Skip to content
  • Legal disclaimer
  • Art
  • Dance
  • Earth
  • Jeffrey the Barak
  • Objects
  • People
  • Philosophy
  • Places
  • Scooters etcetera
  • about/contact

the-vu

online magazine, since 2000

Month: February 2016

Roland Octapad SPD-30 as a mini-kit. A real drummer’s review

By Jeffrey the Barak. Wait a minute, it’s 2016. Why would someone write a review of an SPD-30 now, when it came out in 2010? Good question. Firstly it’s still the newest model, and secondly, I just bought one, for the following reason. I am now in a situation where having a big drum set… Read More Roland Octapad SPD-30 as a mini-kit. A real drummer’s review

February 5, 2016December 6, 2022 thebarak45 Comments
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • December 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • June 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • April 2019
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • July 2017
  • December 2016
  • August 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • February 2014
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • October 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • August 2011
  • May 2011
  • December 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • February 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • June 2009
  • March 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • January 2007
  • February 2006
  • December 2005
  • May 2005
  • January 2005
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • March 2004
  • November 2003
  • September 2003
  • August 2003
  • June 2003
  • May 2003
  • April 2003
  • January 2003
  • December 2002
  • July 2002
  • June 2002
  • May 2002
  • April 2002
  • August 2001
  • July 2001
  • June 2001
  • April 2001
  • February 2001
  • January 2001
  • December 2000
  • November 2000
  • August 2000
  • July 2000
  1. Dave Skridulis Avatar
    Dave Skridulis
    May 8, 2016

    Jeffrey, Thanks for the article it answers a lot of my questions,I am pretty much a beginning (again) drummer and was considering getting an acoustic kit, outfitting it with Aquarian Sound Pads an Zildjian Low volume symbols to make it quiet enough to play at home. I always did wonder why they “spread out” the e-drum kits to emulate an acoustic sized kit and figured it was probably due to muscle memory and familiarity. But since I am basically starting from scratch it seems to make sense to have a really compact kit like the Octapad. Thanks again for your article !

    LikeLike

    Reply
  2. Bharath J Avatar
    Bharath J
    July 7, 2016

    Hey man! Love your post on this. I was looking all over the interwebs to find this. I have a roland SPD-SX and wanted to be able to trigger only some kick samples over the micked acoustic sound for live performance.Like how the TM-2 does it.

    How do I map “flex” samples on Addictive drums 2 to an external acoustic trigger to achieve this. Thankyou very much and loved this tutorial

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin
      July 7, 2016

      I don’t know. I have yet to explore the MIDI triggering aspect of this unit. Being lazy and settling for the internals through phones or speakers. But I have to tackle all of this mapping confusion eventually if this is going to be of any use in recording.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  3. Sam Avatar
    Sam
    July 19, 2016

    Hi
    Great article – did you magage to find a good solution in regards to midi hi hats and vst plug in like bfd ?
    Struggling like mad to get the fd8 to work accordingly ?! Thank you for the inspiring article

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin
      July 19, 2016

      Have not tried again since. Just using it live with onboard sounds, and have not tried to trigger a VST with it. But one day I will.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  4. Sam Avatar
    Sam
    July 19, 2016

    Thanks !

    LikeLike

    Reply
  5. Raj Kumar Avatar
    Raj Kumar
    August 27, 2016

    Hi! Brother I’m Raj. I’m using Spd-30. I want to use it as a Midi ControLLer with Spd-S. My needs are:
    1) On Spd-30’s Pads 1-4 ( internal sounds) and Pads 5-8 (Spd-S Sounds).
    2) AlternateLy on Spd-S.
    I tried but I’m abLe to pLay onLy one module’s internal sounds ( like either Spd-30 or Spd-S sounds on Spd-S and Spd-30). I U CouLd Get me bro. Can u please help in Setting up the pads.
    If not Spd-s than any Drum moduLe.
    Thanks in advanCe Brother.

    LikeLike

    Reply
  6. Juan Avatar
    Juan
    October 31, 2016

    THANK YOOOOOOU!

