What's the deal with Octapad?

B

beaverbiscuit

New member
I originally posted this in the Drum forum, but as I have gotten no response I thought I'd try in here.

Got some questions about the Roland Octapad:

First, what exactly does it do? I gather that it's a trigger of some sort using MIDI, but I haven't been able to find jack about it online.

Second, how useful would it be for a guitarist who has no drumming skills whatsoever? I'll be working in Sonar and eventually using a lot of MIDI and software synthesis to create my music.

Third, is $50 a fair price for a used one? My brother has a contact who wants to sell his, but I'm trying to find out as much as possible before I commit.

Thanks for your help.
 
It's a MIDI controller with pads, as far as I know. No sounds of its own unless I'm mistaken, it just sends out Note On and velocity measures from its pads. You connect it to a MIDI synth, drum machine, or sampler to create sounds.

It's very useful for recording MIDI drum tracks if you can hit the pads like a drummer would, or at least approximately. You can always do the same thing with a standard MIDI keyboard, but it's far more difficult. Much more natural to hit pads with a stick (or your hands).

$50 is an excellent price if it's in good shape. I don't know if the sensors on those pads hold up forever, and if they are beat to shit then it's essentially worthless. Testing it out should give you an idea of that.

I recently bought a Roland SPD-6, which is a similar device but much newer, for about $230.
 
Thanks AlChuck. Yeah, I need to see the item up close and personal, but I'm not too worried about it being in bad shape. The guy who's selling it (who happens to be in my brother's band) told my brother that one of the triggers needs some work, but he is going to fix that before the sale.

So it's essentially a controller for drum sounds, eh? Very cool. I could get very used to the idea of tapping beats that way rather than doing them on keys :D.
 
You can even use it to trigger loop samples and sequences if you want. It will just send note and velocity info. You can tell whatever receives that info what to do with it next.

A lot of drummers use those to trigger extra sounds and sequences along with their regular drum kit.
 
Cool idea, Tex. Thanks for the input. Yesterday I talked to an old music buddy who said something similar, so I'm looking forward to getting it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top