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I’ve not noticed any latency. I was a little apprehensive about it & had until recently, used a decent usb A-B cable. Many DJs & electronica musicians use a laptop these days. They rarely have any issues if using decent kit. The laptop & interface sit on a stand or small table next to the Seaboard, so the only thing that’s near them is me. I use a decent jack to jack from the interface to my rig. Tbh, things can & sometimes do go wrong with instruments, hardware synths can fail, amps can fail (I’ve had that too). There’s many big name bands using laptops. Devo used nothing but 4 laptops a few years ago. Yes, they probably had plenty of back up, but thenguitar based bands have backup guitars too.

I can understand your concern There’s a couple of other options. Roli with no wires > bluetoothed to laptop with audio interface > combo/pa. Roli > hardware synth module via usb > combo/pa. So far, connecting to pa or bass rig has been a simple jack to jack. The most cables I have are 2 usb cables (Roli to MacBook & MacBook to interface) and a jack to jack from interface to amp/pa. Last jam was 2 cables, minijack to jack from iPhone to amp & psu to make sure the iPhone never went flat. I’ve had my bass fail on me at a gig.

I usually run a USB to my macbook, which sits near the Seaboard, then into an interface & then into the PA. However, last jam, I did midi over bluetooth to my iPhone with the Moog Model D app & took a line from the headphone socket straight into my bass rig. Sounded immense! Easy set up too. The good thing about the Seaboard is it takes 3 hours for a full charge & it lasts 11 hours, so there's no need to have any wires in the Seaboard at all. No 5 pin dins. lol

You soon get used to all the keys being black & the squidgyness of the surface. You really don't need to push down hard to start with, but you'll find that you use the further squidge for pushing into the sound & changing the textures. Get Dettol wipes (the ones in the white packet) for wiping it down with. You don't need to wipe it after every use.

I hit the brown note at band rehearsal last night. Came straight out the low end & everyone left the room.

Is there a Guitar Guitar near you? They usually stock Roli stuff. If you're ever up my way, you're welcome to pop in for a play about on it.

Well, you are on Basschat, so it must do. Me myself, I play bass guitar. I also play synth bass too. I'm a lover of the groove & using the right tools to make that groove.

Yup, I’ve got a Rise 25 & can’t get enough of it. I’ve started to play it in the band too, using it for bass & pads (last night I just used the Moog model D app on my phone). The surface takes a little getting used to, but after 30 mins you learn that you don’t push the keys down like you would on a keyboard (you can do though) & it’s just a superb tool for expression. Indeed as @Akio Dāku says, I've used it on the past 2 tracks. If you use Logic X, then many of the instruments are MPE and can make good use of the Seaboard. The Rise comes with 2 instruments, Roli's Equator (which is an amazing synth) and FXpansion's Strobe2. If you're on a budget, then the Seaboard block only loses the controls at the left. I use them, but there's plenty of expression on the playing surface to warrant not using them (I didn't touch them last night with the band) & the good thing about the Block is you can add another to get a 4, 6 or 8 octave surface. What else I love about the Rise 25 is how portable it is. It's made of metal & silicone, so little chance of breaking it, the bluetooth over midi works really well (though I'll use USB at a gig to be safe), a full battery charge takes 3 hours over USB (whilst you play it too) & a charge lasts for 11 hours. If I want to play it, I can plug my earphones into my phone, open up either of the Roli apps, GarageBand or Moog Model D & connect the Rise via bluetooth & play. It's really that easy. I can even chuck it in the back of the car (it comes with a case). My one criticism, I'd like more than 25 keys. If I were to replace it, I'd go for the Rise 49 & there's a high chance I'm gonna do that too. When I get time, I'll edit the GoPro footage from last night & pop a track on here.

The one pedal that I've always had on my board is a PSK SDS-2 distortion. It's a cheap 80s dirt pedal (made of plastic too), but it adds a great bite to the sound. If I could have any 1 pedal back, it'd probably be the Moog Bass Murf (well, I'd probably opt for the midi murf).

From some of the conversations in the OT recently, I'm waiting for Tw@t Chat.

Some awesome entries this month & very hard to choose 3! Initially I was a little disappointed at seeing just 2 votes for mine, as I thought it was rather good, but after listeneing to the entries the 3 that I picked I think are better than my entry, as are others. So now I'm not disappointed at getting 2 votes. I think it's an acievement for me to get 2 votes against some awesome tracks! Great work guys!

Oi! Shut it!

Well they made a “Guitar Chat” on here because most other guitar forums are a bit guff, so a “Keyboard Chat” might be another spin off. There’s a recording section that talks more about VSTis than bass.

It’s in the Telegraph. I use Apple news to pull feeds.

Ever thought that new Fenders were a bit overpriced? Well you might be right. https://apple.news/A3a4EP2b-QSmirMzBh87hxg

It's a hard one to make a poll for. I use a compressor in the studio & quite often at home if I'm plugged into the mac, but live, I don't. Though I'm not against using a compressor, there isn't one on my board. As I take my Roli Seaboard to jams (& soon to be to gigs too), I've been considering putting the bass through the macbook & using some of the VST effects, like compression. Though having a valve amp, I suppose that works kinda like a compressor too.

I used to have a Markbass 2x10 combo which blew my Trace 4x10 combo out the water Weighed about 1/4 of the TE, was significantly louder & sounded better too (YMMV). You could probably pick one up around the £500 mark. Now, I have a 4x10 cab & a big valve amp that wieghs about the same as your average car. Sack trolley FTW! £25 from B&Q, will hold a decent amount of kit & has decent wheels for getting over things (including band disputes).

Send it back as "not safe" & get a rickenfaker?

I stopped playing bass for a few years. Sold everything except my bass, the chorus & the dirt. I had a Markbass 2x10 combo that sounded fantastic & I got shot of that too. I’d happily have those 2 Moog pedals back again.

My old set up was Bass into Boss OC3 into a Moog Bass Murf. The signal was split with lows going into one side of a mixer/loop pedal I made & the other side went into a PSK dirt, Moog LPF (with exp pedal & an envelope out to the Bass Murf to shift frequencies as the note decays) & then a boss CH2. This then went back into the other side of the mixer to sum it all together & then to the amp. The loop side of the pedal allowed me to switch everything after the octave on or off. Here's a track I made 5 years ago for Basschat. The bass comes in at 2 seconds. My current rig hasn't made as great a synth sound yet, but I've not really played much with it. I now have MXR BOD > PSK Dirt > Source Audio BEF Pro > Boss CE2.

Here's my last minute entry. All sounds played on the Roli Seaboard. Just made it tonight (Mrs is wondering where I am ).

I've never seen a Dingwall fretless, but according to the Dingwall chap on here a few years back, they do in deed do a lined fretless (I think an unlined variax fretless would be a bit of a tricky instrument to play). Bass Direct have a nice ABZ5 in blue. It's in my budget too. I've got over a month to decide, so looking for as many options as possible (there might be something I've never seen before).

I've been browsing the classifieds. There's a few nice instruments available. I've also been looking at Luthman basses. They make some superbly shaped instruments. Had a look to see if I could pick up a 2nd hand Ritter... No chance!

With a valve amp, sometimes it can be hard to recreate the sound of the valve power amp section. Back to fx on amps... I suppose when you think about it, most valve amps have a built in overdrive. I still think a dedicated pedal for things like octave, chorus, compressor etc gives better results. Even a decent multi fx unit should provide better results (though most multi fx are not very good at dirt).