ROLAND RMP 3 RHYTHM COACH WITH STAND IN SOUTH AFRICA

The pad itself is simply a playing surface – when you’re playing through headphones a sensor under the mesh head picks up the acoustic sound of stick on head, but without headphones no electronically produced sound emanates from the RMP-3’s pad. The small speaker to the left of the LCD screen is for metronome output and, while it might be teeny, the piercing beep of the metronome cuts through with plenty of clarity for most situations. In fact there are three variations on the beep sound for you to choose from. All of them basic and purposeful rather than being sonically engaging (in as much as they all sound like a metronome), but at least there’s some variety to be had. There are a fair few parameters to play with to ensure that time-keeping practice doesn’t get too tedious. In terms of tempo, the RMP-3’s metronome covers bpm, there are a host of time signatures to select from and the incessant tick tock can be set to sound on everything from whole notes through 16ths, to quintuplets, sextuplets and various clave patterns.