    LikeLike

    Reply
  7. Christian Hervas Avatar
    Christian Hervas
    November 28, 2016

    VERY interesting, I am also a jazz drummer and would love the idea of a one piece compact kit. My question is about the ride sounds, would the SPD-30 handle an external e-cymbal like the cy-13 with the three separate edge/bow/bell sounds? As a jazz drummer this is as important to me as snare rolls. Also, instead of using a snare stand, would it be possible to use the Roland mounting plate attached to a cymbal stand so I could use one stand only to hold both the the spd-30 and the cy-13? Thank you.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. admin Avatar
      admin
      November 28, 2016

      No Christian Hervas. I found that despite my best efforts, the SPD-30 was almost completely useless for jazz drumming. In fact even my best ever e-kit, the Yamaha DTX7xx setup, was a bit limited. Even when using VST software, there is no faithful reproduction for ride cymbals, and snare drums. They are complex acoustic instruments when they are not damped to death, and there is not enough computing power to do them justice. The SPD-30, even when tweaked to be as sensitive as it can go, requires fairly hard stickwork to trigger, and most of the jazz drummer’s musicality is at a force well below this threshhold. Do not waste your time with the Octapad if you intend to play jazz music.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  8. Sam Avatar
    Sam
    December 4, 2017

    Great article! If you’re going to go fake (because let’s face it – electronic drums are generated sounds) you might as well go all the way. I imagine that after getting to used to the relative close proximity of the Octapad pads, there’s absolutely no need for wanting to have electronic drums with individual drum pads and cymbal shaped pieces of rubber.

    LikeLike

    Reply
  9. Grant Avatar
    Grant
    December 24, 2017

    Good review. Thanks. Great to see that drummers are gradually waking up to the place edrums have in our musical repetoire.

    “Hey! This electric guitar sucks because it’s not an exact replica of an acoustic guitar!” said no guitarist, ever. 🙂

    LikeLike

    Reply
  10. Dj Psyshank Avatar
    Dj Psyshank
    March 3, 2018

    Hello.
    I have a good question. If we want to ignore the on-board sounds and looper, and just want to use the midi triggers then why choose the spd-30 over the spd-20?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      March 19, 2018

      In that case, a low price used SPD-20 should be fine, or better yet A DrumKAT, whichever the most basic one is these days. It used to be the DK10. The higher end DrumKATs are too complicated to be any fun, unless you are an enormous boffin. If you are not a hard hitter, in that you use light sticks and play with your fingers and wrists, then even the Alesis things will be adequate triggers.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  11. Sohn Avatar
    Sohn
    April 19, 2018

    Hi,
    Very nice review…well written and interesting. I have currently have a Roland TD-20 kit and I also (until recently) owned the Roland Handsonic hpd-20. I agree, the Roland sounds are “synthetic” compared to Yamaha e-drums. I originally went with the Roland Handsonic as a “mini” e-drum kit– got a great price on the full kit– so bought it. It does have 15 pads, but many of them are very, very small, and they are centered around the top edge of the unit. Made to play with finger tips. The larger pads are meant to play with the hands, which is something I didn’t realize until I tried using it for practice with my band. Yeah, using drum sticks on it does not work so well… like, not at all! It really is made for hand drummers.

    So, I ended up selling it and going with the Yamaha Multi-12 instead, since I already own the Yamaha DTX 920HWK kit, and I knew I could use the same mounting bracket from the module and stand– and the snare, hi hat controller and kick pads would be compatible as add-on pads.

    I would have to disagree with you on the stick rebound being an issue on the Multi 12. The pads work very well for me and I am easily able to get doubles out of it using sticks. The hi hat controller works very well– not to mention the Multi 12 has twelve pads instead of the Roland Octopad’s eight.

    It was extremly easy to MIDI map to Addictive drums. Took all of about 10 minutes. Also, the Multi 12 has the ability to layer up to four voices on each pad, in either “stack” mode or “alternate” mode. And one last very cool thing: The Multi 12 has a free app– connect the unit with USB to an ipad, open the app, and you can very quickly edit kits, .WAV files, patterens, tone and output, MIDI messages, effects, etc. right on the iPad and then save your changes to the unit.

    So, I don’t necessarily think the Roland beats out the Yamaha; it just depends on individual tastes, I suppose.

    The Multi 12 only has 50 preset kits, though– 200 User kits….and many of the preset kits are simply awful and unusable. Where this unit shines, though, is the ability to on-board .WAV trim, loop, and tweak sounds to make your own kits. That’s a whole lot of menu diving, but made much easier with the ipad app.

