Hi Josue, if you can, I’d recommend using the Nitro Kit as a MIDI controller and triggering sounds from your PC via a drum VST (or even using something like an Ableton Drum Rack), you’ll have the potential to get far better sounds that way in comparison to the audio from the Nitro drum module.

Hi Ben – not that I know of. I think the audio-over-USB on the TD-30 module only supports the master channel so that probably wouldn’t be any help. Maybe there’s a way of doing this that I’m not thinking of, but tbh, if you’re looking for that amount of multi-track recording then MIDI with plugins might be the way to go (and as a benefit… there are some great plugins out there that would sound better than the TD-30 anyway).

Hi Calum, bass drum pads tend to be a bit more padded and also more suited to the sensitivity of a bass drum pedal. You technically could use a tom pad because in the majority of cases, they will use the same connections and send the same types of signals, but it’s probably not going to perform as well.

Yes they will be heard on both. Generally it’s the exact same audio feed going out to the headphones and the amp.

Hi James, I’m glad you found the post useful! I haven’t heard anything about a newer Octapad model. Roland are way slower at bringing out new pads in comparison to their release cycles for vdrum kits. It’s difficult to know, but you potentially could be waiting a long time before they bring anything new out. It’s been nearly 4 years since they brought out the ‘special edition’ of the SPD-SX, and the only upgrade was more memory and a different color scheme. The Alesis Strike Multipad is certainly adding to the competition, but the current models of the Roland SPD-SX and Octapad are still very popular so they might not be in much of a rush (unfortunately). Also, they might not be in any rush to add custom sampling to any new version of the Octapad as it could eat into demand for the SPD-SX. That’s all just me speculating though!

Hi Alessandro, probably the simplest way of approaching this is to hit your sticks together and manually synchronize the audio and video from there (you’d be surprised how many people use this approach to synch audio and video!). Other than that, you could use something like OBS and record both the webcam video and DAW at the same time, though setup can be tricky when it comes to ASIO. Another option post-production is to try to use something like premier pro’s audio sync, but I personally haven’t used that.

Hey – I think the SD card needs to be 32GB or less. If yours is lower than that and you’re having issues after going the below steps, then check the specs on the Alesis website.
Have you formatted the SD card to FAT32 format and placed your WAV files at the root of your USB key? That might be the solution.
Otherwise, have a look at my response to Travis below to see if that can help.

Hi Stuart, if you want to record what you hear through the headphones then you would need to record the audio output from the module using an audio interface (alternatively, connecting it to the line in or microphone input on your computer might also work but you would get bad recording quality from this).

(The USBMIDI connection on the DDMESH1000 will only transfer MIDI (i.e. the equivalent of digital music notation) to your DAW where you would need to trigger sounds based on these).

Hi Jeff, I’d recommend trying out MIDI recording if you want to get a lot of control without a massive budget. You could then trigger sounds on an external plugin on your computer that might give you the sound you’re looking for, and all you’ll need is a simple MIDI interface or USB cable. Also, drum VSTs will allow you to change the drum kit sounds later on (as well as edit the drums) and mix them on a multi-track basis without having to use up the audio inputs on your interface. For starters, you could try to download something like DrumMic’a for free. From there, you could decide if it’s worth investing in a more feature-rich drum plugin. Of course, it might not be for you, but it’s definitely worth trying out.

Hi Ben, you can load the firmware update to any Alesis Samplepad Pro model regardless of when it was released (using a USB stick). If it’s 4 years old, then maybe it already has the firmware updates applied.

Hi Garry, you can start and stop phrase loops on the Octapad SPD-30 using either MIDI 5-pin cables OR via MIDI-via-USB (i.e. once you press play on the master device then the phrase loop starts). I’m 100% sure that it works for both (I’ve done it many times). Btw, I’ve only triggered via MIDI from a computer in both cases (in the case of the 5-pin connections I used a MIDI to USB interface), but I don’t see why it would be any different when using another piece of music gear that can transmit MIDI start/stop commands when using standard 5-pin MIDI connectors.

