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So, today im looking at buying a pad controller of sorts. my budget is £130 which leaves me with about 3 possible choices. I would personally love the NI Masheen, but i cant stretch that far.

The Akai MPD24
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ler--36346

The Korg PadKontrol
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ler--31457

and the Korg Nanopad
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/ ... ler--60071

I looked into the m-audio one (priced about the same as the akai) but it looked really cheaply built.

So what im asking is does anyone have experience with any of these? I have used the Akai as a flatmate has one, but wanted to explore the differences between them.
Please list a pros and cons to each you have used. Thanks in advance

I voted the korg, cause its the only one I've used, I know what you mean about the trigger finger but a lot of people have them, probably because they are cheaper.At the end of the day they all do the same thing more or less.

dont forget to check out this brandnew, cheap thing: http://www.thomann.de/de/akai_lpd_8.htm

I have an mpd and a trigger finger not really fucked with the padkontrol but heard mixed things. I would get the mpd for production, for the cost and build, the velocity sensitivity is a little bait but you can bang drums and percussion out more comfortable and the encoders and sliders are beefy enough for grabbing and twisting and it just feels solid. I find the feel of the trigger finger just a little cheaper in feel and I constantly pull off the faders (they are tiny) when I get giddy but the pads are softer in feel than the mpd.

Alright thanks for the replies so far! The Akai LPD 8 looks really tempting actually!

Ive had a trigger finger for years now...

The pads leave a little to be disired, although they do have velocity. It does feel a little cheap, although its made it through many moves and lots of sitting around in various corners, getting shit dropped on it, spilled on it, dust in it and it still works. Its a little more solid than it looks, but still feels a little cheap.

My main beef with it is the programming. Its a pain in the ass to map things and even harder to understand how to save presets. It also likes to split the pads into two groups of 8 as a preset instead of one group of 16, which can be annoying when trying to program drums. I feel like I would use it more if it auto mapped or was generally easier to map.

All that said, it just got new life over this weekend as the new controler for the FX on Serato.

That Akai LPD8 looks pretty money though, I may have to snag one of those for FX at gigs.

i´m very happy with my akai lpd8; my mini mpc..it´s a decent controller!

other than that - i will pick the "padkontrol" from your list.

cheerz

MPD 24 all the way
love mine

anything Akai in my opinion. best pads I've ever used.
I've got the mpd16. it gets spun out a bit sometimes, I wouldn't trust it live but its great for laying down a beat.

I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

i made the switch to the apc40 because i was having endless midi/usb dropouts from my mpd24.

I just had to sell my padkontrol, I thought it was a super solid unit. The xy pad was a selling feature for me but I almost never used it for drums, I liked using it for synths way more. When I do buy another pad controller it will be the mpd tho. Mainly because of the transports and more knobs to assign, kinda depends on what other controllers I have at that time tho...

If you already have a controller with transports and lots of assignable knobs/faders, or want to tweak two knobs with one finger via the x/y pad the pk will be a nice addition. If you dont have transport controls or need more knobs to assign the mpd wins.

marshy wrote:I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

Thing is i already have a nice edirol PCR keyboard with loads of knobs etc.. all i want is literally some pads to sketch out ideas on. Maybe the LPD is the answer as im not looking for a full scale 24 pad unit. I also love akai's build quality, and get to use my mates MPC2000 a bit when hes in.

I've got the mpd24 and i like it. I never use it though and i'm thinking about selling it.

Depone wrote:

marshy wrote:I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

Thing is i already have a nice edirol PCR keyboard with loads of knobs etc.. all i want is literally some pads to sketch out ideas on. Maybe the LPD is the answer as im not looking for a full scale 24 pad unit. I also love akai's build quality, and get to use my mates MPC2000 a bit when hes in.

I would have said if you don't already have enough knobs and sliders, probably go with the MPD.

I've had a padkontrol for a while and I love it. Not got a massive amount of knobs (although it's relatively easy to re-assign them on the fly), but I've got knobs elsewhere, and the XY pad is something a bit different. Pads feel great, very firm and sensitive, and their feel doesn't change when you hit them right on the edge. If you are going to use them for a live show, they have very very solid programming capability which is heaps useful. You've got 16 available 'scenes' to flick through, and within each scene every button and knob can be individually assigned to channels 1-16, notes or CC's, AND port A or B. For example; in my live setup I've got the standard mapping for lives drum racks on two scenes, one port A one port B; one scene controls my re-wired reason combinators, including knobs and buttons; I also have a few scenes that are set out as global patch changes, where each pad enables simultaneously launch all the effects/instruments I typically need in ableton for a certain track/passage (basically it is assigned to a certain position on all the chain selector in my effect and instrument tracks that correspond to that track). Can't remember what other scene do off the top of my head, but it's pretty limitless.

Even if you weren't doing a live show I'm sure all the pre-loaded scenes would come in handy for studio - there are scenes for battery, various reason devices, a number of VSTs and DAWs etc.

I'm sure the MPD might have some similar mapping functions, but that's my experience with the korg anyway.

Depone wrote:

marshy wrote:I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

Thing is i already have a nice edirol PCR keyboard with loads of knobs etc.. all i want is literally some pads to sketch out ideas on. Maybe the LPD is the answer as im not looking for a full scale 24 pad unit. I also love akai's build quality, and get to use my mates MPC2000 a bit when hes in.

why not use the pads built into the edirol?

deadly habit wrote:

Depone wrote:

marshy wrote:I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

Thing is i already have a nice edirol PCR keyboard with loads of knobs etc.. all i want is literally some pads to sketch out ideas on. Maybe the LPD is the answer as im not looking for a full scale 24 pad unit. I also love akai's build quality, and get to use my mates MPC2000 a bit when hes in.

why not use the pads built into the edirol?

Pre pads keybaord im afraid. Got it in 2006 or something

Depone wrote:

deadly habit wrote:

Depone wrote:

marshy wrote:I've heard of problems with the Trigger Finger and Logic, may be worth looking into Depone.

Dependant on how often you use pads, may be worth getting a controller keyboard with them. For drums i normally drag n drop audio clips for kicks and snares, only use pads for the hats and cymbals. Axiom 49 does the job perfectly for when i do need pads.

Thing is i already have a nice edirol PCR keyboard with loads of knobs etc.. all i want is literally some pads to sketch out ideas on. Maybe the LPD is the answer as im not looking for a full scale 24 pad unit. I also love akai's build quality, and get to use my mates MPC2000 a bit when hes in.

why not use the pads built into the edirol?

Pre pads keybaord im afraid. Got it in 2006 or something

ah damn was gonna say, i'd go with the korg full size or nano since the pads feel great and the x/y control is sick for fx automation

imo the nanokorg series is basically what you pay for, yea they are cheap, but they are also built poorly, the keys are prone to damage and are not really sensitive enough

LordBid wrote:imo the nanokorg series is basically what you pay for, yea they are cheap, but they are also built poorly, the keys are prone to damage and are not really sensitive enough

the nanokey is only one ive seen an issue with