Joué Play | 4-in-1 Portable Digital Instrument, with Powerful and Easy-to-use Musical App Included - Plug & Play Music

Product Information

The device is only let down somewhat by the editor, which is a little awkward and opaque; a bit more design effort here might pay off in terms of the Joué's overall appeal. The X and Y outputs can be configured to output in high-resolution (14-bit) mode, though in practice the resolution available seemed to be around 9 or 10 bits. I was strangely able to fiddle with the exact placement of my fingers to get the full aftertouch values while in the same “general” horizontal plane so I think there are 8 horizontal strips, with even and odd strips being shared for the 4 horizontal “areas. Remix your favorite song on the subway, create rhythms with friends and family or sketch out your track of the year in the park.

The package includes the Play Board, pads, and a USB C-to-C cable, with adapters for USB A and Lightning (power users might appreciate the optional USB C-to-MIDI cable). The Grand Clavier module comes with a free custom-made soundpack for the free UVI Workstation plug-in. Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. The app allows you to easily trigger and layer sounds but, of course, the instrument works with any MIDI-capable software. I found the infinite encoder emulation more useful, and that comes with a speed multiplier setting depending on the accuracy you desire.Grand Clavier: A full-width 'grand piano' module offering two octaves of piano keys (each somewhat wider than the keys on the synth module), again with optional vibrato, Y sensing and aftertouch. For testing I used ROLI Equator and FXpansion Cypher2 (which are MPE-capable), both stand-alone and in Bitwig Studio, and I also fired up Cycling '74 Max to inspect MIDI controller messages more closely. The domed button on each pad also varies by instrument, sometimes adding vibrato, sometimes changing pitch. I’ve been testing cases for building out the logic and hoo boy there are many cases, some of which have no real solutions atm. I believe it corresponds to the XML configuration in the Joué editor but the hex data from the NTAG213 within the pad is a bit ambiguous.

My hope is I can force the matrix pads into a glissando mode that we all so desire, and get a knock-off linnstrument. The Pro option is a firmware upgrade that gives you full access to the Joué Editor, with MIDI mapping and MPE specification. In particular, it would be useful to have some in-built help or mouse-over hints to explain exactly what's going on; it's not always clear how the editor settings relate to the module on the device, there are some menus containing only one selection item (such as, for some reason, colour), and some parameter settings are rather obscure, such as the fretboard's 'Vibrato' and 'Bending', which run from 0 to 8096 without further explanation.The top of the device sports a metal plate with a recessed area which takes a selection of brightly-coloured flexible silicone 'modules'.

The Joué is a modular touch-sensitive, MPE-capable controller with silicone 'modules' allowing easy configuration into different setups combining keyboard and MIDI controls. Take your first steps with the stand-alone J-App, or connect the J-App to your J-Play and play instantly. Play does function as a general MIDI controller so you can hook it up to anything – its use of USB rather than routing via a MIDI interface is a bonus, as is its ultra-portability.There's no obvious physical orientation to the pad, but it can be placed any way round on the Joué and still work.