Keep in mind that the Octapad lacks custom sampling. For that reason, the Yamaha option still might be a better one for you.

I’m glad you found the article helpful!

Hi Richard – No worries! If you haven’t already, maybe try to uninstall the driver and try the installation steps again… and follow any necessary steps to unblock the driver through the ‘security and privacy’ if it pops up. From looking at the instructions, if there are issues with installation, you might not be able to unblock the driver without reinstalling it. Also, do you have any other computer that you could test it with (either another Mac or Windows) that might be able to you narrow down the issue? If there’s a fault with the USB connection on the module then alternatively you could use an audio interface to record the audio instead, but that would require you to get your hands on one… probably not worth jumping to that conclusion just yet!

Hi Richard, you’re welcome! The Roland TD11 can transmit both Audio AND MIDI to your computer (i.e. the module acts as an audio interface so you don’t need to buy a separate one). You should be able to connect this up to your computer and set the audio input on Garageband to TD11, when you press record and start playing your v-drums, hopefully the audio should start feeding through. In this case, you wouldn’t need to deal with MIDI at all. Let me know how that works out!

Hi Ben – I’ve written a detailed guide on how to do this here: https://www.electronicdrumadvisor.com/record-electronic-drums/ – just scroll to the MIDI section. With The SD61-2 you would use a USB-A to USB-B cable for this and connect it to your computer. If you have an old printer lying around your house, you might already have one of these cables!

Hi Ben, once there’s an audio signal going then I think you should be getting a green light showing up on the front of the interface (or a red light if it’s clipping… i.e. too loud). If you are not getting that then do all the basic checks to make sure that an actual audio signal is leaving the Alesis Strike module (make sure that the master volume is turned up high, which is different than headphone volume), change the front of the audio interface to ‘line’, and make sure that the gain knob for that input is turned up high AND the master level volume is also turned up high. If that’s not working then check your cables to make sure you don’t have any issues. If you are seeing the green or red lights flashing on the front then the signal is getting to the interface, in that case, you’ll have to just make sure that you have the interface set up properly to work with Audacity…. In that case… in the top right, next to the microphone icon, change the input to your M-Audio Fast Track input and hit the record button. Hopefully it should be working after all of those checks!

Hi Ben, you have two options for recording the audio output of the Alesis Strike Module… either just record using the main audio outputs (Left and Right) using a simple audio interface such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (I’m a fan of this interface). This would do the job for basic purposes.

Alternatively, the strike module allows you to multitrack record (i.e. lots of different outputs so you can separate your drums/cymbals into different tracks, which allows you to process and mix your tracks in the DAW). In order to do this you would need a bigger interface and more cables (e.g. such as the Focusrite 18i20).

A free DAW that comes well recommended is Cakewalk by Bandlab. I haven’t personally used it but I’ve heard it’s decent and it’s a fully fledged DAW. Audacity is another simple free option. Alternatively, Reaper is very cheap for personal use. Other than that… I’m a massive fan of Ableton Live, but something with so many features might not be necessary for what you need!

Hope that helps,
Mike

Hi Gerald, you can find the installation manual and user manual for the SD201 on the HXW website here: http://www.hxw-music.com/col.jsp?id=114 – I haven’t played the SD201 kit yet so I can’t offer any specifics on the setup of it. Probably the most confusing part to assemble on the SD201 is the drum rack… everything else should be straight forward enough.

Wow, that must have been an honor to witness!

Hi Oliver, the RS40 is a drum rack I believe, what type of drum module does the electronic drum set have?

Hey – drum modules often have an 1/8″ inch AUX input that will allow you to play music through the drum module, so you could play music from your phone from Spotify, mp3s, etc. There are also drumless backing tracks that you can find online (we’ve got an article about that too) that might be useful.

