Well if you want more MPE hardware controllers to compare against, you know what resource to use.
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honestly, thereās a couple of issues with thisā¦ on both erae and ROLI Piano.
a) subjectivity and usage
different users have played with different controllers, and will also have different use-cases - this will always taint people opinions. esp with āfeelā which is pretty subjective.
also, some peoples expectations are also altered by price point.
e.g. I donāt expect these controllers to be as good as a Continuum/Osmose as the price point is completely different.
generally, it comes down to your expectations, and can you enjoy it.
that is unfortunately, best judged by first hand experience - trying in a shop/trade show etc.
b) track record / early adoption
honestly, Roli and Embodme previous products have a bit of a chequered past, not living up to many peoples expectations.
they are also new products, so theres some expectations that issues we see will be āfixedā in later firmware etc - but thats a āpromiseā
also, with these things, often there is a honeymoon period, user are happy with it, but 6 months later, things start to surface that are an issue - sometimes in quality control in product or firmware updates not being forthcoming.
so there is a risk with getting new products.
so unfortunately, overall, I dont really have much confidences in āreviewsā, not because I think people āshillā products (I dont think they do) , but because its all quite subjective and down to expectations.
(like it or not, some people will have much higher/lower expectations of a $500 product, depending on the personal circumstances)
its a real shame that many of these products cannot be bought online with some kind of return guaranteeā¦ as this would give people some confidence in buying, and seeing if the product is for them.
so yeah, im not sureā¦
Id definitely wait on the ROLI Piano, as the Lumi was pretty poor.
(and frankly, Roli have always been very good at āmarketingā ;))
Erae 2, I think its great but yeah, theres does appear to be some quality variance, and its not āperfectā for sensitivity, but good enough depends on you.
honestly, If you really dont want to take a risk, Id say Osmose. Its been around long enough, that we all know its the āreal dealā - yes, its pricey, but you are paying for quality (imho)
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I was getting away from conventional style piano, but Iāve gravitated back and was looking for an MPE keyboard with regular sized keys with full vertical travel. I was too unclear about what functionality it included versus Airwave and subscription and the Osmose is out of my price range.
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Iām curious if you checked out the scale capabilities? Like being able to customize and display any scale on the keys? I assume it has no microtuning capability built in?
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Great input! I basically agree with everything youāre saying. That said, I do think a video that thoroughly showcases specific aspects of a device ā especially ones Iām particularly interested in ā can absolutely help me get a better sense of a product. For example, if Iām unsure about a deviceās sensitivity and thereās a video using weights or force gauges to measure it, maybe even side-by-side with devices Iām already familiar with, then of course, that gives me a much clearer idea of what to expect.
Absolutely, I would love to always have an Osmose with me ā it is however kinda heavy and hard to fit in the suitcase, thatās why, as I mentioned, Iām looking to get a Roli Piano as well.
Iāve never found another full-size 49-key keyboard that fits in a normal suitcase ā most have pitch/mod wheels or extra space around the keybed, making them too wide. And hey, this one even has poly-aftertouch and per-key pitch bend! But that might also be its weak spot. Iām guessing it relies on the same pressure-sensitive ink for velocity, pressure, and pitch bend, and in my experience, this tech works decently for pressure and slides but not so much for velocity. And for me, a keyboard without solid velocity control just isnāt something I will be using.
So maybe the Roli Piano just is what it kinda looks like to me (and seems to mainly be marketed as): a keyboard with lights to help learners find notes, that also just happens to have some poly-aftertouch and per-key pitch bend capabilities!
That said, at the early-bird price of $350, Iām willing to give it a shot!
(It does come with a 30-day free return 
)
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oh, in that case , Id order oneā¦ and make use of it, see how it feels, see how well it works in practice - nothing to lose !
given youāve had a Linnstrument, I think thatāll have set certain expectations (about feel/responsiveness etc) , so itād be more important to get your hands on it - and 30 days is a good chunk of time to assess it.
also with the Roli, youāll get a feeling of what its ānative functionalityā is, compared to what the software (Roli Studio?) they provide will give you.
though, thats only important if you want to use standalone.
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It has no internal sounds, so not sure what you mean by standalone?
