If you have several ROLI instruments, you might be interested in using them to each control a different sound simultaneously. For instance, you may want your Seaboard RISE to control a string sound while your Seaboard Block controls a lead, or you might want to control synths with your Seaboard Blocks and drums with your Lightpad Block. 


How to control different sounds in NOISE

  • First launch NOISE, turn on your Blocks and physically connect them via DNA. 
  • Open an existing project or create a new project, tap on Studio, and connect a Block.
  • Once your Blocks are connected to NOISE, use "Currently assigned to:" to navigate the displayed Block to the different available controls. Lightpad Blocks can control Loops, the Mixer, and any of the four Instrument tracks, while Seaboard Blocks can control any of the four Instrument tracks. 
  • Swipe to see other connected Blocks, and use "Currently assigned to:" to assign these Blocks to the instruments or views of your choice. Alternatively, you may use the Blocks' mode buttons to scroll through the controllable instruments or views. 


Controlling different sounds with desktop apps

Many desktop synthesizer apps – including Equator and Strobe2 – allow you to control one preset at a time. With clever sound design you may create presets that behave very differently in different pitch registers, but you might instead want to control completely different sounds. To do this, you may use a digital audio workstation (DAW) and assign a different instrument to each channel strip. In this tutorial we'll walk you through two examples: Logic Pro X and MainStage. If you use another DAW, you may use these instructions as a general guide and refer to your DAW's manual for more specific details.


Logic

Launch Logic and create the same number of software instrument tracks as controllers you'd like to use. In this example, we're using a Lightpad Block and a Seaboard RISE 2, so we have two software instrument tracks that we've labelled Lightpad Block and Seaboard RISE 2.



Next, go to Logic Pro > Settings > Advanced... and click "Enable Complete Features"



Now click cmd + 0 to open the MIDI Environment. Alternatively, hold option then click Window > Open MIDI Environment.


Once in the MIDI Environment, go to New > Physical Instrument. You'll see a box with the currently available MIDI input devices. 


Click and drag a wire connecting the "Lightpad BLOCK" input to our "Lightpad Block" channel strip, and then click and drag a wire connecting the "Seaboard RISE 2" input to our "Seaboard RISE 2" channel strip. The Lightpad Block will now control the software instrument on the "Lightpad Block" channel strip, and the Seaboard RISE 2 will now control the software instrument on the "Seaboard RISE 2" channel strip.



MainStage

Now let's take a look at controlling separate sounds in MainStage from a Lightpad Block and Seaboard Block.

  • First, since Blocks connected together physically via DNA will share the same MIDI device, physically separate them and connect them either via separate USB cables or individually via Bluetooth.
  • Next, launch MainStage and select the "Two Keyboards" template.
  • Click the "Layout" tab and select the upper keyboard. Set the MIDI Port to "Pad BLOCK" to use your Lightpad Block as the MIDI input device for this keyboard.
  • Now, select the lower keyboard and set the MIDI Port to "Seaboard BLOCK" to use your Seaboard Block as the MIDI input device for this keyboard.
  • Finally, select the plugin you'd like to use for each channel strip. For example, you might use one instance of Equator on each channel strip, or you might use Equator on one and Strobe2 on the other.