Alesis has introduced the Strike MultiPad, a percussion pad instrument that lets you sample, edit, loop and perform.
The MultiPad offers an unprecedented 8000+ built-in sounds, 32GB of storage and the ability to record samples from almost any source (smartphone, mic, off the internet, via USB and other audio devices). There are five built-in effects processors and a Custom Effect Control. Plus, there are multiple ins/outs with USB audio and MIDI interface, multiple external drum/cymbal triggers and a 4.3” color screen.
Features:
- 9 Velocity-Sensitive pads with customizable RGB lights
- 32GB of internal storage with over 6GB of included samples and loops
- 4.3” color display delivers fast visual system status, makes editing easy
- Built-in Sampler – capture the perfect sound from your phone, mic, or computer
- Built-in Loop Recorder – create custom loops in real time
- 2 channel USB audio interface – makes it fast and easy to connect to your computer
- Connect a USB drive to quickly load your own WAV files
- Five onboard effects processors (3 kit FX, 1 master FX, 1 comp/EQ)
- Separate Main, Aux and Headphone outputs
- Three trigger inputs and two dual foot-switch inputs for system expansion
- “A-LINK” – Two fully-assignable infinite rotary encoders
Video Demos:
Pricing and Availability
The Alesis Strike MultiPad is available now for US $699.
That’s pretty impressive. The pads seem a bit small to me, but you always have to adapt when you fold new things into a rig. I’m curious about how good the build is, since drum controllers take a pounding, no pun intended. The controls may be a bit exposed, but I had an Octapad years ago, so I know you get centered pretty easily. Drummers love having gongs, timpani and sound FX at hand, but I’d like to see how keyboardists and DJs apply it. With that library and several smart I/O options, its not just a casual drum gimmick. Hey Santa…
Agreed, I was a little concerned about about control placement but I/O options and features are just too good. Sold.
I thought the exact same – why are the controls placed this way? Non-skilled players have a good chance to hit the dial etc.
My main recording kit is a hybrid combining a TD-20 and expanded TD-10 brain setup, but also have some smaller pad setups with an Alesis DMPro and an Alesis SampleRack module, but will definitely add this.
“Connect a USB drive to quickly load your own samples.”
Watched a bunch of demos, lots of great features and the ability to quickly and EASILY load samples and edit them, makes it a must have for my drum studio loop work.
This looks pretty good. I like seeing a 10ths decimal place on the tempo setting. Hopefully it was thoughtfully designed (i.e., good firmware and future-proof).
If the profile of the unit was designed right, those controls would be pretty safe except for unexpected thrown sticks or whatever.
Though there are other products like this, it’s a matter of someone combining the right features to create a really versatile product. In this, it appears to have enough trigger ins (though not many), sampling capability, and fx. I wish it had a powerful sequencer built in.
If they wanted to sell me one, it would have had a HH pedal and kick pedal included.
I think I’ll wait a few months to see how many people smash the screen, but overall it looks really good. I’ve wanted a Roland for a while, and it might still be the more robust option, but I’m watching this one.
Alesis’s first product worth buying since the Micron and Andromeda.
Great idea for a product! Definitely unique and blurs some lines. Since it loops MIDI (first vid says you can swap kits which would be difficult without the note data), it’d be nice to see some quantize options in the looper recording. It’d also be cool if it could be remotely controlled by other DAWs or looper software like ALK. Things like turning loop recording on/off, changing kits, effects settings, etc. I’m no drummer but this looks like fun so I’ll be checking it out.
Pretty sure they don’t include pedals because most drummers with electronic kits have all of that stuff already. No reason to increase the cost to give people something they don’t want or need. I’m sure music shops will waste no time in creating bundles for the rest of us though.
This would be great if it had 8 outputs. It would be as useful as a Mpc to me. The small number of outs is useless in a studio setting. It is good to see other companies realizing multiple audio outs are vital on studio quality equipment.
I wonder if you could use the USB to send the individual outs to a computer for recording?
Im not a drummer but the rig looks pretty sturdy to me…however the construction below it doesnt look that way…
Yea, I noticed in the teaser video, it didn’t look particularly sturdy. It looked better in the 2nd video.
Maybe someone would cut a piece of foam to cover the screen & controls and flip up to edit. Perhaps a pad can be used to advance patches.
Looks very impressive. Very nice design, cheaper than the Roland SPD-30 and far more functional. I’m also really pleased they didn’t omit DIN MIDI.
If I was in the market for an Octapad, this would be it.
I just hope it’s not buggy.
Yes! I really like seeing when companies continue to support MIDI DIN i/o.
External midi clock sync?
The fact it has a panic mode and pad assigned to defeat the sounds playing sounds horrific already. Smell-esis….meh
Would like to know more about importing and managing samples before I get too excited. User samples are last in the category list and there’s no mention of user folders or applying categories. The SPDs works the same (original one anyway) and scrolling through a flat list of hundreds of samples sucks. Without folders and/or categories, you either have to prefix your sample names so that a ‘kit’ appears together _or_ so that your snares are all together.
No, Alesis, no… just… no!!!
specs look great woulds like to see an independent review on build quality and how well it triggers
Quite impressed! The combo of live hits, sampling and ableton integration make this thing look really really cool!
Why do they (roland, yamaha, alesis) have to make these things basically identical and so damn ugly?!! Drums are cool. Acoustic drums are a thing of beauty. Is there no passion other than copying the competition and adding a few additional items to the feature checklist?
Probably their first priority is to not make it too large. Then work out how many surfaces. Making it three-wide was smart. Those rails along the top that most of them are doing now, that’s a no-brainer. You get 9 surfaces and those top three you can find with your eyes closed. Tucking the control panel in the front makes sense in terms of access, and a decent player will be able to avoid bashing it.
As for color, black is unobtrusive. I guess a person wanting more color could do some work with colored tape or stickers to add some sparkle. I wouldn’t mind if it was white or grey, or reddish grey, or greenish grey. But how do you please everyone? You don’t/can’t.
I thought Alesis went belly up.
Thankfully Numark bought them iust like they bought AKAI and M-Audio and other once great brands that now are starting to show greatness again.
Maybe add a thin hard plastic ridge between the pads and controls, slightly taller than the controls, to guard them from stray hits.
And allow for rim shots! [insert one here, thanks]