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Ah, to control hardware synths (without a PC involved), you mean?
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yupā¦ direct midi out. as in that case, you are solely relying upon the capabilities of the firmware of the controller.
Iāve not really looked too deeply at the Roli piano, so Im not sure exactly the specs are of itā¦ esp. as the marketing is trying to push the ecosystem as a whole (incl airwave), rather than what the āpianoā itself is capable of.
but hey, if you always attach to a laptop, none of this may matter 
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Letās not forget about their subscription service for learning to play ā a big part of the companyās focus since the restructuring with the new investors. Because especially at the time, and still in most cases, investors do love them some sweet SaaS-money ā letās make everything SaaS!
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Yeah, no. Give up on that.
Until explicitly shown otherwise, there is nothing of the sort. I canāt emphasize strongly enough, you should never trust Roli in this regard.
(Roli keeps the LEDs pretty well locked down, because they consider their lighted controllers, more than anything else, as DRM for the subscription service. If they made their products open and modular, that would open the door for competing services to make use of those. Which is verboten.)
Soā¦ youāre only going to select scales in Roli Studio Player. Theyāre listed here - there are 19 of them. And thatās after several years of user requests begging for specific others.
(I have 28 that Iād like to see supported, for my own use. But also, I built a tool which synchronizes the keyboard to whatever you have selected in Ableton, and I can never release it because Roli doesnāt support half of those scales, either.)
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I dont agree with that analysis really.
Because back in the lightpad block days, they did publish some API stuff, and also the littlefoot scripting stuff. And I believe this extended to the Lumi too. (to give the Piano M its original name).
I know the idea that firmware sourcecode was published was mentioned earlier, and I never saw any evidence of that, I never personally saw ROLI ever going that far.
Rather, I believe the reality was somewhere in between the two stated extremes as far as I know. What I dont know is whether ROLI these days will still put the same effort into that side of things. And its been too many years since I mucked around with any of this myself, so I cannot get right into the full details of either the littlefoot or API stuff with the Lumi, I cannot say whether you can use either to achieve custom scales, but I suspect you probably can.
My evidence for the above comes mostly from the following repository, and the fact that later commits show that some files were updated to support a particular LUMI firmware version:
updated file examples that are LUMI-relevant in places:
But like I said I dont have time to probe that stuff more deeply right now, and these files are from quite some years ago now. There may be even simpler ways to affect the illumination of the keys for all I know, I have a vague memory of that but it was too long ago for me to remember properly.
Whether the same stuff will work on the new hardware remains to be seen.
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Roli supports 19 scales.
And that littlefoot example code was quietly published (without an announcement, let alone a reply to countless emails about it) after three years of begging.
I mean, sure. A more empowering user firmware is technically possible now. But this does not in any way affect my answer, which was that Roli will never release a scale editor.
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In an extremely limited manner, yes.
You can change the color palette, and you can mark individual keys as being active. But touching a key overrides itās LED state.
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Q:
Does the Roli Piano offer any improvements in pitch bend and aftertouch performance/expressiveness compared to the Piano M? Or is it essentially an upscaled, 49-full-size-key version of the Piano M, with a deeper plunge depth?
Is all the sensing (velocity, pressure, and pitch) done by pressure-sensitive ink, or does the Roli Piano use a combination of different sensors for pressure, pitch, and velocity?
It would be greatly appreciated if Roli could share more in-depth information and/or a more in-depth video showcasing these aspects of the new Roli Piano.
ROLI:
Yes, there are improvements to pitch bend and aftertouch with the ROLI Piano
Sorry, we are not able to provide the technical details, as thatās our secret sauce!
Q:
I get that some details might be proprietary, but itās a bit surprising that basic sensor information isnāt available. After all, once people get their hands on the Roli Piano, theyāll be able to figure it out anyway.
Wouldnāt it be frustrating if you were buying a car but the seller refused to tell you how many cylinders it had, or a computer without disclosing its memory capacity? Transparency about what weāre purchasing is important.
Would you be able to share at least some general insight into how the sensing works without giving away the āsecret sauceā? That would really help potential buyers make an informed decision.
ROLI:
ā¦
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