Guitar World Verdict
The DigiTech SDRUM takes the tedium out of programming drum parts that sound exactly the way you want them to by making it easy to perform kick and snare parts from a guitar’s strings – and the pedal itself makes it easy to control those patterns during live performance.
Pros
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Create drum patterns by strumming muted low and high strings.
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Automatically generates editable drum parts.
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Stores up to 36 songs each with 3 switchable sections.
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High-quality drum and percussion sounds.
Cons
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Operation/programming requires studying the manual.
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Reverb processing cannot be bypassed.
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DigiTech calls the SDRUM a “strummable drums” pedal, but that’s really only a small fraction of what this powerful device can do. The second sentence of the manual’s intro section offers the more accurate “intelligent drum machine” description, but DigiTech probably didn’t use that to avoid making drummers feel insulted by a device that possibly could be smarter than them. [Rimshot crash]
One could also call SDRUM a “drum machine for dummies” (hence its unique “strummable” programming feature for guitarists) as it automatically programs hi-hat, cymbal patterns or tom/percussion parts that complement the kick/snare patterns input either by using the pedal’s kick and snare pads or strumming muted low (kick) and high (snare) strings on an electric or acoustic-electric guitar or bass.
Specs
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