Build the kit,
then play it Layering, mute groups, tempo lock, and the sequencer that isn't one

This is the finished kit from section 08, wired up and working. Set the velocity, then tap pads. Watch what starts, what stops, and what only shows up when you hit hard.

Ver. 2.00 landed in April 2026 and it is the update that makes the pad do what you have been trying to make it do. Check what you are running: [MENU] → SYSTEM → SYSTEM INFO → VERSION

If you are working from your own samples anyway, skip the restore. Setting tempo per wave takes about four seconds each and is covered in section 05.

Four ways in

• Sample it live. [MENU] → WAVE → SAMPLING. Set Rec Source to INPUT, PAD, or INPUT+PAD. Rec Auto Trigger Level starts recording when signal arrives so you are not racing the transport. F1 arms, F5 previews, F6 jumps to WAVE EDIT for trimming.
• USB flash drive. [MENU] → WAVE → IMPORT. WAV, AIFF, and MP3 all get converted to the internal 48 kHz / 16-bit format on load. Format the stick on the unit first.
• The SPD-SX PRO App. Drag and drop, plus deep kit editing. App Ver. 2.00 added AUTO SELECT, which jumps the wave list to whatever sample is on the pad layer you clicked, and a WRITE button so you no longer have to power cycle to commit changes.
• An old SPD-SX backup. [MENU] → BACKUP → LOAD SPD-SX. New in 2.00, and it brings the samples with the kits.

Finding a wave without scrolling forever

The wave list is at [MENU] → WAVE → LIST. The moves that save you:

• Hold SHIFT and turn the VALUE knob to fast scroll. Works on the kit list too, ten at a time.
• Filter the bank to USER so the 1,550 factory sounds stop getting in the way. The Wave Bank filter is on LAYER EDIT1: ALL, PRELOAD, or USER.
• Cursor left and right toggles between wave name and source filename. Essential when you have five files all named "loop".
• Tag your waves and filter the list by tag. Do this once when you import and you never hunt again.
• Rename on the spot with F6 (RENAME) on the WAVE EDIT screen. Only the first 16 characters of a filename survive import, so "drums_final_v3_92bpm_MASTER" becomes garbage. Rename it.

Check what space you have left at [MENU] → SYSTEM → SYSTEM INFO → WAVE. There is 32 GB in there, which is somewhere near 44 hours of stereo audio. You will run out of patience before you run out of memory.

Every pad holds two waves, Layer A and Layer B, each with its own volume, pan, pitch or stretch mode, EQ, and envelope. The Layer Type parameter decides how they relate to each other and to how hard you hit. This one setting is the answer to most of what you asked for.

Find it at [MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → PAD EDIT, then strike the pad you want to edit. Layer Type lives on page 1/5.

Which one you actually want

• One pad, two loops playing together: MIX. Both layers fire every time, regardless of velocity. This is your Pad 1.
• Hit harder, extra element joins: FADE1. Below the Fade Point you get A alone. At or above it, B is added on top at full level. Cleanest option for "bring in the bass on the accent."
• Hit harder, extra element fades in gradually: FADE2. B ramps up between Fade Point and Fade End. More expressive, harder to hit consistently on a loud stage.
• Hit harder, one sound trades places with another: XFADE. A gets quieter as B gets louder across the same range.
• Hard hit replaces the sound entirely: SWITCH, or SW (MONO) if you want the new hit to cut the old one dead.
• Each hit plays the next sound: ALTERNATE. Round robins between A and B. Also available per layer as Trigger Type = ALTERNATE.
• Hi-hat pedal control: HI-HAT. Pedal down plays A, pedal up plays B.

Play type, per layer

On the same PAD EDIT 1/5 page, each layer has its own loop and trigger behaviour:

• Loop: OFF, ON, X2, X4, X8, or ON (MUTE on KitChg). That last one is new in 2.00 and it is the one you want on every loop pad. Loops used to keep playing when you changed kits, which is the sound of a set falling apart.
• Poly/Mono: POLY stacks a new hit over the old one, MONO cuts it. MONO conserves voices, which matters once you have several real-time stretched loops running.
• Trigger Reserve: turn this ON and you can strike slightly ahead of the click and the sample still fires exactly on the beat. Quiet little feature, big for launching loops cleanly.
• Play Type Template: SINGLE, PHRASE, LOOP, LOOP (Mute on Kit Change), HI-HAT. Picking one sets every parameter on the page to sane defaults. Start here, then adjust.

This is the exact feature behind "hit pad 2 and pad 1's loop stops." It works as a send and receive matrix, not as a single group number, which means you get to decide the direction.

Find it at [MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → PAD LINK/MUTE → MUTE GRP. Every pad gets a MUTE SEND (OFF, or 1 to 16) and a MUTE RECEIVE (OFF, or 1 to 16).

The rule: when you strike a pad, every pad whose RECEIVE number matches the struck pad's SEND number goes silent. A pad never mutes itself, even if both its numbers match.

Pad link is the opposite tool

On the same screen, PAD LINK makes one strike fire several pads at once. Split a backing track into stems across four pads, link them, and they launch together in perfect sync while each keeps its own level, EQ, effect send, and direct out. That is a stem player, built in. F6 (CLEAR) wipes either matrix when you have made a mess.

Real-time time stretch is the feature that turns this from a sample player into a loop instrument. It only works if each wave knows its own tempo, so that is where you start.

Step one: tell each wave its tempo

[MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → PAD EDIT → F3 (WAVE TEMPO), then F4 (DETECT). Pick a detect range that brackets the real tempo (50 to 99, 70 to 139, 80 to 159, or 100 to 199) so it does not lock onto half or double time. If detection gets it wrong, switch to MANUAL and type the number.

