This is a great review. I love long term reviews after a few years of use. I have the new Alesis one which is great, but there's something about this Roland Sample pad that make me like it a tad more even though it has less features.
Thanks, Justin! I appreciate you watching and leaving feedback! Yeah, I've been wanting to make this one for a long time now (and more videos, need to get around to doing them more). Keep up the awesome work over at 65 Drums!
Bee using my spdsx for 7 years and love it. Mine also has the power issue from time to time. My work around is to give it a conga slap or two with my hand while holding the power button. It always turns on after a few slaps. Otherwise, I've never had any other problems with it. Thanks for the video.
The dreaded not turning on issue. Only ever seems to happen when it matters doesn't it. I think it does it on purpose to shit you up! Mine has been back to Roland 3 times, and each time they said they had never seen the issue before. As if! All drummers I know that use one have experienced it. Mine still does it now and then, at the worst possible time of course. Great bit of kit though, very much central to our set which speaks volumes, both a blessing and a curse! Anyway great video man thanks for sharing
Nick Cesarz what do you use for ear protection in order to still be able to hear the Roland SPD-SX during a live gig? Do you have your own monitors or are you using in-ear monitors?
Sorry it took forever to respond to your question. I have in-ear monitors, yes. The easiest way to do in-ears is to get a little Behringer mixer for like $99. The monitor person can then give you a mix of the band, as well.
Hi SPD S X players. Ive had mine just in my home studio for just over 7 years. In the last couple of months it has literally crashed on me . I mean the factory loops seem to not end on time as expected and other pads become totally unresponsive. Even the stop all sounds button doesn't work, so i go to change kit but the +and- button doesn't work either. So i go to turn the unit off but no response, so i must unplug it from the mains. Ive never imported sounds or samples into this unit before but now i find myself in a band were this would be just the right piece of kit to use. Obviously after this series of malfunctions im worried about using it on the road. I would be interested to see if anyone else has experienced any of the above, and if there is anything i can do about it. After paying a small fortune on it the first unit i had had a faulty top right should pad. After trying to change the volume and pad sensitivity i sent it back and demanded a replacement which they did straight off no problems. I hope i can get it repaired. Cheers. Chas .
You could get a looper like the Boss RC505 (though there are cheaper). Route the sounds from the Roland to the loop pedal, press to start and stop and there you have your loop. If you use a DAW like ableton, you could also use their looper plugin Easiest to control it with a MIDI footswitch. You can also have it set the song tempo according to your first loop, and then add as many other loops as you want in the scene view.
looking into it, seems theres no easy way to do it with the pad itself. If you go the DAW route btw you might not need a MIDI footswitch. You could probably set one of the pads up to trigger stopping and starting recording.
how did you fix your power issue. Mine comes on but i'll have to hold it for it to stay on or adjust it with a stick for it to stay on. And i'm also not able to save my kit settings because immediately the power goes off all changes made are not saved.
I'm a bit mystified as my issue kind of just went away. I've read some people can get it to turn on by hitting pads while pressing the power button. /shrug
@@DerekScottD Plenty tutorials on YT on how to replace the SD card that's in the SPD SX. Took me 30 minutes to carefully replace it. It's really 150$ for a better looking companion if you already happen to own Nord keyboards.
@@glitterkoe if you don’t mind me asking. Is upgrading the SD card worth it? I am wanting to buy one of these to play backing tracks for my band. Do samples or backing tracks take up a lot of space ? Thanks!!!!
@@napoleonsmith3028 TBH I'm not sure. I just bought a second hand one and just love fiddling with things. There's different approaches: - Keep everything on your device at all times, which takes more space. - Backup the SPD's folder that you can access as you plug it into your PC for different sets/gigs. You can just nuke the whole "Roland" folder and replace it with copies you made of different gigs. There's a third party app to help with managing the SPD SX or these folders called SPD SX Editor. If you're cautious, it's probably best to start with a regular SPD SX (SE only for color) and do the memory upgrade if you're running into the cap.
In addition to the hihat controller non-compatibility, the SPD-SX also doesn’t support a dual zone pad that has a single stereo jack output, which I’ve found annoying
This is a great review. I love long term reviews after a few years of use. I have the new Alesis one which is great, but there's something about this Roland Sample pad that make me like it a tad more even though it has less features.
Thanks, Justin! I appreciate you watching and leaving feedback! Yeah, I've been wanting to make this one for a long time now (and more videos, need to get around to doing them more). Keep up the awesome work over at 65 Drums!
