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Sensitive pads for fingers drumming on a cheap midi controller?
The best pads I have tested are the pads on the Launchpad Pro MK3, but I don't want to spend so much money for a midi controller just for finger drumming. Is there a cheaper solution with good sensitives pads? Almost all pads on cheaper device are not enough sensitive for my taste.
Maybe you have a good suggestion.
If not, I will go with the LPP MK3.
Thanks
Comments
Is the pads on the LAUNCHKEY-MINI-MK3 are the same as the pad on the LPP MK3?
Well this is a very subjective thing in my experience. I have heard people raving about pads on some piece of plastic and I'm let down after trying it out. Conversely, controllers I've recommended have been a letdown for others, which is strange because I'm always right.
For the record the most sensitive pads I've used are on the Sensel Morph.
Buy well. Buy once.
I suggest you test the Velocity Keyboard app. You may be surprised how good it translates velocity. I have the Akai mpd218, 226 and presonus atom, of which the atom has the best pads imo. But I even prefer the velocity keyboard app to the atom...
Try using a velocity remap curve utility app.
Really useful, and way cheaper than another controller.
You probably already have one if you have any suite of Midi utilities.
If you don't mind disasembling new gear I'd recommend getting a cheap Akai pad controller and replacing the pad with one from https://www.mpcstuff.com. I bought an Akai MPK49 and the pads were awful. I replaced them with pads from mpcstuff now the MPK49 pads are better than my real mpc pads.
Many greats answers, thank you, I love this forum. I bought Midi Tools last years on the AppStore because it was on sale, but I never used it. Do you think this app will do the trick? I will try it tonight.
I think you will be surprised.
I was able to dial in my KB sensitivity to where I really liked on my Akai MPK mini.
Good! If this App will also help my with the knobs of the beatstep, I will be so happy. I need to turn 8 times each knobs to make a 360 degres of the knobs on the iPad application.
If you don't need it right away, the Artiphon Orba has pressure-sensitive capacitative pads with MPE and is incredibly responsive as well as very ergonomically formed for finger drumming.
It is also a good suggestion. Is this a better option than GeoShred?
I am a fan of the pads on the original beatstep fwiw. Not as good as my MPC 1000 with the mpcstuff pads, but still solid! You can find them used for 50 or less.
Cheers I’ll try Midiflow with my Akai LPD8 and report back. Not confident enough to try the tape mod which by all accounts works well.
Can confirm that a velocity remap improves playability. Light touches still don’t trigger but this seems to be a viable alternative to modding.
Zendrum is the gold standard for full dynamic range touch sensitivity, but the cheapest model will set you back $1000.
I’m partial to the arcade buttons on my MIDI Fighter. Sure, it’s not velocity sensitive, but it’s so well-suited to the genre. You can find them used. They’re pretty durable.
I would suggest the Mad Zach layout:
Qunexus could be pretty useful for this if the layout works for you.
My favorite approach for finger drumming is actually without any midi pads, using drambo so you can drum on any surface, and use the audio as an impulse to one of resonators in drambo. You can even have drambo translate that to midi, using a transient detector.
I was working on a way to separate the audio into bands, so I could trigger different sounds according to frequency, but I got sidetracked and haven’t finished that project yet.
Still, impaktor, and now drambo, are some of the most expressive ways to play with finger drumming, imo.
Btw, from my experience, and per your title, cheap and sensitive are mutually exclusive
A used Korg padKontrol ?
Irig Pads. The only IKMultimedia product I could ever recommend.
Small unit
Big pads
Fully programmable from the unit (channel/cc)
Knobs
Great pads response.
Well built.
Cheap (about £50 used in the uk)
Also check
Presonus Atom seems descent .
Hope you finish your drambo project!
I think in general the thing with real cheap pads is that they are not that easy to engineer to be perfect and if you want to make something cheap, well lets just say that you dont do everything to the tightest tolerances. And if you dont, there will be some small differences in how easily they trigger. If you make them trigger too easily, then you might get false triggers too much, so its safer to make them not trigger as easily. Also harder you need to hit the pads, less you notice the differences between sensitivity of pads. In other words, its unreliable to make apads cheap and if you make too unreliable pads too sensitive, you get problems. Some cheaper pads ofc are better than others and some companies manage to make decent pads for decent price, many companies cant make good pads for cheap.
You can also just put a piece(was it 2 or 3 layers?) of electrical tape under those MPD pads(sake on MPK mki) to get rid of the air gap between pad and sensor. This air gap is what bothers many and eliminates triggering of small touches on the pads.
You dont need new pads, or those extra sensitivity pieces of tape they sell. Regular electrical tape will do the same job. Ofc if you want fat pads, then you need ones from mpcstuff. But fat pads does not mean more sensitive pads. Altho i think the fat pads come s with the sensitivity pieces that does same as electrical tape, but using them is optional even with them.
Anyways i think something like used akai mpd32 mki would likely be a great buy! And if more sensitivity is needed, just put some electrical tape under the pads and you are set
@lukesleepwalker Haven’t given up on it, but it’s not as clear cut as I thought. Needs a lot of finetuning to be able to separate the sounds, given the input audio.
For the record, I have an akai mpc 1000, and an x-station. The mpc can’t totally capture the nuances I’m able to do, so I actually get better results playing on the piano keys of the x-station. That’s why I’m kinda skeptical of sensitive pads for finger drumming, at least that’s my experience. Of course it’s perfectly fine for kick and snare 4 on the floor, but for ghost notes and such it’s another story. Never really tried piezo mics and such, and there are other controllers really targeted for finger drumming, but I’m not thinking of selling a kidney just yet.
@gosnote said:
Never heard of this, sounds intriguing, is it worth the 11€?
Does it recognize velocity from how much finger you apply to the screen, I mean can I just jam at it on the glass (hopefully without breaking it)?
The best overview I saw of the app:
Absolutely, It’s worth the 11e. I don’t know what kind of algorithm it is that translates the velocity but it works surprisingly well. And you can adjust the sensitivity, curve, etc. in the app. Like I mentioned I prefer it to my presonus Atom pads, which is better than the MPD imo. I sold my MPD226 with the mpcstuff sensor tapes.
I just tested and compared yesterday the atom with the VKB app with an acoustic multi sample library, because I find it hard to believe that I prefer finger drumming on the iPad screen over real pads. Snare ghost notes for example are easier to play with the super sensitive app.
Another vote for the original velocity-sensitive Beatstep pads.
The encoders, although sometimes freaking out a little, are supported in Drambo very well, maybe better than in any other iOS app! They're best set to incremental mode.
keep the kidney.