“The tragedy here is that it was always fundamentally a great company,” another former employee says. “A lot of what made it great was the sort of all-powerful vision of the founder. But that was so obviously the critical flaw.”
Begin Again
Along with other touch-sensitive devices like the Linnstrument and the Sensel Morph, Roli was a key company in the rise of MIDI polyphonic expression (MPE) devices. MPE technology lets players control a note’s pitch and timbre through touch-based movement. Pressing or sliding fingers over the device’s surface produces varying MIDI notes that capture more expressive playing.
While inventive, Roli’s instruments were altogether very niche—a hard product category to build an Apple-sized…