Bee using my spdsx for 7 years and love it. Mine also has the power issue from time to time. My work around is to give it a conga slap or two with my hand while holding the power button. It always turns on after a few slaps. Otherwise, I've never had any other problems with it. Thanks for the video.
The dreaded not turning on issue. Only ever seems to happen when it matters doesn't it. I think it does it on purpose to shit you up! Mine has been back to Roland 3 times, and each time they said they had never seen the issue before. As if! All drummers I know that use one have experienced it. Mine still does it now and then, at the worst possible time of course. Great bit of kit though, very much central to our set which speaks volumes, both a blessing and a curse! Anyway great video man thanks for sharing
Very informative. Thank you for sharing. Subscribed
Thanks for the sub!
I have just got mine and now the come with 4gb of memory and I can’t say I have any other issues with the unit yet it’s just earlydays
Nick Cesarz what do you use for ear protection in order to still be able to hear the Roland SPD-SX during a live gig? Do you have your own monitors or are you using in-ear monitors?
Sorry it took forever to respond to your question. I have in-ear monitors, yes. The easiest way to do in-ears is to get a little Behringer mixer for like $99. The monitor person can then give you a mix of the band, as well.
Hi SPD S X players.
Ive had mine just in my home studio for just over 7 years.
In the last couple of months it has literally crashed on me . I mean the factory loops seem to not end on time as expected and other pads become totally unresponsive. Even the stop all sounds button doesn't work, so i go to change kit but the +and- button doesn't work either.
So i go to turn the unit off but no response, so i must unplug it from the mains. Ive never imported sounds or samples into this unit before but now i find myself in a band were this would be just the right piece of kit to use. Obviously after this series of malfunctions im worried about using it on the road.
I would be interested to see if anyone else has experienced any of the above, and if there is anything i can do about it.
After paying a small fortune on it the first unit i had had a faulty top right should pad. After trying to change the volume and pad sensitivity i sent it back and demanded a replacement which they did straight off no problems.
I hope i can get it repaired.
Cheers.
Chas .
How can I do live looping during a live performance? I like the idea of importing sound samples rather than loops that I've assigned to a pad.
You could get a looper like the Boss RC505 (though there are cheaper). Route the sounds from the Roland to the loop pedal, press to start and stop and there you have your loop. If you use a DAW like ableton, you could also use their looper plugin Easiest to control it with a MIDI footswitch. You can also have it set the song tempo according to your first loop, and then add as many other loops as you want in the scene view.
but there may be a way to do it on the Roland itself. Gotta figure out a live looping setup myself
looking into it, seems theres no easy way to do it with the pad itself. If you go the DAW route btw you might not need a MIDI footswitch. You could probably set one of the pads up to trigger stopping and starting recording.
I only use my spd sx for 6 months but my pads worn out very fast
Sorry you had a bad experience with it. Was it still under warranty? Have you tried any other pads like Alesis?
how did you fix your power issue. Mine comes on but i'll have to hold it for it to stay on or adjust it with a stick for it to stay on.
And i'm also not able to save my kit settings because immediately the power goes off all changes made are not saved.
I'm a bit mystified as my issue kind of just went away. I've read some people can get it to turn on by hitting pads while pressing the power button. /shrug
Nick, do you think its worth it to upgrade to the SE?
Seems like +$150 for quadruple the storage, plus the sweet red finish might not be worth it. I dunno; how fast does that storage fill up?
@@DerekScottD Plenty tutorials on YT on how to replace the SD card that's in the SPD SX. Took me 30 minutes to carefully replace it. It's really 150$ for a better looking companion if you already happen to own Nord keyboards.
@@glitterkoe if you don’t mind me asking. Is upgrading the SD card worth it? I am wanting to buy one of these to play backing tracks for my band. Do samples or backing tracks take up a lot of space ? Thanks!!!!
@@napoleonsmith3028 TBH I'm not sure. I just bought a second hand one and just love fiddling with things. There's different approaches:
- Keep everything on your device at all times, which takes more space.
- Backup the SPD's folder that you can access as you plug it into your PC for different sets/gigs.
You can just nuke the whole "Roland" folder and replace it with copies you made of different gigs.
There's a third party app to help with managing the SPD SX or these folders called SPD SX Editor.
If you're cautious, it's probably best to start with a regular SPD SX (SE only for color) and do the memory upgrade if you're running into the cap.
In addition to the hihat controller non-compatibility, the SPD-SX also doesn’t support a dual zone pad that has a single stereo jack output, which I’ve found annoying
My goal is to create an authentic experience for my audience.