Portability is further aided by a battery power option, which promises to give you more than 14 hours of runtime. You can also power the keyboard via USB. Like most 88-key keyboards, the layout differs a bit from the smaller models, with the mod and pitch wheels on the top panel, and the controls spread out a little bit more.

Enter a creative mode with no barriers thanks to a turnkey app. No need to spend hours on overly complex music software, enjoy the simplified version of essential music creation tools in the Joue Play App. Your Joue Play evolves with you and leads you through your transition to professional music production softwares to let your creativity express itself fully.

Novation’s Launchkey controller keyboards have been very successful. Now at version 3, they continues to provide a good balance of price and features, and in 2022 we got a new 88-key model. Offering a playable semi-weighted and a great set of features, Launchkey 88 Mk3 is a fine option at its price point. Turn on MPE mode, and pressure and pitch bend ('glide' in MPE parlance) become properly polyphonic. The glide range on the pads seems rather arbitrary (you can set it numerically in the editor), and you certainly won't be able to glide from one pad to the next as you might do on a ROLI Seaboard. For that, you'll need to use one of the keyboard modules. Synth: A double-width module implementing an octave and a half of keyboard, with a selection of buttons in a row at the top. Vibrato and aftertouch (channel or poly) are supported, as is Y ('slide'). Again, at present these control streams are not useful polyphonically except with MPE enabled. The obligatory USB port, meanwhile, is now of the 'C' variety, and there's now a proper 5-pin MIDI Out, too.

Play and experiment with a multitude of effects by varying the pressure of your fingers to adjust their intensity.

Key Features

If Joué Play has a downside, it’s the app. While it’s impressive sonically, it feels half-baked, with limited editing features. While functionality is identical, the iPad edition is a slightly better experience just because it’s more conducive to touch. You’ve already in exploratory touch mode using the controller. Suddenly switching to a mouse feels like a betrayal to your hands. The rubber modules include piano keys, scalable keys, drum pads, and a guitar-style fretboard (pictured here). Adam Douglas S o, who should buy the Joué Play? Stray outside the mainstream of MIDI controller products and you’ll often find innovations from smaller companies. One is the Joué Play.

So that digital music can rhyme with sustainability, the Joue Play was designed to last, just as acoustic instruments. Production is carried out with suppliers at 80% located in France, using sustainable materials.If you thought that you’d seen the last of ROLIand its Seaboardrange of controllers, think again, as we now have the Seaboard Rise 2.

Launched in 2015, the Risewas a more affordable version of ROLI’s full-size Seaboard MPEcontroller, but has been off the market for two years. The new version is easier to play, more durable, and comes with a better bundle of software. You can also control instruments and automation, browse presets from Image-Line plugins and assign custom controls. The 25-note keyboard is said to be more playable than before, with improved velocity response. With just two octaves to work with, though, there’s not going to be a great deal of scope for giving two-handed performances. Fretboard: A guitar-style fretboard with nine 'frets' and six 'strings' emulating the standard EADGBE tuning. (There's an option to tune the individual strings to other notes.) It's possible to pitch bend along a string (a gesture referred to as vibrato), but the most extreme pitch bending (which is upwards only) comes from the 'bending' gesture, pushing strings upwards or downwards. Aftertouch (pressure) is also supported. There are two configurable buttons, which I found most useful when programmed as toggles for the vibrato and bending functions. I found the fretboard's pitch modulation harder to control than on the keyboards; there's no MPE glide facility, and you have to tweak the vibrato and bending controls by ear.You will be able to choose between 5 modes: Major, Minor, Pentatonic major, Pentatonic minor and Chromatic, by defining the starting note of the scale, the "root note". The Joué editor. A Fretboard preset is open for editing, although the device itself is running the chromatic Scaler module. Practice by learning the basics or by replaying a selection of famous songs step by step through a series of video tutorials, also available as projects in the Joue Play App.