e-Drum Deals – Great Drum Pad Offers
Three amazing deals on three versatile drum pad units
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This week we look at some great drum pad deals that will benefit e-drummers and acoustic drummers alike. Expand your kit without expanding its footprint!
The humble drum pad probably existed a while before full-blown e-drum kits. Units like the Mattel Synsonics and the MPC-1 Music Percussion Computer, with its “drum kit in a briefcase” design, were signs of things to come. And who can forget Kraftwerk with their Bacofoil and knitting needle affair?
Drum pads have come a long way since, and they can either be the centre piece of your drum and percussion performance or a brilliantly flexible addition to any kit, be it electronic or acoustic. Here are three great drum pads with some excellent money off.
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Clavia Nord Drum 3P Drum Pad
The Clavia Nord Drum 3P stands out for more than just its striking red chassis. The 3P eschews samples in favour of three distinct synthesis engines for that truly electronic drum sound. It is, if you will, the true successors to those early machines I mentioned in my preamble.
The 6-channel modelling synthesis engine gives you Resonant, Subtractive and FM synthesis which allow for an almost infinite palette of sounds. Deep, bowel-moving kicks, whip-cracking snares and gnarly percussion tones are all within the 3P’s wheel house.
You’d think that with all this power, the 3P has a complex user interface. You’d be wrong. It is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate on stage or in the studio. And with its rugged construction, this unit will more than survive the rigours of touring.
Full MIDI capability and an input for a kick pedal make this a brilliant standalone unit but mount it on your drum kit rack and you can add a wealth of electronic beats to your repertoire. Trust me, the lineage between this and things like the MPC Music Percussion Computer is strong.
Roland SPD-30-BK Octapad V2 Drum Pad
I suppose that over the years, and particularly in the 1980s, the Roland Octapad became synonymous as the de facto drum pad of choice. I distinctly remember the name ‘Octapad’ being used to describe any drum pad unit. So it’s nice to see the brand still alive today, albeit in vastly improved form.
The SPD-30 Octapad has, as its name implies, eight pads. These are connected to a powerful and versatile sample-based sound engine which contains 600 sounds, all of which are editable. You can store up to 99 sets of these sounds.
Unlike smaller drum pad units, the Octapad is clearly designed as more of a singular performance tool rather than a complementary addition to an existing setup. This concept is reinforced by the expansion capabilities on the rear which include four trigger inputs. These can be used for external kick, snare, hi-hat and cymbal pads.
As well as features like phrase looping, there are 30 types of effects and the whole unit is both solid and intuitive to navigate.
Alesis Strike MultiPad Drum Pad
When considering buying any kind of e-Drum, be it kits or pads, never ignore what Alesis has to offer. If you do, you could miss out on some of the best value e-drum gear there is. And the Strike MultiPad is no exception to this rule.
Featuring nine pads in total (6 main, 3 edge triggers), the Strike MultiPad ships with over 8000 pre-installed sounds and samples. That’s about 6GB of content right out of the box. There’s 32GB of onboard storage space and the ability to import WAV files via USB.
Not only that, but you can actually sample into the Strike MultiPad via USB, your smartphone, a microphone or other audio devices. It’s a truly versatile and comprehensive unit. Each pad has an adjustable RGB LED light for easy identification and you can use the built-in loop recorder to create loops in real-time.
As well as having five effects processors, it also has its own, built-in 2-channel USB audio interface. Those nine pads not enough for you? Well fret ye not as it also features three external trigger inputs, two of which can support dual-zone triggers, and a hi-hat pedal socket, as well as two foot switches.
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