Hi Ezra, it’s very much a matter of preference. If you prefer the feel of the DTX silicone pads and the internal samples then go for Yamaha. For hybrid setups, I can’t really think of any compatibility problems if you mix between a Yamaha e-drum set and a Roland SPD-SX. The audio outputs would probably be going into a mixer and mixed from there. Also if you want, there shouldn’t be any issues hooking in Yamaha pads as inputs into the SPD-SX – they all use 1/4″ connectors and most drum pads and pedals are standard (apart from hi-hats). Also, if you’re big into production, then you don’t necessarily need custom sampling on your drum module as you could just trigger your own samples via MIDI. Therefore, you could potentially opt for a cheaper drum module. Hope that all helps!

Hi Nghi, can you double check that same input jack with another instrument again? If there is an audio signal coming through and it’s working for other instruments then, tbh, there should be no reason that the interface isn’t recording sound!

Hi Tom,

You could just use two 1/4 inch jack cables to connect the Left and Right outputs to two channels on your tascam dp32.
Otherwise, if you really want to get them into one track on the tascam dp32 then you could use a splitter cable as you have suggested (you could use either XLR or TRS splitter, as that tascam should support stereo TRS inputs also).

Hope that helps!

That’s awesome!!! Thanks for sharing that, Randy. From watching interviews of Dave, he seems like a great guy. It must have been great to meet a hero of yours and had your expectations met or even exceeded!

Hi Michael, The Roland Octapad SPD-30, in my opinion, is the best as a stand-alone kit replacement, and you can hook it straight to a PA or drum monitor. It has good sensitivity (though not as good as mesh or silicone pads on electronic drum sets) and has plenty of options to add extra pads/triggers/pedals (it’s also compatible with installing a hi-hat pedal) on the back of it. There are plenty of built-in kits and sounds (e.g. the ‘Tight Drums’ preset), however, many of which are not actually acoustic drum kit samples (they include world music, effects sounds, synths, etc). If you’re looking for a proper acoustic drum kit replacement, it might be a better bet to buy a good electronic drum set instead, or get a sample pad that can allow for custom sampling (e.g. the Alesis Strike Multipad or the Roland SPD-SX) and put a bit of work into loading really good drum samples based on the style and genre that you’re playing.

If you’re looking to replace the feel of your drum set, then you’re not really going to get very close if you’re only using the hardware of the electronic drum pad to be honest. However, you could get a separate mesh snare pad and connect it to the octapad for example, if you want to do drum rolls with a bit more sensitivity, etc.

Hope that helps with your decision!

Hi Kris,

Yes some in-built speakers would be useful for it. Though, you could just hook up a small portable speaker to it, you might need an 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter to do that.

I’ve sync’d the clock on the SR16 with other devices before and it worked pretty well. Maybe try to troubleshoot with some methods online to reduce MIDI latency.

If you’re currently recording the audio from the SR16 through to your DAWs, you could alternatively use it as a MIDI controller (i.e. trigger a drum rack on your DAW instead of using the onboard sounds).

Apologies for the delay in responding to your first message, I’ve been pretty wrapped up dealing with stuff over the last few weeks due to the crisis! :S

Regards,
Mike

Hi Peter, the issue here is likely that the TD-6 MIDI notes are not mapping correctly to the MIDI notes that your Garageband drum kit expects. Have a look at this video for more information on how to remap MIDI in Garageband: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlD-GABPwso

hope this helps!

Hi Gordon, I’m glad you found the post helpful! For playing on open mic nights, it’s always good to go with the ‘less is more’ approach! You’re right, people often have different expectations of drummers than other members of a band, some will expect you to be able to just play along with anything.

As an example: For a rock song… if you don’t really know the song, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with simply playing a few simple beats behind the music and slowly trying to lock in with the bassist. This even applies to advanced drummers.

If you have good timing and you lock in with the music you won’t be noticed that much, therefore you probably won’t look silly. Though if you try to over-complicate matters then it might not sound so good!

Nice tip about sitting on the drumstick! 🙂 If it gets too uncomfortable, you can always get a cheap drumstick holder that can clamp on to the hi-hat stand or other piece of hardware!

