Alesis SamplePad 4

Alesis SamplePad 4 Electronic Percussion Instrument at a Glance:

• Add electronic percussion to your drums
• Program realistic beats in the studio
• Create your own samples and drum kits

If you play regularly with an acoustic kit, just think of what you could do with an Alesis SamplePad 4 in your rig. This compact percussion instrument makes it super easy to fire off samples as you play, allowing you to add classic electronic sounds and loops to your grooves, such as hand claps or continuous tambourine patterns. Cooler still, you can load up acoustic percussion instrument sounds you simply don't have. Need claves for one song but don't want to blow your budget on the real deal? Toss up a couple of clave samples and you're good to go. What's more, you can use acoustic triggers to fire off samples from your drums, allowing you to pull off classic studio tricks like triggering gated white noise with your snare or foundation-shaking '808 booms from your kick.

If you've tried drawing notes by hand or triggering drums from your keyboard or pad controller, but you just aren't getting the natural sound you're looking for, then the Alesis SamplePad 4 may be the answer. Many of the accomplished songwriters here at Sweetwater swear by drum triggers like the SamplePad 4, which lets you use sticks, mallets, or your hands and fingers to record MIDI drum parts over USB. And when you expand your setup with optional drum pads (sold separately), you can build up the perfect MIDI drum kit for your creative studio.

Based on years of providing digital drummers with the sounds they demand, Alesis loaded up the SamplePad 4 with a set of 25 of the most commonly requested drum and percussion samples out there, ensuring that you're off to a good start from the moment you plug it in. These sounds even come arranged into 10 useful preset kits. What's more, it couldn't be easier to add your own samples to your SamplePad 4. Just connect it to your Mac or Windows PC via USB, insert an SD/SDHC card up to 32GB in capacity, and you're ready to load up to 512 samples in up to 89 user-defined drum kits. And thanks to its onboard processing, the SamplePad 4 will even let you tune and add reverb to your sounds.

• A set of 4 pads lets you trigger samples via sticks, mallets, or your hands
• Add 2 additional triggers via a 1/4" TRS expansion input on the back
• Onboard sound library includes 25 top-requested sounds in 10 preset kits
• USB connectivity provides MIDI I/O and allows you to import your own samples
• Insert an SD/SDHC card (up to 32GB) and add up to 512 samples to 89 user kits
• Customize samples with onboard tuning and reverb options