Fender Motion 16

Finger Drumming Gear / Software / Setup
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Fender (owners of PreSonus) have discarded the PreSonus name on their new controllers and software. They are going to release the Fender Motion 16 sometime in the foreseeable (along with the Fender Motion 32). The Fender Motion 16 is the model that has the 4x4 dum pad arrangement. Fender’s claim:

16 RGB polyphonic FATAR® pads and illuminated encoders for drums, chords, melodies, and scales — delivering context-aware responsiveness and an unmatched tactile feel for expressive performance and precise control.

It will be interesting to see how Fender Motion 16 fares against its competition when it’s released.

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I subscribed to get a notification when it is actually released. I have not seen it yet.

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Link to manual: https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10151/OM_2777100103_Motion-16_EN.pdf

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YES, I got one a couple days ago.

  • Pads are sensitive
  • BUT… it looks like they need to figure out how to handle hitting two pads that are close to each other at the same time.
  • This is a known issue with pad controllers. They have some sort of firmware in there that is supposed to make sure that random vibrations do not trigger the pads but this can then get in the way when you hit two pads close to each other with the same hand, with absolutely zero difference in timing between those two pads (using two hand will basically eliminate the problem because you will always be a tiny amount apart, even if its like 1 ms)

So yeah… hopefully a firmware update can fix this. I know the ESI Xjam fixed a similar issue that way.

It’s promising.

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5

Great, looking forward to the review!

I’m really curious to see how the Fender compares to the Maschine, not only in terms of pad sensitivity but also dynamic range and velocity consistency.

Lately I’ve been using the FGDP as a MIDI controller for Addictive Drums, and I’ve been pretty impressed with it. With the right settings (Curve: Hard 2, AD Gain: 38–42), I can play everything from very soft ghost notes to hard accents with consistent velocity. I haven’t been able to get that kind of performance from the Xjam.

I also had a chance to briefly try the latest revision of the Maschine+, and the soft hits felt amazing—ghost notes came out effortlessly and were extremely consistent. On the other hand, I couldn’t get medium and hard hits to produce stable velocities; they seemed to fluctuate over a fairly wide range. It could simply be that I didn’t have enough time to dial it in or adapt to the pads.

The FGDP doesn’t have that issue—medium and hard hits are very predictable—but it’s just a little lacking in sensitivity for very soft hits.

Hopefully the Fender will turn out to be a great alternative to both the Maschine and the FGDP!