spd lcd panel free sample

The SPD-SX DRUM RACK SAMPLES MONITOR will display the current sample names for each pad and trigger slots in a pop-up window. This becomes handy when you quickly have to monitor which samples will be triggered via your SPD-SX pads or external triggers.

The Roland SPD-SX is the sample pad of choice for musicians seeking professional-level performances. Whether next to the drummer providing extra sounds and effects, alongside the keyboard player for backing tracks and melodic loops, or out front with the singer for dynamic vocal performances, the SPD-SX helps deliver superior stage performances night after night.

An SPD-SX is a great way to add an extra dimension to your performance, especially when, for a limited time, we’re including a bonus package worth $238 US Dollars*, including over 10,000 premium samples courtesy of Noiiz, plus the SPD-SX-Editor application for Windows or Mac to simplify the transfer and setup of samples—ready for performance.

The SPD-SX PRO is the ultimate sampling pad for the most demanding gigs. With years of road testing and extensive user feedback from the SPD-S and SPD-SX, the top-tier SPD-SX PRO raises the bar again. Harnessing the advanced sample pad technology of its predecessors, the SPD-SX PRO boasts an array of requested professional enhancements and is built for life on the road. Illuminate dark stages with a large color display and customizable multi-color trigger lights. Expand your performance setup with more audio outputs, additional trigger inputs, and hi-hat and FX expression pedal control. And go further with a massive 32 GB memory, 48 kHz audio playback, increased pad sensitivity without crosstalk, and a dedicated SPD-SX PRO App for easier kit editing.

Meet the flagship pad in the sampling pad lineup: SPD-SX PRO. Harnessing Roland’s advanced sampling technology, the SPD-SX PRO boasts an array of requested, enhanced professional features. And each component has been tested to withstand the pressures of life on the road.

This video features a large-scale sample pad concept triggered by Stephani using MIDI to DMX to control the lights in real time. When the SPD-SX PRO pads are played, the LED lights on the wall trigger in time with the LED lights on the pad.

Whether playing the beloved SPD-SX or the flagship SPD-SX PRO, drummers will be blown away by each pad’s sounds and capabilities. With advanced triggering and sampling technology, these pads fit perfectly into both electronic and hybrid setups—from the live stage to the recording studio, DJ booth, or home music room.

Equipment on the road takes a beating on and off stage. Since 2011, pro drummers have put the SPD-SX through the ultimate trial by fire, from packed clubs to sold-out stadiums. The SPD-SX PRO adds to that legacy, incorporating years of feedback into its upgrades. With customizable LED lights, a large color screen, and triggering you can count on, this bulletproof package is ready to rock night after night.

The SPD-SX PRO has nine super-durable pads. The top three shoulder pads include a revised sensor structure for increased sensitivity and even-sounding hits when the pad is played—no matter the mounting angle. You also have increased crosstalk protection to prevent accidental triggering of other pads. And if you already own an SPD-SX, the SPD-SX PRO size is so close in size that you can use your existing carry case and accessories…no need to repurchase any extra gear.

Playing in the dark just got easier. The SPD-SX PRO features a large 4.3-inch color screen with backlit function buttons, tabs, and a jog-dial for lightning-fast sound selection. The display shows essential real-time information such as A & B sample layers, WAV sample names, sample playback progress, and more.

The crowd roars. The pressure is on. You need the right sounds at the right time. The massive 32 GB memory will hold your entire music catalog for multiple gigs. With 1,550 onboard samples, 200 lock-and-loaded kits, and balanced outputs, you can put the SPD-SX PRO to work right out of the box. Plus, easily sort and search your sounds with sample tags—no more searching for a needle in a haystack.

Storage worries are now a thing of the past. With 32 GB of internal memory, the SPD-SX PRO holds nearly 44 hours of crystal-clear 48 kHz/16-bit stereo audio. And there’s no need to fuss with converting your source formats. You can load 48/44.1 kHz WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files with varying bit rates, and the SPD-SX PRO will automatically convert them to its native 48 kHz/16-bit audio format—a huge time saver.

The SPD-SX PRO has two-channel balanced stereo master outputs—left and right. Combine those with four fully assignable mono audio outputs for six individual audio feeds, so that any pad can be sent to any output for mixing flexibility. And there’s also an assignable stereo headphones output for custom monitoring scenarios.

