Скачать или смотреть Totally Amateur Roli Blocks Review!

I can't let the OP-1 steal all the glory of an amateur review.

TL:DW(All points from the video are written about below, in case you didn't feel like watching through the whole video.)

Before I say anything else, let me apologize for any scatterbrain sentences or losses of focus, I was a little tired when I made this, and I could feel myself slipping up a little. Apologies.

With that said, here are a few positives and negatives about my experience with the Roli hardware and the Noise app. Remember, my issues may not be common at all, I've searched Google for other people with my issues and can't find anything, so that's probably a good sign for Roli users, in general.

Positives first:

The Seaboard Block is REALLY nice to use. Wiggling fingers on keys causes sound vibrations and pitch shifts that are intuitive, the materials feel soft but not uncomfortably squishy, the casing and shell feel premium.

Roli Noise has lots of really cool sound packs, and many of them are free if you purchase their hardware (some of it is even free to use directly on the phone, without a hardware purchase.)

The Lightblock M (the one I don't have), is much like the Seaboard Block, it feels great, sensitive, and reflective of the emotions you're expressing through your strokes.

The functions on the Live and Loop Block are pretty handy, keeping extremely useful controls within reach of your fingertips, and make pressing the right control much more precise than trying to press them on a glass screen. They probably make a lot more sense for live performances where accuracy and timing are super important.

All the soundpacks in Noise have a very authentic and professional sound to them, going for more of a "real instrument" sound as opposed to an almost cheap synthesized sound that a few other devices might produce.

Recording the Seaboard Block, and loops or samples from Noise into other devices or DAWs can really add dimension and progression to existing projects.
Here's a song I "assisted" with Roli Blocks and Noise, linked to a few seconds before it comes in.
   • Caid J - Why Did You Do That?  

The whole line of Blocks (including the Noise app) seem aimed at enthusiasts and beginners. There's a certain degree of automation available to help people who suck with timing, or have difficulty tapping in serious beats. It's a good first start for music production enthusiasts.

Now the negatives:

The Loop Block(mine, at least) won't charge when it sleeps. This little block is unlike its brothers and sisters(the other blocks), and just refuses to charge up while it's sleeping. My original, and the replacement that the Apple store gave me for this issue, both display this behavior. Plugging it into the PC, while Dashboard is running and keeping the block from sleeping, allows it to charge up. So, there's that at least.

The Noise app is getting better than ever, overdubbing, Ableton Link support, and 8 bar instead of only 4 bar loop creation was added. It's still limited in only having basically 4 tracks capable of playing at a time, and it's still extremely buggy and skippy for me. I still often record one beat sequence or loop and the product is not what I recorded in. (Again, Googling this issue brought up nothing, so I seem to be an isolated victim of this behaviour.)

Noise is "almost" an excellent standalone DAW, but falls just short with the lack of a sequencer, as well as the 4 "track" limitation. It's getting a LOT better, but without a sequencer (especially when it would be so easy to implement) feels almost criminal when compared to how powerful the app is otherwise.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading(and watching) this review. I hope my review hasn't turned anyone off of the Roli Blocks, as the positives outweigh the negatives.
I feel like most of my issues with the devices(and software) will be worked out, one way or other, and even feel that some of my problems are personal to me because it's something on my end.

I'll keep experimenting with my devices(including my iPhone), to see if I can iron some of them out.

Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys on the next Amateur Review.

Peace out!