By aspect — in detail
Sources split on the frets. One camp says the ridges finally let you find and hold a pitch by feel, turning the Keywave2 into something a keyboard player can actually play; the other says the surface is unchanged in character — still a demanding new instrument, and Rise 1 owners in particular report little practical difference. Everyone agrees the silicone gives real tactile feedback and that accuracy takes weeks.
Measured
49 keywaves across an 83.4 cm surface just 2.3 cm tall, each reading five dimensions of touch — strike, press, glide, slide and lift — with the response curve for each one editable in ROLI Dashboard (ROLI tech specs).
⚠ vs. listeners — Rothwell felt the Rise 2 was less pressure-sensitive than his Rise 1, then tested it: “as an attempt at an objective measure I gently balanced the edge of a weighted coffee coaster on some keys” and found the two triggered at equivalent pressure. His conclusion was that the Rise 2’s wider keys, not its sensors, create the impression — so the feel complaint is real, but the surface is not less sensitive.
Where it splits
the precision frets fix the accuracy problem62%
“In practice, the Keywave2 feels like a notable improvement.”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
helpful, but it is still a new instrument you have to learn38%
“the new Rise still requires the development of a new playing technique”
Nick Rothwell, Sound On Sound
Build
Strong consensus · 7 srcThe strongest point of agreement by a distance. The move from the original’s plastic to an anodised aluminium chassis reads as premium to every source that handled one, and nobody reports flex, rattle or QC trouble. The one recurring gripe is housekeeping: the matte silicone surface is a magnet for dust and fingerprints.
“this unit feels reassuringly weighty and impressively sturdy”
Daryl Robertson, MusicRadar
“upgrades the body material to anodised aluminium, giving it a truly sturdy and decidedly premium feel”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
“It feels extremely durable”
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget
Measured
5.5 kg in an aluminium chassis measuring 83.4 × 21 × 2.3 cm (ROLI tech specs) — figures Engadget’s hands-on independently matched at “a hair over 12 pounds”, “roughly 33 inches” long and under an inch thick.
Connectivity
Moderate · 8 srcThe quiet win of the generation. The original was USB-only; the Rise 2 adds USB-C for power and data, a 3.5mm TRS MIDI output with a DIN adaptor in the box, a quarter-inch pedal jack, class-compliant Bluetooth MIDI and an internal battery. Reviewers who gig praise the hardware MIDI out specifically. Minor grumbles: there is no separate power socket, the Bluetooth pairing has to be re-established at every power-up, and one reviewer still counts the I/O as thin for the money.
“The I/O ports have thankfully been upgraded”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
“The new Rise 2 also includes standard MIDI and USB-C ports in order to ensure maximum compatibility with your software and hardware instruments”
Daryl Robertson, MusicRadar
Measured
ROLI lists a 3.5mm TRS MIDI output, a 6.35mm sustain/continuous pedal input, a USB-C port for connection and charging, class-compliant MIDI over USB and Bluetooth, and a 2300 mAh battery rated at eight hours of play and five hours to charge. Sound On Sound ran the review over Bluetooth into a Mac and reported it “seemed to work fine with no apparent extra latency”.
Software
Contested · 9 srcSources split on ROLI’s software layer. The majority treat the bundle — Equator2 (a $249 synth on its own), ROLI Studio, Ableton Live Lite and the Dashboard editor — as a large part of what you are paying for, and Equator2 in particular as the best demonstration of MPE anywhere. A minority report that the software is where the friction lives: presets arriving broken on first install, and a long-standing Equator 2 preset-recall bug for Bitwig users.
Measured
Equator2 ships with more than 1,400 presets, of which roughly 500 are MPE-aware — about a third, a figure Engadget and Mixdown arrive at independently. ROLI values the synth alone at $249.
Where it splits
the bundle is a genuine part of the value77%
“The bundled Equator2 soft synth is versatile, capable and a good match to the Rise 2’s expressiveness.”
Nick Rothwell, Sound On Sound
Integration
Moderate · 6 srcMPE itself is now first-class in Ableton Live, Bitwig, Logic and Cubase, which is the single biggest thing that changed between the two Seaboard generations. The Rise 2 is still not plug-and-forget, though: you keep ROLI Dashboard open to switch between MPE and single-channel modes, and pitch-bend ranges have to be matched by hand between the controller and each instrument or slides land out of tune. Owners who pair it with SWAM instruments describe the mapping as trivial; Kontakt and non-MPE plugins take more work.
“the unfortunate truth is, MPE is still kind of messy”
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget
Measured
The Seaboard is class-compliant over USB and Bluetooth and needs no driver; ROLI states it “works with all major DAWs and soft synths, as well as hardware synthesizers via the MIDI Out port”, while noting it works best with MPE-compatible software.
Minimal by design, and sources agree on the facts while disagreeing on whether it matters. To the left of the surface sit an XY pad, three assignable touch faders (which double as live sensitivity trims for glide, slide and press), octave and preset buttons and a power button — and that is all. There is no screen, no transport section, no knob bank, no arpeggiator and no pads. Owners find the faders genuinely useful for shaping response mid-performance; reviewers comparing against other $1,000-plus controllers note how much is missing.
“featuring an XY pad, touch faders, and control buttons to the left of the playing surface”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
“more extensive controls (including faders, knobs and pads); transport controls for your DAW; built-in arpeggiators or sequencers; and screens for viewing parameters and browsing presets”
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget
Portability
Moderate · 5 srcUnusually thin and light for a 49-key instrument, and the eight-hour battery plus Bluetooth means it can genuinely leave the desk — but it is also slightly longer than a normal 49-key controller and no case is included, which working players raise as a real problem. Only the four-octave size exists, so there is no travel version the way there was with the original Rise 25.
“I’d stop shy of calling it portable, but it’s certainly luggable.”
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget
“an internal battery that will get you a pleasing eight hours of playtime on three hours of charge”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
Measured
5.5 kg and 2.3 cm thick, with a 2300 mAh internal battery ROLI rates at eight hours (ROLI tech specs); ROLI’s current sheet quotes a five-hour recharge where launch-era reviews were told three.
Sources split, and the two sides are not really arguing about the same thing. One camp prices it as an instrument — a unique playing surface plus a $249 synth, worth it if you will put in the practice. The other, slightly larger, prices it as a MIDI controller, where $1,399 buys far more knobs, faders, pads and screens elsewhere, and points out that a Rise 1 owner is paying flagship money mostly for frets and a MIDI socket. Used original Rises going for around $500 sharpen that argument.
Where it splits
worth it if you will commit to the instrument42%
“If you’ve previously been tempted, now is the time to make the leap.”
Clovis McEvoy, MusicTech
too much money for something this specialised58%
“I still have a hard time recommending it to most people”
Terrence O’Brien, Engadget
