
The Seaboard: discreteness and continuity in musical interface design [pdf] - archagon
http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1648/1/Roland%20Lamb%20PhD%20June%202014.pdf
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archagon
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)

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sigil
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)

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Traster
Is Corey still living in the cupboard and cooking fresh bread?

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whiddershins
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.

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archagon
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.

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elihu
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.

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33degrees
There’s also the soundplane, not sure how it compares though
[https://madronalabs.com/soundplane](https://madronalabs.com/soundplane)

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jeffbr13
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)

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

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

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wesleyfsmith
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.

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karmakaze
Is it this?
[https://roli.com/products/seaboard/](https://roli.com/products/seaboard/)

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33degrees
Yes, Roli is mentioned in the acknowledgements

