MIDI ControllerOverreview

ROLI Seaboard Rise 2

The squishy keyboard finally grew frets — and reviewers still can’t agree whether that makes it playable or just less impossible.

13 sourcesUpdated
$1,399Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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ROLI Seaboard Rise 2

The short version

What to know.

A 49-keywave MPE controller with no sound of its own, built around a continuous silicone surface that captures five dimensions of touch per note. Sources agree almost completely on the hardware: the anodised aluminium chassis is a real step up, the I/O is finally complete (USB-C, TRS MIDI out, pedal jack, Bluetooth, eight-hour battery), the control panel is deliberately minimal, and playing it well takes weeks of relearning. They split three ways elsewhere — on whether the new precision frets genuinely make the surface accurate, on whether ROLI’s bundled software is the thing that justifies the price or the thing that gets in the way, and on whether $1,399 is defensible for a controller this specialised.

About this product

The 49-keywave second-generation Seaboard (2022): the Keywave2 silicone surface with “precision frets”, an anodised aluminium chassis, USB-C, a 3.5mm TRS MIDI out and an eight-hour battery. ROLI has since renamed it Seaboard 2 and says the two are functionally identical. Not the original Rise 25/49 (2015, plastic, no frets, USB only), not the 24-keywave Seaboard M, and not the Seaboard Grand. Four octaves is the only size.

ROLI’s Seaboard is the rare piece of studio hardware that is genuinely a new instrument rather than a new box: instead of hinged keys it offers one continuous sheet of silicone, moulded into keywaves, that reads five separate gestures from every finger at once — strike, press, glide, slide and lift. It is the instrument MIDI Polyphonic Expression was more or less invented to carry, and for a decade it was also the instrument everyone admired and almost nobody could play accurately.

The Rise 2 is ROLI’s answer to that, and it arrived from a company that had just been through the wringer — ROLI Ltd filed for administration in September 2021 and reformed as Luminary, still trading as ROLI. The headline change is small and specific: raised ridges down the centre of each keywave, so you can feel where a note actually is. Around it sit an aluminium chassis, USB-C, a MIDI out and a battery. Whether that adds up to a fixed instrument or the same instrument in better clothes is exactly what the reviews argue about.

A good fit for

  • Composers scoring film, TV and games who want per-note vibrato and swells performed in one take instead of drawn as automation
  • Players who already think in slides — guitarists, string players, anyone comfortable with fretless pitch
  • Anyone building around MPE-aware instruments such as Equator2, SWAM, Pigments or Bitwig’s own devices
  • Sound designers and ambient producers chasing evolving, continuously morphing textures
  • Players who need a full-size expressive surface that runs off a battery with a real MIDI out

Think twice if

  • You want a workhorse studio keyboard — there is no screen, transport, arpeggiator or pad section
  • Your library is mostly sample instruments that ignore MPE data
  • You already own a 49-key original Rise and mainly want the frets
  • You are chasing polyphonic glides that sweep through timbre as well as pitch — ribbon-surface instruments do that better
  • You tour and need a hard case: ROLI does not offer one, and a soft bag is an extra

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

3 / 8topics divide opinion
buildconnectivityintegrationcontrolsportabilitykeybedsoftwarevalue
1 Strong agreement4 Mostly agree3 Divided opinions

Common ground7

  • The anodised aluminium chassis is a genuine upgrade on the original’s plastic — solid, thin and premium in every hands-on account.
  • The precision frets do the job they were added for: you can feel the centre of a note without looking down.
  • It is not a MIDI keyboard with extra features. Every source, positive or negative, says you are learning a new instrument and it takes weeks.

Points of contention3

  • Whether the frets genuinely make the Keywave2 accurate to play, or just less unforgiving — Rise 1 owners are the most sceptical.
  • Whether ROLI’s software is a large part of the value or the part that gets in the way: Equator2 is widely admired, but install problems and a long-running Bitwig preset bug are documented.
  • Whether $1,399 is defensible for a controller with no screen, transport or pads, when the alternative is a used original Rise for a fraction of it.

A closer look.

8 topics · 3 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Keybed

Leans positiveDivided opinions
Reviewer sentiment10 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

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
Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Playing surface

Keys
49 full-size
Faders
3
MPE
Yes

Workflow

Standalone
No

Connection

USB
USB-C
MIDI
TRS out
Bluetooth MIDI
Yes
Pedal inputs
Sustain, Expression
Power
Battery, USB bus power
Battery
8 h

Physical

Weight
5,500 g
Dimensions
834 × 210 × 23 mm

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from roli.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 13

1–6 of 13 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 6

  1. A read of where the reviews land as of August 2026. ROLI now sells this instrument as the Seaboard 2 and says the two are functionally identical, so coverage written as “Rise 2” still applies.

  2. Most of the published reviews date from 2022 to 2024, close to launch. How the silicone surface holds up after several years of daily playing is not something the record covers well yet.

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