Alesis Sample Pad – Multi-Pad Sample Instrument, 4 Velocity Sensitive Pads, 25 Drum Sounds and SD Card Slo
| Weight: | 1.41 kg |
| Size: | -inch |
| Dimensions: | 28.45 x 6.5 x 26.92 cm; 1.41 Kilograms |
| Model: | Sample Pad |
| Colour: | Pro Color |
| Colour: | Pro Color |
| Size: | -inch |
I felt intimidated to use this, it’s my first piece of equipment that plugs in. I received a drum trigger for a gift and watched some YouTube videos and visited Alesis’ website and downloaded their many extra free loops and samples.
When it came down to use I was blown away at the ease of use. For someone who can feel overwhelmed by tech I can say that I felt comfortable setting it up, adding and using a kick drum trigger. I have added some info my own loops I wrote on a synth. I use it on a snare stand to the left of my hats and am comfortable with that. It’s opened up a whole new world of drumming for me, at, what I feel, to be a very reasonable price.
Only purchase 32 gig SD cards as anything larger can not be read. I’m very, very excited about this purchase!
Bought this for my 7 year old son.
He adores it.
Two things:
If you’re buying this for a child, make sure you d.i.y. a piece of cardboard and tape to protect the screen
(This isn’t meant for them, but they WILL love it!)
Secondly, when adding samples to the card, stick precisely to this very fussy protocol :
1: SD card must be formatted to FAT32
2: The file must be mono
3: The file name must have a max of 8 characters ( no spaces or special characters)
4: The max file must be less than 10MB
5: The total file size loaded into the memory must be less than 14Mb (5 samples)
6: The files must be in the root directory of the card
7: Maximum number of files on the SD card root directory: 512
It came with a power cord from China.Had to buy a new one.
The Alesis Sample Pad is simply genius if you can load it with better sounds – the onboard sounds are largely garbage in my opinion. The Sample Pad UI is extremely idiot proof, as all features are accessed via a single menu ; the built in reverb and de-tune features are simple yet exceptionally useful to change your samples on the fly.
I have managed to sample a few kits from my DAW into the sample pad, as it is dead-easy to load new sounds in via the SD card. The MIDI OUT is also extremely useful for me to control drums and synths from within my DAW.
The bottom line is If you are a multi-instrumental composer/player ; this is a steal for expanding your rhythmic capabilities!
For the price, I think this is a fantastic addition to my kit, enabling me to add extra percussion textures and sound effects…even a Sid James laugh! The pads are pressure sensitive and will play surprisingly long samples, allowing me to build up layers of sound (e.g. cicadas, a crowd of people, barking dogs, etc.) all at the same time.
It was a gift but apparently the best so must be good
Hubby happy with this except european plug which we didnt realise
I want to share my experience with it.
1. It is easy to play.
2. I didn’t try the extra sounds which can be uploaded with a external SD card but I think it should work fine. I will try it later.
3. If you want to play it in a live program with amplifier it’s sound quality is fine but not professional. Sooner you will realize it is not good (irritating sound). If you play attaching with 5.1 channel sound system sound output quality is good.
4. So far I feel it is good for learning purpose.
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it arrived quickly within a few days of ordering complete with a reciept from the place it came from which was nice (probably just a seller thing)
the product itself is as expected, the pads are bouncy and feel like a drum to me
the controls are easy to get to grips with, i could use the pad right out of the box with no difficulty.
you get 4 pads, i did notice if you move the device while it is on a surface or tapped the side of the unit it would activate one of the trigger pads, but apart from moving it if you are using it on a table, i dont think you are going to be hitting the side of the unit.
the only down side to this unit is the size of the pads are too small for me. i believe its a problem with me and i need to work on my hand eye co ordination, but i find the pads a bit too small compared to a real drum. also if you set all the pads to one instrument or souind sucha as snare and try to hit say top left pad with left stick and top right with right stick then the device seems to get a bit confused on quicker runs.
i used the default factory settings when i tried it btw!
so a few other points to note:
it appears to have low noise (i didn’t hear any static with headphones or line out) which is of course important and was expecting a little noise considering the price of the device so that’s really good.
it has a midi out, but no in, it also has 1/4 inch jack outputs for L/Mono +R which is great as most units usually just have a trs jack!
the other minor downside is the headphones are a bit quiet but easily fixed with a pre amp, mixer, or if used on a stereo like i did in the end, you can just use the amp built into your stereo or cinema sound system.
so all in all i really like this product it was hands down an excellent buy and i will be using this in my future projects.
in the box you get instructions (i didn’t bother reading them!)
the unit/ pad device itself
a power adaptor
some polystyrene (to protect it in transit)
a plastic bag (it was wrapped in)
there are no drum sticks
no stand (obviously)
no SD card
no built in silly speake
amazing, does everything you need it to do regarding customisable samples. easy to use, easy to set up. highly recommended
Works very well, the only problem is that it takes a little time to read the SD Card.
