Roland Intros SPD-SX Special Edition Sampling Pad

2018 NAMM Show: Roland has introduced the SPD-SX Special Edition, an enhanced version of their SPD-SX Sampling Pad.

The SPD-SX Special Edition offers all the functionality of the standard SPD-SX, but with expanded onboard storage capacity. Users can store up to 16 GB of samples on board.

Roland’s SPD-SX Sampling Pad is a professional pad sampler, designed for triggering custom samples, loops, and even complete backing tracks. It also supports real-time sample capture via its Multi-Pad Sampling function.

With its expanded memory, the SPD-SX Special Edition supports up to 50 hours of mono sample storage. This allows players to load a completely library of studio-quality WAV samples.

The SPD-SX Special Edition comes with Ableton Live Lite. Sounds played in Ableton Live Lite can be sampled in the SPD-SX Special Edition, and sounds played on the pads can be recorded into the software.

The SPD-SX Special Edition can also be used as a MIDI pad controller for recording expressive MIDI tracks in Ableton Live Lite or any popular DAW. Connecting the sampling pad to a computer requires only a USB cable.

The SPD-SX Special Edition also comes with Roland’s SPD-SX Wave Manager software. Users can import audio files directly from the computer to the instrument, assign samples to pads, and easily organize a library with thousands of samples.

To learn more about the SPD-SX Special Edition Sampling Pad, visit the Roland site.

8 thoughts on “Roland Intros SPD-SX Special Edition Sampling Pad”

  2. No velocity layers. You can mix two sounds, but they are always on. No switching or crossfading.

    It’s almost inexcusable, since it really doesn’t take any much horsepower to assign velocity ranges to samples– other than having more samples ready to play at any given time.

    But I don’t know what kind of limitations they have on horsepower in that thing.

    It’s that familiar underwhelming feeling we’re getting from this SPD line of products.

    I bet the price will be overwhelming, though.

  3. I looked at the SPD several years ago when I needed to replace a very old DrumKAT (which was an awesome MIDI controller that it pained me to part with). Super disappointed in the lack of playback options on the SPD line. No velocity switching, can’t play multiple sounds in a round robin fashion. However, one can record 50 hours of of uninterrupted “whatever”. For me at least, it’s just a strange product all the way around, considering what I would imagine most players would want to do with it…play custom velocity-mapped samples. I picked up Yamaha’s DTX M12 instead, which at least let’s you set up 4 zones per pad (or trigger) in a variety of ways (including velocity crossfades, round-robin or layered). The user interface is a nightmare and it only has 64mb of flash ram, but once you get past that, the features blow the SPD out of the water.

    Don’t want to go too far off topic here but Roland seems to either totally nail it or be totally out of touch when it comes to electronic percussion.

  4. Just sold my SPD-SX. Hated the workflow. Like, you can’t hear the changes to a sample as you tune it up or down. So dumb. No velocity layering like on the SPD-30. Doesn’t support hi-hat open closed trigger.

  5. If this had eight separate outs this would be stunning. This does not have enough outputs to warrant buying it as a serious sampler/sample player.

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