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nowaysj wrote:Same.

Only seen em burn out on macs.

Buddy of mine made a mint in Orlando fixing burnt out mac books.

rookie question but I might as well ask the experts, is the MPD26 still considered a solid piece of kit to buy or is there a newer alternative around £130?

I haven't tried it yet but the QuNeo is an interesting option. I've heard it can be a bit of trouble to set up but it seems pretty powerful from what I've seen. It's like having a Kaoss pad built into every drum pad. Plus the other touch sensitive controls. Although I don't think that's a perfect replacement for knobs. You can't beat the physical control of grabbing and twisting a knob. Worth checking out, especially if you're into triggering clips, launchpad style. Each pad can be divided into 4 clip triggers giving you an 8x8 grid.

do you actually get an MPC-esque swing from using an MPD, or is that just a marketing ploy? cos thats the main thing thats making me lean towards it

I think that's only for note repeat. If you record single notes into your daw you'd have to quantize them from there. Just use a swing/groove preset in your daw or adjust them by hand. (or play them in funky to begin with!)

haha yeah I usually leave my shit unquantised, but I'm still on bashing my qwerty for my beats ffs so I need some good pads to bash on asap, hence the question. i think you were talking about the quneo a page or so ago, i remember this thing. will look it up more. any other alternatives welcome too

SunkLo wrote:I think that's only for note repeat. If you record single notes into your daw you'd have to quantize them from there. Just use a swing/groove preset in your daw or adjust them by hand. (or play them in funky to begin with!)

Im pretty sure MPC swing is a combo of groove templates and some kind happy accident inherent in the hardware. A MIDI controller wont have that. The MPC groove templates have been translated into a few formats for daws. I feel like we had a thread about them at one point.

Hey, I'd recommend against that mpd. They all suffer from insensitive pads. Jokes sounding, but it is no fun buying a device to drum on and having trigger occasionally, at uncontrollable velocities etc. Akai people will tell you same pads as mpc, but it is buuuuulllshit. For whatever reason, they don't trigger anything like an mpc. Akai is not even the same company anymore, as well, they're owned by a Chinese monster corp.

The MPC 4000 had the dreamiest pads, they were like semi hard nipples on firm breasts. Just dreamy. The mpd stuff is dead and stiff.

My favorite pads are on the PadKontrol from Korg. They are not particularly soft, but they are extremely sensitive, in that they reproduce what you do, so you can really control what is going on, and you don't have to hammer them. My old knuckles really start to hurt after a session with maschine, which has the second best pads ive felt. i see potential liability in ni's future...

Try out a pad kontrol, very inexpensive as well. available used as well, though i dont know the condition of used units.

search my user name in production with word pad and kontrol. ul see same thing ive writtn here 20 moret imes.

nowaysj wrote:Akai people will tell you same pads as mpc, but it is buuuuulllshit.

Same pads, different sensors heh

Doing the tape mod is so necessary to get an MPD or MPK into useable territory. I just got MPCStuff fat pads and I still feel like I need to put 1 layer of tape under them because they don't trigger on feather hits and I have a really light touch. I do find I can just massage in beats though and they're very sensitive. It's like if my finger's already on the pad and I apply light pressure it triggers but if I tap it with equivalent pressure it doesn't trigger. Fuckin Akai, you'd think they'd get their heads out of their asses after so long and release MkII versions of their controllers with better pads.

On the Akai note I've been eyeing up one of their EIE interfaces - lots of inputs and outputs for a decent price.


The fact they are quite new and Akai generally gets flak these days kind of puts me off though :-/

After all the only thing wrong with my Focusrite is the fact I can't have both my synths plugged in at once! (First world problems.)

Hah, so here i am questioning whether the mpd is still relevant and you recommend the even older padkontrol its that good is it? It is an idea, cos i got a novation nocturn for knobs and a tablet app for a mixer so i only really need pads, which you say are best on this one...

I really think they are. That's for me though. Go down to the music store and try em out. Set up a drum sampler in your laptop daw, with a bunch of samples, and go to the music store. Plug it in, I think korg uses generic midi drivers, so I don't think there is an install, and then route the pk into your daw, and try it out. Smokes any new (mpd) akai pads out there. Smokes em.

I can't even use my mpk pads. Just horrible. Not even in the range of something that is useable. F'ing joke.

jeez, you really dont like em do you hahah. i'll have a look around and see if i can try em out anywhere

I agree on the MPD pads, sold mine because they're such a ballache to work with. You can adjust the sensitivity but they seem to either be too stuff where you have to really bash them or too light where every hit is too hard.

I replaced it with a KorgNanopad which was much nicer to work in. Unfortunately the USB port fell off mine so not sure about the build quality. Still tempted to get another.

I am a filthy dirty gear whore : ) : ) : )

no need to brag jeez

yeh cmon man

Production PC supposedly only needs a power supply. S W E E T.

Picked up an OTO Biscuit and my MicroBrute should be arriving tomorrow if the winter storms dont hold it up. I have two days off starting tomorrow and the GF is working both days. Gonna get my studio resorted. Production PC set back up, got off easy, power source was bad. 127 dollars to have the system tested and fixed.

Gonna try to get some vids at the very least some sound samples up for yall. Maybe get in on TUNA...that still happening?