Really happy with the product haven’t tested its full potential but looking forward to
Good price, as described, arrived quickly – very pleased, would recommend selle
The quality of the sounds available is great, with an amazing depth to the kick sounds (especially from the Jazz Brush kit).
Occasionally, a light hit on the RH bar pad will trigger the pad immediately below it by mistake, and I have found it far too easy to accidentally change kits while playing, presumably by catching the selection buttons with a low-angled stick. I will also need to mark the centres of the pads with something light, so I can see where to hit in the dark – the illumination isn’t as bright & solid as the photos suggest. The dynamic range is also a bit narrow, and hits that would generate very similar sound levels on an acoustic kit generate very different levels from this pad. I haven’t looked into playing with the settings yet, but I’m sure most of these issues can be addressed by menu tweaks somewhere – for my purposes, I will be effectively disabling the velocity sensitivity anyway when I find out how.
It can be mounted on a snare stand if required, arranged to have two arms at the back, and one at the front, but there is also stand adaptor available if you want to mount it into a clamp on a cymbal stand or rack. I’m also glad they changed the styling from the prototype shown at NAMM last year, although this may have helped with my accidental kit-changing issue.
I plan to use it to both deliver electronic & percussion sounds to spice up my normal kit, as well as to trigger samples (from the SD card slot) to provide either ‘hits’ into the songs we play, or even play back entire recorded synthesiser tracks the whole length of a song that are otherwise difficult to reproduce live.
It doesn’t have a sequencer – the Performance Pad Pro has that, but no sample replay facility – but I wanted something to enhance my live sound as a drummer, and this fits the bill perfectly, while still being small enough (along with a small snare stand) to fit in my cymbal bag & take up hardly any extra space (and very little extra set-up time) on stage. Adding my separate pads & my DTXPressII drum module at gigs where I’m sometimes using someone else’s kit would take up too much space in my car, and too much band change-over time. This keeps my pocket, the promoters, the kit owners and the fans happy, as well as sounding great.
Apart from the minor niggles I mentioned above, I would recommend this to every drummer looking to experiment with something new.
This device is even better than I thought. Once I got over my techno phobia, it became easy to set up and use. Also, the wave form samples are easy to load into it. It’s lots of fun and very versatile. And the price is great.
Having some problems with my own samples being recognized consistently.
Rad sound maker. Easy to use and possibilitys are endless on what kinda noises you can produce.
Amazing bit of kit for the price!
The 25 sounds on the Sample Pad aren’t too bad, really, but I bought this as it’s the cheapest sample on to which you can load your own sounds via an SD card.
Also, the fact you can hook up a kick pedal is the real winner for me. They recommend their own pedal and pad (which is about 150) but YOU CAN JUST USE ANY STANDARD NON-LATCHING KEYBOARD SUSTAIN PEDAL! You can buy one of those for 9 on Amazon!
I have not tried adding sounds from the sd card but the onboards are good- I’m using it to fatten up my loop pedal set.
The external trigger is a great feature, I’ve used a bass pickup under a number plate (Mississippi drum machine) and it work and a SX stomp box also works well.
Amazing Sound Quality! I have played an acoustic set with this and it went down a treat! Worth every penny!
The sound quality is very good. I’m using pre-recorded samples from an SD card mostly though I do use a few of the stock sounds like claps as well. The ability to ad reverb is great.
I find there is some crosstalk but not once I got used to playing the pad I haven’t had an issue.
There are a few drawbacks for me with this pad.
1 – More kits would be helpful. 8 is ok but I would like to be able to spread my samples out over more.
2 – I would like to have a time counter so I could see when a longer sample is coming to an end. This would help to better time repeats without overlapping.
3 – Being able to rename the kits would be beneficial. I have trouble remembering which kit number has what sounds loaded so I’ve resorted to writing down each kit # I need for each song on my setlists. Not a real big deal but if I could name a kit by the tune or group of tunes it would be easier.
As an entry level sample output device with a great low price point, it can’t be beat.
Get one.
This is a great little sample pad. I play drums in a number of bands and I was wanting to try to expand my options by playing processed beats and short drones live. This is perfect for me. The sounds included on the device are terrible, but i knew that would be the case. The main reason I was interested in this was because it allows you to upload your own samples. I wasn’t sure how to do this at first but you can watch an Alesis video on their website or on youtube that explains how to do it very easily and quickly. I know there is the Roland SPD-SX that obviously allows you to do so much more, but I couldn’t really justify the hefty price tag. This is definitely the sample pad for you if you are on a tight budget like me. My only two issues are that the pads themselves don’t feel great to play and it would be great if you could upload longer files as it can be a little restricting if you are looking to play drones etc. Apart from that though, you really can’t be complaining with the price at all. I actually like the relatively compact size of it as well, fits nicely into my live set up. Well worth the money in my opinion!
