- The Roland Mood Pan is a Bluetooth speaker and music instrument
- Based on traditional acoustic handpans, and it's a MIDI trigger
- It costs $659 / £544
Roland's Mood Pan sounds like the title of a sitcom or the name of a hipster ramen shop, but it's something much weirder: it's a UFO-shaped electronic percussion instrument that enables you to explore "serene sonic textures" without requiring any musical ability whatsoever. It's also a Bluetooth speaker, and MIDI trigger for electronic instruments and music creation software.
Roland has a long history of making musical hardware – its drum machines are the heartbeat of house and hip-hop, and its synths are everywhere in pop, rock and EDM. But this is a bit different, because it's as much about enjoying the sounds as it is about playing an instrument.
It's also really expensive, although that's not necessarily a deal breaker: some of the most entertaining musical oddities, from keytars to Omnichords, are pretty pricey too.
Roland Mood Pan: what's the plan?
The Mood Pan is based on acoustic handpans, those chimey things you hear a lot in new age soundtracks and in the background when a beauty tech is about to stab you with needles, rip out your body hair, or crack your back. And like a handpan, you play it by tapping on it.
There are nine pads on top, each of which can be attached to a different musical scale and which can be configured so you'll never play a wrong note. You can also tap the sides to create more percussive sounds, mute resonating sounds and add expression.
The big benefit over a traditional handpan, of course, is that you're not limited to one set of sounds and one tuning. You can use the Mood Pan as a drum trigger or a singing bowl, as a gamelan or a guitar. You can use it as a serene soundtrack provider thanks to its four soundtrack modes, and you can ruin the mood completely by streaming black metal to it over Bluetooth.
It looks like a fun instrument and creative tool, but as with many acoustic handpans the big drawback is the price: at $659.99 it's more expensive than a triggering device such as the Native Instruments Maschine or the Novation Launchpad Pro. And certainly is more expensive than most Bluetooth speakers we've tested. But they don't let you noodle around with making music too, so maybe it's well worth it.
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