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Photos too small? Click on photos, screenshots and diagrams in articles to open a Larger View gallery. January 2010
Other recent issues: | Alesis Performance PadElectronic percussion padPublished in PM August 2008  Printer-friendly versionReviews : Drums: Electronic Hot on the heels of the wallet-friendly Alesis Control Pad comes the new Performance Pad, also slotting neatly into the 'affordable' category — but is it up to all that the road has to throw at it, or more suited to the home studio?  The Performance Pad features eight velocity-sensitive pads and a built-in drum machine, based on the Alesis SR-16. The Alesis Performance Pad is a percussion controller featuring a host of onboard sounds and a fully-fledged drum machine. There are over 200 drum and percussion sounds on tap, some of which have reverb, gates and other effects applied and, with 50 pre-configured kits available and room for an additional 50 user-definable kits and percussion setups, there is plenty here to keep the performer occupied. The internal drum machine is actually a repackaged SR-16, which has been placed into a shiny black plastic box that features eight velocity-sensitive pads designed to be struck by a pair of sticks. Users of the SR-16 will no doubt recall that the old-timer had an array of velocity sensitive pads too, but these were much, much smaller and were intended to be 'hit' by nothing more than the finger tips. Although the SR-16 has been around for some 18 years, it is only very recently that we have seen it replaced by the new SR-18. In this insanely fickle and fashion-conscious world of electronics and music, virtually two decades is a very long lifespan for any product. Even though this is a clever box of tricks, the SR-16 does stretch the idea of longevity for any music machine — even one said to be "the most popular drum machine of all time". With 96ppqn (pulses per quarter note timing resolution) and no fewer than 12,000 notes available for 400 songs, encompassing 200 preset patterns/songs and 200 user patterns/songs, it still remains a powerful piece of drum machinery. Socket to me  The rear panel of the Performance Pad features a main volume control, a headphone output, main Left and Right output jacks, a MIDI Out, two pedal input sockets and a 9V DC power input. The layout, size and some of the rear socketry is similar to that of the Alesis Control Pad, except there is no USB socket and, unbelievably, the only MIDI socket is an Out, so the Performance Pad's sounds can only be triggered by the pads, and not by an external controller. There are eight levels of volume in the built-in drum machine, but Alesis mention that the MIDI Out can send up to 127 levels of velocity. Other sockets include two additional trigger inputs, which are single standard jacks and not the dual type (a stereo jack acting as a dual-trigger input for a two-zoned pad, for example), so the application and connection will be limited to external pads having a single zone or, as is their intended designation, to plug in a simple switched device for triggering a bass drum and hi-hat sound. So that the user can jam along to their favourite tracks, an input is provided for CD or iPod via a 2.5mm jack, and a rotary volume pot is on hand to control the overall volume output of the drum machine and stereo input. Power is supplied via the included AC adapter, but I think it would have been a great feature to have some option of battery power, as on the new SR-18 — then the pad would have been useful for some on-the-move practice. The power cord wraps around a useful cord grip to stop it from getting pulled accidentally during performance. The graphic display (which looks to be same size as on the SR-16) has a very low contrast ratio, and the LCD segment appears to be quite a dull grey, rather than a clear, dense black. Also, this lacks any form of backlight, so in a gig it would be almost impossible to see, unless you have a torch handy. Still, the shiny black plastic casing looks very, very sexy (almost iPhone-like in its overall finish) with radial, sweeping contours upon the lower section of the pads. The rigid, rubber playing surface is divided up into eight sections, with the lower divisions slightly higher than the upper ones due to the contour. The pads' default instrument assignment is configured in a similar manner to Roland pads, with the bass drum on the lower left pad, snare next to the bass drum and so on, which will make anyone familiar with one of these devices feel immediately at home. Each of the eight zones is velocity sensitive, and this gives eight levels of volume from the pads, but some of the sounds feature the rather grandiose-sounding "Dynamic Articulation". This very basically gives a slightly different tone to the drum sounds or voices, depending on how hard the pads are struck. Sounds may be layered by choosing the same note number for a sound, which means if you prefer to trigger several snares simultaneously, you can. Manual labour Rather than having one overweight manual to work with, Alesis have chosen to produce three