8 Best Electronic Drum Pads – Updated May 2024
Are you looking to buy an electronic drum pad for yourself but are confused about which one would be best for you? Then don’t worry, you have stumbled upon the right article. We know that choosing the perfect electronic drum pad for yourself is quite overwhelming. There are a lot of options available online, and selecting between them is not quite easy. Different factors play their role in making an electronic pad great to play. You can also check this out if you’re looking for Drum Heads.
There is a wide range of drum pads available in the market, and everyone is different on its own. There are various options and features available on each drum pad, and the price tag plays a vital role here. The expensive drum pads will be superior to the cheap ones. But our goal here is to look for competitive drum pads that are affordable. You can also hook up Alesis SamplePad Pro.
The electronic pads are one of the best musical instruments that add dynamic sounds to your music and spice things up. And get comfortable with the such as your best drumming shoes in the market. Every drum pad comes with different sounds and sensitivity levels. In this article, we are going to list the eight best electronic drum pads along with their pros and cons. So, without any delay, let’s get to it.
Best Electronic Drum Pads Reviewed and Compared
| Picture | Name | My Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Roland SPD-SX Electronic Drum Pad | Multi-pad Sampling | Check Price |
|
Yamaha DTX Multi-12 | 12 Dynamic Pads | Check Price |
|
KAT ktmp1 | Customizable | Check Price |
|
Alesis Sample Pad Pro | Come in a Fresh Design | Check Price |
|
Roland Octapad SPD-30 | Easy to Use | Check Price |
|
Nord Drum 3p | Build Quality | Check Price |
|
PylePro Portable Drum Pad | Versatile Digital Kit | Check Price |
|
Akai Professional MPC Studio | Classic Pad Response | Check Price |
1 - Roland SPD-SX Electronic Drum Pad
- Three multi-effects
- Internal storage space
- Nine highly sensitive pads
- Multi-pad sampling
- Wave Manager software included
- Comes with improved functionality
- Doesn't support phrase loops
- High price tag
- Restricted exterior pad inputs
Featuring nine sensitive rubber pads, Roland SPD-SX is the king of electronic music. Whether you are a DJ, or you want to play live with an electronic drum kit, or you want to record your music in a recording studio, SPD-SX is one of the best electronic drum pads for you. Equipped with the latest technology, playing simple fire-shots, looped phrases, or fully loaded soundtracks is faster and convenient with this drum pad.
SPD-SX comes with two independent real-time control knobs and four dedicated effect buttons, making sure that you are in control of what you are playing. Each pad has a backlit LED that keeps lit when that pad is in play, which is a great feature, especially when you want to keep track of different sounds. The LEDs even change their intensity according to the strength of the music being played.
The SPD-SX is home to 4GB of internal memory so that you can carry your music anywhere on the go. It also features a USB port that enables the user to import music files straight from a flash drive. You can also program your drum pad by connecting it with the computer via USB port. All in all, SPD-SX is one of the best options out in the market.
2 - Yamaha DTX Multi-12
- Multiple sounds loaded
- 12 Dynamic pads
- 2 Pedal inputs
- 5 Trigger inputs
- Comes with low internal memory
- Comes with low internal memory
- You would require a splitter if you want to separate the dual inputs
Yamaha DTX Multi-12 is undoubtedly one of the most influential and most versatile electronic drum pads, which can be used by beginners as well as experts. It supports a quite wide variety of playing styles, and it can cast a new life into your live performance. With its unique features, Yamaha DTX Multi-12 is designed to stand your performance out. Compatible with acoustic drums, and electronic drum kits, you can add a new spark to your music with DTX Multi-12.
Yamaha DTX Multi-12 is compared to the SPD-SX, but DTX has an option to add three more extra pads and comes with a massive inventory of sounds from which you can choose. With ultra-sensitive pads, you can play sounds without any effort, that too, with high precision. You can also connect a kick pedal to it and convert this drum pad into a compact drum set.
However, when it comes to the internal memory, DTX Multi-12 is loaded only with 64MB of internal memory, which is very less. So, carrying custom sounds with you is very limited with this electronic drum pad.
3 - KAT ktmp1
- Compact and portable
- 50 high-quality sounds
- Lots of ports for connection
- Customizable
- Affordable price
- Low sensitivity
- No Speakers
If you’re going to expand your musical setup and introduce more dynamic sounds, then KAT ktmp1 is an excellent option. It is a compact drum pad with only four ultra-sensitive pads, which you can play both with your hands and sticks. You can now have a wide variety of electronic beats right on your fingertips. This small drum pad is affordable and comes loaded with fifty high quality, completely-adjustable, multi-purpose sound, thus giving you the power to go custom.
Customization with KAT ktmp1 is convenient and fast. You can tune and pan the sounds to your liking and then allot them to any of the sensitive touchpads with ease. Playing with the sensitivity level and intensity level is more fun thanks to its programming that allows you to mold every sound according to your need, making KAT ktmp1 one of the best electronic drum pad out there.
It also comes with media and USB port with which you can connect your PCs and Macs and play your sound libraries. You can also connect a kick pedal with it, plus linking to an amplifier and setting the stage on fire is as easy as it can get with KAT ktmp1.
4 - Alesis Sample Pad Pro
- Come in a fresh design
- Drum pad expandability options
- It is loaded with 200 specially-crafted sounds
- Completely Customizable Sounds
- Features Dual-zone triggers
- Hi-hat and kick drum pedal input options
- Minor cross-talk issues may arise
- Some crosstalk.
- Slow to switch between kits.
Alesis has made a reputation for introducing one of the best electronic drum pads. The reason why Alesis’s drum pads are popular is the fact that this company makes drum pads loaded with great features and that too at really affordable prices, and this is why Alesis Sample Pad Pro has made it to our list, let’s see what it has to offer.
