Sometimes, Roland gives us predictable things. Sometimes, the company decides to digitize the handpan for an electronic hand percussion instrument that can also make gamelan and singing bowl sounds, pretty environmental noises, and function as a Bluetooth speaker.
Yes, “Weird Roland”/”make everything digital Roland” is back! We’ve seen them make harpsichords complete with art panels, digital pipe organs, and an egg-shaped piano with speakers that flew around like drones.
I feel like this needs to be edited with like someone playing some weird Max for Live patch:
Mood Pan arrives at just the right time, if you’ve been feeling, you know, a little stressed. Under the headline “Pure Sound. Deep Calm.”, we get electronic hand percussion to “explore serene sonic textures”; “simply place it in your lap and tap the pads to float away on a cloud of calm and soothing tonalities.”
There’s some clever hand-sensing tech here, and probably a decent market for people teaching yoga, meditation, and sound bath classes and the like. If that’s not you, this doubles as a MIDI controller and Roland are pitching it as a home instrument you can use to chill out by switching it to environmental sounds. Just be prepared that it’s not exactly cheap; US$659 might lead some folks back to the acoustic alternatives.
Let’s see what they’ve done. They kind of went nuts with the specs, actually, so maybe that price isn’t that weird. (Now if only they combined this with their drone tech so these could fly around…)
Adapted from the tech sheet and manual:
- Nine pressure-sensing pads, assignable to different scales and tunings (see below)
- Multiple styles: Indian, Relax, Arabic, Celtic, Minor, Major, Meditation, Japanese, Equinox, Romantic, Dreamy, Aegean
- Environmental and nature sounds [no specifics on those that I can find]
- Doubles as a Bluetooth 4.2 speaker (A2DP, GATT, SBC support)
- Built-in tones: Sitar, Crystal Bowl, Singing Bowl, Gamelan, Tongue Drum, Handpan, Strings, Synth, or one of four user slots.
- User slots: classic Roland Fantasia, digeridoo with phrases, Iranian santur, tuning fork (the tuning fork can be reconfigured via app; it’s otherwise a really surprising sequence – 174, 285, 396, 417, 528, 639 741, 852, 963 Hz)
- 12+ additional tones (configured via Mood Pan Plus mobile app – I think that’s in addition to the user slots above, too, or that somehow adds up to 12, not sure)
- Effects: Auto Wah, Phaser, Ring Modulator, Delay, Phonograph, Pitch Shifter, Reverb, and combinations
- Volume, Style, Tone, and Effect controllers
- 1/8″ headphone out
- USB-C connection for both audio and MIDI connectivity
- USB bus power
- AA battery power (NiMH or alkaline, including rechargeable)
- 316×94 mm (12.5×3.75″)
- 2.4 kg (5 lb., 5 oz)
- Tunings: Major (Sabye), Minor (Kurd), Celtic, Arabic (Hijaz), Relax (YshaSavita), Indian (Raga Desh), Meditative (Pygmy), Japanese (Akebono), Equinox “a passionate minor scale”, Romantic (La Sirena), Dreamy (Magic Voyage) – “a scale with dreamy harmonics”, Aegean
- MIDI output: channel 1-2, note, velocity, poly key aftertouch, control change 80-81
As I understand it those aren’t just 12-TET pitch collections, but distinct tunings, though the manual includes Western note names. That’s how it sounds here, too, though it seems they’ve rounded off some of the tunings:
I’m sorry. I’m still stuck on the styles knob. Truly, I have never seen that sequence of words. “What’s your mood; are you feeling relaxed, equinox, Major, or Aegean?”) Actually, I may take back my classification: these combinations of tones and styles are Peak Roland. I think Roland missed an opportunity to build a device that would switch from an oceanscape to Bossa Nova. Consider it, won’t you, Hamamatsu?
You can slap around the edges, use the pads as triggers, and use continuous pressure for pitch bend and other expression. All of that is apparently sent via MIDI, too, making this an unusual controller. There’s a continuous hard/soft sensitivity adjustment, too.
Also interesting: Roland only released Japanese-language videos on this one, though it is available worldwide. Let’s watch.
I’m interested in the sounds here, in that it seems like Roland has developed a new engine for this, and I wonder if this is a sign of other things to come.
More info:
Mood Pan Electronic Hand Percussion (MN-10)
That’ll be fun for Roland Trivia Night – but what does the ‘n’ stand for??
Roland Mood Pan does appear to be available in the USA from Sweetwater, on preorder as I write this:
Roland Mood Pan – 12.5 inches [Sweetwater]
By the way, if this seems familiar – it should. Remember Oval? I tested it in 2015 and met the team at Sónar. It seems the project never got fully off the ground, so these are hard to come by.