The OCTAPAD SPD-30 digital percussion pad from Roland puts hundreds of instrument sounds from around the globe and 50 different kits at the tip of your drumsticks. The portable unit features eight isolated trigger pads, multi-effects, and external trigger inputs for onward connectivity to such things as digital hi-hat and kick controllers. Also featured is the ability to overdub on recorded loops in real-time and backup tracks to USB memory.
While drumsets are cumbersome, hard to transport and lengthy in set-up and tuning time, the Roland OCTAPAD SPD-30 allows you to carry over 600 different drum and percussion sounds and 50 different kits in something no bigger than a small widescreen television.
The SPD-30 also offers numerous parameters and effects such as muffling, tone color, pitch sweep, ambience, limiter and 30 types of multi-effects. The eight rectangular pads have a natural and responsive playing feel, thanks to an advanced V-Drum triggering technology. Each pad is an independent, isolated unit which incorporates crosstalk rejection.
To the right of the pads is a large, bright backlit LCD display for choosing options and navigating menus. Among the enormous number of features is Phrase Loop recording, which allows real-time overdubbing on recorded loops. Pads can be chained together or a hi-hit/kick pedal setup can be connected using four included external trigger inputs. There’s also MIDI and USB connectivity, hi-hat control and a footswitch jack.
The OCTAPAD SPD-30 is shipping now for $799.
Published on : May 15 2010
