Roli’s innovative touch-sensitive musical instruments attracted praise for their originality but struggled to reach a mass market. After supply-chain problems during the pandemic, bankruptcy and a rebranding, the company’s future became uncertain. Now, former employees and users are looking back at Roli’s collapse while community-built software helps keep some of its devices usable.
“The tragedy here is that it’s always been a fundamentally great company,” says another former employee. “A lot of what made it great was like the founder’s all-powerful vision. But it was clearly a major flaw.”
Starting again with expressive instruments
Like other touch-sensitive devices such as LinnStrument and Sensel Morph, Roli developed instruments based on MIDI polyphonic expression (MPE). The technology allows players to control the pitch and timbre of sounds through touch-based movements. Pressing or sliding a finger across the device’s surface generates MIDI notes that capture more expressive performances.
Although Roli’s instruments were original, they occupied a niche category that was difficult to expand to an Apple-sized audience. Rory certainly tried. The company partnered with Apple to sell Roli Blocks in Apple Stores worldwide.
However, the pandemic created severe supply-chain problems, leaving Roli unable to keep up with orders. After the pandemic, bankruptcy and a rebranding, little remained to move the company forward beyond the determination of its founders.
“This was one of the leading lights in music technology in the world,” said one former employee. “It was truly an invention company. The things they made had never been made before. So it’s really unfortunate.”
Users work to preserve Roli devices
The reaction to Roli’s collapse was more than disappointment. After months of delays and frustration, Reddit users rallied to mourn the company and help ensure that its instruments would continue to work.
Sam Hocking is a British audio engineer who runs the audio-tools company demyx.me and owns several Roli Seaboard Blocks. Even before Roli took over management of its products, Hocking had been building software to keep the instruments functioning as capable MIDI devices.
He shared the vibe-coded configuration tool on the Roli subreddit and elsewhere. As documented on GitHub, the software allows Roli’s Grand, Rise, Airwave and Block devices to work without the Roli Launcher.
Hocking said his Seaboard is nearly 10 years old and remains in service. Despite the company’s checkered history and poor communication, he still wants to keep his devices. They are high-quality products that cost a considerable amount of money and feel somehow irreplaceable.
He is not alone. Other members of the subreddit may also contribute their own software tweaks and fixes to keep at least some of Roli’s devices alive.
“This is a very unique product; there’s no other type of keyboard out there,” Hocking says. “No one wants to spend money and then not be able to use it anymore.”
Source: www.wired.com