Ableton Forum

Im in the market for an SPD:

anyone have experience with both of these? do you have a preference?

pros and cons of both....aside from the price?

definitely prefer the spd-S. the footprint is MUCH smaller, and I like the three rim triggers on the top. Oh, it does also have that one extra trigger (9 vs AND it's cheaper.

Seriously, the SPD-20 is a huge outdated chunk of plastic. urgh.

I'm getting an spd-s soon. The only hick I can think of is that they should have included an USB connection to transfer samples. You have to use flashcards.

SPD-S

Maximum Polyphony: 8 voices

Patches: 128, Waves (User): 399 (Pre-loaded Sound 181), Card: 500

Output Jacks(L/Mono, R, 1/4 inch phone type), Input Jacks (L/Mono, R, 1/4 inch phone type) *LINE/MIC selectable, Headphones Jack (Stereo 1/4 inch phone type), Trigger Input Jack (1/4 inch TRS phone type), Expression Pedal Jack (1/4 inch TRS phone type), MIDI Connectors (IN, OUT), Footswitch Jack (1/4 inch TRS phone type), CompactFlash Card Slot

Effects: Multi-Effects (30 Type) + Ambience (System)

SPD-20

Maximum Polyphony: 14 voices

Number of Instruments: 700
Internal Memory: 99 Patches, 8 Patch Chain

Output (L/Mono, R), Phones (Stereo), External Trigger Input* x 3 (Dual), Hi-Hat Control/Trigger4 Input* (Dual), MIDI (In, Out), Footswitch (Dual), AC IN *Trigger inputs 1 and 2 accept rim shots from the PD-7, -8, -9, -80R, -105, -120 and -125 while inputs 3 and 4 accept rim shots from the PD-7 and -9.

Effects: Reverb, Delay, Chorus, Flanger

Conclusion

If you want to use more than one external trigger and/or a hihat controller and want more factory-sounds you need to get the SPD-20. If you don't need external triggers and prefer an expression pedal and want to use the inbuild sampler plus the higher number of effects get the SPD-S. The rest depends on which form-factor you prefer.

Additionally the SPD-20 allows you to layer 2 sounds on one pad, either adding them together or triggering them on different velocity values (like sound 1 when you hit the pad softly and sound 2 when you hit the pad harder). While you can layer sounds via the inbuild sampler (playing together) on the SPD-S I can't seem to find the latter function of setting different velocities for different sounds in its manual.

Personally I decided for an SPD-20, although I wont really make much use of its internal sounds (too old-school) but use it for triggering NI Battery sounds.

sorry...I guess i should have mentioned...I probably wont use this at any gigs...not any that I have lined up so far anyway.

Ideally, will be used to trigger in ableton and battery. I would like to use pedals for HH and BD...and maybe one more for scenes if I decide to take it out with me.

I do like the rimshot/ cymbal edge triggers on the -s...but I am leaning toward the spd 20 due to the 2 rows x 4 set of pads.

If you don't need onboard sounds, there's the Alesis control pad which is cheaper. If you have a good audio card with low level drivers, I'd go for a midi connnection instead of USB.

paradiddle wrote:If you don't need onboard sounds, there's the Alesis control pad which is cheaper.

- and breaks easily. reports aren't looking good at all.

paradiddle wrote: If you have a good audio card with low level drivers, I'd go for a midi connnection instead of USB.

erhm, why? If possible, always go for the USB driver, WAY less latency on all the systems I've tested.

I can't believe that Roland didn't put some sampling into their most recent Handsonic the HPD-10. Maybe next time.

Machinate wrote:erhm, why? If possible, always go for the USB driver, WAY less latency on all the systems I've tested.

Out of my 6 Midi interfaces (2 x PCI, 1 x FW, 3 x USB) the USB ones perform worst: highest latency, highest jitter. Still well within overall good performance though.

Timur wrote:

Machinate wrote:erhm, why? If possible, always go for the USB driver, WAY less latency on all the systems I've tested.

Out of my 6 Midi interfaces (2 x PCI, 1 x FW, 3 x USB) the USB ones perform worst: highest latency, highest jitter.

of course. I was saying: With a choice between controller->usb->computer or controller->midi->midi-interface->computer, the former are the fastest. Not really the same thing

Then luckily your USB keyboard(s) are better than my Remote 37SL, because it produces serious jitter via USB while using the DIN Midi output works fine. That's mostly connected to it receiving lots of Sysex over USB for its LCDs though.

But even without the Sysex its DIN Midi ports are faster on that thing than the USB one when sending Midi messages through them (like input on Midi 1 to output on Midi 2) so I expect the keyboard output via DIN Midi also to be faster when connecting it to my PCI Midi interface, plus USB interfaces are far more prone to system load because the CPU has to collect the data from the interface instead of having it done by the interface itself (PCI, FW).

Machinate wrote:

paradiddle wrote:If you don't need onboard sounds, there's the Alesis control pad which is cheaper.

- and breaks easily. reports aren't looking good at all.

paradiddle wrote: If you have a good audio card with low level drivers, I'd go for a midi connnection instead of USB.

erhm, why? If possible, always go for the USB driver, WAY less latency on all the systems I've tested.

No way man, USB driver have bad latency . I can go down to 64 samples buffer with my audiophile 24/96 with an octopad and all this on an old p3. You'll never get that with any USB keyboard or whatever.

We are talking USB Midi here paradiddle, not audio, USB Midi reaches latencies downto around 1 ms!

OF course I'm talking midi. I've tried a few USB midi interface and found them to be quite bad for drumming. Noticeable latency for sure.

help please! Can't get spd20 to work with ableton live 7, midi track indicator light is responsive but no sound. PLEASE HELP, ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME