There's been a useful (to me, at least) discussion on the Artiphon forum (at https://community.artiphon.com/t/i1-with-equator/2029) of using the Instrument1 to control Equator, Noise, and Seaboard 5D. tl;dr version: brilliant, but to use the Slide dimension as intended with ROLI apps you'll need to map CC1 to CC74 (e.g. in MidiFire or Bome; in Audeonic apps just use the StreamByter expression B0 01 XX = B0 4A XX).
Limitations::
- Note bending simply uses the top end of the fingerboard pressure curve on the I1, so that it only starts sending out Pitch Bend when Channel Pressure exceeds 127 (i.e. Glide only kicks in when you get to the top of the Press curve). I don't mind this, but it means that you can't bend notes without first maxing out whatever modulation is mapped to the Press curve.
- You can't use Slide per-note (as opposed to globally) without further MIDI twiddling. Again probably not a dealbreaker.
If you've been considering the I1, here are some standard things you'll probably want to have been told:
1. Though it markets itself as a multi-instrument, I don't think it really has much to offer keyboard players; it doesn't usefully harness existing keyboard skills in the way that it does fretboard and bowing skills.
2. It's not so much as a guitar emulator as a next-gen MPE controller based around a guitar rather than a keyboard model, with tap (rather than picked) guitar at the centre.
3. The virtual strings (rubber bridge triggers) are essentially training wheels for guitarists who don't immediately want to make the jump to tapping. They're frustrating to pick individually, and shouldn't be attempted at all with either nails or a pick. (Great for drones, though.)
4. Guitarists may find the classical-style neck and equally-spaced frets disconcerting at first, though you quickly get used to them and in time actually come to appreciate them.
5. I recommend developing a feel for the fingerboard and its expressiveness by noodling on one earbud while watching TV (so you're not looking at your fingers).
Nick Lowe