The SPD-SX PRO comes loaded with 1,550 high-quality sounds and 200 kits (43 erasable preset kits and 157 user kits). And in the heat of battle, the SPD-SX PRO’s processing power lets you swap to a new kit without cutting off the sound of the existing kit—so as the audio decays at the end of the last sound that you played, you’ve already changed kits ready for the next track in the set. Need even more options? Dive into Roland Cloud sample libraries and explore the ever-expanding selection of sounds.

Putting on a killer show takes some prep work. The SPD-SX PRO is packed with features to lift the weight of pre-gig planning. Download and organize sounds with a dedicated app. Get creative with four effects engines and connect a hi-hat controller or an expression pedal. Then mix in some magic with expanded trigger inputs and the onboard 16-step pad sequencer.

With nearly unlimited sounds under your sticks, you need to stay organized. Using the dedicated SPD-SX PRO App from Roland Cloud, you can easily import audio, and edit sound or playback parameters via USB on your computer. Drag and drop samples, create kits, adjust settings, and name as you go. The same USB connection allows you to send 8-channel audio and MIDI to the computer for recording with a DAW.

In 2003, Roland released the first-ever SPD-S sampling pad, providing tech-savvy percussionists a reliable way to trigger loops, samples, and full backing tracks alongside their main drum kit.

Many musicians, DJs, and producers took notice along the SPD-S’s 12-year journey, realizing that it could add a unique element to their studio workflow or fill a gap in their live performances. My own entrance to the electronic-music industry was from the perspective of a percussionist, so when I heard that Roland was releasing an updated version of the SPD-SX, I was taken back to fond memories of marching band, jamming on the SPD-S pads to the killer factory preset loops and sub-bass drops.

This time around, my mind was filled with ideas for using the SPD-SX-SE in my home studio and using it as a supplemental instrument when DJing. Instead of just mixing back-and-forth between tracks, a percussion multi-pad provides the opportunity to interact with the music and supply a unique energy to a performance.

Roland is upfront about the fact that the SPD-SX is identical in functionality to the original SPD-SX, yet the new unit features much more internal storage—16 gigabytes (GB), to be exact—plus a shiny new coat of sparkling red-and-black paint. (And that’s always a good color scheme.)

The SPD-SX-SE’s rubber buttons on the lower half of the unit have a nice matte-black finish that feels quite nice to the touch, but I wonder if hard plastic buttons would have been a better design choice, given that my review unit had two minor issues. The black, silkscreen finish for one of my review unit’s buttons was bubbling up slightly, and a different button wasn’t stamped cleanly during manufacturing, leaving a bit of extra rubber sticking up which I mistakenly scraped off at some point, thinking it was dirt. These are minor grievances, but my limited usage left me with concerns about how these buttons will fare under years of heavy usage.

A standard USB-type A-to- B cable is required for connecting the SPD-SX-SE to your computer. This is only necessary if you plan to use it with the included copy of Ableton Live Lite or as a MIDI controller. A USB flash drive can also be connected to the SPD-SX-SE to load in samples, and there are dedicated MIDI inputs and outputs to sync up other gear.

The SPD-SX SE has two separate mono ¼-inch audio input jacks and two trigger input jacks, supporting up to two additional pads per jack, for a total of 13 pads. These trigger jacks allow you to connect a number of external electronic drum pads or electronic cymbals, a kick trigger pad, or even drum triggers mounted on acoustic drums.

If the pads are more than enough for your arms to handle, you can extend your limbs further with up to two footswitches supported through a single footswitch input. These footswitches can trigger their own sounds, or they can be set to execute a particular function of the SPD-SX-SE, such as cycling through your drum kits or effects.

The SPD-SX SE has dedicated “master effect” buttons to apply a filter, delay, or a short loop. There’s also a custom FX button that can be configured in settings. Options for this custom effect include a stereo delay, sync delay, tape echo, chorus, flanger, step flanger, phaser, step phaser, equalizer, compressor, customized filter, filter + drive, isolator, “touch wah,” distortion, ring modulator, pitch shifter, vibrato, reverb, and slicer.

