by 109-1176549166 » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:23 am
I have an HPD-15 too! Actually, I bought it last year when the price came down to about $850 (brand new). This happened when Roland released their HPD-10.
I thought that the original price of about $1,200, when it first came out, was a bit too much. So, I ended up buying the much inferior Roland SPD-6 ($250 brand new) 'cause I needed mainly just the Latin percussion sounds. It was my very 1st Latin percussion instrument here in the U.S.
It didn't take long for me to outgrow the SPD-6 'cause it didn't have too many instruments. Moreover, it didn't allow any dynamics, other than volume.
But, I'm sort of glad that I waited 'cause when I bought my HPD-15, the price had been significantly reduced. On the other hand, I also like the improvements featured on the newer HPD-10 but I didn't like that it featured much fewer instruments.
Ah, decisions, decisions!
When my all-original blues/rock band hired me last January of this year, they suggested that I switch to acoustic percussion instruments for both recording and live performance purposes. I totally agreed with them.
Thus, I purchased my Isla congas, Gon Bops California Series bongos, Meinl Luis Conte brass timbales and various Latin hand percussion instruments and toys.
Now that I have all the acoustic percussion instruments that I need, I've come to prefer them much more than my HPD-15. It just can't compare to the pure sound and dynamics of acoustic instruments.
Needless to say, acoustic instruments are obviously also much easier to visually identify and distinguish from one another, unlike the instruments on the various pads of the HPD-15. With the HPD-15, there is a much greater possibility of pressing the wrong pad and producing the wrong sound to one's embarrassment.
I vacillated between selling and not selling my HPD-15. Currently, my feeling is that it has just too many features (some of whom I might need in the future) for me to sell it. So, I've been keeping it as an invaluable source of many other Latin and other-ethnic percussion instruments, sound effects and loops too many to enumerate here.
Nowadays, I bring my HPD-15 to live gigs, especially big ones, to complement my acoustic instruments. For informal jam sessions with friends, sometimes the HPD-15 is the only percussion instrument that I need to bring. And I can't complain about that.
All the best,
Edited By mjtuazon on 1183343032