    As how you decribe the “not-sensitive” trigger action of the Octapad, the same issue exists with the Multi 12. Can be frustrating. I have to change my trigger settings to either “finger” or “hand” mode to play with normal force on the pads with sticks, otherwise it takes way too much whacking velocity.

    LikeLike

    Reply
  12. Gert Avatar
    Gert
    May 16, 2018

    Hi Jeffrey,

    Thanks for the review. I just bought an SPD-30 too. I’m a bass player and like to use the phrase loop functionality. As I’m not a native drummer I’m wondering, would you be willing to share your custom kit files to help me getting better sounds out of the unit?

    Kr,
    Gert

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      May 17, 2018

      Gert,

      I sold mine long ago and returned to real acoustic drums. They are the only things that can respond to all the data that my sticks put out! I never used the phase loop function.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  13. Lewis Dimmick Avatar
    Lewis Dimmick
    June 18, 2018

    I’m struggling to find info on using midi in for extra pad triggers on spd30. It occurs to me that mesh Tom’s would be nice additions to the 4 standard inputs (snare, hat, kick, crash)

    Could you tell me if that’s possible / advisable please?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      June 22, 2018

      Stay with the same brand, and just add any type of Roland pad. Honestly I can see why you might need a mesh snare pad, but the onboard pads are all you need for toms.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  14. Buddy Wenn Avatar
    Buddy Wenn
    August 5, 2018

    Hello Jeff,
    I think you are discounting the capabilities of the SPD-30 heavily and unfairly. You said to “ignore and overlook many of the features that you just paid good money for.” “The entire, prominently featured, “Phrase-Loop” engine? Pretend it’s not there.”
    “The massive sound library of things that are not in an acoustic drum kit? Just say, “Very nice, but no thank you.” Seriously, why would you handicap the SPD-30 this way. Your saying to eliminate most of it and see what’s left… how about you write and article about all the short-comings of an acoustic drum set compared to the full functions of the SPD-30? That may be a very long article! If you can eliminate 100’s of functions/capabilities from the SPD-30 I would ask that you eliminate just one of your acoustic components, like your Snare Drum or your pedals – you choose!
    And like Grant said: “Hey! This electric guitar sucks because it’s not an exact replica of an acoustic guitar!” said no guitarist, ever. ?

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      August 10, 2018

      Hi Buddy. I was reviewing the SPD-30 as a tool to be used as a compact electronic drum set. That is why all those features were irrelevant to this particular review. None of those functions matter because the whole point is, how is it when used as a drum set? This was not a product review in the normal sense, and the article is only about using it instead of a full size e-kit, to play drums. Bass, snare, toms, hats and cymbals. That’s what this was about. I know the SPD-30 is a capable synthesizer, sequencer and more, but there are many product reviews published online, and this was not meant to be one of those.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  15. Jackson Avatar
    Jackson
    August 18, 2018

    I am on my second home-produced album of original songs, maybe a combination of Jackson Browne and Tom Petty. Came to the same conclusion about not needing a setup that looked like acoustic drums. One thing I did for recordings was to change all pads to where hard or soft strikes gave the same volume output. Really happy with the Octapad.

    LikeLike

    Reply
  16. Dan Jenkins Avatar
    Dan Jenkins
    February 10, 2019

    Hey! So I’m thinking of buying an octapad to replace my keyboard voice stuff; what are the pedals you use? Do they only work via midi, of do they connect to the pads hardware? Thanks.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      February 15, 2019

      Bass drum controllers and HiHat controllers for the Octapad are the same as for other Roland e-kits. All Roland gear will work with it.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  17. david massoni Avatar
    david massoni
    October 18, 2019

    Hello, great review!
    i have the Spd-sx to do that job with a vst, I tried with Battery in Komplete 12 but it wasn’t good for acoustic drum, especially for snare.
    do I need to use an other plugin like bfd or ezdrummer or may the Spd-sx isn’t the best solution ? hihat input is not a problem, for the moment!! I just want the sensitivity of drum module for acoustic sound with a plugin.
    Thanks a lot!!

