Alesis SamplePad Pro - 8-Pad Percussion and Sample-Triggering Instrument With Rubber Pads, Active Blue LED Illumination, Expansion Options for 2 Additional Triggers and 200+ Built-in Sounds

it arrived quickly within a few days of ordering complete with a reciept from the place it came from which was nice (probably just a seller thing)the product itself is as expected, the pads are bouncy and feel like a drum to methe controls are easy to get to grips with, i could use the pad right out of the box with no difficulty.you get 4 pads, i did notice if you move the device while it is on a surface or tapped the side of the unit it would activate one of the trigger pads, but apart from moving it if you are using it on a table, i dont think you are going to be hitting the side of the unit.the only down side to this unit is the size of the pads are too small for me. i believe its a problem with me and i need to work on my hand eye co ordination, but i find the pads a bit too small compared to a real drum. also if you set all the pads to one instrument or souind sucha as snare and try to hit say top left pad with left stick and top right with right stick then the device seems to get a bit confused on quicker runs.i used the default factory settings when i tried it btw!so a few other points to note:it appears to have low noise (i didn't hear any static with headphones or line out) which is of course important and was expecting a little noise considering the price of the device so that's really good.it has a midi out, but no in, it also has 1/4 inch jack outputs for L/Mono +R which is great as most units usually just have a trs jack!the other minor downside is the headphones are a bit quiet but easily fixed with a pre amp, mixer, or if used on a stereo like i did in the end, you can just use the amp built into your stereo or cinema sound system.so all in all i really like this product it was hands down an excellent buy and i will be using this in my future projects.in the box you get instructions (i didn't bother reading them!)the unit/ pad device itselfa power adaptorsome polystyrene (to protect it in transit)a plastic bag (it was wrapped in)there are no drum sticksno stand (obviously)no SD cardno built in silly speaker

This Sample Pad ok, good for the money although the samples are not the best I have heard. Good enough for pub gigs, however, go hunting for better quality samples. For example, I use the sample pad so I don’t have to carry Tambourine, large and small cowbell, vibraslap, shaker, and extra hardware with my kit. Nearly all the above I replaced with imported samples (most useful, lots of web sites available with quality sample packages to download ) and I also used the pads to control Dmx lighting changes via midi.The only problem was with the first sample pad I received (had to return) the headphone left output stopped working within a couple of days, turned out to be a damaged or faulty volume knob. I suspect the knob had been hit although not in transit as it is well protected.Also, the mounting attachment is cheap injection-molded plastic and should be supplied and not charged. It’s adequate although how long it will last is debatable? Be aware, the long screws supplied with the mounting plate will collide into the circuit board if screwed back in without the plate attached, not good!In all, good pad response, some useful samples, add your own is a lifesaver and fantastic midi controller in imo.

This little item I've had for a week. Its great fun. Sounds great and looks very cool. You can create loops and have it played on this. You can expand your drumming with basically any sound. It's small and fits wherever you want and feels really tough to. I'm very Pleased.. (although one of the tabs didn't work but it's being Replaced.)

As many reviews say, there is a very loud buzz/hum on the main audio outputs. Headphone output is fine if you connect to line level inputs.

This is a great piece of kit with responsive pads and a great selection of built in samples. The 'sample' in the title means you can add your own samples via an SD card (I haven't done this yet). The tricky bit comes when using the midi out. I have Ableton Live 10 DAW and programming the four pads to play the samples is a bit tricky. The sample pad has eight programmable groups. Pick a group for Midi and then you have to go through the 999(?) channels for each pad until it starts playing one of the samples on your DAW. I haven't found this in any instructions.

The 2 main pads work very well and are very responsive I could play them on the lowest sensitivity and still find them useable, however the 2 upper pads are very unresponsive, even on the highest sensitivity, double hits rarely working, so no hats on these pads, the left upper pad is half as responsive as the right upper pad, for this reason I am thinking of returning the unit. There seems to be no option for a firmware update as the Alesis website specifies that the firmware is solely for the sample pad pro, so no options there to fix the unresponsive pads. I have enjoyed playing the unit but I have to play at almost full power to get the unit to work, this then makes the dual sample play, through velocity much harder as nuanced play is not possible. I have had to set the sample 1 velocity from 1 to 125 and sample 2 velocity from 126 to 127, even this setting is very hit and miss pun intended, this totally sums up the unit, if it worked properly it would be a huge hit but for me it’s a bit of a miss unfortunately.

Arrived today and very happy, I had read the reviews about noisy channel and sensitivity issues but so far no problem. When I first plugged it into a small bass amp I have the channel was very noisy but as soon as I turned down all bass, treble and midi it was perfectly clear. I think because it's coming out already EQ'd any additional effects just muddle it up.Very happy so see how it goes once I get out of lock down and start gigging again!