ROLI’s Expressive Workflow: Gnarly Flips Naruto with ROLI Piano and Equator2

Gnarly opens the session by channeling the emotional resonance of “Grief and Sorrow” from the Naruto soundtrack, setting the stage for a beat-making journey that blends nostalgia with innovation. The ROLI Piano is positioned as the central tool for translating the iconic melody into a playable, expressive line, immediately highlighting the instrument’s tactile, responsive surface. Rather than simply triggering samples, Gnarly opts to learn and perform the melody, leveraging ROLI’s nuanced touch to capture the anime’s signature mood. This approach not only honors the source material but also demonstrates how ROLI’s design philosophy encourages hands-on reinterpretation rather than static playback.

Once the main piano motif is established, Gnarly expands the sonic palette by layering in cinematic strings, adding depth and drama to the arrangement. The workflow is fluid: after recording the keys, strings are introduced as a harmonic backbone, with careful attention to reverb and EQ to ensure they blend seamlessly into the mix. The video highlights the use of Equator2’s “Lotus Garden” patch for percussive, plucked string textures, which are recorded as additional layers. These elements are not just stacked arbitrarily; each is sculpted with effects like reverb, low shelf EQ, and high-pass filtering to carve out space and maintain clarity.

Sub-bass is introduced using Serum 2, reinforcing the foundation and rounding out the frequency spectrum. Gnarly demonstrates how each layer—melody, harmony, percussive accents, and bass—can be managed within Ableton Live, with effects chains and subtle mix adjustments contributing to a cinematic, cohesive sound. The integration between ROLI hardware, Equator2’s sound engine, and Ableton’s flexible environment is presented as intuitive and immediate, allowing for rapid iteration and creative decision-making.

With the harmonic and melodic framework in place, Gnarly shifts focus to rhythm and groove, loading drum sounds into Maschine and building a custom kit. The layout is methodical: kicks, snares, hi-hats, toms, and crashes are mapped to pads, with ghost snares and layered percussion providing dynamic variation. The video details the process of integrating both MIDI drums and carefully selected samples, emphasizing the importance of warping and key-matching within Ableton to ensure everything sits tightly in the mix.

Sample chopping is a central theme, as Gnarly demonstrates pitching, slicing, and duplicating audio to create new motifs. Techniques like EQ, panning, and stem separation are used to isolate and enhance specific textures, including guitar, harp-like sounds, and vinyl vocal samples. Maschine’s stem separator feature is highlighted for its ability to extract vocals from dense samples, which are then further processed and layered. This section underscores how contemporary production tools can blend sampled nostalgia with precise, modern sound design.

The workflow on display is a testament to the power of tightly integrated hardware and software. Exporting stems from Ableton, importing them into Maschine, and managing polyphony settings for clean sample triggering all happen with minimal friction. Gnarly demonstrates how grouping, muting, and soloing elements allows for flexible arrangement and quick re-edits, keeping creative options open throughout the process. The ability to isolate iconic vocal quotes from Naruto and weave them into the beat further illustrates how expressive controllers and DAW environments can interact seamlessly, supporting both structured composition and spontaneous experimentation.