Since its inception, the SPD-S has featured nine easy-to-play, velocity-sensitive rubber pads with LED illumination for dark stages. The pads are laid out in a 3x3 grid, with the lower six pads being of a square shape. The top-row pads are rectangular, very slim, and have a raised edge, making them easy to be played like the rim of an acoustic drum or a cymbal.

Out of the box, the SPD-SX SE comes with 16 factory-loaded, pre-programmed drum kits, with the ability to store 84 more kits — totaling 100. [From Roland: The 16 factory kits can be overwritten and the internal samples can be deleted. All factory samples and the 16 factory kits can be reloaded via USB flash drive. The file with the factory samples and kits is available as a free download on the Roland website.]

The SPD-SX allows you to sample approximately 180 minutes of stereo sounds or approximately 360 minutes of mono sounds into its internal memory. This includes the samples that come preloaded on the device. WAV or AIF/AIFF files are supported, but they must be 16-bit audio with a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. You can adjust a sample’s pitch, normalize volume if it’s not loud enough, and even reverse the sample.

“Multi Pad” sampling pad-to-pad offered a workflow that I found to be the quickest and easiest. In comparison to other pad-based instruments struck by a drumstick, the SPD-SX SE’s single most competitive feature is its sampling prowess.

Samples and settings can be loaded in easily via USB flash drive. Alternatively, the SPD-SX Wave Manager application can be installed on your computer,

The included Ableton Live Lite license gives you the power to produce your own original samples and even use the SPD-SX SE as a controller for Ableton. You can also stream audio directly from Ableton Live Lite through the SPD- SX-SE and tweak the sound with the on-board master effects.

But the unit isn’t limited to being used with Ableton Live. USB MIDI provides the option to trigger your production software in creative ways, such as using the SPD-SX to control your favorite software drum machine.

Producers, once you finish a track, I recommend muting your drum tracks and thinking about how you could perform the missing elements live. You don’t have to play out every part of a drum track live, but maybe you could fill in a breakdown, or trigger a rhythmic melody with the SPD-SX.

Complementing the SPD-SX-SE’s sparkling red paint are bright red lights that blink in time with the music, when a pad is struck, or when any of the unit’s buttons or knobs are pressed. These lights will come in handy on dark stages or in environments with poor monitoring, assuming your SPD-SX-SE’s internal clock is synced up to your DJ software or other electronics via MIDI.

At 5 pounds, 9 ounces (2.5 kg) and with a 14- 3/8- x 13-1/16-inch footprint, the SPD-SX SE is lightweight and easily transported while on tour. But before you get ready to step onstage, you’ll want to consider investing in Roland’s official

There are myriad ways to use the SPD-SX SE in live situations. I chose to use it as a MIDI controller linked to Traktor Pro’s remix decks, and Serato users could do something similar.

Creating the Traktor controller mapping required many hours of work, and I am continuing to tweak this setup to get it right. Those of you that have made custom Traktor mappings will know how meticulous and frustrating this process can be. Once I had enough of the SPD-SX unit’s functions mapped to Traktor, I began cutting up loops and one-shot samples in Ableton Live. I then created my own Traktor remix decks with these samples to use while DJing.

I also experimented with running Traktor and Ableton Live at the same time by syncing up their MIDI clocks and using the SPD-SX to trigger samples in Ableton Live, but my paranoia about running the two CPU-intensive programs at the same time when DJing prevented me from pursuing this option much further.

Another cool feature is the SPD- SX-SE’s “MIDI Visual Control” function, which users control images alongside live performances. When a video device supporting MIDI Visual Control or V-LINK is connected, users can switch kits to switch videos or control images by turning one of the control knobs.

While the SPD- SX-SE’s much-needed facelift and storage upgrade are appreciated, a few things are left to be desired with the new SPD-SX SE. It still lacks a dedicated stand that ships with the unit, the LCD screen could be a much higher resolution, and a built-in XLR input for sampling via microphone would be very useful.

With the SPD SX still retailing around $800, and the SPD-SX-SE retailing around $900, you’ll have to decide if the SPD-SX SE’s improved appearance and increased storage capacity are enough to make you pay the premium. Existing SPD-SX owners may not opt to upgrade – still, I would encourage SPD-S owners and newcomers to upgrade to the SPD-SX-SE.