When it comes to a variety of sounds, Alesis Sample Pad Pro stands out. With almost over 200 individual drums, percussion and cymbal sounds, getting quality music out of this drum pad is inevitable. All these sounds can be grouped under ten kits, resulting in a machine that can be customized up to the maximum. It supports the plug-in of an SD card so that you can load sounds of your liking on this machine as well. It also supports USB, Midi, 1/4 TRS inputs and output.
While playing any music, precision is the key, and this is why Alesis Sample Pad Pro features lights across the edges of each pad, thus letting you know which ‘pad’ is on the play. It also supports the plug-in of a kick pedal and hi-hat, thus making itself into a complete drum set.
5 - Roland Octapad SPD-30
- Good selection of quality sounds.
- Simple to use and tweak.
- Easy to use the phrase looping function
- Doesn't necessarily require a pair of sticks to play
- You can import any sample and customize it
- External samples cannot be imported.
- Footswitch sold separately.
Roland Octapad comes with the most advanced percussion triggering technology, which is always ready to go on the road. Although the size of Roland Octapad is small, it gives the complete replacement of an entire electronic rig. The Roland Octapad SPD-30 is equipped with fifty kits that encapsulate hundreds of its sounds representing different styles, and to play these sounds, it features eight ultra-sensitive pads.
In addition to playing sounds, Octapad SPD-30 also allows its users to tune, muffle, attack, change the pitch of the sounds, and much more, thus, providing full customization controls. With its onboard Phrase Loop function, SPD-30 allows you to get your creative beast unleashed by recording your music on run time and overdub up to three layers.
To attach an acoustic drum, it has four dual-trigger inputs and a hi-hat controller. It also comes with USB connectivity for MIDI and memory storage. For precise pad triggering, Octapad SPD-30 uses the most advanced pad-sensing technology that provides perfect separation between the pads. With SPD-30’s multi-effect engine, take your live performances to the maximum.
6 - Nord Drum 3p
- Build quality.
- Easier editing and sound creation.
- Addition of reverb and delay.
- You control every sound parameter via CC-controls over MIDI
- Synthesizes all sounds at real-time
- Delay doesn't sync to MIDI Clock.
- Hi-hat control would be a useful addition.
Nord Drum 3p is not just a simple electronic drum pad; it is a Modeling percussion synthesizer so, you can expect some very high-quality electronic drum sounds. Nord Drum 3p synthesizes all the sounds at run time by making use of different synthesis modes. So, using a combination of these modes, it can produce the sound of drumheads, marimba and cymbals, kicks, snares, and more. The synthesis modes include Resonant synthesis, Subtractive Synthesis, Frequency Modulation, and Ring Modulation synthesis.
Nord Drum 3p has three different sections to generate three different sounds: Tone, noise, and click. This drum pad also has two Master Effects; one is Reverb where other is Delay. The Reverb master effects have different controls for tonal color. Where, on the other hand, the delay is for producing echos. You can change the amount of Master Effects yourself, making it completely customizable.
Nord Drum 3p gives you the option to control each sound parameter via CC-controls over MIDI. Everything you play while using the multi pads and external input is by default given as an output to the MIDI output, so you can control other sound sources as well through MIDI, which is a great feature.
7 - PylePro Portable Drum Pad
- Versatile digital kit
- Compatible with Mac and PC
- AC adapter and battery operated
- Headphone output
- Preset drum kits
- LED control display
- Being a tabletop kit, you might not feel it natural
- MIDI connection to the PC is reported to have problems by some user
- Has a lot of buttons and using them requires thorough knowledge
- The pedals tend to move around when playing them
PylePro Portable Drum pad is one of the best drum pads, especially for beginners. Because experts don’t have much trouble playing drum pads, this is why we are specially mentioning that if you are a beginner, you will get along with this drum pad very well.
Built just like an actual drum set, PylePro is very portable, and you can take on the road anywhere you want. And since it has susceptible pads, just in case if you forget the sticks at home, you won’t have to worry at all. Just use your hands, and it will give you the same precision and accuracy with the fingers as it provides to the sticks.
The best part about this drum pad is that you don’t have to depend on a wired power source. PylePro Drum Pad can be run on an AC adaptor and batteries. Whether you want to play it for practice or on a live performance, turn the volume up and down, and you are all good to go for any environment. You can also create customizable music with this drum pad. It is compatible with both MAC and PC.
8 - Akai Professional MPC Studio
- Slimline and very attractive
- An affordable alternative to the more expensive Renaissance
- Very playable for samples and plug-ins
- Large LCD screen enables users to make tracks without the need to look at the computer
- Four touch-sensitive knobs provide enhanced MPC software control
- Classic pad response
- 32-bit and single-core
- Lacks a few needed MPC features
- Smallish buttons seem a bit cheap
- Does not feature built-in audio interface
Using Akai Professional MPC Studio, you can take your creativity on another level, as it has fresh sample sounds, plus you can play with the power and flexibility of these drum pads using a computer. Akai Professional MPC is a very portable drum pad, featuring control knobs that are smaller than its pads. You can take your beat-creating monster anywhere you like, as its compact design is less than 1″ thin, and it will fit inside your laptop bag easily. Learn more about Best Metal Practice Amp if you want a special feature.
It features 16 pads, all with backlights, complete MPC controls, and a fair-sized backlit LCD screen. With more than 9GB memory, you can take your music libraries inside the Akai Professional MPC studio. It does not feature any built-in audio interface, so you are dependent on your PC’s native inputs for or your USB interface. Find your Best Country Music Acoustic Guitars that are perfect for you and your playing style. And check this out if you’re looking for the Best Electric Guitars.
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