ROLI Lightpad Block M Studio Edition Super Powered Drumpad Compose & Produce Faster with an Illuminated, Touch-Responsive Pad Controller.Play Beats, Control Effects & More Software Included

This keyboard is amazing. I can understand the hefty price tag. I forgot to tell myself that I can't play the piano that well before I bought it. I have used it on some songs I have wrote, but just because I buy a Micheal Jordan jersey doesn't make me a basketball player. This keyboard has endless possibilities, but if you can't play the piano you might want to reevaluate if this is for you.

Note: I don't normally write reviews, much less bad ones. However in this case I'm making an exception as I think buyers need to be informed before they purchase. The supposedly wonderful Full 5D expressive midi requires their proprietary software. While they used to give Equator away (virtual synth. needed to get full 5D midi functionality in 3rd party DAW's like Logic Pro X) and even still advertise it being free on their tech support page where you purchase it; however that's no longer true and they're now charging a $79 upgrade price (even though they don't give you the base software that's supposed to be free). And there's no trial version for testing, only way to test is to pay for it (non-refundable). This is important as the free software they do provide, while it lets you play with 5D MPE functionality, the sounds are terrible. If you try to follow their videos (no printed manual at all), they're out of date and don't reflect all the options in latest software and the settings they tell you to use no longer exist. When you do finally figure out how to get it to work in Logic Pro X, you find out there's very limited sounds available and the ones that do work, only work in a slightly better mode than a normal keyboard. Further even in their software, with the terrible sounds, the strike velocity is very non-uniform with spontaneously loud notes occurring from same strike hardness; very frustrating. The device acts like an early released alpha unit, not a mature product that's been on the market for years. BT connection to Mac OSX didn't work, only worked with iphone. The sounds in their free Strobe-2 software that does work in somewhat full 5D are terrible, but you're still left with sporadic velocity sensing. It just doesn't work like advertised. Technical support is so far non-existent, still waiting on a response to my questions. No documentation in box or on their web-site; only thing that lets you know how to use it are out of date videos that no longer provide accurate information. Eventually you'll figure out settings you need to get it to work, but then you'll realize that there's only a few sounds that support a lower functionality of 5D midi (midi Polyphonic Expression, MPE) (2-3D at best). On keyboard layout, it's very strange would take a while to get used to it; however with sporadic firing of velocity (which ends up providing some loud and rest soft sounds from same hardness strikes of keys). I gave it what I think is more than ample time to get it running and learning how to use it; in end not a great user experience. Maybe I got a bad version, don't know, when coupled with now $$$$ Equator (that used to be free) that's needed to get it to work in a DAW correctly (I'm guessing here as I didn't buy it, may not fix anything, just giving them benefit of doubt). In summary, I'm returning it; buyer beware.

A little torn right now as far as reviews. It's an awesome piece of equipment but my seaboard right out of the box had the rubber coming loose on two corners which is unacceptable for the cost of this thing. The drum block already has wear and tear on it like it has been dropped and scrubbed on parts. Another thing that is a bit irritating is that in the pictures that more clearly show the equipment it shows the loop block so that's what I figured came with it but when I opened it it is the live block instead. Just a thing to be aware of as its easy to miss and if you want to buy the loop block you will be out another 150 bucks. Overall I have to give a 2 star at this point in time but will update depending on how the situation is handled.**update** Replacement kit was sent fairly quickly but the replacement was malfunctioning as well. The far left side of the keyboard doesnt play notes like the rest (it is plays very softly, even with the key pressed firmly). Tried to get another replacement and sadly they will only refund now. Its an awesome piece of hardware when it works but just be sure to check everything.

encountered smelly corporate malarky at every cornerfirst off someone at roli clearly has decided their software needs to be a convoluted mess that is more about wanting to become a music app store with deception in mind than being for making musicsecond, the hardware functionality is a definite afterthought with hidden fees and obsolescence in mindfirst tried to use it as advertised, midi class compliant standalone device, it's not compatible with popular hardwareat random short intervals it turns itself off, weeks later support provided excuses and no fix, "we haven't tested it on your device yet" 1010music blackbox, a popular piece of hardware with a usb midi host and other devices work just fine with it, I suspect their firmware is telling it to shutdown because it's trying to have the blackbox charge their lithium battery instead of simply functioning as a midi device, people purchase a bluetooth widi device to get it to work, and then they complain the battery life is too short to be practical....also, basic functionality like changing octaves, something every other midi controller I've used allows you to do easily, it's one of the most basic low hanging fruit features you could conceive of if you're a musician, to do this you have to purchase one of the other blocks, they split the feature out, and these blocks are overpriced due to the bundled software, if you own one device you're now paying extra for something you already ownnext is the buggy software, they claim it comes bundled with scope 2, you do not get a license for scope 2, you have to login to roli.com download roli connect, install roli equator, some scope 2 features are in equator now, you have to login to equator to pretend to use scope 2side note: if you try to transfer ownership, you lose scope 2 because you lose equator, you cannot use scope 2 standalone because you have to login to your roli account and you no longer have it, the new owner also does not get it either, unless they pay a $70 fee, deceptive double bait and switchroli connect gets greyed out controls and doesn't work, buggy, others have the same issue, not fixed yetthen you have roli dashboard, to adjust settings on the hardware, then you have roli player, and roli drums, and sometimes you have to close one to use the other, or restart everythingin other words, some corporate joker who clearly is not a musician is muggling up the music writing workflow with bad decisions, bait and switch and false advertisement