Hope that helps, sorry for the delay in responding!

Mike

Hi Una,

If you’re using the multi-scale drum, the notes vary based on the scale you’re using. The notes for each scale are under in the ‘Tuning System’ section on the article.

Mike

Hi Dave, yes I’ve used a hi-hat pedal with the SamplePad Pro and it worked as expected. The Alesis DMHat Pedal is their recommended pedal to use, so this should definitely work.
On the hi-hat input on the back, make sure it’s switched to Variable.

Also, change the mode of the pad to ‘HAT’… this is some info from the user guide:

1. Strike a pad or ext. trigger.
2. Move the cursor to the MODE area by pressing the Cursor Up or Cursor Down buttons.
3. Then press the Cursor Left or Cursor Right buttons to select the mode.

When a pad or ext. trigger is in HAT mode, striking this pad or ext. trigger will trigger one of the sample
assigned to the 5 hi-hat locations of each kit (HAT OPE, HAT MID, HAT CLO, HAT CHK, HAT SPL). The
position of the hi-hat pedal (sold separately) will determine which of the 5 currently assigned hi-hat
samples of the kit will trigger.

Hope that helps!

I think this is mostly a debate about semantics really. I wouldn’t argue with your definition of technical ability in relation to Ringo. However, I would class pocket and feel more in the category of ‘musical’ ability rather than ‘technical’, which I very much agree with you is more important in the art of music. That said, timing is a vital foundational technical skill for a drummer (and any musician), that he is well known to have been strong at, so I’ll give you that!

Thanks for the contribution,
Mike

Hi Guy S. – thanks for your comment. Ringo certainly had a big stamp on drumming as a whole.

You seem to have taken me up as a Ringo-hater, which I certainly am not!

I take it from the fairly heated tone of your comment, that you didn’t even read the first few paragraphs of the article. At the start of the post I’ve talked about the importance of tasteful performances and ‘less is more’ rather than amazing chops. So I think we’re pretty much on the same page here.

My original wording in the article was meant to get across that Ringo was a very influential drummer, despite that fact that he didn’t have amazing chops (nobody can argue that Ringo had amazing technical ability). I’ve updated the wording a bit to make that clearer.

Though – even if I was a Ringo Starr hater, the argument of ‘Show me a video of you doing better’ is absolutely daft. If you were a knowledgeable sports fan and commented on a player that’s not playing up to their professional standard, people probably wouldn’t be saying ‘show me a video of you doing better’

Hi Thanasis, yes I used Roland pads and they worked well. Pretty much any pads will work because they generally use the same standard. Hi-hat pedals and any pedal that acts like a sustain pedal generally work fine for the hi-hats (Though it initially wasn’t working for me because of my settings… just make sure to set the input to ‘variable’ in order for it to work properly).

Hi Jurgen, that’s great – exactly what you need. Thanks for sharing as it could be useful for others!

Hi Jurgen, have you tired turning the individual sensitivity setting for each pad to the max? That may be the best you can do – I don’t think you can disable velocity completely on the Samplepad Pro unfortunately.

Hi Mike, possibly the ATV AFrame Electrorganic Frame Drum? That’s a very interesting, almost square shaped electronic pad that’s usually over the price you’ve mentioned: https://amzn.to/2SF8f5E

Hi Sean, there are a bunch of different companies online that do it, just search ‘triggered drum lighting’ or ‘led drum lighting’. They likely all use LED lights with a trigger (e.g. piezo trigger). There might be cheap options available, but if not, and if you wanted to do it really cheaply, you could possibly make one yourself using an arduino (with a piezo sensor and LED lights), although there would be a bit of a learning curve to that!

Nice article Elijah – thanks for sharing.

Hi Pablo, yes I think it’s a good option for DJs and producers if you’re looking for basic drum sampling, MIDI etc. As I’ve mentioned, there’s a few quirks, but you can get past them. If you’re looking for more advanced features on a bigger budget then the likes of the Alesis Strike Multipad, Roland SPD-SX, Octapad, or Yamaha Multipad are some other good alternatives.