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      October 23, 2019

      The SPD-SX is probably still the most playable one, besides the TrapKAT and DrumKAT. It just does not work as a kit replacement, because of the hat issue. I think that eKits need to have more RAM in their modules, and one-piece kits need to jump ahead a decade or two a.s.a.p.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  18. Shashank Avatar
    Shashank
    February 27, 2020

    Any links of your inbuilt custom kit or tips about settings to make it sound more real.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      February 27, 2020

      Shashank, That was years ago, but I think the article describes what I myself did to get the most out of the Octapad.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  19. Wayne Avatar
    Wayne
    April 21, 2020

    Nice to see that you are still monitoring this review. I owned the very first Octapad (Pad 8) and then bought the Pad 80 when it came out. Originally I used both as add-ons to my giant acoustic kit (this was the 80’s and 90’s) but later I actually gigged with the Pad 80 on a stand, a Tama Techstar pad as a kick pad and hi-hats played on the Pad 80 using the layering to get different sounds. A Roland MT32 sound module rounded it all out. Basic, but it was workable for what we were playing.
    Now I have a “new” Octapad and it is set up with the Roland Pedals, mesh snare and a couple of little cheap splash cymbals as well as an extra Roland mesh pad connected into the external inputs. I was hoping that someone would work out how to get more sounds into the Octapad, which is how I found your article. I am building up a small home studio and will be connecting the Octapad up to my trusty 2010 cheesegrater Mac Pro. My question is, I bought the Octapad second hand and don’t know if it has the firmware update. How do I check?
    Thanks for the article – I appreciate your thoughts.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      April 21, 2020

      I don’t remember exactly, but I think I did a firmware update on a Roland Handsonic by going to the Roland website. Long time ago!

      LikeLike

      Reply
  20. Dean Avatar
    Dean
    April 4, 2021

    Thanks Jeffrey (and everyone else who has commented). I am a bassist / (home) producer who has a SPD-30 primarily so that my drummer friends have something to play while at my house – I have the Roland kick and hi-hat pedals and have bought a couple of second hand Roland mesh pads and a cymbal to flesh it out a little. My goal is to have a compact kit that makes capturing a reasonable quality demo is feasible (and is gigable if need be). My drummer friends especially like having a seperate mesh head snare. I need to sort a stand for that. For now I record stereo out using internal sounds as a default – trying to get into the MIDI side of things (Logic is my primary DAW) but have found the experience inconsistent and prone to frustration – sometimes you just wanna capture the vibe quickly. Anyway, thanks again for the advice!

    LikeLike

    Reply
  21. Thomas Petersen Avatar
    Thomas Petersen
    May 21, 2021

    Great article. I have arthritis and no long wish to cart around an acoustic kit. I play in a country band, so my drum sound needs are pretty basic. BUT…I’m a left-handed drummer playing a right-handed kit. I play HH with my left hand and SN with my right. My question is, can I assign my “kit sounds” to whichever pad I want? Secondly, is the crash “pad” sensitive enough to register a light crash or a big crash? Or would I need two assigned pads? I also like playing the bell of the ride on occasion. How would one do that? I vacillating between the SPD30 and the SPDSX, but it sounds like the latter does not have HH control. Still pondering. Thank you!

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      May 21, 2021

      Hi Thomas. I think there have been firmware updates since I sold mine, but pretty sure this Roland also other units can flip to left hand setup. And if not you can build and save a custom kit putting anything anywhere. Bell of Ride is an available sound. On KAT products you can have this come out when you hit a bit harder on the ride pad. Yes the SPDSX is the nicest of all, but not intended as a standalone kit and therefore is not ideal for hihats. I would suggest you spend a few days obsessively watching YouTube reviews of all the multi-pads, and look for the most recent dates. Don’t rule out Alesis as they have really improved in this area.

      LikeLike

      Reply
      1. Gert Avatar
        Gert
        May 21, 2021

        Hi Thomas, I used to have a mini kit build around the spd-30. However in the meantime I have changed to the Alesis strike multipad . This offers a lot more options than the spd-30 and has the same expandability. Have a look at that one as the SPD-30 is really an old device. Stay away from SPD-SX as it is not suited for a stand alone full function mini kit.

