Alesis Strike Multipad - 9-Pad Percussion Instrument with Sampler, Looper, 2 Ins and Outs, Soundcard, Sample Loading via USB Thumb Drives and 4.3-Inch Display,Black

This this is awesome. Easy to use and super intuitive user experience for someone new to this type of gear. Creating and loading custom samples via USB is one of my favorite features - really opens up creative capabilities, especially if you play in a trio like me!

I wish I were fully qualified to tell you how well this compares to all the other drum pads out there, but this is my first. So let me just say I love it and have no desire to get something else. The sound is great, it's easy to use out of the box, plays well with a great feel, and looks and acts like it will last a very long time. It can be a bit difficult to set up for new sounds, but that may just be my limited experience using it. I'll have to watch more of the plethora of videos on Youtube. If in doubt, get this. Like me, I'm sure you won't regret it.

My decision was to either go with the Roland unit or the Alesis Strike. After weighing the advantages of each I decided to to go with the Strike. The primary reasons were the amount of memory in the unit and the lights. It has turned out to be a good decision for me. The pad works and sounds great, you can put a ton of samples in it and I love the lights.If there was anything to say in the negative about the Strike it is the lack of documentation for the unit. The Roland unit is a nice piece of kit and has been out there for for quite a few years. This means that there are a lot of videos and chats on the Net explaining how to set things up. Unfortunately the Strike doesn't have that advantage. So even the simple task of adding a pedal to the unit can be a tough thing to do. Just trying to figure what pedal will work with this unit will cause you to pull your hair, nevermind trying to configure it. So if you are new to pads and getting them configured to work with your system you may be in for a rough ride. Nonetheless, once you get things set up, the Alesis Strike is a fantastic unit.

Ok, what can I say about the multipad that everyone else hasn’t already… nothing really. It’s incredible, it has a ton of sounds and endless possibilities with loading your own wave files. The responsiveness and playability is great!What I will talk about though is some unique issues I have run into with trying to color outside the box.I have run the midi out of a drum set into the midi in on the multipad, I set the settings as it says for having midi drum input, but I was unable to get the multipad to recognize it or respond to it. I was hoping to be able to play the drum kit through the midi in, in some kinda way. What I eventually ended up doing was removing the drum sets CPU and running the drum/triggers directly into the inputs in the back of the multipad. For some reason the pads/drums aren’t as responsive this way and the playability is kinda poor. Sometimes certain pads will miss a hit/not trigger. Instead of having the trigger inputs in the rear and also a very limited number of them, it would be nice to have the additional triggers work off of the midi input so that you can have a lot more of them maybe 10-15 additional triggers and just have them run from the electric kit. I understand this is more focused as a multipad and stand alone unit. But I feel it would be more functional if it could also work as a drum kit computer as well.

Poor mechanical coupling: The pad isn’t firmly seated against the sensor/mounting surface, energy from the stick hit dissipates into the air gap instead of transferring into the rebound.2. Overly soft or thick rubber: Some manufacturers try to make pads “quiet” by making them too soft. It reduces noise but also ruins the feel.3. Shoddy construction: the pad is literally flexing downward into a space before making contact with the sensor or base plate, it’s absorbing energy instead of rebounding to stick making the pad completely unplayable

I struggled between the Alesis and the Roland. I played both at a Guitar Center and both feel pretty similar. However, where the Alesis blows away the Roland is the playability. The simple light coding by kit / pad, etc. lets you know by color whether it's a drum, cymbal, effect, loop, etc. Plus the screen is so brilliant, that you can easily see everything in the kit by name and with icons know what it is. I've also sampled things in from USB, from direct line, from Midi, and by playing, and all are the same. The only thing I don't care for is the darn wheel, click method of naming and renaming things. That interface is a bit frustrating, but I can live with it.

I use mine primarily as a small drum kit. Great sounding presets that are very fun to play. Easy to learn how to customize your sounds. The only thing that’s not great is that sometimes it doesn’t register hits. I think it needs time to load once you make custom changes or else some times it’s lags a bit. Other than that it’s really fun to play and I’m glad I bought it because now I can play drums quietly in my apartment:)

Great drum pad to have.