PDA=Personal Drum Assistant
Roland has taken the concept of the PDA and applied it to music. The $595 PMA-5 is a pen-based composition workstation you can hold in the palm of your hand. The device features an eight-track MIDI sequencer, a 16-part multitimbral sound module with 306 sounds 16 drum kits, 600 backing tracks in 100 styles, and onboard effects (including eight types of digital reverb and chorus).
An ad-lib function lets you improvise solos or melodies over the backing tracks even if you don’t know anything about music. All functions are accessed through an LCD touch-panel screen, or you can use the serial port to 1 import MIDI files from your PC.
