ROLI Seaboard Block via Bluetooth problems

So I decided to get the iPad version too, mostly since the ES-8 is apparently more capable in this situation and I want more CV inputs.
I haven’t gotten that far.

I figured to see first how my favorite keyboard worked here.
I have had no issues with my Seaboard Block on any other iPad synth app.

It seemed to lose ‘connection’ with Audulus a lot? It would not consistently sustain notes. Randomly dropping volume and retriggering at greatly reduced volume.

Attached the simple patch that I was testing with.
ROLI sad.audulus (87.6 KB)

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Problem persists even when wired…I’ve no clue. (enough troubleshooting stuff for one day)

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I think I see what your issue is. You have two keyboard modules in the patch. The gate output on the simple MIDI keyboard module is connected to the “o” input on the oscillator which should instead be connected to the “o” output from the MIDI node. Inputs and outputs labeled with “o” are intended for a 1 per octave signal, similar to the 1 volt per octave signal used in eurorack. The convention is that 0 represents A440 and 1 is A880, or one octave up and -1 is A220 or one octave down etc. Using a linear scale for pitch rather than raw frequencies makes it simpler to transpose, create intervals etc. Each semitone is 1/12 of an octave so a fifth up from A (0) is 0+7/12. To shift octaves simply add or subtract the number of octaves from the signal.
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The MIDI module is also set for MIDI channel 6 which may or may not match your ROLI. The more advanced keyboard module is set for “omni” which will accept a MIDI note from any channel and has the gate connected correctly, but doesn’t have the “o” output connected to anything. Both modules are set fro legato which will produce a single note. It’s possible to set the keyboard node for up to 16 channel polyphony which will allow more than one note to be played at a time. The output then becomes a polyphonic signal, so it helps to understand how Audulus deals with polyphony if you want to use this feature.
There isn’t really any reason to use both modules. The simplified patch is

Simplified ROLI sad.audulus (83.0 KB)
Hope this helps. :cowboy_hat_face:

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Well that was a dumb thing not to notice.
It almost works as desired. With velocity on it just doesn’t work right.
SO…
Made a new patch with just basic keyboard, osc and speaker.
Key pressure and sensitivity are the problems associated with this instrument. and Audulus.
Some pressures not detected and held keys are often retriggered when moving finger, even at moderate pressures.

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At this point Audulus only has limited MIDI support and none for MPE. The keyboard node only responds to MIDI note-on and MIDI note-off messages. When the node receives a note-on message, if the node is set for legato operation, the note-on velocity is used to set the value of the gate signal. If the node is set for polyphonic operation the velocity is not used and the gate value is fixed at one. The gate value remains set until either a new note-on signal is received or a note-off signal for the original note is received. The note frequency starts at 0 when the node is first initialized and subsequently changes as new notes are received. It remains at the last note sent and does not return to zero even if there are no active notes. There is no support for MIDI channel or note aftertouch messages. There is a pitch bend node which receives the pitch bend signal and the trigger node can also be programmed to receive note-on and note-off messages. We are anticipating much improved MIDI support in a future update, which hopefully could include native MPE support.
How do you like the Block? I’ve looked at the Block and Rise online and thought they looked pretty cool, but I haven’t had a chance to actually play around with one.
BTW if you want to use polyphonic mode with velocity support, I came up with a hack that will work until the native node is improved.
Polyphonic MIDI interface with Velocity.audulus (2.3 KB)

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Full MPE support is coming sometime to Audulus 4 - Taylor got a Roli Seaboard to experiment for this!

So there’s no way to use aftertouch at all right now, not even mono?

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I think @afta8 made it happen with 4 note polyphony only? Might be wrong, but I seem to remember this a while ago.

What is the node for receiving aftertouch then? I don’t care much about polyphony at the moment)

I think he programmed it in some way where the incoming messages came on individual channels (meaning more Keyboard nodes).

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There are 2 types of MIDI aftertouch messages. Channel aftertouch and polyphonic aftertouch. They are MIDI message types similar to the note-on, note-off, control change, pitch bend etc. Currently Audulus does not respond to either type of aftertouch message. The only message types Audulus currently receives are note-on, note-off, pitch bend and control change. Hopefully this will change with the introduction of Audulus V4. The only way I can see to use aftertouch at the moment would be to use an external app to remap the aftertouch messages to a type Audulus can receive like a CC message.
https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/table-1-summary-of-midi-message

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Yes, @afta8 probably used this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midiflow/id879915554#?platform=ipad

Or something similar as a workaround.

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