smaller booklets, which will save the user having to trawl through the forest of facts and figures. There is a very useful Quick Start guide to help you get down to the nitty gritty quickly, and just in case you do forget how to operate the pad, Alesis have thoughtfully included a mini instruction sheet on the underside of the unit too. While being a serious and useful reference to the variety of sounds available, the overall tone of the information and instructions is one of having fun or, as Alesis put it, "10 steps to instant gratification." Performance On powering up, the LCD momentarily displays the Alesis logo and, within a second or two, the pad is ready and raring to go. The last kit accessed is displayed, and as I select the demo (by pressing the Pattern/Song and Play buttons simultaneously) the machine goes immediately into a shed-building exercise and produces nearly every sound available within a few bars. The best way to hear the machine, though, is not through the demo but by going into each of the patterns — some of them useful and, at times, inspirational, giving me the feeling that I have to jump on the kit immediately and try out some of the rhythms myself! Playing around with the various drum patterns demonstrates that there is still a lot to offer, and practising along with the drum machine and metronome should make practice perfect. Using the basic drum machine is really very intuitive, and recording patterns and fills is easy — just press Pattern, User, Compose, select the pattern number, set the tempo, press Play and start bashing away. When you are happy with the pattern, just press Stop — easy peasy! One great feature is that it is possible to set the tempo by simply taping on the Stop button at the speed you wish the pattern to be played, and once this is set, selecting any of the patterns is a breeze. Through the headphones, the sounds are really very good but it's hard to realise the full potential until connected up to my old and trusty sound-reinforcing PA, where this pad comes into its own. Amazingly powerful and punchy, playing with the Performance Pad and my acoustic kit simultaneously is great fun, and loading up some Latin percussion sounds on the pad and playing various patterns on the kit, then swapping over to let the drum machine do the job of keeping time is good fun while at the same time great practice. Conclusion There are many, many features that I haven't touched on during the course of writing this review, and even though I have spent over a week finding out the various functions and playing with the sounds and patterns, I have barely skimmed the surface. Some sounds, like the timbale and certain cymbals, suffer from a very fast decay that is actually so rapid you could be fooled into thinking an electronic gate had been slammed in your face. Also the 16-note polyphony could possibly limit the performance slightly, with notes shutting off here and there as priority is given to the last notes struck. Now, I could be cracking up here but I found certain parts of the manual that suggest using a footswitch to start and stop the various patterns. The problem is that there is no footswitch socket available! I would imagine the manual has been copied from the SR-16, but then there are elements in the Performance Pad manual that shouldn't be appearing in the SR-16 manual! Why Alesis thought not to include a MIDI input is a bit of a mystery (the SR-16 had one), meaning that the Performance Pad will have to sit at the very start of any MIDI chain and control other instruments with its MIDI clock, drum machine and performance pads. This will limit the appeal for those users who would have benefitted from triggering the internal drum sounds via an external MIDI controller — after all, there must someone out there who hasn't purchased an SR-16? Overall the unit lacks the sort of finesse of some other pads I have worked with, but when you consider the bargain-basement price, it represents good value for money and is a great way of owning a drum machine and percussion pad. I'd be more than happy to take this out on the road, and wouldn't even have to splash out on one single MIDI lead either! 0  Published in PM August 2008  | Alesis Performance Pad £179 While there is nothing revolutionary about either the pad or the built-in drum machine, having both in one convenient box will no doubt prove to be a useful tool. If there are any minor complaints, it's all smoothed over with the fact that it sells for well under £200 — what a bargain.
Tech Spec Performance Pad 8 pads. 8 levels of volume on built-in sounds. 127 levels of velocity on MIDI Out. 16-Bit sample resolution. 50 preset kits. 50 user kits. 233 sounds. Individually adjustable volume and panning per sound. Panning: 7-position, user programmable. Outputs: Left, Right and stereo headphone jacks. Input: 3.5mm stereo jack. Bass drum and hi-hat trigger inputs. 16-note polyphony. 96ppqn timing resolution. Tempo: 20 - 255bpm. MIDI Output. MIDI Clock. Song position pointer. Dynamic Articulation. Sound stacking. Step editor. 9V AC adaptor. |
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