Any ultra-sensitive pad controller for finger-tapping drumming out there?

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MGTOW
Aug 3, 2009
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Hello everyone,

About a year ago or so I picked up a Korg padKontrol, to upgrade from a semi-weighed kb (whose feel and response I rather dread).

The padKontrol hasn't really worked for me, as the pads are not nearly as sensitive as I would have hoped for; my intent was to finger-tap slightly on it and get (if not a lot of velocity layers) at least a positive MIDI response from an efortless tapping with the fingerprint part (the digital pulp) of each finger.

That doesn't happen with the padKontrol, as I have to push -or poke- the pads with the tip of each individual finger (rather hard, too), instead of just lightly tapping with various fingers at a time, as one would on top of a notebook cover, a table, etc when coming up with rhythms or drum parts, which is what I was originally hoping for.

My question is, does anyone know of such a sensitive pad device? I've been looking at some electronic percussion devices like the Roland Handsonic HPD-20 (video below), but I don't want to buy another piece of gear just to find out it doesn't work either for what I want (slightly finger-tapping a rhythm or a part with all 5/10 fingers).



I'm sure the Korg is just fine for people doing electronic music, changing patches and the like, but so far it hasn't really been useful for what I'm after.

Thanks much for all your help and opinions :)
 
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I have a Maschine MkII, had an MPC1000 and still gave a Korg nanoPad2. The Maschine has by far the most sensitive pads. If I play on my nanoPad for awhile, my fingers hurt. Not on the Maschine.
The most sensitive one would probably be a Korg Wavedrum, but it's application is different.
 
I just bought on of these babies:
steinberg-cmc-pd-630-80.jpg

The sensitivity is great.
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/controllers/cmc_series/models/cmc_pd.html
 
I just bought on of these babies:
steinberg-cmc-pd-630-80.jpg

The sensitivity is great.

That does seem more suitable for using each finger on each pad without stretching them, and the price is certainly attractive.
How sensitive would you say it is?

I'm wondering how well that would work outside Cubase or Nuendo (in Sonar and Reaper, actually)..
 
The pads are small enough and spaced so that if you relax your hand, each finger sits on a separate pad. They are also sensitive enough that it picks up "mouse click" strength taps with ease.
The device uses standard midi signal so it should have no problems with other DAWs. In fact the first time I used it I didn't even have Cubase started. I just had the Pad's control program and the standalone version of EZDrummer worked like a charm.
 
Thanks much for the info!
Sounds very much like what I'm looking for (without a hefty price tag), I already heard this one module does work in any DAW.

I surely will be getting this soon, thanks again