Hi Dan – glad you found the article useful! Yes, the Focusrite USB-A to USB-B cable will both power the audio interface as well as transmit the audio data to your computer (the cable will most likely come with the interface).

Yes the TRS cable will plug into the front 2i2 inputs (The 2i2 inputs are dual inputs, so you can input 1/4″ cables OR XLR cables into each of them).

Also, yes you can plug in headphones into the audio interface to monitor what you’rep playing. Though the headphones input is also 1/4″, so if your headphones use a small connector then you might need a 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch adapter. Just flick the ‘direct monitor’ switch and adjust the headphone volume knob at the top-right of the interface.

Have fun recording!

Mike

Hi David – have a look at this video to understand what I mean about MIDI channels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVBFI039TZg

The ‘Polyphonic key pressure’ or ‘polyphonic aftertouch’ is a separate message along with the MIDI notes that would get sent which could transmit data for cymbal ‘chokes’ or hi-hat pedal pressure. If this is the case, perhaps you could MIDI Map this data in Garageband:

I’d suggest you read up a bit more on the manual for your ATV drum set, and watch some tutorial videos on how MIDI works in Garageband.

Good luck!

Hi David, Yes, the hi-hat is usually the area that you will find most problems when trying to record via MIDI!

Does your ATV drum module have the option to transmit the MIDI to different channels? This could be possible because you’re using USB-to-USB MIDI connection. This could be the ‘Individual’ MIDI setting on your ATV drum module, where the Hi-hat would come through in channel 6. You could then set up a different track in Garage band where the input is only that channel. It might be easier to work with the sound in Garage band from there.

Different drum module manufacturers have their own hi-hat protocols, so they can transmit this differently. For example, they might transmit the ‘open/close’ setting of the hi-hat separately, or transmit different notes depending on how open or how closed the hi-hat is.

Hi Matt, check the monitoring options on the track in the program you’re using. Perhaps it’s currently set to Monitor ‘In’, which would only monitor incoming MIDI notes.

Hi Bcleff! A few things to try out:

Have you hooked up any other MIDI gear to the computer that might be conflicting with it? If so, try to just use the TD8 connection by itself.

Have a look at the preferences of your DAW, if possibly, try to disable other incoming signals if they are enabled.

Do you have any other MIDI controllers to check if this issue is also present on those too?

Make sure you’re using the correct audio drivers (e.g. ASIO4ALL for windows, if you don’t have a dedicated interface).

Play around with the buffer size.

Try it using another DAW if you have another one installed to see if the problem is still occuring. Otherwise you could get some free MIDI monitoring software for your computer and check to see if you’re getting sustained notes or regular notes on these.

Hope this helps!

Hi, there are plenty of great drum forums and resources around, such as drummerworld. Also check out some drumming related facebook groups and sub-reddits, which often include experienced drummers that are interested in helping and supporting. It’s also worth checking out are there any of these groups for your country or city, as you can become part of a more local community of drummers.

Hi Josh, they don’t have 1/4″ outputs, but you could get a 3.5mm to 1/4″ cable for pretty cheap. The recording quality will not be amazing from these though, you would get much better quality by using a good drum plugin on your computer and triggering the sounds using the MIDI USB connection from the roll-up kit, you would also be able to tweak the sound a lot more (but there could be a little bit of a learning curve if you haven’t done it before). Check out our article here to learn more: https://www.electronicdrumadvisor.com/record-electronic-drums/

Hi Brian, you would need to get the drum samples from your module into Garageband. MIDI itself doesn’t transfer audio, rather just the notes/velocity, etc. Either you would need to record your drum samples one by one (using the audio output as described in the article) and chop the recordings into playable samples (it would take a bit of work), or it’s possible that the samples from your module might be available online for you to load into your DAW. Hope this helps!

