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Roland Announces Aerophone Pro

Roland has announced Aerophone Pro, the new flagship model in the company’s Aerophone series of digital wind instruments.

Combining numerous design refinements and premium components with enhanced playability and a vast sonic palette from Roland's SuperNATURAL and ZEN-Core sound engines, Aerophone Pro is designed to allow wind players to take their music where it’s never gone before.

Aerophone Pro’s thin, ergonomic design makes it easier to hold, while its controls are easy to reach and the OLED screen provides quick visual access to various parameters.

The stock fingering on Aerophone Pro is the same as an acoustic sax and includes a high-F# key. Multiple user-customisable 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, Moog says the breath and bite sensors are more responsive and expressive than ever, and the user can save personalised settings for their own style.

Developed with professional players, there are newly enhanced soprano, alto, and tenor saxes, vibrant new trumpet sounds, and authentic world instruments like the new duduk. Roland’s SuperNATURAL technology is designed to translate 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 synthesisers like FANTOM and JUPITER-X. Presets crafted by the world’s foremost wind synth sound designers provide everything from vintage analogue synth tones to modern hybrid sounds.

Meanwhile, Aerophone Pro’s robust design and flexible audio and MIDI connections make it ideally suited for any live gig, or as the centre 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.

Deeper customisation and sound organisation is available through an editor app for iOS and Android mobile devices.

The Aerophone Pro will be available in January 2021 for $1,499.99 / £1,129.99.