Recording - April 2018 - 59

16 loops, four each for four Instruments that correspond to the
color-coding of the mixer. Each loop can be recorded with
melodic or rhythm parts, depending on the loaded Instrument.
The Instrument page is where you play and record parts
for the four Instruments. Each rhythm preset is either a Drum
Kit-a 2 x 2 or 4 x 4 grid of square pads for finger drumming-
or a Groove Kit, a 4 x 4 grid of round buttons for triggering
prerecorded loop parts.
Melodic instruments are presented as a 5 x 5 grid of square
keys. The keyboard can be chromatic, with the root note of the
chosen scale in white and other "white keys" in contrasting
colors vs. unlit "black keys," or set to a diatonic scale and
key with no wrong notes. Octave shift and sustain buttons are
provided onscreen as well.
With those tools in hand, all that's left to do is to play and
record loops. Melodic Instrument sounds evolve with vertical
and horizontal finger motions, and any such moves are
recorded into the loop. You can turn on a metronome click,
snap your playback to a grid, select one-finger chord playback, turn on an arpeggiator, overdub, and mix the levels of
your parts in real time, and it's easy to play along with your
loops in live performance.
NOISE is harder to describe than to just use. There's plenty
of built-in help in the form of popup tutorial pages and the
dedicated Learn button, which demonstrates techniques for you
onscreen as you watch. You can also listen to compositions
uploaded by other NOISE users and audition sound packs to
add to your library-some free, others as in-app purchases.
About all that's missing is a way to record an entire performance
with loop selections, mixing, and live playback, as a completed
song-the best way to do that is to simply route your audio to a
stereo recording app and capture performances that way.
Now we can talk about the hardware Blocks, which add to
the NOISE experience in two ways. First off, playing Blocks
is more tactile and user-friendly than using the touchscreen;
second, some features benefit from having a hardware control
panel rather than relying on the app's onscreen buttons.

The Lightpad Block(s)

The Lightpad Block is one of the two "central" Blocks; you'll
need to have one, or a Seaboard Block (see below), to get
started. It's a 3.75" (2 x 2 "unit") square, sporting a smoothly
textured and LED-backlit multitouch surface with just a little bit

of "give" to it. It's fairly responsive to 5D Touch, but some users
have noted that it can be fatiguing to play for long periods.
In response to this user feedback, ROLI recently introduced the
Lightpad Block M, functionally identical but with brighter LEDs
and a much softer and more responsive surface, with a grid of
tiny ripples that make accurate playing much easier-they really
do, although I have no clue as to why! The original Lightpad Block
is still available at a slightly reduced price, but having used both,
I consider the Lightpad Block M to be well worth the difference
in cost-it's a joy to work with, and my favorite of all the Blocks.
The Lightpad Block is square, but it does have a conventional up/down/left/right orientation, based on extra features hidden
in its edges. The top of the Lightpad Block is where you'll find
a USB-C port for connection to a computer or charger. On the
left edge, there's an LED-backlit button that's intended for later
development (likely for handheld use); on the right edge is the
BLOCKS logo; and the bottom edge has a power button with
LEDs to show charge and Bluetooth status.
The Lightpad Block offers a completely configurable surface
that can have multiple functions: playing melodies and chords,
finger drumming, XY control, mixing, and more. It has a small
amount of internal memory so custom configurations can be
stored in it; we'll talk about those in a future article.
Most casual users will never need to get into that; ROLI's
apps handle the details. In NOISE's Studio page, you assign
what you want your Lightpad Block to do at any given moment:
act as a grid of loop launcher buttons, a mixer with mute buttons
and level meters, or an Instrument interface. When you select
a Drum Kit or melodic instrument, you can play it exactly as
you would in NOISE, but with added Strike, Press, and Lift
sensitivity and more comfortable tactile feedback. The sounds
offered with NOISE really come into their own when played on
a Lightpad Block, with wonderfully interactive and animated
timbres that go well beyond just touching a square on a screen.
If you have more than one Lightpad Block, they can be
assigned to different roles, letting you build up a customized performance surface. Once again, you're aided by the
"smart" nature of the Blocks; for example, placing two Lightpad Blocks side by side gives you two separate keyboards for
different instruments, but placing one atop the other gives you
a single keyboard with a 4-octave range.

The Seaboard Block

The other "central" Block is the Seaboard Block. As you
might guess from the name, it's a small but playable Seaboard
that directly integrates into the BLOCKS framework. You get
24 notes (or "keywaves" as ROLI calls them) of a soft, textured
surface with lots of "give." I consider this surface a vast
improvement over that of the original Seaboards; it's easier to
find your way around by feel, and response to nuanced touch
is much more consistent and repeatable.
The keys are shorter and narrower than traditional mini-keys;
they're playable with a bit of adjustment, and sized so that 24
notes fit into a Block that's 11 x 5.5 inches (6 x 3 "units") in
size. Above and below the keywaves are two horizontal touch
surfaces for long pitch bends and glides; the only markings are
two tiny arrows for octave up/down in the upper corners of the
RECORDING April 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2018