Roland Mood Pad thing.

Wow! I saw they also make a taiko. Very cool. I wonder if it has any kind of positional sensing or how many pads are there... since a handpan can make a million different sounds based on location, the way tapped, various harmonics when touched etc. On the other hand it's definitely a plus that you can change the tuning - I don't know, but pretty sure, if it's digital - which is only possible on a real one by buying another.
 
Please correct me if I'm wrong but my takeaway is that this isn't really as much of an instrument for the sake of making music as it is an instrument to expand on meditation, therapy, etc similar to singing bowls.

Also, it's Roland... I personally don't think a machine gunning artificial bell sound is my path to enlightenment.
 
roncadillac said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong but my takeaway is that this isn't really as much of an instrument for the sake of making music as it is an instrument to expand on meditation, therapy, etc similar to singing bowls.

Also, it's Roland... I personally don't think a machine gunning artificial bell sound is my path to enlightenment.
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There are plenty of music pieces using or written for handpans. It's a melodic instrument with notes.


I didn't see any details about the sensors or the synth to judge it in that regard. I imagine for a handpan player the form factor is a positive thing (vs. using a keyboard or sample pad). Mic'ing and recording/amplifying handpans is not always the easiest, most comfortable thing. I could see this being used where it's only an effect or extra instrument in a band or for those meditation things where the bar is low (yoga in a park?), since most esoteric uses would require a real one equipped with magical frequencies haha.
 
Actually this is the one I wanted to find and paste:

I seriously doubt the Roland version can do even half of these articulations though...
It's a fun toy for $660 though, considering a good handpan is 2-3K, though you can buy decent cheap ones for just messing around.
 
Yikes. Just saw this. I have a handpan from Isthmus Instruments. Part of the joy of playing it is the organic aspect of it.
That plastic Roland thing looks like a pricey, soulless toy.
 
I prefer the real deal if it comes to hand percussion.

Sold my hpd this week because of the same. Its just starts to work against you, just when you want or need to be creative in a studio setting for instance.

No matter how you much you fine-tune the settings.

That being said. I applaud roland for trying things like this (they had a taiko, cajon, and marching snare too).

And in some ways it can still work fine, like when you meed to take a dozen percussion instruments and you don’t want to schlep or mixing channels are scarce.
 
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DutchDrummersDreams said:
That being said. I applaud roland for trying things like this (they had a taiko, cajon, and marching snare too).
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Yeah - I have both cajón things they came out with - the EC-10 and the EC-10m. Hardly use the former [must sell on], TBH, but the latter is good as an addon to an acoustic cajón - sort of an EAD10 for cajón (actually some people use an EAD10 on a cajón....)
 
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