Pad controller or Key controller for drum programming...

[AdamWathan]

I want to grab something like a nanoKey or nanoPad to be able to play in basic drum parts for demos and stuff, then go and add anything complex and tweak stuff afterwards. It seems like it would HUGELY speed up my workflow when it comes to drum programming. What I'm wondering is in your guys' experience, is it worth it to grab the nanoPad for this sort of thing or is it not really any easier/faster than just using something like the nanoKey? The nanoKey is a bit cheaper plus more versatile since I could use it for other non percussive MIDI stuff... Is it really that big of a pain in the ass to play drums on keys instead of pads?

 

[FIXXXER]

AKAI MPD18
i just bought this little mofo. it's really nice to play with and it works instantly.

cheers
S.

 

[Forceps]

I like the velocity on keyboards more than on padcontrollers... owned an AKAI MPD something, but had to hit really hard to get a decent velocity. That didn't work out for me so I got one of those little 25 keys midicontrollers for slammin' some drums.

 

[FIXXXER]

yeah but if you want to do rolls you can hit a pad with two fingers...now try that on a keyboard key which is moving up and down!

 

[Forceps]

no problem dude, just flip the keyboard 90 degrees

 

[FIXXXER]

 

[AdamWathan]

The Slate drum map which is what I'd be using anyways has two keys for pretty much every drum shell I think, even then I was going to program the fills manually so I should be good. Think I'll grab a nanoKey this weekend!

 

[hogan666]

Got the Akai MPD18 yesterday...and it really speeds up my workflow. Love this thing.

First I stuck between the nanopad and the little akai, but after a few hours I gave a shit about the 50 extra bucks and got myself the bigger MPD18.
For the MPC Feel :Smug:

Looks very solid and nice.
The pads and the editor are nice to use, but I don't like to use the velocity feature, 'cause you have to slame em hard (like said before). For me this is no problem, 'cause I'm doing the velocitys etc afterwards (via Cubase's Logical Editor).

Next to me I got a litte M-Audio Oxygen Keyboard, but thats not as nice as the Akai. With the editor you can assign every sound to a pad and save the layout as a presets, which is a win on fingerdrumming ;-)

Buy it, you won't regret it.

Cheers, Markus (who's playing the intro of Linkin Parks Numb the whole day *hrhr*)