Alesis Strike Multipad - 9-Trigger Percussion Pad with RGB Backlighting, Sampler, Looper, On-Board 2-In/2-Out Soundcard, Sample loading via USB Thumb Drives and Radiant 4.3-Inch Display

Product Information

The Roland SPD-SX features nine customizable sample pads with LED indicators. It’s the only instrument of its kind with a whopping 2GB of internal sample space, enabling approximately 360 minutes of mono samples. The electronic sample pad offers two external dual-trigger inputs for additional pads. The SPD-SX also comes with over 900 drum and percussion sounds. One of the greatest features of the SPD-One is the ability to run the power off of a battery or an AC adapter. This is huge for those of us who hate clutter on stage! Sounds I am an ‘Ableton Drummer’ and that means that I have samples, sound/sample editing, sound effects, multi-sampling, velocity to sound effects, live looping and much more handled via Ableton Live. Of course the Alesis Strike Multipad will not convince me for my personal use for this price (around 700 USD/Euro). But there are a few things I like about this pad and makes it a great competitor to the SPD-SX and similar: EDIT your samples and loops with the radiant 4.3-inch colour screen, easy-to-use selectors & encoders, A-Link controls and the five built-in effects processors - tweak, shade, colour, EQ and compress to your heart’s content. Your sounds will really be your sounds, and no one else’s.

Editing the start and stop points doneby using the two left rotary knobs. Be sure to use the zoom function to get as close to the start of the wave as you can. The Multi-Pad Sampling function makes it easy to capture inspiration on the fly, while the three powerful multi-effects engines provide real-time control over your sound. Plus, with Ableton Live integration, you can use the SPD-SX as a pad controller for music production sessions. Recording your own samples is easy. Whether it’s from your iPhone or any other source, you can do it with ease. Editing them is a little more time consuming, however. Timpani is an orchestral patch with, you guessed it, timpani. I suppose it’s useful if you want to add a few orchestral elements to your set.Depending on what is loaded on that pad, the light might be set to respond to the BPM of the Strike Multipad. If you would like the Pad to stop blinking, you can change that in the light settings in Pad view. The I/O on the Strike MultiPad is fantastic. Alesis has done their homework; this is where they absolutely destroy Roland’s SPD-SX. The Trigger In portion of the inputs features the option of five additional pads as well as a hi-hat input! You could easily turn this thing into a small electronic drum kit! Once the samples are assigned, you can enter the Pad Menu, via a dedicated button, and configure each pad. The six function keys across the bottom of the LCD now correspond to Feel, Control, Output, Light, Group and Copy. This is where things start to get really interesting...

Take total command of your sample library. Alesis has constantly listened to its community of users, and v1.3 brings a new Sample Manager to assist with your sound organisation. Maybe this product doesn’t totally fit this post, but I wanted to include it since Nord is such a well-known brand. The big thing to remember is that it is a percussion synthesizer. The unit is not a sampler. Therefore, all the sounds from the unit are made inside the unit using synthesis. Is this a good or bad thing? It’s really up to you. Modes of Synthesis with the Drum 3P Roland does offer a special edition model of the SPD-SX that has considerable amount of more memory (16GB), but it is more expensive. The main part of your performance will be facilitated by the nine velocity-sensitive pads which can be easily configured for maximum convenience.I'm not a drummer (let's get that out of the way) and just wanted to have a canvas for making some percussive arrangements and laying out basic beats, but the Alesis Strike Multipad goes well above and beyond that. Roland gives you eight pads and excellent samples right out of the box—great for drummers who don’t need customization of sounds. With its versatile kit examples and powerful Phrase Play feature, the Roland SPD-30 Octapad (Version 2) offers drummers and percussionists a creative and expressive way to enhance their performances. This digital percussion pad is designed to be road-tough and ready for the most demanding performers. There are two Alesis A-Link infinite rotary knobs onboard that you can freely map to dozens of different effects and mixing controls. The Alesis Strike MultiPad will take your drums to the next level! Jamie from Alesis talks through the latest product, the Strike MultiPad: http://bit.ly/2Ejs3qD - This new drum pad could be a fierce competitor against other brands... Another known problem is the built-in sound editor crashes on any samples larger than 29Mb. They will still play, you just can’t edit them.