Alesis SamplePad Percussion Multi Pad 3-stars Reviews

good for the price

nice design

it is solid but plastic you have to be careful (you can smash it with your drumsticks over time)

works fine and it is easier than i thought to add your sounds.

it's fine if you're just hitting single notes you can even roll but I do not suggest this to be your all in one drum kit since the only problem that Alesis Sample pad has is that polyphony doesn't work 100%

there is 10 % chance that when you hit 2 pads simultaneously you will only hear one sound

and after a research i did this is normal for these units

So

this machine is good for

1. practice

2. it is perfect to add a realistic feel to your recordings if you are using VST drums (use a MIDI cable)

3. live (a good addition to an acoustic kit)

Nice try but falls short little bit everywhere

For its price, it's better than nothing, but not much.

The sound quality is not that good and sounds really synthetic. The onboard memory is waaayyy too small to fit anything really useful, so unless you are looking for an affordable way to just add a couple of short sound effects, then yes, this may suffice for you.

Also the latency using MIDI is pretty much unusable at least for me, and the midi signal triggering is not consistent.

The build quality is surprisingly good for the money. Can not recommend, though.

Good for simple things and not so good for more complex things.

If all you need is to play a few samples together with an acoustic drum kit this will fit the bill. But there is one thing so bad about this unit that it makes it pretty much useless for me. I bought it to use as a small stand alone electric drum kit and as a trigger for my Nord Drum module. The big problem is this: IT WILL NOT START PLAYBACK OF 2 SOUNDS AT THE SAME TIME. If you hit 2 pads at the exact same time only one of them will sound. This is very annoying if you use it as a kick/snare/hihat type set. Otherwise a good product. I use a snare drum stand to hold it and an external kick drum trigger. But buyers be aware of the above mentioned problem!

A slightly disappointing experience

I bought this to use as a practice pad and as a special effects pad to supplement an acustic drum set. I have a kick pad for a digital drum set that I hook up to the SamplePad for practicing rudiments, technique etc.

The SamplePad has a memory card slot which can be used to add custom samples and apart from the device being a bit picky with the sound formats this functionality works well. The sound quality, from a layman's point of view, is perfectly adequate, both for custom and built in sounds.

Handling the SamplePad is a bit fudgy and it takes a little while to get used to but once you've figured it out it is not a problem.

The quality of the device is average, the unit itself is plastic but seems to be able to take a beating. The big draw-down seems to be the software - it does not do well with fast strokes as some are missed and every now and then the unit does some sort of a reset - not sure if this is due to excessively hard hitting, static build up or a heat issue. Regardless I', not able to use it for practicing technique and/or speed.

The lasting impression, using it as a special effects add-on, is that I don't trust it, even though I have not had a problem with it in that application...