The company behind the Seaboard, the ROLI Piano and the Airwave appears to be in serious trouble again. According to a Synth Anatomy report, Luminary ROLI Limited has entered administration, the UK equivalent of a formal insolvency process. For anyone who plays MPE, this is more than a corporate footnote: ROLI's Seaboard is one of the instruments that made MPE a household term.
What is actually known
The report cites company records that place the start of administration in the second half of October 2026, although sources differ slightly on the exact day. This is ROLI's second insolvency episode. The company went through a bankruptcy in 2021 and relaunched under the Luminary name with a stronger focus on beginners and learning products.
Earlier in the year, press coverage indicated that a major backer had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators and that the company was trying to restructure. The CEO who led ROLI through its early years is also no longer in the role, according to public filings.
On the customer side, the ROLI website currently shows a maintenance message, and products, including software, are listed as out of stock. Some customers report orders placed months ago that have not arrived. These customer reports are unverified, so treat them as anecdotal until the administrators communicate.
What is not known
Nobody has publicly said what happens to the product lines. There is no confirmed buyer, no announced support plan for Seaboard owners, and no statement about future updates for the Equator2 synthesizer or the Roli Connect software. Speculation about an acquisition is just that: speculation.
Practical steps for MPE players
If you own ROLI gear, a few low-effort actions are worth doing today:
- Download and archive installers. Save the latest Equator2, ROLI Connect and firmware installers, plus your license information, to a local drive.
- Back up your presets. Export any custom Equator2 patches and Seaboard settings so they survive an account or server shutdown.
- Check offline activation. Make sure your software authorizes without needing a live connection, wherever possible.
- Hold off on pre-orders. If you have an unfulfilled order, contact your payment provider about your options rather than waiting indefinitely.
The wider MPE picture
The good news is that MPE no longer depends on any single manufacturer. The specification is an open part of MIDI, and the ecosystem has grown well beyond one brand. Expressive E continues to build the Osmose line, Roger Linn Design still ships the LinnStrument, Haken Audio makes the Continuum, and newer entrants such as the Intuitive Instruments Exquis have broadened the field. Plugin support has also spread: Serum 2, Omnisphere, Pigments and many smaller synths now respond to per-note pitch, slide and pressure.
For players, that means a Seaboard can keep working with any MPE-capable synth even if the company's own software stops evolving. Hardware that speaks standard MPE over USB is far less fragile than anything tied to a proprietary cloud.
Why this matters for the community
ROLI popularized the idea that a keyboard could bend, slide and swell like a string instrument. Many of today's MPE players, plugin developers and DAW teams first encountered per-note expression through its hardware. A healthy outcome, such as an acquisition by a company committed to supporting existing owners, would be good for everyone. An abrupt end would leave a sizable installed base without firmware or software support.
We will keep following the story as administrators share details. In the meantime, the sensible approach is the simplest one: back up what you have, keep your MPE workflow portable, and avoid depending on any one vendor's servers.