Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has made its way into many gadgets since it launched with the Echo smart speaker in 2014 – from computers to motorcycle helmets to a home theater projector, and even in Big Mouth Billy Bass. Now music gear firm Roland has created its first Alexa Skill and loaded it into the Go:Piano so that players can chat as they play.
The Go:Piano with Alexa Built-in will allow players to control the digital piano, tap into play-along music libraries and more using voice commands – all without taking their hands away from the keys.
The newly-created Alexa Skill will also allow musicians to share performance recordings with friends and family with the help of Amazon's cloud-based voice assistant.
Roland will be adding new capabilities to the Alexa Skill over time, and expanding its use to other instruments in its catalog.
That's about all the company is giving away for the moment, apart from offering visitors to CES 2019 in Las Vegas a hands-on demo of the technology in action. If all works as stated, this new functionality could open up whole new playing possibilities, such as changing instrument sounds without missing a beat and perhaps even using Alexa as a learning coach.
Source: Roland