        LikeLike

  22. Arthelion Avatar
    Arthelion
    October 30, 2021

    Hi, I’ve used the SPD30 as a trigger to Addictive Drums VST for 8 years now, and I found the playability and the sound result awesome, as far as your soundcard can cope with less than 5ms latency. It sounds exactly like a regular acoustic drumset ! No problem with rolls, ghosts notes, mid-opened hi-hats or whatever. I use it with a double bass drum pedal to play metal. The built-in USB midi interface has no latency, it copes very well with Reaper DAW. All in less than 1 m2 and without troubles with neighbourhood 🙂 I use various MIDI mappings to change drumset configuration according to my needs (very easy with Reaper).

    LikeLike

    Reply
  23. Colin williams Avatar
    Colin williams
    April 3, 2022

    Hi great great post, I am new to this and I have bought a SPD 30 to use as a mini kit I have worked most of it out but I don’t understand the difference between having the dynamics off or on ?? Apart from it being much louder off !! So where are the actual dynamics for adjustment sorry to appear a bit thick regards CJ

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      April 3, 2022

      Colin, I honestly cannot remember. I sold mine years ago. But I used to have it set at its most sensitive because I am not a heavy hitter. It still required me to play harder than on an acoustic kit. You have to switch on the dynamics though, to sound real.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  24. Wayne Avatar
    Wayne
    April 13, 2022

    I kind of solved the minikit thing for me by using the SPD-30 in conjunction with a Yamaha DTX502 module. I have 2 Yamaha cymbals that go through the DTX (so I can use the 3 zones) and two Roland mesh pads also through the DTX as my toms. Everything else goes through the Roland (one snare pad and one cymbal plus pedals). I run the output from the DTX into the input in the Roland and take the final sound to the PA from the Roland. Latency seems not to be an issue.
    The final kit is not as large as an acoustic kit or an electronic kit and can be folded up (with Octapad removed) and fitted into the back seat of my car. I am still tinkering with the dynamics of both modules. A work in progress but as I have bought it all in bits and pieces (most second hand), it’s been much more affordable than laying out for a full kit of any sort.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      April 13, 2022

      How resourceful. For me, I wanted to return to jazz drumming and a lot of the time I pay below the trigger threshold for almost any electronic drum. You really have to hit these things harder to get the info into the processor. So I use acoustic drums again.

      LikeLike

      Reply
  25. Charles Avatar
    Charles
    May 19, 2022

    I can’t thank you enough for this great article!! Been doing a lot of research and couldn’t quite find the answers I needed to make a decision and then I found this…thank you thank you! Ordered by SPD-30 today!!

    LikeLike

    Reply
  26. Dani Avatar
    Dani
    August 20, 2022

    I just sold my avatar pd705 due to dead hits and I also wanted to upgrade to the kt10 pedal. I’m disappointed in the sounds of the octapad and I wish I’d never switched from the avatar. The hihat pedal is impossible to get the open close hh disco beat sound okay which I did on the avatar. I did a lot of hh pedal with avatar and this octapad sucks.

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      August 23, 2022

      Never heard of the Avatar until this moment. As far as I remember I had no problems with the HiHat on my Roland. Maybe your pedal is not compatible with it.

      LikeLike

      Reply
      1. editor Avatar
        editor
        August 23, 2022

        Dani,

        I just looked into this and I see the identical unit has been sold under several brands and names. It was first released after I wrote the article you commented upon this week, but just based on the video reviews, I would say the 705 is a better one-piece kit than the Roland Octapad that I reviewed six and half years ago. However I am sorry to hear that yours had “dead hits”. I guess the trick to all of these is to use light sticks and play at low velocity. After all, it can be loud without hitting hard. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I feel that unless you play jazz, electronic kits are ideal in any situation. Terrible for jazz drumming though.

        LikeLike

  27. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin
    November 27, 2022

    The new SPD-SX Pro has hi hat control… does this put it above the Octapad SPD-30 in your view? I imagine the onboard sounds are much improved, but don’t know how any of the other elements, like feel of the pads, would compare. Thanks

    LikeLike

    Reply
    1. editor Avatar
      editor
      November 27, 2022

      Good to hear that hat control is there now. It’s absence before made that unit no good as a compact kit. I prefer the pads on the SPD-SX to those on the Octa. I am out of touch with the onboard sounds though. I suspect that the new wave of cheaper multipads might be givng Roland some competition now. A full kit in a little box remains elusive when so many e-drum kits are in the stores at low prices.

      LikeLike

      Reply
A WordPress.com Website.
  • Follow Following
    • the-vu
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • the-vu
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...