Alesis PerformancePad Pro Percussion User Reviews at zZounds

"Alesis Performance Pad Pro review." submitted October 19, 2011

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Musical Background: Music director

Music Style: Contempory Rock & Bluegrass

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Sound: The sounds are very good. Much better than the old Alesis Performance Pad. Feature: You CANNOT program the kick and high hat pedal outputs independently:-(the kick pedal output is tied to Pad #1 (lower left) and the high hat pedal is tied to pads #3 & #4 (lower right). That means you have to have 3 of your 8 pads programed for the kick and the high hat pedal,(Double bummer).Pad# 3 will be closed high hat, pad 4 will be open high hat and the high pedal will toggle between the two making an open/closing high hat sound. It sounds good but not at the cost of losing 2 pads. So if you use both kick and the high hat pedals you will use lose the use of 3 pads. That sucks. That leaves you only 5 pads available for the rest of your kit. That's Crazy! Why not have the pedal outputs programmable like all other drum pads? Is that too much to ask? Another thing, you cannot use traditional drum triggers for the kick & high hat. They WILL NOT work. You have to use a sustain pedal from a keyboard or a tap tempo pedal. They work Surprisingly well and I really like them. But coming back to losing pads when you use the kick and high hat pedals puts a damper on things. I only use the kick pedal so I only lose 1 pad. I use a sustain pedal and it works great. Having the kick & High Hat outputs tied to the 8 pads is a dumb thing to do. It made this drum kit go from a 10 to a 5. Ease of Use: This kit is real easy to use and does sound very good. The only problem I had was trying to find a way to assign sounds to the kick & High hat outputs independent of the 8 pads. No luck... Quality: No problems yet. Crossing my fingers. Value: I do feel this is a great product and still worth the money. I'm just frustrated that this could have been a awesome drum pad with just the added feature to program the kick & High Hat independently. That may be one of life's mysteries that will go unanswered, because Alesis is keeping quiet. Manufacturer Support: I have heard nothing but sucky support from Alesis. I have sent e-mails on a way around not being able to program the kick & highhat seperate from the pads and have heard nothing but silence. The Wow Factor: It looks great. Nice big blue screen. I mounted it to a cymbal stand and it looks sweet. Overall: Here's my full review. I needed a small portable drum kit that could be carried in a suitcase and used for small live band performances that wasn't expensive. The Alesis performance pad pro fit the bill perfectly. I bought a Simmons drum pad bracket that screws into the back of the drum pad and then used a cymbal stand to mount it too. I can adjust the height and angle to match my liking. One thing you need to know about this drum pad, It does not use drum triggers for the kick drum & high hat pedal outputs. They will not work. You have to use a sustain pedal from a keyboard or a tap tempo pedal. I actually like this better because they are cheaper and smaller. I do have one negative with the Alesis performance pad pro and to me it is a big negative. You have 8 pads which you can programed anyway you like, but the kick trigger output is tied to the pad # 1(bottom left) and the high hat pedal output is tied to pad # 4 (bottom right). They are not independent outputs. So if you change pad #1 to snare it will change the kick output to snare. You have to leave pad# 1 as the kick so you can use you kick drum. Dumb! If you use the high hat pedal you lose 2 pads because pad# 4 will be open high hat and pad#3 will be closed high hat and the high hat pedal will toggle between the two pads creating an open and closing high hat sound. Dumber!! Since I will lose 2 pads I don't use the high hat output, I just use the kick pedal so I only lose one pad. My kit is pad# 1 kick(which is also my kick pedal because you can separate the two for some dumb reason). pad #2 snare, #3 closed high hat, #4 ride cymbal, #5 side stick, #6 tom 1, #7 tom 2, and #8 crash. If Alesis would fix that one problem this would be the greatest drum pad kit on the planet. It is still worth $300 and I'm happy with it. I just wish they had the kick and high hat pedal outputs where they could be assignable separately from other 8 pads. But it isn't, so I will just have to learn to live with it, or go spend $500 more for a Roland Octapad. I'll just live with it.

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"Superb Alisis quality" submitted May 12, 2012

By Sean Ferry in Seattle, WA

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Musical Background: Professional Playing music for 30+ years, I play Guitars, drums, keys, and am a lead vocalist

Music Style: Rock, hard rock, swing, Metal, real country, techno, Funk, classic Broadway and standard jazz.

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VERIFIED BUYER

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Overall: if you dont have enough room for a full size synth drum kit, this is your answer, I have just skimmed the surface of what this thing can do, and I am very pleased with it, the pads are very responsive, not to small, your presets are good quality, I'm still working on getting it connected to my recording rig but so far no difficulties in connections, It is a plug and play interface.

