Alesis Sample Pad 4 - Compact Percussion and Sample Triggering Instrument with 4 Velocity Sensitive Pads, 25 Drum Sounds and SD/SDHC Card Slot

Product Information

Also, when it is hooked up to a computer, it works great and is everything you could hope for. I had no cross triggering or false triggering, it was solid and reliable. Hooked up to Ableton, it was incredibly useful. If you're not sure whether to upgrade your SPD-SX, or whether you spend the extra on the SPD-SX Pro, our comparison piece will help answer all your key questions.

Right-out-the-box, SamplePad 4 doesn’t disappoint. Preloaded with a built-in library of the 25 most commonly requested percussion and electronic drum sounds, mapped across 10 ready-to-play kits, SamplePad 4 offers immediate creative potential from the get-go! Customise your Sound In 3 Easy Steps I recorded live hits from one of my acoustic drum sets and loaded samples of that onto this device. It worked fairly nicely, though I wasn’t amazed when using an external hi-hat controller. If the Pro model is a bit rich for your blood, there’s still plenty to love about the red ‘Special Edition’ of the original SPD-SX, which features a hefty 16GB of storage space and is currently a decent chunk cheaper than the new pro model.

Customer Reviews

Play around with sensitivity settings, and if you’re playing this live then do it with your live performance in mind. i.e. you might play pretty quietly when practicing and then smash the pad when playing live. This particular pad can lose a lot of dynamics if you set the sensitivity too high, so keep that in mind. Though it can be a trade-off between sensitivity and potential cross-talk (though this might only be the case in certain older models, I’m not sure about that), so test that a bit before performing! On-board storage is now a massive 32GB, which is double that of the SPD-SX Special Edition (keep reading for more on that), and there’s more than 1,500 kits and sounds built into each unit, covering a range of sounds and styles. Is that an issue? If you’re using this for more basic playing and drum beats, you might be fine. If you’re expecting this to respond like a snare drum for very fast playing (or an electronic mesh pad) then you might be let down. If you'relooking for a dedicated sample triggerthe Alesis Samplepad is ideal. It's low cost, rugged and functional, with velocity sensitivity and an SD card slot for use without a distinct sampler unit.The Samplepad is the ultimate compact sampler module, ideal for enhancing your live performances with highly-creative sampled sounds. Here's what Alesis say about the Samplepad: If an item can not be repaired, a similar alternative product or cash discount (as defined in this policy) will be offered

With the SamplePad's easy-to-use interface, you won't be rifling through endless submenus and categories to find the sound your looking for. Simply strike the pad you want to change, dial to the sound you want and you're done. If you discover a great combination of sounds you want to keep together, simply designate it as a kit and the SamplePad will save it for easy recall anytime you want.However, as most of the intense inputting work will be at home pre-gig, when editing pad parameters, naming samples etc, it's not something you would have to do in a live situation. The SPD::One Wav is perhaps the most useful - albeit slightly more costly - of the group. It has 4GB internal storage and 12 assignable slots, meaning you can use this as a fully functioning, fully customisable sample pad. Overall, these are nifty little pieces of gear, despite the relatively high outlay.

Is cross-talk really an issue with this device? The answer is that it depends. You may have to avoid using the particular problematic pads if you’re looking for a lot of sensitivity in your playing. Otherwise, it might be fine. The six rubber pads are smooth, responsive and a joy to play. The unit comes in at a modest 4lbs (1.85kg) but feels sturdy and road-ready. The downside to the Nord Drum 3P is that it’s priced relatively high when you consider what you can do with it. However, what they are offering is a high quality drum synthesizer for use in live and studio environments. So, talking of user samples, things haven”t got any better in the loading speed from the Samplepad Pro. Transferring a 10 meg sample via USB from my computer to the Samplepad 4 took 73 seconds and then loading it from the card into memory to be played off a pad took another 80 seconds. Its also worth noting that the samples load each time you select a new patch (of which there are only 10) and when the samples are loading, the rest of the unit becomes entirely unresponsive. You HAVE to wait for the samples to load before you can do anything else, including moving to the patch you really wanted to be on. Waiting up to 80 seconds between patch changes can be a little frustrating at times, and because of this, I could not recommend the Samplepad 4 for stage use if you are using long samples – the frustration could cause you to strangle the guitar player… actually, thats not a bad idea…

Images

The SamplePad 4 is extremely easy to use. Load your choice of samples onto an SD card in the correct

The size and functionality of the SamplePad 4 make it an incredibly useful and flexible piece of gear. With the SD expansion slot, you can load up all of your own samples ready for gigging. Or, you can just play for fun anywhere without having to be tied to a machine. The maximum capacity for SD card storage is 32GB or 512 samples - plenty of space for a wide range of sounds. your samples and create kits. It's an effortless process that lets you get straight to playing. Built In Sounds The Alesis SamplePad is a compact four-pad instrument with 25 sounds built in plus the ability to add any sample to it. Any sound of your choice can be assigned to the four velocity-sensitive pads via way of a standard SD Card - this is perfect addition to you kit or studio setup. Solution home Alesis Support Alesis | Getting Started Alesis Drums | Connecting your Kit to a Computer

Tech Specs

The high-end sample pads by Roland and Yamaha are quite expensive and therefore out of the price range for many people.