Roland spd-sx

Roland's spd-sx has broken into a new world of drumming. It had led the way in sampling technology as it has a versatile range of features built in.



On the back it features 2 USB ports type-a and type-b, midi in and out, stereo out, headphone jack and trigger in ports. It features audio capture. this device is a perfect match for the Roland TD-20 drum kit as its triggers can be set up and many of the devices features go hand in hand with each other. It comes with a 2GB internal memory which can capture 360 minutes of mono recording or 180 minutes of stereo. This can be expanded using a USB memory stick.

It comes with 9 pads each one is velocity sensitive, this means that the harder they are struck the louder they will play back etc. each pad has an accompanying LED which indicats which pad is struck. the pad in conjunction with a computer can be used for multi-pad sampling which means that the pads can be easily mapped.

It houses a LCD 128 x 64 pixel display and requires a 9 volt power supply ac adapter which comes with the device. The spd-sx comes in at only 2.5 kg meaning that this devise is lightweight and easily portable.

Roland TD-20

As the drumming industry is on its way down because of the increase of computer based music such as “dubstep” it’s hard to find ways to keep up. However Roland has come to the rescue with its endlessly compatible electronic drums. The industry doesn't seem so glum.

Roland has developed an electronic drum kit which plays and feels like real drums. Each head can be tensioned precisely to make it feel like you’re playing your own kit. Its control panel features over 50 built in drum kits and can be expanded using USB. Along with this there are many other parameters that can be toggled such as the ambient noise in the room and the size of the room.

Roland has also included a new feature called v-editing. This allows the user to create their own drums and cymbals. This included many features such as drum material, size and mic position. This is only touching on the many things that can be done on this machine. (Unfortunately due to the economic situation at the moment I haven’t tried out the kit for myself but I have enjoyed the drumming experience on the Roland TD-4K)

This blog has only touched on what Roland have done with this kit and I hope to write another soon going into more detail about what can be done with this future technology of drums.