First make sure you are updated to the newest Roli Dashboard. As of this writing they are in the 4.x range. This blog is about that version as well as Omnisphere 2.5.  Primary Reason is the 3.x version doesn’t allow saving Dashboard Presets. It should look something like this.








So now you can have different modes for dashboard with preconfigured dashboard settings using the menu choice File/Save.  Next Create at least 2 different modes.  My names are Omnisphere_Multi and Omnisphere_Single.   Since I have a Seaboard and a Grand and the grand has one fewer articulation  I might change these to reflect those possibilities as well.

You will need these two modes to setup new presets to multichannel.  Multichannel is somehow different than MPE and Omnisphere is not yet MPE but.. you can get interesting articulations with Multi Channel and a Roli that you can’t get with Omnisphere and a non MPE instrument (Traditional MIDI Keyboard)  So in otherwords you will do some work on a preset in single mode, then set to multichannel to actually play music under.

The rise provides 11 controllers : Strike, Lift, Glide, Slide, Press, Touch Faders 1 – 3, Pad X/Y. Omnisphere only provides one parameter for User CC. To control most of theses 11 parameter, the Seaboard will need to be  mapped in Omnisphere to the Seaboard midi inputs.  As you will see below some are mapped by default.

PITCH BEND RANGE
Roli – Set Pitch bend range to 24 in the Roli Dashboard, Omnisphere cannot process a range of 48. 

Omnisphere – Make the preset match the Roli Dashboard

Strike
Note ON velocity Works by default

Lift
Note OFF velocity – Does not work yet in Omnisphere

Glide
Pitch Bend – Works by default as long as you set the Pitch Bend settings above.

Slide
Link to Omnisphere User CC with the initial value (CC74 )

Press
AfterTouch Works by Default

Seaboard Faders


Left Fader
Set to 1 (CC1)
Note: Modulation Wheel is available as Wheel in Omnisphere. Omnisphere factory are all based on 1D modulation using Wheel

Middle Fader
Set to 2 (CC2)
Note: Breath Controller

Right Fader
Set to 2 (CC2)
Note: Foot Controller

Sustain Pedal
Works by Default

Seaboard PAD

Map these with CC Learn
Pad X/Y : Keep CC113/CC14 in ROLI Dashboard and Associate with Omnisphere ORB X/Y. 
Switch the Omnisphere Orb to ‘Radius’  to configure X and Y. 

You also have to configure omnisphere to remember these settings in the future. Go to the utility menu / Midi learn and automation / and select “Ignore assignments when loading multi”. 


HOW TO COMPLETE A SETUP WITH ANY Omnisphere patch or preset…
as long as it conforms to the defaults of the factory patches as far as articulations go. Just starting out ? only use factory patches.

Factory patches are by default only set to be modulated by one controller : Wheel, associated in this setup to Touch Fader 1, as it would be with a traditional keyboard.  To check it, select a part, a layer, and go the modulation section. Then you can change the source to route it to any controller previously mapped : Slide, Touch Faders, etc… 

ROUTE TO ROLI CONTROLLERS

You can also add new controllers. Equator provides sounds configured “on the box” for the Seaboard, but Omnishpere does not. You can easily route Omnishere sources to Seaboard controllers, but you will not get sounds set up for the Rise for the Press and Slide controllers. 

ADJUST TO MATCH THE EXPECTED EXPRESSION

To get closer, you will need to make some work with Omnishpere, associating them to Cutoff, Harmonia Mix or other targets you find interesting. Some are already mapped as this with the Wheel controller.

SWITCH TO MULTI MODE

When you successfully created a song in part 1,  use the utility menu to clone part 1, and then swith to the profile MC_Omnisphere. Now you can play MPE with Omnisphere 🙂