Roland has announced the new flagship model in the company’s acclaimed Aerophone series of digital wind instruments.
The Aerophone Pro combines numerous design refinements and premium components with enhanced playability and a vast sonic palette from Roland’s SuperNATURAL and ZEN-Core sound engines, enabling wind players to take their music where it’s never gone before.
Introduced in 2016, the Aerophone series has opened a universe of creative possibilities for wind musicians. While developing Aerophone Pro, Roland reached out to expert players around the globe for suggestions on taking the Aerophone experience to the next level. Their feedback led to many thoughtful improvements that substantially enhance the instrument’s look, feel, sound, and playability. The result is a revolutionary wind instrument that gives musicians a bold and highly expressive new voice.
Aerophone Pro’s thin, ergonomic design looks great on stage and is easier to hold for a more confident playing experience. Controls are easy to reach, and the streamlined body and aluminum accents exude an understated-yet-classy presence. The discrete OLED screen provides quick visual access to various parameters and can be viewed at any angle and in any kind of lighting.
The stock fingering on Aerophone Pro is the same as an acoustic sax and includes a high-F# key. Multiple user-customizable fingerings are supported as well, and configurable controls for both hands and a MIDI input for footswitches greatly expand performance options. Through extensive research and development, the breath and bite sensors are more responsive and expressive than ever, and the user can save personalized settings for their own style.
Aerophone Pro packs entire brass and woodwind sections into a single instrument. Developed with professional players, there are newly enhanced soprano, alto, and tenor saxes, vibrant new trumpet sounds, and authentic world instruments like the stunning new duduk. Roland’s SuperNATURAL technology translates every playing nuance with lifelike dynamics, articulations, and overtones, while new controller options enable idiomatic performance techniques on a range of instruments, from mainstream to exotic.
Aerophone Pro also features Roland’s ZEN-Core Synthesis System, the sound engine that powers flagship synthesizers like FANTOM and JUPITER-X. Presets crafted by the world’s foremost wind synth sound designers provide everything from vintage analog synth tones to modern hybrid sounds, with the refined expression and articulation only a wind instrument can provide.
Aerophone Pro enables powerful and expressive performances in any situation. Its robust design and flexible audio and MIDI connections make it perfect for any live gig, or as the center of a wind controller-based production studio. And with a headphones jack, Bluetooth MIDI, built-in speaker, and battery-powered operation, users can pick up and play whenever and wherever inspiration strikes.
Aerophone Pro offers powerful onboard editing tools for personalizing sounds on the spot. Even deeper customization and sound organization is available through an editor app for iOS and Android mobile devices. And with easily selectable scene memories and favorites, users can quickly navigate the large array of tones and mark them for instant recall while performing.
The Aerophone Pro will be available in January 2021, priced $1,499.99 USD.
More information: Roland