The Roland SPD-SX Sampling Drum Pad builds on the success of the SPD-S by adding a host of great new features. The internal 2GB memory has plenty of room for all of your sounds. Need more? You can now load sounds via USB flash memory and mass storage drives. Roland has equipped the SDPSX with their most advanced triggering system yet. The nine velocity sensitive pads provide a great feel and corresponding LED"s let you know the pads status.

Today"s musical styles require drummers to have access to unique sounds and samples. There is no easier way to get booming kicks and cutting claps into your performances. The SPD-SX fits easily into your drum set or percussion setup. Use the bundled SPD-SX Wave Manager to import your go to sounds directly from your computer onto the SPD-SX.

Sampling your own sounds couldn"t be easier, just hit the pad you want to record to once to start and again to stop. Once your sounds are recorded, then the real fun begins. There are three multi effects units onboard that allow you to mangle, filter or enhance your sounds. These effects are easily tweaked from the four front panel knobs.

Even though the SPDSX is loaded to the gills with features and specs it still plays and feels like an instrument. All of your playing techniques translate very well and it soon becomes an extension of your musical ideas. All while be very intuitive to operate.

The SPD-SX PRO is the ultimate sampling pad for the most demanding gigs. With years of road testing and extensive user feedback from the SPD-S and SPD-SX, the top-tier SPD-SX PRO raises the bar again. Harnessing the advanced sample pad technology of its predecessors, the SPD-SX PRO boasts an array of requested professional enhancements and is built for life on the road. Illuminate dark stages with a large color display and customizable multi-color trigger lights.

Expand your performance setup with more audio outputs, additional trigger inputs, and hi-hat and FX expression pedal control. And go further with a massive 32 GB memory, 48 kHz audio playback, increased pad sensitivity without crosstalk, and a dedicated SPD-SX PRO App for easier kit editing.

You can scarcely open the pages of DRUM! without seeing a Roland SPD-S next to a drum set. It’s become something of a “must have” for drummers, like extra sticks or a second snare. The SPD-S is an all-in-one multipad that allows you to capture sounds (samples), edit these samples, and easily play them back. Nothing else needed to take a sound from sampling to playback – it’s a one-stop device.

An important distinction to make is that the SPD-S is a sampling pad. In fact, it’s the only sampling pad available on earth at the moment, and it’s designed specifically for drummers. Other multipads, such as the Roland Octapad SPD-30 and the Yamaha DTX-Multi 12 might look similar, but these pads playback sounds from a fixed sound set that is permanently etched into internal ROM. Although you can alter these internal sounds, do some loop creation, and add effects, these multipads do not sample. (The DTX-Multi 12 does allow you to load samples into the 64MB of internal memory, albeit just in 4MB chunks.)

The ability to load custom sounds and loops is exactly what the SPD-S is designed to do, again, specifically with the drummer in mind. Its easy-to-use interface allows you to work through every aspect of the sampling and editing process, with almost no prior sampling experience. Oh yeah, you don’t need a computer to create, edit, and manipulate samples; it can all be done onboard the SPD-S.

There’s room inside this little box for almost 900 samples. It even comes loaded with 181 single-strike samples and loops, most of which are very usable. Unfortunately, if you want custom sampled sounds and loops, they don’t magically appear perfectly trimmed and ready to use. There’s no sample-creation fairy. You’re going to have to create them. That said, there are a few basics about sampling and its terminology that will be helpful to know before you power up an SPD-S, and jump into the shallow end of the sampling pool.

There are a few things you should know about the SPD-S and its polyphony – polyphony being the number of samples that can sound at the same time. Hey, I just said, “Polyphony!” Simply put, there isn’t a whole lot of it to spare. The SPD-S has eight-voice polyphony. That is to say, eight mono samples can sound at the same time. The samples can be individual hits like percussion sounds, or full-blown loops. But, as soon as the ninth simultaneous sound is played, the very first sound played will be cut off and stop sounding.

LONG Grade squeezes the most sampling time out of the SPD-S, but at the cost of sound quality. I discourage the use of this Grade, as you do begin to hear some of the sample degradation.

There are two ways to get new samples from an external source into the SPD-S: sampling directly into the SPD-S using the audio inputs on the back panel, and editing the sound on a computer and transferring it to the SPD-S via CF card. While some people prefer the simplicity of using just the SPD-S to sample and edit, others like editing on a computer because you’re able to see the waveform on the screen. Either way is easy to master because the user interface of the SPD-S is designed to make what used to be a very difficult process, easy. Dare I say, it’s almost “drummer proof!”

