There are 30 types of internal multi-effects onboard, plus EQ, limiter, and seven Ambience types.
#Octapad roland spd 30 portable#
It’s like having a truckload of customisable drum and percussion instruments in one portable package.īased on Roland’s world-leading effects technology, the SPD-30’s multi-effects engine will take your performances to another level. You can customise the sounds with the onboard controls for tuning, muffling, attack, pitch sweep, and more. Fifty kits are built into the Roland SPD-30 OCTAPAD - essential sounds that span a musical universe of styles. Drawback is that it is hard to get used to smaller targets (pads) and spatial differences between pads acoustic drums but it sets up and knocks down and packs in minutes…which for an old man means a lot.The Roland SPD-30 OCTAPAD is an electronic percussion controller packed with its own internal bank of sounds. I had considered many of the mini-acoustic kits but all the youtube videos of any of them (produced under the best of circumstances) could not match tonal quality of an acoustic kit….toms and bass always sounded thin…it has to….the shells are thin and some of the drums lack resonant heads for packings sake…so, I bought the Octapad with hihat/bass pedals and added a cymbal stand, CY8 cymbal, PDX8 as a floor tom and a PDX12 as snare (all pulled from another set) I find that I really only use the kit I created (none of the 99 as provided) mostly to sound like my other drum kit and to reproduce as best possible the sound of an acoustic kit setup. Most folks are into that phased looping…I finally pulled the trigger and purchased one as a “one the go” mini drum kit that can be set up quickly. There are few who fit that profile for this product. Thanks….always good to get an equipment review from someone who has used the equipment extensively in a variety of settings. For example, you can set the foot-switch to automatically start the phrase looping mode. You can also hook up an external foot-switch and customize what action it will perform. I found the menu system very useful for this, as it’s easily possible to mute and delete pads on the fly. The Octapad allows you to enter phrase looping mode, which allows you to perform your own sequences with up to 3 kits at a time. It can add a new sonic dimension to your live performances. Having an instrument like this really allows you to explore a much wider range of sounds. I’ve used cheaper options live, and the volume sensitivity for live performance fell down greatly on those. Thankfully, this instrument is sensitive enough to still differentiate between big strokes. You can often hit the pads a lot harder when your adrenaline is pumping. The sensitivity of a pad can feel different when you’re playing live. I’ve used this as a primary instrument on stage, as well as a secondary option next to my drum set.
I think this is one of the biggest advantages that the Octapad has over its cheaper alternatives.Ī drummer that is used to playing a high-quality electronic drum set or acoustic kit will be very satisfied with the response of the pads.
They can really nicely detect slight changes in your strike. You can also customize and create your own kits based on the built-in sounds on the Octapad. Customizing built-in soundsĪlthough the Octapad does not allow for importing custom files, it does include a lot of customization of the internal sounds.įor example, you can layer sounds together, change the pitch, add a bunch of different effects such as reverb. However, that device does not have as many extensibility options and does not have phrase looping. If onboard custom sampling is a feature you really need, you should consider getting the Roland SPD-SX. Alternatively, you can always use the Octapad as a MIDI controller to a computer and trigger your samples through that. Therefore you cannot add your own WAV files to this device. The Octapad is not a custom sample padĪ very important point to keep in mind is that the Octapad does not allow for custom sampling on-board. This is a great option when you want to expand your drum sounds, or when the mic setup if your kit is less than ideal. For example, using a kick-drum trigger you can complement your acoustic bass drum sound with an electronic kick. I love setting the Octapad up next to my acoustic drum set for live performances.Ī great aspect about the extensibility of this electronic instrument is that you can hook up almost any type of drum trigger or pad to it.įor example, you can hook up an acoustic drum trigger to your Octapad. I also switched between a few different kick pads (both Roland and Yamaha brands).