It’s hard to believe, but it’s a quarter of a century since Roland introduced the original Octapad (the Pad-8). First embraced by flouncy-trousered New Romantics gaily triggering the fi zzing snares and brash handclaps of contemporary drum machines, the Octapad has grown from a soundless trigger-surface-only pad to a fully fledged music-making tool in the last 25 years. Designs don’t stick around that long unless they’re fundamentally solid, so it’s testament to Roland getting a lot of things right from the off that the eight-padded wonder is still with us.