The back panel of the SPD-S has two 1/4″ audio inputs. They accept standard guitar cables. To sample using these inputs, simply plug in an external audio source. If you are using an audio source such as a CD player, mp3 player, or synthesizer, make sure the switch to the left of the inputs is set to LINE. If you are using a microphone, you’ll need an adapter to turn the mike’s XLR output into a .25″ plug. Because microphones have a much lower output level than most other audio devices, like synthesizers, set the switch to MIC. This setting makes the audio inputs much more sensitive. To the right of the audio inputs you’ll find a knob marked LEVEL that is used to fine tune the input gain (aka, input level), once you start the sampling process (Fig. 2).

Notice that the left (L) audio input is also labelled MONO. Circuitry in the SPD-S senses if both the right (R) and left (L) inputs have jacks plugged into them, and automatically samples in stereo. It’s very important that when you want to sample in Mono, that just one cord is used and it is plugged into the left (L), MONO input. Not only do stereo samples eat up polyphony, they double the size of the associated sample file (Fig. 2).

To take you through the process of sampling using the SPD-S, instead of using an mp3 player or a microphone, I’m going to use a pair of over-the-ear headphones as the microphone. Yes, it seems odd at first, but microphones and headphones work on the same principle.

Being a self-professed geek, I use my computer to edit samples before I transfer them to the SPD-S. Quite frankly, making loops repeat perfectly, and evening-out sample volumes with gain change or normalizing is much easier when you use sound-editing software on a computer. Fig. 5 shows a single hi-hat strike as it appears in the sound-editing software Peak, from Bias, Inc. Because I’m editing on screen, I can see that there is extra space at the beginning of the sample, shown in dark grey. If this space is not deleted, the sample will sound late, no matter how well you play in time. When editing samples inside the SPD-S, you have to primarily rely on your ears to edit the sample, including listening for any extra space or noise at the top of a sample. When editing in the blind like this, it’s a lot of work to accurately trim a sample. Although editing exclusively inside the SPD-S works, it’s not as accurate as editing sound in software.

Once all the editing is done on the computer, copy the file – AIF or WAV format – over to the root directory of the CF card (Fig. 6). The SPD-S will import WAV and AIF files with a sample rate of 44.1kHz, and a bit rate of either 8- or 16-bit. Beware of a sample’s bit rate; 24-bit samples will not load. Take the card out of the computer, insert it into the card slot on the SPD-S and use the card utilities to import the sample into the SPD-S. After that, you’ll have to manually assign the sound to a pad within a patch.

During the import process the SPD-S converts samples into a Roland proprietary format, with the suffix of SPD. This SPD-S specific format has its benefits. Most notably, during the format conversion a lot of number crunching and sample analysis is done and stored with the sample. Because of this, it’s very quick and easy to do things such as change the tempo of every loop in a patch to a master tempo, with just a few button pushes, change its pitch without changing its tempo; change its tempo without changing its pitch; and easily add effects.

The SPD-S is a great way to ease you into the world of sampling and looping. Just as you easily loaded sounds from the computer into the SPD-S, it’s even easier to export them as an AIF or WAV files to CF and load them back into the computer for use in digital recording and/or simply share them with friends and colleagues. (After importing samples into the SPD-S, you can delete any original files from the root directory of the CF card.) (Fig. 6)

The Phrase Maker function on the SPD-S is one of the easiest and most transparent tools available to create perfectly trimmed loops from the individual samples already in the SPD-S. Because you basically just select the desired patch, push a flashing button, and then just play the pads, it’s pretty much the perfect loop-creation interface for the drummer/percussionist.

Keeping true to its scratchpad moniker, the Phrase Maker has a few limits when it comes to the tweakability of its settings. Tempo can be set from 20–260 bpm for the quarter-note; a common range. A loop can be input quantized from eighth-notes to sixty-fourth-note triplets, or not quantized at all. A loop cannot be quantized after the fact, and quantization cannot be removed from a loop once it’s been played, so decide ahead of time if you’re going to need to quantize. The SPD-S input quantizes; you have to set the level of quantization before you record a loop. For most loops I create, I use input quantization; it just depends on the vibe wanted. Loop lengths are a little more restrictive. They can be one, two, four, eight, sixteen, and thirty-two bars in length. The length of the bar depends on the number of beats you choose for the bar, which can be any number from 1–13.