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"Alesis HAd Gone and Done It Now" submitted December 29, 2011

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Sound: Sound pallete is useful...no cheesy sounds. Drums and percussion all have realistic tone. Especially, like the array of kits and effects for each. Recorded a few drum patterns in my studio and playback was really authentic sounding. Feature: Seems well made. The pads (the most important part) are responsive like drum heads. Ease of Use: Simply plug and play. Creating studio quality tracks seems possible with some tweaking of each pad for feel, volume , etc) Quality: The backlit screen is easy to read making it great for small coffeehouse gigs where drum sets are normally not welcomed. Value: This unit does all I need it to do and more...all for half the cost ($299) of Roland and Yamaha. I compared it to the DTX Multi and the SPD-S. The others provide some level of sampling which I'll add later with Alesis upcoming Sample Pad ($199). I'll have two pads for $500 that can be linked together via midi still less than the Roland and Yamaha ($600+ each). Manufacturer Support: Haven't needed support. The Wow Factor: This is a welcomed addition to my band's new direction. I'm the guitar player who'll double on electronic percussion. Overall: This is a keeper like my original drum machine. The beauty of this is no little finger pads to try to get good sounds from.

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"Alesis Performance Pad Pro rivals ALL other pads on the market!" submitted November 17, 2011

By a customer from vcu.edu

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Features

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Value

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: 20 years. I play the drums/percussion for a contempory Christian worship band called High Rise Worship. I also play rat church

Music Style: Christian, Alternative, Gospel, Rock, Hip Hop/R&B, Fusion, Jazz

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

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Sound: I love how my pad has over 500 percussion sounds but it still lacks some essential sounds I was looking for and thought it would have. For example there is no "snap" sounds, which are a big factor in certain loops I program. Since you cannot load your own sounds onto the pad, Im stuck with the presents. However, i am about 90% satisfied with the pre loaded percussion sounds. They go IN DEPTH with lots of drum sounds, as well as percussion sounds. Again, I just figured that a "snap" was an essential sounds as well. I run to instrument cables to get the full stereo sound and the sound is a very clear, professional and even cd quality sound. When i run it through my church's sound system it is very expressive and again a full sound with clarity. I also run an in ear monitor system through my pad using monster y cables, and extenders and I have found that the pad really kicks out a great in ear sound and monitor system.Doing that saves me money on not having to buy another mixer. For the price I cannot be too upset that it is lacking several sounds I want, but there are plenty of other sounds that make the difference on it as well. Feature: The best features, or the best feature that I use is the pattern maker. You can create ANY pattern, in any time signature using any sound! I find this most affective for me because most of the songs I play require a loop and I want to get a sense of "cd feel" while still being live. I also like the fact that you can program bass synth to patterns as well, but that is not the easiest thing to do because each time you change an octave, every pad gets changed, so itll require alot of patience but once you master that you'll be proud. You can basically make any beat to any song. Of course you custom your kits and setups as well so your possibilites are endless. I think the Alesis pattern maker gives the Roland SPDS a run for the money because you can virtually make the same beats as the SPDS. Ease of Use: Its pretty easy to navigate around the pad. The only tricky parts come into play when you are making songs or patterns. You have to constanly save each set or you will lose whatever you've done-that can get redundant! Also, changing bass sounds or octaves or notes can be tricky as well because pads cannot be individual octaves. You basically the same note just a different key, but if you wanted to go up the scale youd have to change the whole pads octave, and so on-which can get redundant. Overall the pad is pretty straight forward, I looked at the manual the night I got it but I havent since so.. I guess its just drummer's intuition. haha Quality: I definetely love the quality of the pad! It reminds me so much of the SPDS in durability. Its a medium-heavy pad, which I because I want something sturdy to support my strokes. The LCD display is bright and vibrant, I had a live show and the majority of the time i was in darkness but the lcd display shined bright and was very clear, I love that alot. The pads themselves seem very durable and stick marks wipe off easily with the touch of a rag. My only complaint is that I wish the pads were a little bigger but really this is no dislike. When gigging I carry the pad in Gator Protector Artist Series Percussion Controller bag-this bag has lambs wool on the inside, a waterproof outside and plenty of room for cables, in-ears and other equipment. I def recommend getting that bag if you buy this pad. Value: HECK YEAH! OMG why spend 500+ for Roland SPDS' or Yamaha DTX' ?? The Alesis PRO has you covered for like half of the price! Seriously I used an SPDS for a while, and I will say I love the SPDS-but for half the price I have a pad which is just as good. I dont expect it to have the same qualities as an SPDS, because its not by Roland, its an Alesis and I Im pleased on the money I spent on this. Manufacturer Support: Cant rate this because I havent had to deal with Alesis, but Ill give them a 10 for making a solid product. The Wow Factor: After playing with this pad for 10 minutes, comparing qualities and most importanly, Price, you WILL want this pad. Trust me Overall: I want to give it a 9.5/10. Im very satisfied with the pad. I would definetely go for this pad again unless Roland comes out with a cheaper one.

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Rating And Reviews: Alesis PerformancePad Pro

"Alesis Performance Pad Pro review." submitted October 19, 2011

"Superb Alisis quality" submitted May 12, 2012

"Alesis HAd Gone and Done It Now" submitted December 29, 2011

"Alesis Performance Pad Pro rivals ALL other pads on the market!" submitted November 17, 2011

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