Not sure where to ask this - I suppose it's a (drum) 'synthesizer' at a push! Does anyone own one of these? I need to know whether the pads can be adjusted to be sensitive enough for fingertip playing - experience indicates that it's possible with some pad-based devices and not others, but it's pot luck whether they tell you - there's nothing in the relevant manual and e-mailing Alesis with the question has produced no results. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Hi Zaxx,

I'm guessing the Performance Pad has the same pad construction as the Control Pad.
I which case I'd say that the pads can be adjusted so they're sensitive enough to be triggered by fingertips. However I wouldn't want to play it for long that way. The pads are quite hard, and for me at least, fingers soon start to hurt. You still have to 'tap' it pretty hard. It's probably quite punishing on the wrists as well after a while.
I think it's really designed to be played with sticks...
One of those Roland Handsonic type things would probably be a better bet.
Hope that helps.

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Quote Zaxx:

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I need to know whether the pads can be adjusted to be sensitive enough for fingertip playing

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Of course they can be. I do not know how it happens in Alesis but my guess is they should or else its a surprise to me how Alesis stand in terms with contemporary competitiveness. For me, nothing beats Korg when it comes to pads. With Korg it's always out of the box perfect experience. No struggle, no hassle.

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SoundCloud

Thanks, Ris - it should have occurred to me to mention that the Performance Pad is indeed in effect a Control Pad with an SR-16 stuffed up it. I had a feeling that what you say might be the case, so much appreciated.

Aural, it looks as though you're telling me that it will do what I want, or at least it ought to, and if it doesn't it's silly. I always appreciate useful advice based on experience...

As it happens I've got one of those Akai MPD 16-pad jobbies on the way and will probably get a Korg padKONTROL as well, as neither are stupidly expensive; I've heard that the Akai needs more of a poke than a tap but that the Korg is patter-sensitive, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Both Handsonics are pricey, look like aircraft toilet seats and come with lots of bells and whistles that I don't need - or actually I'd probably quite like the bells and whistles as such, but I'd never use the sequencer, metronome etc. so maybe at some point...

At present I'm actually using both an SPD-6 and a PAD-5 - obsolete but simple, and adjustable to the level of the slightest tickle. Betcha I end up trying loads of other stuff and come back to these!

It will not be a surprise to me if they tell me that in Japanese language the word Korg means Pad.

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