Roland SPD-SX Pro Review

Stock kits are clean but uninspired; the strength is the own-sample workflow: 32GB storage, automatic format conversion, per-layer EQ, decibel volumes, and 53 effects with much-improved reverbs and new lofi options.

The stock kits are where the SPD-SX Pro is weakest. They are clean but uninspired, and most drummers will want to load their own samples. The good news is that the workflow around your own sounds is excellent.

The SPD-SX Pro has 53 effects to choose from, and the quality is much improved over the original: nice reverbs, great-sounding distortion and saturation, and new lofi and bitcrusher effects. You can run any audio into the unit, sample it in real time, and assign it to any pad. You also get individual EQ for every layer of every pad, plus easy control over pitch, volume, fade ins and outs, and the sample's transient using the front knobs.

Sample volumes are now shown in decibel values instead of the old 1 to 100 scale, which makes it far easier to communicate with sound engineers in a live setting.

Triggering is fantastic with effectively zero latency, improved top shoulder-pad sensitivity, and velocity-based two-sample triggering for ghost notes. Real-time trigger monitoring makes dialing in sensitivity easy.

The triggering on the SPD-SX Pro is fantastic, as usual. You can now trigger two different samples based on velocity, which is very helpful with ghost notes. The sensitivity on the top shoulder pads is also far improved over the original.

When adjusting pad sensitivity, you now get real-time monitoring of your triggers. The pad makes it easy to see the effect of your adjustments in a format that's quick to understand, so dialing in a pad takes seconds instead of guesswork. In testing the latency was effectively zero, even with a fuller setup of external pads.

Sleek, robust, and tour-ready, with a 2023 Good Design Award and a far brighter high-res LCD. Moving the power button to a rear switch fixes the original's most common failure point.

The SPD-SX Pro feels robust and well made, and it shows in daily use. It's slightly heavier than the original SPD-SX, with a rugged chassis that's clearly built for the road.

The LCD screen is large, bright, and vibrant, with a much higher resolution than the original. It's very easy to read, with large fonts for kit names, and you can even set a custom screensaver image. There's a knob on the right side for quick kit selection without using the arrow pads. The menu is a bit overwhelming at first because there's so much to look at, but it becomes straightforward once you get the hang of it.

The front controls are familiar with some welcome changes. The old FX 1 and 2 knobs are replaced by a single global FX knob, and there are two new Pad edit knobs for volume, pitch, and transient. Below the LCD there are now six buttons instead of three, and they change based on the page you're on. The biggest fix: what was the front power button on the original, which was prone to issues on my SPD-SX, is now a switch in the back.

Eight pad inputs, six routable outputs, and 12-in/8-out USB versus 2/2 on the original, plus strong MIDI and a great app. Only gaps: no digital hi-hat input and a single stereo input.

This is where the SPD-SX Pro pulls away from the original. It has eight external pad inputs instead of four. For testing I used the kick pad from my TD-50K-S electronic kit, and Roland's KD-7 kick trigger works well too. Used Roland PD85 pads are easy to find secondhand and work great since they're two-zoned. You'll need Y splitter cables to use all eight inputs, and you may already have some from an original SPD-SX.

There's an input for a hi-hat or expression pedal. I used my HXW hi-hat pedal from another electronic kit I reviewed and it works flawlessly, though there's no digital hi-hat input like on the TD-50X, so I couldn't use my VH-14Ds. The unit has six independent outputs that you can route mono or stereo from anywhere to any channel, a big step up from the original's two stereo-linked outputs. The single 1/4" stereo input still requires a breakout cable for two mono signals, which is one spot where the original SPD-SX wins.

Over USB you get 12 inputs and eight outputs, far beyond the original's 2 in and 2 out. The MIDI implementation is much stronger too: three knobs and the expression pedal can send control changes, with more control over velocities and note lengths, and the MIDI settings show note names alongside note numbers, which is very useful with a DAW and VST drum software. Roland's desktop app makes adding sounds over USB as easy as dragging and dropping a file from your computer.

The most expensive sampling pad, with the Alesis Strike MultiPad costing about half, but nothing matches its reliability, I/O, and workflow. It pays off for working musicians, overkill for casual use.

The SPD-SX Pro is the most expensive sampling pad you can buy, and the Alesis Strike MultiPad costs about half as much. So who should upgrade? If you only use a sampling pad as a MIDI or DAW controller, you don't need this, provided your current pads still work without crosstalk issues. The original SPD-SX or a PD708 will do that job for far less money.

Drummers who want more internal storage and more trigger inputs are the ones who benefit. The jump from 2GB to 32GB is enormous, and the extra inputs add a lot of flexibility for anyone incorporating electronic percussion into an acoustic setup. For me it makes sense: I always ran two extra Roland PD80 pads to my right for triggering samples from the other side of the kit, I have a ton of extra pads lying around, and I happen to like big setups.

New Features & Workflow

The SPD-SX Pro has 32GB of internal storage, which completely decimates the original's 2GB. You no longer need to format samples a specific way: the unit automatically converts WAV, AIFF, and MP3 files, where the original could only import 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV. There are 200 kit slots, and the preset kits are erasable.

You can now sync backing tracks and loops to the click track, a significant upgrade. In the past you had to hit the loop perfectly in time or the whole thing would be off. Now you can trigger a loop a few beats early and it comes in on time, which is great when your hands need to be elsewhere on the downbeat.

On the original, Kit Chains let you arrange kits into a live setlist but capped you at 20 and felt clunky. The SPD-SX Pro renames and revamps this as Setlists, configurable with up to 32 kits. The click track itself is much improved: you can subdivide it, change its time signature, and start it off a specific pad. Sample Delay adds a four-beat count-in without re-bouncing backing tracks.

The Wave Browser is easy to use, with samples filterable by tags, and you can scrub through long samples to jump straight to a problem spot instead of listening through a four-minute track. Saving, loading, and backing up settings is much quicker, and kits load extremely fast, especially compared to the Alesis Strike MultiPad. The LED customization is also excellent. It looks cool, but it's genuinely practical live: I keep red pads on both shoulder buttons to show which kit I'm on at a glance.

SPD-SX Pro vs Alesis Strike MultiPad

For most of this review I've compared the new pad to the original SPD-SX, but the obvious rival is the Alesis Strike MultiPad. Both look very similar and feel great to play. The Alesis kits take longer to load than the SPD-SX Pro, and the Strike loses out on sample import, but it has far better looping capabilities.

There's no headphone jack on the front of the SPD-SX Pro, only a 1/4" PHONES output in the back, so you'll need an adapter that isn't included. The LED lights on the Roland display more limited information than the Strike's, and the sounds in the Strike MultiPad are better, both in quality and quantity. Overall both pads are solid: Alesis wins on looping and sounds, Roland wins on inputs and features. And the elephant in the room is price, the Strike MultiPad is half the cost of the SPD-SX Pro.

Verdict

The SPD-SX Pro offers real advantages for drummers who need more internal storage and more trigger inputs for incorporating electronic percussion. The ability to sync loops and backing tracks to the click is helpful for gigging musicians, especially anyone who wants to do the heavy lifting on the unit instead of a laptop. The workflow is much faster and easier than the original, though it comes at the highest price of any sampling pad.

I recommend it for drummers who want the most reliable sampling pad available. I don't recommend it if you only plan to use it as a DAW controller, where the original SPD-SX or a PD708 makes far more sense. If you run samples and backing tracks live and want them to just work, year after year, the SPD-SX Pro is worth it.