ROLI's Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition Is A World's First. Here's Why.

Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition is an all-in-one expressive companion to the world's most popular music creation app. Here's what it can do.

ROLI - the maker of the Seaboard, Blocks and Noise software and hardware systems anongst other things - has announced the launch of Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition, a ready-made system that's designed to help you get a higher level of hardware integration with Apple's GarageBand than has been possible before. Here's what they told us about it.

"Until today, to set up a hardware studio or stage kit capable of creating beats and melodies as well as mixing involved a huge amount of complexity and usually resulted in lots of cables. Keyboards, drum pads, and mixing and production controls — the components of a complete music studio — are now available in an affordable wireless kit that isn’t much larger than a laptop and works right out of the box. With the Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition, the bedroom studio has truly become a backpack studio.

Roland Lamb, founder and CEO of ROLI and inventor of the Seaboard and BLOCKS, said: “ROLI’s mission is to empower everyone to experience the joy of music making. Our Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition is another big step towards realizing this mission because it will enable a much wider audience to quickly and easily set up their own complete studio solution. And I’m also excited because it will make a unique gift for young people who are already using GarageBand and want to take the next step.”

Features

  • Start creating in minutes: Detailed onboarding films provide guidance from the moment of unboxing. Project templates — in styles from rock to hip hop — help learners make a first track quickly.
  • Compose and create easily: The kit is a seamlessly integrated environment of hardware and software. So music-makers have everything they need to make a track — from sounds to recording and editing tools — with one easy workflow.
  • Be more musically expressive: The touch-responsive surfaces of the Lightpad Block and Seaboard Block bring unparalleled expression to the hundreds of sounds available in GarageBand.
  • Perform with GarageBand: For the first time music-makers can perform live with GarageBand, which now has a deep integration with hardware controllers.
  • Access Logic: Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition works seamlessly with Logic Pro X, the professional recording studio on the Mac. Skilled electronic musicians can now enjoy all the benefits of the kit’s all-in-one studio solution.

The Songmaker Kit is a popular configuration of ROLI BLOCKS, the modular music creation system that launched in November 2016. The kit centers on two controllers: the Seaboard Block and the Lightpad Block.

Based on the piano keyboard, the Seaboard Block enables more musical expression on a soft surface that responds to pressure and other movements. Based on the drum pad, the Lightpad Block allows the same touch-responsive control of sound and can also be configured to launch loops, mix volume levels, and control other production features. The Loop Block — the third Block in the kit — provides faster control of recording and production.

The Songmaker Kit includes a huge suite of software including Equator, Cypher2 Player, and Strobe2 Player. Music-makers can now access specially selected sounds from Equator, ROLI’s premier sound engine, directly in GarageBand’s preset library. You can watch more introductory videos here.

The Songmaker Kit GarageBand Edition is now available worldwide at www.apple.com, select Apple stores and www.roli.com for $599.95 (£549.95, €599.95).

Learn more about making music with ROLI's software and hardware: https://ask.audio/academy?nleloc=category/audio/topic/roli

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"Hollin Jones was classically trained as a piano player but found the lure of blues and jazz too much to resist. Graduating from bands to composition then production, he relishes the chance to play anything with keys. A sometime lecturer in videographics, music production and photography post production, Hollin has been a freelance w..." Read More

Discussion

Enkerli
It’s an interesting development (and it does add scripts to make Blocks into control surfaces in GarageBand and Logic Pro X). But what makes it a world first?

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