Step two: turn stretch on per layer

On LAYER EDIT1, set Mode = TIME STRETCH and Tempo Sync = ON. Speed now reads SYNC and the wave follows the kit click. With Tempo Sync off you get a manual Speed control from 50% to 150% instead.

Step three: set the kit tempo

Press F4 (CLICK) from the top screen, or use the new shortcut SHIFT + START/STOP to jump straight to the KIT CLICK screen. F6 is TAP. Range is 20.0 to 260.0 BPM, stored per kit.

Offline stretch, when quality matters more than flexibility

On the WAVE EDIT screen press SHIFT + F3 (TIME STRETCH). Choose OVERWRITE or SAVE AS NEW, set speed anywhere from 50% to 200%, hit F6 to execute. It renders a new file at higher quality with zero live processing cost. Use it for the loops that anchor a song. Use real-time for the ones you want to move around.

The workflow you described, start to finish

1. Play the beat freely. Sample it with Rec Source = PAD or from your input.
2. Trim it to a clean bar or two in WAVE EDIT.
3. Run WAVE TEMPO DETECT so the pad knows what it captured.
4. Assign it to a layer, set Mode to TIME STRETCH and Tempo Sync to ON, Loop to ON (Mute on KitChg).
5. Set the kit tempo to whatever actually works for the song. The loop follows.
6. Every loop you add from here gets the same treatment, and they all lock to that one number.

Each kit gets MFX 1 through 4 (four independent multi-effects), a side chain compressor, plus master effect, master comp, and master EQ. Route it all from [MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → OUTPUT/EFFECTS. Each pad's Output can go to MASTER+PHONES, PHONES-ONLY, MFX1 to 4, SIDE CHAIN, or OFF.

The effects worth reaching for on loops

Sidechain, so the loops breathe

[MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → OUTPUT/EFFECTS → F2 (SIDE CHAIN). Route the pad you want ducked (the backing loop) to SIDE CHAIN as its output. Set the trigger pad (your kick) to Side Chain Ctrl = ON. Threshold, attack, release, ratio, and knee are all there, plus a CONTROL PRE GATE to clean up a messy trigger signal. F5 (CTRL PREVIEW) lets you listen to just the control signal while you dial it in.

DJ Drop Mute

Assign DJ Drop Mute (POST FX) or DJ Drop Mute (PRE FX) to a pad under CONTROL SETUP. It mutes the output while the audio keeps running underneath, so when you release, you land back in the right place instead of restarting. The PRE FX version leaves the master delay tail audible during the mute, which is the sound of a track dropping out with the reverb still ringing.

Hands on control

The two PAD EDIT knobs and an expression pedal can be assigned to MFX, sidechain, or master effect parameters from [MENU] → SYSTEM → CONTROL SETUP → F4 / F5. The dedicated MASTER EFFECT knob and its on/off button are always live. Assign the filter cutoff first and worry about everything else later.

Here is the thing that will save you a weekend: the SPD-SX PRO has no step sequencer in the sense you mean. Nothing runs on its own clock and plays pads for you. The feature is called PAD SEQUENCE, and it works completely differently from a Digitakt or a TR grid.

Once you see it that way it becomes useful rather than broken. It is a chain, not a sequencer. It is for stepping through song sections with one pad, or walking a fixed melodic order without hunting for the right pad, or firing a set of one shots in a guaranteed sequence while your other hand does something else.

Building one

1. [MENU] → KIT EDIT1 → PAD SEQUENCE
2. Set Step Num anywhere from 2 to 16.
3. Set Pad Sequence Pad. This is the advance pad, the one you will actually strike. It can be a pad, a trigger input, or a footswitch.
4. Press F1 (SET), then strike the pads in the order you want them, one per step. It completes itself when you reach the last step.
5. F2 (SKIP) makes a step silent, which is how you get rests. F5 previews, F6 clears.
6. Assign PAD SEQUENCE RESET to a footswitch under CONTROL SETUP so you can jump back to step 1 when the crowd claps on the wrong beat.

This builds the kit you played at the top of the page. Tap a step to open it. Tick the box when it is done on your unit.

Radiohead: loop your own drumming, then play over it

The band has used Roland pads live for years. Phil Selway brought an SPD-S on the 2012 tour and has used an SPD-SX to trigger the opening of "Bloom." Clive Deamer, the second drummer since 2011, moved from an SPD-S to an SPD-SX in early 2012 and plays the electronic percussion in "15 Step" and the blips that open "Bloom" from it.

The method behind The King of Limbs is the one worth taking: most of those beats are layers of short loops of Selway's own acoustic drumming, chopped and stacked rather than programmed from scratch. They needed a second drummer live specifically so someone could play over the loops rather than replace them.

Selway on the two-drummer approach: one played traditionally, the other almost mimicked a drum machine, and the interest was in the push and pull between them. That is your mental model for playing live over a locked loop on the SPD-SX PRO. You are both drummers.

Digitakt habits that transfer, and the ones that do not

You love the Digitakt, so it is worth being precise about which instincts carry over.

• Transfers: MONO layers plus mute groups gives you Digitakt-style choke behaviour. Per pad MFX gives you per track effects. The sidechain comp gives you the Elektron pump. Sample chopping happens in WAVE EDIT with start and end points, then offline stretch.
• Does not transfer: parameter locks, per step velocity, conditional trigs, pattern chaining, anything that requires a running clock. The SPD-SX PRO is a performance sampler. It responds to your hands, not to a timeline.
• The honest setup: if you want Digitakt sequencing and SPD-SX PRO pads in the same rig, the Digitakt is the brain and the pad is the instrument and the surface. Which is a good division of labour rather than a compromise.

Type to filter. Everything you need to reach in a hurry.

Knowing the walls saves more time than knowing the features.