Using samples from a variety of sources and converting them to 16-bit mono very easily with (free) Audacity I’ve created a complete set of timpani, tubular bells, cymbals and a range of Latin percussion on an SD card. These are then assembled into kits as required for particular pieces. The sound quality is not perfect as they are only 16-bit, but behind a 30-piece band they are perfectly adequate. The band have been pretty amazed to hear a set of timps or a huge gong blasting out from the back of the rehearsal room.
The interface on the bright display is easy to use and pad triggering is reliable. For each sound in each kit, you can set the sensitivity, volume, pan and a surprisingly good reverb. You can also tune each sound up and down by up to four semitones.
The reservations are mostly down to the use of memory in the device. The built-in sounds are mostly dreadful. No acoustic drums at all. The only really useful ones are the short sounds like wood blocks and cow bells. But for me the biggest limitation is on the number of kits – just 8. It surely wouldn’t have been too much for them to have increased it even if it had meant losing one of the built-in sounds. Or they could have been stored on the SD card.
Still, at this price you get a very solidly built and useful addition to a basic kit, and it does its job pretty well.
UPDATE: Been using this for nearly a year and it’s had a thorough thrashing but still working as well as when new.
This pad is so simple to use and once you understand how to manipulate your samples to be the right rate etc ([…] it is perfect for live performance.
The only restriction is the amount of pads. But for this price, you really can’t complain.
Highly recommend this product.
First, you want this (if you really have a clue what it can do).
Second, it DOES mount on a Roland E drum mount. You might be able to get a better deal somewhere else but I bought the mount here and my sample pad is bolted firmly to my Remo drum frame as a result.
Third, it DOES work at 44.1k. I’ve created samples in Logic (on Macintosh 10.6), bounced them to 16 bit 44.1 using a free utility called “Switch”, dropped them on to an 8GB memory card and have NEVER had a problem. The Sample Pad reads my samples and quickly loads them, what else could you want.
#4 The Sample Pad has a built in reverb. It’s nice, it adds a little bit if you want it and if you don’t it’s easy to remove.
#5 There are really five sample locations not just four as it appears. There is a bass drum trigger input on the rear and you can load a fifth voice and trigger it from this input (if you have an electronic trigger of sorts, you can download the manual at Alesis to see if this is right for you). This feature is HUGE for me as a studio player, in fact, I may buy another Sample pad just to use as an electronic kick drum I can load with my own samples.
#6 Stereo outputs that sound good. This piece is very low noise, excellent for recording studio work.
#7 I have not had any trouble with cross talk from pad to pad. I have beat it with sticks and played it with my hands. I created a set of Bongo samples that I love playing with my hands on the front two pads.
#8 Excellent sound. Did I already mention this? We perform an original song live and it has some signature drum sounds that are everything, we sampled the original sounds from our master recording and loaded them into the Sample Pad, they sound amazing. I output the Sample Pad in mono into a direct box and that goes to the front of house sound man, everyone has been amazed at how good this sounds. I will try to post a sample from our Hollywood House of Blues show soon.
#9 Just buy it. If you have any clue what you’re doing on your DAW and you NEED to play samples live, the Sample Pad is a great inexpensive way to get the job done.
Lets Rock People!
I just used this for the first time during rehearsal and it was incredible. It was so easy to add hand claps, conga etc. I just send the outputs into the PA system and made a few tweaks to the sensitivity and pitch of each pad and I was up and running. I have not tried loading samples on an SD card yet but cannot wait to use this functionality to expand the sounds. I would love the sample functionality in a more robust instrument with more pads, but the size of this instrument is incredibly convenient. I will recommend this to all of my drummer and studio friends.
This is an awsome instrument! I love it! Couldn’t be happier with the performance of the pad. Will definietly shop for Alesis products more often.
Does what it says on the tin. A little limited but was fine for what I wanted. Stood up to my bashing live very happy…
Despite what the one star reviewer has stated this DOES hold more than 5 samples. It holds five samples per kit (group of samples) though I’m also counting a pedal which is not included, with a total of 8 kits. What this effectively means is if you are playing a gig with 8 songs, each song can have 5 samples that you can trigger. So that’s a total of 40 samples, not 5.
The samples themselves were easy to create after I actually read the instructions. I loaded the sounds into Cubase and bounced them down to the appropriate type of file following the naming code. Easy.
They do need to be mono samples but the pad has panning so I can set sounds at different places in the stereo field. The size is perhaps slightly restrictive; each kit must be less than 14mb with no one sample more than 10. I found I had to trim a few samples and adjust the volume decay, but do you really need to have all 30 seconds of a gong’s decay?
The great thing about this is how easy it is to store sounds – it does it automatically and saves any settings. So the two timps I have sampled and panned left and right with an extra bit of reverb added, one of which is tuned down slightly will be exactly as I left them next time I turn the sample pad on.
This is like going for a meal: for 20 you’ll eat well, have a nice glass of wine and the waiter won’t spit in your drink. But it won’t be as nice as a meal as one you’d get for 100. Depends on what your needs are really.