6 ms·

The Seaboard: discreteness and continuity in musical interface design [pdf]

37 points by archagon 8y ago

archagon 8y ago
In trying to find out how the Seabord Rise[1] was invented, I unearthed ROLI founder and CEO Roland Lamb's original thesis. This paper goes into incredible, minute detail about the design of a vanguard product from idea to manufacture, including motivation, analysis of competition, prototyping, engineering, incorporation, and a complete timeline of the entire process. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-hzbG5FzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-hzbG5FzI
- sigil 8y ago
  Cool to see this on here! I work for ROLI and love it. If you’re interested in building new kinds of music instruments and the software to complement them, we’re hiring: https://roli.com/careers https://roli.com/careers
  - Traster 8y ago
    Is Corey still living in the cupboard and cooking fresh bread?
karmakaze 8y ago
Is it this? https://roli.com/products/seaboard/ https://roli.com/products/seaboard/
- 33degrees 8y ago
  Yes, Roli is mentioned in the acknowledgements
milkmiruku 8y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAN98p7a4AY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAN98p7a4AY - "WHATS INSIDE A ROLI SEABOARD?" by LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER
- Traster 8y ago
  So it's just foam on top of a bunch of buttons? That's rather unexciting.
wesleyfsmith 8y ago
I own a Seaboard Rise and it's awesome! That being said, there's still something about it that feels "artificial". When I play the guitar, the strings still gives a level of stretch and feedback that it's quite captured with the seaboard's bends.
whiddershins 8y ago
Anyone interested in the seaboard should check out the continuum fingerboard. https://www.hakenaudio.com/ https://www.hakenaudio.com/ As a player of both i can attest the continuum takes many of these ideas farther, and encourages uniquely expressive playing as a result. The design is electrically really interesting as well, it leveraged high precision pressure sensing (hall efect sensors) to construct a much higher x axis resolution than the number of physical sensors. Because a finger always depresses at least three mechanical bars concurrently, the software can draw a parabola through that and calculate the location of the fingertip extremely accurately.
- archagon 8y ago
  I assume the use case is a bit different? For example, it doesn't look like you can play the Continuum very well in a polyphonic, piano-like manner.
  - elihu 8y ago
    They're similar. Polyphony would be a bit harder on the continuum because you've got to tune the intervals by ear and feel, whereas I believe the Seaboard quantizes to quarter tones. So, you can play chords easier on the Seaboard, but in theory the chords could sound better on the Continuum if you're really good at hitting those just-tuned intervals. Another instrument that's similar is the Linnstrument from Roger Linn. It's very playable and last I looked was a lot cheaper than the Seaboard or the Continuum. You can turn quantization on or off. The firmware source code is also open source.
    - 33degrees 8y ago
      There’s also the soundplane, not sure how it compares though https://madronalabs.com/soundplane https://madronalabs.com/soundplane
      - jeffbr13 8y ago
        That seems to be based on the same idea as the Linnstrument[0], which is fairly widely available now, and sends MIDI data in the standard way over USB or DIN ports without requiring a client application. Its creators Roger Linn and Geert Bevin (programmer) were some of the original drivers of the Midi Polyphonic Expression standard alongside Roli. It's quite funny, but it seems that Geert is also behind a lot of other MPE-compatible software now, including Moog's iOS apps. His YouTube channel is a treasure trove of current and near-future music tech[1]. I have one, and it's great for learning how to play music, because the silicone pads light up according to the configured musical scale. Really well thought out as an instrument, and I believe it's also open source if you want to hack around with the Arduino microcontroller inside. [0]: http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyEknT0SnyUr4wdvmObWHQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyEknT0SnyUr4wdvmObWHQ

37 points by archagon 8y ago

In trying to find out how the Seabord Rise[1] was invented, I unearthed ROLI founder and CEO Roland Lamb's original thesis. This paper goes into incredible, minute detail about the design of a vanguard product from idea to manufacture, including motivation, analysis of competition, prototyping, engineering, incorporation, and a complete timeline of the entire process. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-hzbG5FzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh-hzbG5FzI

sigil 8y ago
Cool to see this on here! I work for ROLI and love it. If you’re interested in building new kinds of music instruments and the software to complement them, we’re hiring: https://roli.com/careers https://roli.com/careers
- Traster 8y ago
  Is Corey still living in the cupboard and cooking fresh bread?

karmakaze 8y ago

Is it this? https://roli.com/products/seaboard/ https://roli.com/products/seaboard/

33degrees 8y ago
Yes, Roli is mentioned in the acknowledgements

milkmiruku 8y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAN98p7a4AY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAN98p7a4AY - "WHATS INSIDE A ROLI SEABOARD?" by LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER

Traster 8y ago
So it's just foam on top of a bunch of buttons? That's rather unexciting.

wesleyfsmith 8y ago

I own a Seaboard Rise and it's awesome! That being said, there's still something about it that feels "artificial". When I play the guitar, the strings still gives a level of stretch and feedback that it's quite captured with the seaboard's bends.

whiddershins 8y ago

Anyone interested in the seaboard should check out the continuum fingerboard. https://www.hakenaudio.com/ https://www.hakenaudio.com/ As a player of both i can attest the continuum takes many of these ideas farther, and encourages uniquely expressive playing as a result. The design is electrically really interesting as well, it leveraged high precision pressure sensing (hall efect sensors) to construct a much higher x axis resolution than the number of physical sensors. Because a finger always depresses at least three mechanical bars concurrently, the software can draw a parabola through that and calculate the location of the fingertip extremely accurately.

archagon 8y ago
I assume the use case is a bit different? For example, it doesn't look like you can play the Continuum very well in a polyphonic, piano-like manner.
- elihu 8y ago
  They're similar. Polyphony would be a bit harder on the continuum because you've got to tune the intervals by ear and feel, whereas I believe the Seaboard quantizes to quarter tones. So, you can play chords easier on the Seaboard, but in theory the chords could sound better on the Continuum if you're really good at hitting those just-tuned intervals. Another instrument that's similar is the Linnstrument from Roger Linn. It's very playable and last I looked was a lot cheaper than the Seaboard or the Continuum. You can turn quantization on or off. The firmware source code is also open source.
  - 33degrees 8y ago
    There’s also the soundplane, not sure how it compares though https://madronalabs.com/soundplane https://madronalabs.com/soundplane
    - jeffbr13 8y ago
      That seems to be based on the same idea as the Linnstrument[0], which is fairly widely available now, and sends MIDI data in the standard way over USB or DIN ports without requiring a client application. Its creators Roger Linn and Geert Bevin (programmer) were some of the original drivers of the Midi Polyphonic Expression standard alongside Roli. It's quite funny, but it seems that Geert is also behind a lot of other MPE-compatible software now, including Moog's iOS apps. His YouTube channel is a treasure trove of current and near-future music tech[1]. I have one, and it's great for learning how to play music, because the silicone pads light up according to the configured musical scale. Really well thought out as an instrument, and I believe it's also open source if you want to hack around with the Arduino microcontroller inside. [0]: http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument.html [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyEknT0SnyUr4wdvmObWHQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyEknT0SnyUr4wdvmObWHQ