Roland today introduced the Mood Pan, a unique electronic hand percussion instrument, inspired by the acoustic handpan.
If there was a ‘yoga synth’, the Mood Pan might be it. It features a variety of presets, based on instruments popular in new age music, including ‘singing’ bowls, tongue drum, handpan and sitar. There’s a knob to customize the scale, including major and minor, but also Indian, Japanese and ‘Dreamy’.
It’s designed to be able to be used completely standalone, with a built-in speaker and the ability to run on standard AA batteries.
It also features built-in environmental sounds and can be used to stream music via Bluetooth.
Roland Mood Pan Audio Demo:
Features:
- Versatile electronic hand percussion instrument and sound system for meditation and musical exploration
- Expressive sound and playability, backed by Roland’s leading electronic percussion technologies
- Nine touch-sensitive pads that can be played with the fingers
- Special control pad for adding expressive qualities to certain sounds
- Built-in speaker with rich, full sound and a headphone jack for quiet playing sessions
- Handpan, tongue drum, gamelan, singing bowl, and other preset tones, plus four user slots with selectable sound variations
- 12 tuning styles for authentic cultural sounds
- Enhance the sound with natural ambience and interesting effects
- Background music function with four modes and soft synthesizer pads, didgeridoo, and nature sounds
- Bluetooth for streaming songs from your mobile device through the onboard speaker
- USB-C MIDI for triggering sounds in music software on computers and mobile devices
- Mood Pan Plus app for selecting user sounds, adjusting pad sensitivity, and more
- Powered by six AA batteries or USB-C
Mood Pan Styles (Scales):
The Mood Pan can also play itself – with a unique Background Music function:
Pricing and Availability:
The Mood Pan has a street price of about $660 USD, and is expected to be available in July 2025.
Cool concept indeed, maybe a bit later to the game though?
Almost some price as minilogue XD
and Amazon has handpans cheaper 2-300 hundred bucks
What else does it do?
Does the Minilogue XD have the same sampled sounds and performance interface?
Do those Amazon handpans have the same sampled sounds?
I encourage you to try again with more equivalent instruments.
Maybe a cheaper, smaller version would be cool
Actually I did a little search for existing digital handpans, and there are a few already out there, from small companies less known than Roland.
The prices are From 1200$ to around 2500$. So maybe the price is actually not too bad for this product? Just a thought.
I am really interested in this, though I do fear it is lacking in some areas… After skimming the manual I’m still unclear if you can change your root note and whether or not it is velocity sensitive. Otherwise it looks like a really fun and relaxing instrument to chill with. Though expensive, it is still cheaper than a real hand pan, which only has one scale and 1 sound. I may end up splurging on this one, though it’s not perfect.
Yes, to both questions. I downloaded the app. Root adjustments from A3 to G5, if memory serves. There are flats and sharps too. Velocity sensitivity looks like it allows for micro adjusting.. I have several of the instruments this emulates, so I already pulled the trigger
Thanks, I did see a review yesterday which also answered my questions. I’ll probably get this one. I already have a nice tongue drum from Lithuania (Sound Nest), which I love and I have always wanted a hand pan.
Looks like a fun and relaxing instrument, if it was cheaper and had a convenient way to change the scale root I’d be tempted.
I would love to have one of these but that price tag is a little steep – I would be in at about half the cost
I bought my tongue drum off of Amazon, pretty sure under $50. Looks the same as a hand pan. Came with a carrying case, rubber mallets. I love it as a meditation device as when you are holding it in your lap you can feel the notes resonating from the instrument after a note is struck.
It is a fixed scale but that somewhat depends on who is playing it. I have my own techniques, it ends up sounding close to a wind chime. I brought it to a jam, had a friend play it? After a few minutes they started playing the peanuts theme, I think it’s Linus and snoopy?
This roland one, has more features, costs a lot more. I could buy several amazon cheapo versions, start my own soundbath….maybe a few mics too to amplify.
I love the options that you get from this. I have a hand pan that was about $1700 which sounds amazing. I have a cheaper version that was about $400 but sounds nothing like it. I also have crystal bowls and a pyramid and taking sound healing courses right now in hope to start my healing practices. This would be a fun addition to what I have already ?
I’m impressed with this, as it has a lovely design. It has a rather specific target. It will cost about double that for Roland’s much more capable Handsonic, IF you want a larger library of sound options. As it is, there’s a nice balance between this and many acoustic handpans. I like the way Roland zig-zags and offers up unique tools.
I’m sure it’s gonna be the same premium plastic Roland uses for all it’s products to give it that toyish feel.
Roland is doing everything but giving us analog synths.
This would be like turning up to a spoon carving workshop with a dremel
The HPD-20 is over ten years old.
Can we not have a refresh with user multi-samples, physical modelling, ACB and Zen Core?
Percussion market: large
Handpan market: small
I want one becasue it is a new, different and creative approach to musicality!
These are the instruments i like to see from roland!
Straight forward instrument with a narrow but well selected sound pool – super nice concept overall!
(the obv Rant: The whole zen core/cloud thing is just a huge confusing mess.)
Man, they really milking zen core… give me a real groovebox with a good zen core patch editing experience and I will give you my soul, Roland!!! 🙁
A bog pan.. more like 🙂