Roland announces AI-assisted melody-generation plug-in, Melody Flip
Designed to work as a "music creation partner” for generating ideas
Roland has unveiled a new AI-assisted melody-generation plug-in designed to work as a "music creation partner” for artists.
The idea behind Melody Flip is to help producers get their creativity flowing using its four Palettes, which comprise a library of musical patterns: melody, chords, bass and drums included. There are over 250 Palettes in total.
Melody Flip also lets you mine your favourite music for inspiration. By analysing imported tracks for characteristics like tempo and key, it automatically makes suggestions based on those qualities. You can export the melody as MIDI or audio files and play around with them in most major DAWs.
At the start of 2026, Roland released a new emulation of the trailblazing CR‑78, the hardware unit powering tracks such as 'In the Air Tonight' by Phil Collins and 'Heart of Glass' by Blondie, called the CR‑78 Software Rhythm Composer .
Meanwhile, last year saw the release of Roland's first true analogue drum machine in over 40 years, the TR-1000 Rhythm Creator , also inspired by the Japanese company's lineage of drum machines.
Revisit our 2023 reflection on Roland's 50-year legacy , and its impact on the development of house, techno, and other dance music genres.