Creating a loop using the Phrase Maker function is stupidly easy. The multicolored, backlit gel buttons on the SPD-S help guide you through the process. To start, press and hold the PHRASE MAKER button until the START/STOP button begins flashing and you hear the click sound. In this Standby mode you can use the “+” and “–” buttons to select the desired tempo (Fig. 1). You’ll notice that the right PAGE button is now lit. Pressing it will take you to four additional pages where you can select quantization values, loop length (in bars), the number of beats per bar, and the level of the click. Make sure to do a little planning and select the needed settings, none of which can be changed after the fact. Once you’ve gone through these settings, there are two ways to initiate the recording of your loop.

Writing the newly created loop as a new sample file is initiated by, you guessed it, pressing the flashing RESAMPLE button. Do you see a pattern here? If a button is flashing, it’s probably the one you’ll press to initiate the next action on the SPD-S. Anyway, once you press the RESAMPLE button, its flashing will give way to a solid red glow. Again, the right PAGE button will light and you’ll be presented with five different menu screens. The first screen is the Gain screen. It’ll show a default value of 100%; there’s no need to change this, just press the right PAGE button again. This next screen allows you to choose between the loop being recorded as a mono or a stereo file. Remember, because stereo files use two voices of polyphony, they can quickly use up the available eight voices of polyphony on the SPD-S. If you can live with a mono loop, do so.

Press the right PAGE button once again and you’ll be prompted to choose the grade of the sample. The grade of the sample refers to the amount of bit compression that is applied to the sample. The lower the grade, the lower the sample playback quality. There are three levels of grade: Long, Standard, and Fine. Standard grade is the default setting and is near CD quality. Personally, I always pass right by this page and use the default Standard grade — it sounds great! Fine grade applies no bit compression at all. Although this is the best-sounding grade, it not only takes up more space on your CF card, but it also uses twice the polyphony of the other two grades. This can be kind of dicey as the SPD-S only has eight voices of polyphony to work with. Effectively, if samples are saved in Fine mode, the SPD-S has just four voices of polyphony. Which means only four mono samples, or just two stereo samples, can sound at the same time — kind of limiting. You can see why you might want to stick with Standard grade.

To finish saving you loop, press the right PAGE button yet again. The display will read, “resample, sure?” (Fig. 3) and the ENTER button will flash. Pressing the ENTER button will process the loop and then ask you if you would like to “write?” the loop to memory (Fig. 4). At this point you can use the “+” and “–” buttons to name the new loop using up to eight characters — a dizzying number. Press the ENTER button one more time and the loop will finally be saved to memory. At this point the SPD-S will automatically switch to WAVE mode, with the loop you just created playable from every pad. This allows you to immediately listen to your most recent masterpiece. There you have it: PHRASE MAKER makes loop creation so easy, even a drummer can do it!

So far, we’ve created individual hits and loops with the SPD-S using some powerful, albeit mundane, tools and techniques. For me, there are two things the SPD-S does that are nothing short of miraculous, especially given its low price tag. They are, 1) Its ability to apply a single or multi-effect to an existing sample/loop and create a new, effected sample, and 2) Its ability to change the tempo of a loop without changing the pitch — this time-stretching capability still knocks me out.

So far we’ve used the SPD-S to import or create single-hit sounds and loops, but haven’t altered those samples in any way. Well, folks, let the creativity begin! The SPD-S boasts 30 multi-effects, including simple multi-band EQ, compression, a ring modulator, a voice transformer, and, if you’re looking to erase any trace of your band’s former singer — a center-cancel function. Each patch can have one multi-effect assigned to it at a time. Each pad within the patch can be set to use the effect, in varied amounts, or have no effect at all.

There is one SPD-S function that, in my mind, justifies its entire purchase price. It is the Sync Tempo function tucked away anonymously amongst the Patch Common settings. With this single-page function, you can create magic. It brings to the table the ability to take loops of differing tempos and instantly change their tempo up or down to that set in the Sync Tempo page. This is all without changing the original pitch of the loop — simply brilliant.