The worlds of music and wellness have become increasingly intertwined in recent years, with the rising popularity of mindfulness-oriented music demonstrating that there's a growing demand for restorative sounds that chill us out and clear our minds.
That's the thinking behind Roland's Mood Pan, a mindfulness-themed electronic percussion instrument announced by the Japanese manufacturer this week. With a design inspired by the handpan, Mood Pan is equipped with nine pressure-sensitive pads that can be used to trigger a variety of meditative sounds that includes handpan, tongue drum, gamelan, singing bowl and sitar.
Placed in the lap or on a desktop and played with finger taps, Mood Pan's sides can be tapped with the palms to create percussive and resonant sounds and notes can be muted while ringing out, closely emulating the playing experience of the handpan. Taking things beyond the acoustic realm is a selection of seven digital effects that includes a delay, reverb, phaser, pitch-shifter and more.
A variety of scales can be assigned to Mood Pan's pads that spans both Western and non-Western tonalities, making it easy to pick up and play without music theory knowledge or instrumental technique. Roland emphasizes that Mood Pan is designed to be "enjoyed by everyone" regardless of their musical background or skill level.
Mood Pan also features a background music function that plays back environmental music and nature sounds, and it can stream Bluetooth audio. A companion app can be used to adjust onboard sounds, fine-tune pad senstivity and load additional sounds into the instrument.
Mood Pan is equipped with an onboard speaker, headphone output and USB-C MIDI connection, meaning that you'll be able to use it as a percussive MIDI controller, which is a nice touch. It's powered by six AA batteries or USB-C.
While digital handpans are nothing new, we're thoroughly intrigued by the meditative Mood Pan, which represents a surprising new direction for the ever-innovative manufacturer - and might be just what we need in these troubled times.
Mood Pan is available now for $659.99. Find out more on Roland's website.
