E-pan in­ven­tor Salmon Cu­pid is look­ing for­ward to the day when elec­tron­ic pans are in­clud­ed in the Na­tion­al Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion. For Car­ni­val 2013, he worked with soloist and arranger Du­vone Stew­art to record and pro­duce what he says is the first al­bum to be made en­tire­ly us­ing the e-pan. On the al­bum, Stroke of Ge­nius, Stew­art us­es the var­i­ous tones of the steel­pan and oth­er tones such as the marim­ba, sitar and or­gan.

The e-pan has 127 dif­fer­ent tones built in through the use of MI­DI. Ac­cord­ing to Cu­pid, the al­bum rep­re­sents the fu­ture of pan. When he says fu­ture, how­ev­er, he does not mean re­place­ment. Cu­pid said he's had to re­mind pan play­ers and en­thu­si­asts many times since in­vent­ing the e-pan in 1985 that con­ven­tion­al and elec­tron­ic pans can work to­geth­er to cre­ate even greater sounds. "The elec­tron­ic gui­tar didn't re­place the acoustic and the key­board didn't re­place the grand pi­ano.

The e-pan just has its place," he said. And what is its place? Cu­pid point­ed out that Stew­art al­so used the e-pan while writ­ing arrange­ments for bp Rene­gades and Pan El­ders this year. Us­ing the e-pan, Stew­art was able to record and score his com­po­si­tions, which he was lat­er able to tran­scribe through a com­put­er pro­gramme. Once the mu­sic was print­ed, it could eas­i­ly be dis­trib­uted to play­ers.

Cu­pid said this is the same method the band Afro Pan in Toron­to, Cana­da us­es. Cu­pid in­tro­duced the e-pan to the band. He al­so teach­es mu­sic through the Toron­to pub­lic school sys­tem us­ing both the e-pan and con­ven­tion­al pans. MORE ABOUT CU­PID: Salmon Cu­pid is a mu­si­cian and teacher with more than 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence. He grew up in the east Port-of-Spain area and at­tend­ed Rosary Boys RC Pri­ma­ry and Queen's Roy­al Col­lege. Cu­pid has played in bands such as Pam­beri, bird­song, Trinidad All Stars and bp Rene­gades.

The in­spi­ra­tion for the e-pan came af­ter the steel­pan tone was added to the key­board in the late 80s. Ac­cord­ing to Cu­pid, pan play­ers were los­ing out on record­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties be­cause of the steel­pan key­board tone. Cu­pid de­vel­oped his e-pan idea be­cause he want­ed pan play­ers to be "self­sus­tain­ing."

MORE ABOUT CU­PID:

Salmon Cu­pid is a mu­si­cian and teacher with more than 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence. He grew up in the east Port-of-Spain area and at­tend­ed Rosary Boys RC Pri­ma­ry and Queen's Roy­al Col­lege. Cu­pid has played in bands such as Pam­beri, bird­song, Trinidad All Stars and bp Rene­gades. The in­spi­ra­tion for the e-pan came af­ter the steel­pan tone was added to the key­board in the late 80s. Ac­cord­ing to Cu­pid, pan play­ers were los­ing out on record­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties be­cause of the steel­pan key­board tone. Cu­pid de­vel­oped his e-pan idea be­cause he want­ed pan play­ers to be "self­sus­tain­ing."