Hi Timothy, Alesis SamplePad models are compatible with most brands and types of external pads and triggers. From what I remember, the 1/4″ cable is included with Roland Kick triggers and you can hook this into the trigger input of the SamplePad 4. Alesis SamplePads have had some issues reported with low volume levels of external triggers, but the output of these was always loud enough for me. Hope this helps!

Hi Richard, I’m glad you found it useful! Yes you can use the KD-120-B with the TD-11KV. You don’t get much better than this kick tower really. It’s really sturdy and the mesh head is tunable, so you can tweak it to your liking. After that, maybe putting a bit of oil on moving parts of the double pedal might help or perhaps you will feel like upgrading that later too. Mike

The Tama HP200PTW Iron Cobra 200 is a really nice option. You would still have plenty left in the budget and Iron Cobras have had a very strong reputation among double pedals for many years . You could also consider the Tama HP600DTW Iron Cobra Double Pedal (here’s a link to it: https://amzn.to/2r2xbqw), which is a better version, and it should come in under your budget, so I think that would be a great one to get. Apologies for the delay in responding, I’ve been getting a lot of junk messages recently so I didn’t spot this!

Hi Riley, I’m glad you found the article useful! All of these pads are standalone electronic instruments with on-board sounds so you just simply hook them up to an amplifier, PA, or headphones to hear them via standard instrument cables (1/4 inch cables).

The necessary internal software is already included on them, in certain cases there are optional firmware updates which you can install through a USB connection but if you’re buying a new model it will likely contain the most up-to-date firmware.

All of these drum/sample pads contain MIDI connectivity so you can connect them to a computer and trigger external sounds such as a drum rack on music production software for example. However, in order to run or record the actual audio output (on-board sounds) of your drum pad through your computer you would need an audio interface (e.g. focusrite).

I hope that answers your questions, enjoy using whatever drum pads you get.

Mike

Hi Piyush, I recently wrote an article about some of the best online drum lesson resources (both free and paid), so that could be a good place to start! The foundations of drumming, i.e. drum beats, timing, rudiments, stick technique, etc, can all be practiced on an Octapad the same way as you would play a drum set, therefore any of those lessons would be applicable for you. The Octapad also has a wide variety of percussion sounds, so you could also try out some different beats and phrase looping around that. If you’re really interested in getting into learning drums with the Octapad, then I would highly recommend that you also get an electronic kick pedal and a hi-hat pedal in order to extend the Octapad into a mini electronic drum kit. This would give you a lot more freedom to play interesting beats. Hope this helps! Mike

Hi Sneyk, the Alesis Burst kit uses the Alesis DM6 drum module so you might be able to swap out the kick pad for a kick tower (which you would need to purchase separately), though I haven’t actually tested this kit. If you haven’t purchased it yet it would probably be better to buy an electronic drum set that already has a kick pad tower included. Hope this helps! Mike

Hi Brad, the cable that attaches to your kick pad looks like a standard 3.5mm connection (e.g. the same type of connection that you hook into the audio jack of your phone or laptop). If you think that’s the case then you could try using an adapter
to a 1/4 inch connection (https://amzn.to/2NJWV9a)… These are handy little items to have anyway. There still could potentially be issues but it’s worth a try! Hope this helps – Mike.

Hi Rohit, although the Nitro Mesh definitely wasn’t designed for double kick, I think the module can handle them fairly well. Though the kick tower is small enough…. You might have to tweak the sensitivity a bit. Tbh, some people are ok with the experience of using the stock kick pad for double pedals, others not. Alternately, you can change the hi-hat to a bass drum sample, though it’s not the smoothest option.

There are two options on the back to expand the kit… An additional crash and an additional tom. Any pad or trigger should work no problem with them.

