Alesis Updates Strike MultiPad Electronic Drum Instrument

Alesis has introduced update v1.2 for their Strike MultiPad electronic drum instrument, which supports set lists, hi-hat playback mode, footswitch playback control and more.

Here’s what’s new with Strike MultiPad 1.2:

  • Setlists – Users can now save and arrange custom Setlists of any Preset or User Kits. Setlists can be edited from the Kit Menu by pressing F6-Setlist. See the full Strike MultiPad User Guide for more information.
  • Improved Kit Navigation and Loading Times – Users can now use the Main Encoder to browse kits without loading them in the Perform and Kit menus. While the kit name is flashing, press the Main Encoder to load the kit.2
  • Hi-Hat Playback Mode – Assign open and closed sounds to a single pad for quick and easy hi-hat pedal setup
  • Footswitch Playback Mode – Switch between Wave A and Wave B of a pad with the click of a footswitch.
  • Quick Wave Copy – In the Sound menu, press and hold the F1-Wave button to copy a sound from one wave to the other

The Strike MultiPad feature update v1.2 is available now as a free download.

21 thoughts on “Alesis Updates Strike MultiPad Electronic Drum Instrument

      1. Hey Stub, I have used it both mounted on one of my cymbal stand bases within my kit, and as a stand alone table top unit and have experienced zero crosstalk.

        1. Thanks, Alacazam. That’s great to know. I’m going to add this to my “wish list”. I don’t have any immediate need, but I do love the idea of the kinds of processes you can execute with this. My drumming skills continue to improve/evolve.

  1. Does anyone in the drum world have the slightest bit of imagination? Apparently not. Another clone of a clone that hasn’t changed much since the 1986 Octapad. I will stick with my malletkat. It’s the best of the lot.

    1. If you’re going to be all “you young whippersnappers get off my lawn” at least acknowledge the true legacy of pad drum controllers, which predates Roland, and predates MIDI, beginning with manufacturers like Simmons, who made an early multi-pad zoned controller.

      1. Not sure I feel totally “you young whippersnappers” about it! But I’ve been obsessed with edrums since I first heard Billy Cobham use a Moog on Spectrum and have owned (or mostly worshiped) them all….simmons, syndrum, moog – there were so many innovators. But things have slowed to “Good enough” for more than 20 years. Roland’s vdrum evolution is particularly slow. But that’s because no one really challenges them other than by copying them. But these days there are -finally- some drummers doing interesting things, like using Max and Puredata or signal processing via modulars, not to mention a Nate Smith playing four instruments at once! So for someone to make yet another suitcase these days, is particularly lame. Now get off my lawn!!

        1. A friend was looking into getting a Malletstation. I saw a critical review vid that showed how the velocity sensitivity was all over the map. I don’t see how anyone would go to market with a design like that. What a mess.

          OTOH, the MalletKat gets consistently excellent reviews. You get what you pay for, I guess.

          As for this type of product, there are similar products, but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think any of them has “hit it out of the park” in terms of a feature set. But this one does seem like a nice balance of features to price.

          1. Yeah, the malletkat is fast and amazingly responsive. Sensitivity is fab. But I wish it had MPE. Hitting pads at different locations would be really easy for a drummer to take advantage of.

    2. Look, a drummer who prefers eye rolls to drumrolls. Besides, mallet based instruments have existed long before the 1980s. Turns out it is you who is using an unoriginal clone.

      1. Drums have existed for at least ten thousand years. So yes, not much is original. But an MPE version of a Malletkat would be quite expressive. Perhaps enough to even get them to learn scales. Or how about an electric thumb piano.

    3. I have to disagree. Its not a clone; its an evolution that offers a lot of power compared to the first Octapad, which was just a set of triggers. The Alesis has a spec list you should read. The thing is like Silly Putty you can shape at will, if you dig into it. This type of instrument is useful for general purposes, but I’ve seen a few avant-bands use them for junkyard percussion, old movie clips, loops and some alien sounds that seemed to be unique home-mades. Its a secret weapon. I’m all about keys and even I’m eyeballing it. I like the idea that it could pull you out of your safe zones.

    1. They are programmable so you aren’t stuck with rainbow-bright. They serve a visual purpose in that for each kit you could always color each type of drum the same, or the pad that starts the backing track. I believe you can also just turn them off if you don’t need it.

  2. It’s been a long long time between updates and I am disappointed that they didn’t address many of the bugs and issues with the firmware. Most importantly they didn’t fix the lost external trigger pad settings. That make using additional pads pretty useless. Nor did they do anything about BPM sync or the ability to change the BPM and/or tuning of a loop. Considering they had a verified list of over 20 bugs and missing features, this is a mediocre update to say the least.

    1. is the roland spd-30 the best module for live use if you dont care about adding sounds at any point? it looks like alesis has a way to go to get the strike multipad perfected.

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