The Roland PAD-80 Octapad II MIDI trigger features eight pressure-sensitive drum pads plus eight external trigger inputs, user-definable drum maps, layered notes and adjustable velocity curves. As well as the built-in pads, the external trigger inputs can ‘translate’ analog triggers or audio into Midi events.

The Roland PAD-80 is an eight pad MIDI controller. Improvements in this second model included the ability to play up to three notes per pad, and velocity switching, which allows the user to stack or alternate between the assigned notes depending on how hard the pads are struck. This feature is useful for creating more realistic sounding drum parts, and in addition allows drummers to play melodic instruments with greater ease. These new features were groundbreaking at the time of release, and are still utilised in Roland’s electronic percussion today.

The memory is increased, allowing up to 64 different patches internally and another 64 patches to be stored on a Roland M-256E memory card. Further improvements to the MIDI specification include the control of modulation, pitch bend and aftertouch using a foot pedal, along with full System Exclusive (SysEx) capability. The PAD-80 has a patch chain function that allows a series of 32 patches to be arranged in any sequence. Eight of these chains can be stored in memory.