Hi Alan, unfortunately it does not save multiple presets or kit choices (though it does keep the last pad arrangement you’ve used when you turn it off and on), so you would have to manually choose the options you want if you want to have multiple arrangements for live performances. Alternatively, there are a bunch of other choices on our guide that can perform this function: https://www.electronicdrumadvisor.com/best-electronic-drum-pads/

Hi Sean, we haven’t gotten a chance to review the nitro mesh kit yet unfortunately, but I’ve heard that the mesh heads are quite similar to the mid-range Alesis mesh heads, except that the nitro mesh ones are quite a bit smaller. A bit of speculation… but based on that, they still should be pretty decent. However, I really don’t think they’d be that comparable to the likes of the more expensive Roland mesh heads, but it would likely still be an upgrade compared to rubber heads. Apologies I can’t give a more comprehensive answer yet!

Hi Dawn, I think sample pads are a great option for percussion type sounds. E.g. the Octapad comes with a lot of very decent percussion and world music samples and kits.

How it can replace your current set-up is really a matter of preference, so I can’t say for sure.

There will definitely be differences in feeling and dynamic of the acoustic vs electronic, and there are pros and cons to both. Going the electronic route can offer you so many different options, but if you play primarily on your set of congas for example then you may be able to get more expression on your acoustic set.

It’s really up to you to experiment. One option could be to use a hybrid type set-up, i.e. keep some acoustic instruments and then have a sample pad. E.g. if you kept your acoustic bongos, then you could still use the yamaha multi-pads with your hands, as they are responsive enough for this.

Alternatively, going completely electronic can be very liberating and can really help you focus on building out more sounds! In fact, it could really work with the styles of music you’re playing.

Good luck!

Hey Don – that’s awesome, having the MalletKey in your setup must be great!

I understand your point about the iPad sample player. I always feel it’s a lot better to have hardware to work with, particularly when you’re in the middle of a performance.

I think the Alesis would be a suitable for your use, particularly if you’re mainly looking for a lot of one-shot or secondary samples to add to your performance. It’s pretty inexpensive for the features you get.

Keep in mind, there are a few quirks to get used to. You particularly don’t want to make sure not to accidentally trigger those Shrek sounds at the wrong time 🙂 I think you can get used to these after playing around with the pad for a while though.

If you haven’t already, check out my more detailed review of the Alesis pad here, as I talk through its pros and cons: https://www.electronicdrumadvisor.com/alesis-samplepad-pro-review/

If you’re going to use the sample pad very heavily then it might be worth investing a bit more in something like the SPD-SX straight away, but it seems that you’re looking for a cheaper option.

It can take a little bit of time to switch between kits on the SamplePad Pro (depending on how big the samples are). That’s something to keep in mind if you have a lot of samples to switch between during your performances. However, that shouldn’t be a problem to work around.

Hope this helps!
Mike

You’re very welcome Lani, glad I could help!

Hi Sampaul, it’s very easy to get up to speed with any electronic percussion or drum pad (The Yamaha DTX pad included). There are plenty of resources online, but the best thing is to just get your hands on one and start playing around with the different sounds. Also – with the Yamaha option, you can play with either sticks or your hands. Hope that helps!

You’re very welcome Shea! I’m glad you found it helpful!

Hi Jaison, it depends on your needs. I think it would do the job nicely for some relatively basic drumming/percussion and playing samples if necessary.

The Alesis Sample Pad Pro is fine to put through a PA or amplifier for live situations (I’ve played it live myself). This sample pad has a few quirks that you should definitely practice and get to grips with beforehand, but you should be ok once you understand these (For example, it takes a bit longer than you might expect to switch between kits, and once you figure out how to adjust the sensitivity of the pads then that should eliminate the cross talk issues).

Also, keep in mind that the device is not silent, and hitting the pads with drum sticks can cause some audible tapping sounds in close-up and very quiet musical situations. This may or may not be an issue for you, depending on the size of the room and volume of the choir.

In my opinion, if you’re planning on doing some intricate drumming with a lot of dynamics then this may not totally suit your needs.

So it’s not a definitive answer, as I said it depends on your needs. Though the Alesis Sample Pad Pro has a lot of features and it is a decent one to start with either way, because it’s much cheaper and you can invest on more expensive Roland or Yamaha models later on if really necessary.

Hope that helps, if you have any other questions then please let me know!

Mike