This video captures a live performance by ROLI Seaboard guru Marco Parisi, featuring the company’s new Airwave gestural controller.
The performance was filmed in front of a live audience at London’s Fabric nightclub. Parisi uses the Airwave’s Five Dimensions of Air to capture new degrees of expression from his instrument.
The ROLI Airwave use 3D infrared cameras and “ROLI Vision technology” to capture precise hand and finger movements as you play. It is designed specifically for ROLI keyboard controllers, and expands the dimensions of control that are available.
Is there anything Airwave can do that sound-wise can not be acheved with the expression pedal?
The range is much larger, and there are 5 axis. You would need five expression pedals, and incredibly precise feet, to achieve the same sort of thing.
Additionally, the interest (for me, at least) is that it is reading the movements your hands are already making in playing the keybed – so you are extending existing expressive movements, rather than making new ones.
Arent 5 axis just 5 finger controlled faders?
What’s the point of the Seaboard keybed if you have the Airwave?
And vice versa
Instruments like the Seaboard give you continuous expressive control over each individual note you play.
The Airwave gives you five additional expressive dimensions that you can do anything you want to with. My thought is that most musicians will use it for things like modulating the overall timbre of sounds or controlling the density of the arrangement.
The point isn’t sound wise it’s about the gestures. In a performance the expression options at your disposal and how you can use them do influence a performance. The Osmose and, well, the ROLI boards are an example of that in and of themselves.
the osmose is completely different as you dont do these ergonomic bad window washing gestures – waving your arms in the air. 😉
its such a show gimmick,
I can play the piano for hours without anything hurting.
How long can your wave your hands and arms in the air before they feel like they want to fall off? 😉
this is not a good interface.
Some how conductors and thereminist manage it.
when exactly was the last time you saw someone playing the theremin for 3 hours? 😉
Moogfest
I’d disagree that it’s a show gimmick, I would say it is a technology devoted to performance environments, recording or otherwise.
I’d also disagree that osmose is completely different, the technology unlocks a new way of expressing with your fingers much like this technology unlocks a new way of expressing with your fingers in addition to other gestures.
This could be really interesting if configured correctly and this video showcases that pretty well. If you aren’t into performance based expressions then it makes sense this would bounce off of you.
Didn’t check the specs of the Airwave, but Im wondering what can this thing do more than a Theremin with cv outputs?
The theremin gives you two types of control – pitch and volume – and they vary with temperature and humidity, which adds an element of danger to performances.
The Airwave gives you five types of control, so you can use different gestures to do different things. This capability isn’t specific to the Airwave – Geert Bevin’s GECO MIDI + the Leap Motion Controller are capable of similar things:
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2018/01/04/expressive-performance-with-geco-midi-leap-motion-controller/
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2013/09/24/gestural-orchestration-with-leap-motion-geco-albion-i/
Expressive controllers like this seem like they may always have a niche audience with electronic musicians, because you have to want to perform with more expression AND put in the time to build the chops.
For musicians that want to perform more expressively – or to orchestrate on the fly – having additional options for expressive control is huge. Vangelis approached this by using multiple pedals, which obviously worked great for him, but could limit your ability to change arrangements quickly, if you need to adjust settings on a couple of dozen pedals at a time.
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2015/09/04/vangelis-demonstrates-his-custom-midi-studio/
that vangelis setup …
if you are a classic composer you think in “orchester groups”
now im playing the string section, now I want to hear the brass section ect pp.
he was fading the layers he wanted to hear in & out with pedals on the fly like you would on a mixer … and there were additional pedals to change the timbre of these layers …
a lot of that is just basic volume pedals 😉
“a lot of that is just basic volume pedals”
Exactly – it looks like he was essentially fading in various instruments or sections. This worked great for his purposes, but isn’t great for quickly making arrangement changes.
Gestural control is an option for controlling multiple dimensions of an arrangement at the same time.
the pedals make a lot of sense if you think like a conductor, I guess.
if I dont wave at the woodwinds I can’t hear them
if I dont press that pedal I can’t hear the woodwinds,
and you can tell them to play harder or softer …
Glad you pointed this out. The Leap motion controller looks way more sophisticated with its complex hand and finger tracking. It’s also tiny, the size of two matchboxes so very much less intrusive.
https://leap2.ultraleap.com/products/leap-motion-controller-2/
Glad you pointed this out. My thoughts exactly.
The Leap is also way smaller, the size of two matchboxes, and tracks your hands and fingers.
https://leap2.ultraleap.com/products/leap-motion-controller-2/
Maybe Roli are licensing leap patents.
Is the ultraleap easy to program to do this kind of stuff? Looks interesting. I’m curious about the per-finger possibilities.
the real problem with funky complicated tools like this is how it actually interacts with the patch in a cool way
dont get me wrong i like the possibilities, i had a v-synth and i loved the dual d-beam
but programming the patch to take advantage of the 5 axis of 5 dimensions of 5 ranges of so forth and so on isnt exactly “easy” or intuitive in terms of “expression”