore. Blocks introduces a new, modular way to make music. You can arrange your Blocks in many configurations to create kits that are perfect for you.

The Blocks connect magnetically, so you simply add more Blocks to do more things. Blocks is a modular music studio that you build as your skills and interests grow. Take full control over the five dimensions of touch of your Lightpad Block and Seaboard Block, and change the way each instrument responds to touch.

Touch Block Controls:

Strike- Adjusts the sensitivity of Seaboard and Lightpad Blocks to the velocity with which initial contact is made. When turned to zero, the Blocks automatically play each note at maximum volume no matter how hard the surface is struck.

Glide- Adjusts the sensitivity of Seaboard and Lightpad Blocks to lateral finger movements. At maximum glide, the surfaces are completely continuous, like a violin’s fretboard, whereas at minimum glide the surfaces behave more like a piano keyboard, with discrete keys that are unresponsive to sideways movements.

Slide- Adjusts the sensitivity of Seaboard and Lightpad Blocks to up-down finger movements, llowing you to dictate whether you use the whole key for modulating a sound parameter, or just a slight finger movement.

Press- Adjusts the sensitivity of Seaboard and Lightpad Blocks to the pressure with which a note is held.

Lift- Adjusts the sensitivity of Seaboard and Lightpad Blocks to the rate at which fingers are removed from the surface.

Strike Lock - Fixes the strike (velocity) dimension to a specific value, which is adjustable using the +/- buttons. Perfect if you need to ensure you play every note at the same volume.

Glide Lock - Also known as “Portamento Mode”, this automatically glides the pitch between one note and the next note played, at a rate adjusted by the +/- buttons.

Piano Mode - Removes all touch response except for strike (velocity) so your Block responds in just the same way a traditional piano does.