Alesis Samplepad Pro

sample pads are becoming a powerful part of a percussionists arsenal, offering a massive range of sounds all packed into a tiny box. The Alesis samplepad pro is an affordable option that allows you to take your first steps into the world of sample pads.

to date I have owned it approximately a month. when I first received the pad I encountered some quality issues by the fantastic team at thomann quickly resolved them.

the pad has some fantastic features including "mute groups" that allow for realistic play similar to that of a hihat for example. the sound quality in particular of the 200 pre loaded sample sounds is truly magnificent. the range of sample sounds included travels all the way from afro cuban to modern electronic.

a feature that makes the alesis samplepad pro truly versatile is its compatibility with a simple SD card. you can quickly and easly transfer audio files from an SD card straight to the pad. I have in cooperated my singers vocals into the pad to allow me loop her voice during gigs.

the only negatives I have to say about the alesis samplepad pro is the quality of its built in loop interface. you can loop an individual pad which is very effective but the options for the loops play back like bpm are poor.

Over all a very good product, opens up a vast new range of possibilities and is worth the money

PROs: This product is really great if you want to try out sampling-MIDI-DAW opportunities. It has the possibility to play virtual instruments (with a notebook, DAW, sound card of course), upload sample packs to memory card, plug in additional drum pads, switches, pedals, etc. It is really great to test if bringing electronis in to your play is the route you want to take. If yes, you should sell this and buy a better product (see cons below), if not, sell it, and you lost only minimal money.

CONs: The top two pad is not playable, it is just good for programmed stuff like all mute, etc. The remaining six is okay, but you have to tweak with the sensitivity. Loading samples is awful slow, you don't want to change it in the middle of a song. One of the knobs in front shows wear after light usage less than one year.

SUM: To see if bringing electronics to drumming, this is perfect, it is really versatile, and you can do everything what more expensive stuff provide - in a less perfect way.

It's like GPS navigation - works perfectly if you know how to use it.

What I mean is it has options for each pad that can be set. First thing to do in my opinion would be setting pad sensitivity. I like max sensitivity on two top pads and three bottom pads, and one level less than max on a middle line of pads. Setting pad sensitivity to max allows to have nice dynamic range and natural feel of soft and hard hits.

Setting up patches saves a lot of time. This device works a bit slowly, changing sound patches takes few seconds, navigation is not perfect, so it is better to set up device at home or on rehearsals time because there won't be enough time to do it on stage. But it doesn't take forever... it's just slower than Roland similar devices.

You can load your own sound samples from sd card (you can convert your sound samples into alesis sound sample with a alesis software). Loading samples from sd card takes a bit longer that loading factory sounds but once it's loaded you can use it without a worry. This device allows you to sound unique.

It has 4 more inputs which allows you to have external kick, hi-hat and 2 pads more. So it can be used like a drums. It's useful for elektro music drummers or situations where stage and room is small.

Just bought the new Alesis Sample Pad Pro, with the objective of adding it to my acoustic drum set. Had the chance of playing with it (standing alone) only for a couple hours, and it has been a lot a fun.

You will find some problems related to the crosstalk between the two pads in the center, but it can be fixed with the reduction of sensitivity. Guess that's the only problem nobody mentioned to me before I bought it. Luckily I found support within the Alesis forums and fixed quickly. A new software is available as well, and is recommended to be installed right away.

For this amount of money, I guess it might be the best piece you can get!

I would recommend it.

This is a very solidly built product - however, it doesn't come with any mounting screws to attach to a mounting clamp (bought separately) - I believe it uses the same screws as a Roland SPD set, or you can find some M5 screws. Pads light up when played, although this is clearly just to indicate which pad is 'active' in the editing section rather than for any cool on-stage effects - get some light up drumsticks for that! There is some (limited) cross-talk between the pads but I do not have the latest update yet.

There is only a very limited Reverb effect available to apply to your samples, and the rest of the editing involves velocities and sample locations. Loading samples is fine, just remember to convert them beforehand - Alesis have a downloadable converter for just this.

Having said the above, this is still excellent for triggering drum, vocal or FX samples - but don't expect the feature set of the equivalent Roland! Great for the price.