- The Roland Mood Pan is a Bluetooth speaker and a music instrument
- Based on traditional acoustic manuals, and is a midi trigger
- It costs $ 659 / £ 544 / au $ 1,199
Roland’s humor pan sounds like the title of a situation comedy or the name of a Ramen Hipster store, but it is something much more strange: it is an instrument of electronic percussion in the form of an UFO that allows it to explore “Serenial Sonic Textures” without requiring any musical capacity. Is also A Bluetooth speaker and a MIDI activator for electronic instruments and music creation software.
Roland has a long history of making musical hardware: its rhythm machines are the beat of the house and hip-hop, and its synthesizers are everywhere in pop, rock and edm. But this is a bit different, because it is both to enjoy the sounds and touch an instrument.
It is also really expensive, although that is not necessarily a decisive factor: some of the most entertaining musical oddities, from keyboards to omnicordios, are also quite expensive.
Roland Mood Pan: What is the plan?
The humor pan is based on the acoustic manuals, those things chimey that you hear a lot in the sound bands of the new era and in the background when a beauty technology is about to stab with needles, tear your hair from your body or break your back. And like a hand capo, you play it by touching it.
There are nine pads at the top, each of which can be connected to a different musical scale and that can be configured so that it never plays an incorrect note. You can also touch the sides to create more percussion sounds, silence sounds and add expression.
The great benefit on traditional management, of course, is not limited to a set of sounds and an adjustment. You can use the humor pan as drum trigger or a song bowl, such as a gamelalan or a guitar. You can use it as a Serena soundtrack supplier thanks to its four soundtrack modes, and can ruin the mood completely transmitting Black Metal through Bluetooth.
It looks like a fun instrument and a creative tool, but as with many acoustic manuals, the great inconvenience is the price: at $ 659.99 / AU $ 1,199 is more expensive than an activation device such as the native instruments Maschine or the Novation Launchpad Pro. And certainly It is more expensive than most Bluetooth speakers we have tried. But they don’t leave you noodles to make music too, so maybe it’s worth it.