Hello, I’m a seasoned drummer just starting this fascinating world of finger drumming.
I’ve purchased the Launchpad Pro MK3 as I need at least 50-60 pads for the different articulations I need.
But I was surprised at the lack of consistency when trying a run of notes of the same velocity. If I were to tap out on a table what I was playing, you’d say the velocities were very consistent, certainly within ten percent value of each other. Novation support had me measure the output through an app called midiox, and the notes were all over the place. For instance 64,105,76,127 when they should have registered much closer together in velocity. I returned that unit and now the new unit is about 50% better, but even still I’m not sure it will be useable as my style is based heavily on nuance.
(And yes, velocity was set to low, and that new threshold button released in the new update was also on low)
My question is if there are any other nuanced drummers that are happy with the pad output consistency of their Launchpad? If so, I’ll keep buying and returning til I find one.
Are the Mikro’s any more consistent? I could get two but that seems so messy to me.
Thank you, and thank you Robert for your energy toward all this. I’m really looking forward to all the new possibilities.
Pete
Hey Pete,
I was happy with mine I must say, but I have to add that the velocity “range” when finger drumming is unfortunately very small. So the difference between a loud velocity and a soft one can in the beginning feel like nothing. I personally mostly teach a “firm” hit and a “soft tap” in the beginning, which can then be smoothed out by setting velocity curves in Addictive Drums. Those curves will then make for example all loud hi hat hits nice and loud, and everyting softer than that will sneakily be made a little more consistent.
Also, it’s always a little confusing as to what velocity and threshold “low” means. In this case I would always make the treshold trigger to the softest touches, but I would probably set the velocity to respond the other way around. This means a soft touch triggers the pad, but you do have to give it a firm tap to reach higher velocities. That can sometimes create a little more dynamic range.
The “medium” option in that regard might sometimes be better as well.
The super light velocity response just cranks out the high velocities if you tap just a tiny bit harder which can then lead to the problems you describe.
Keep me/us posted! I can look into this some more with you and help you decide what to do.
Cheers,
Robert
Thank you Robert.
You’re right… these things are quite sensitive, and manipulating the velocity curve can help get some consistency. I’ve set any hit below 40 to equal forty since below that is relatively indistinguishable and forty is a good level for ghost notes for me. On the top side, however, I’d still like linear access to the full 100 to 127 velocity range. Maybe I’m being too greedy since your solution will satisfy most people.
So please only read on if you’re slightly obsessed with velocity consistency. If your unit works and you’re happy it’s what you hear, you’re good. Stop here.
Otherwise:
From what I’ve gathered, when we say a device has good or bad sensitivity, we’ve been referring mostly to light touch response and velocity range. But I wonder if more weight should also be given to velocital (not an actual word) consistency. Or how easy is it to consistently hit the same velocity while hitting a note repeatedly. For instance I’ll try to hit a velocity value of 70 twenty or so times, then 80, then 90 and so on to see how accurate I can get throughout the dynamic spectrum.
On the Launchpad I just returned, some pads I saw had a greater range than others. For instance if I aimed for 80, I might see a value as low as 62 and high as 112 in my string of hits, whereas on other pads the spread was only about ten points either way. Those spikes were quite audible and unacceptable. As I said in the previous post, this newer Launchpad is better than the one I just returned. The velocity spread is closer to ten points either way. I’m just wondering how much more I should keep looking, if I can maybe get that spread to five points either way.
If anyone else is interested in their velocity consistency, you can certainly look at the output in your DAW. Mine displays it in bar lengths.
But I f you’d like to see a numerical display instead, Novation support recommended to me a simple program which will display all your midi output data called Midiox. (Midiox.com)
(Once installed, select your device in MIDI OX > Options > MIDI Devices. Select both MIDI Inputs and MIDI Outputs. Now click ‘OK’. In the main monitor window, when you play the keys on your device or move the controls, you should see more MIDI data than you probably want. Find the filter icon (looks like broom) and check all the boxes except “Note On”, “Control Change”, and “System Common”. Now you’ll have only one line per Midi hit. Column “Data 2” is showing each hit velocity. (If it’s showing in hexadecimal, go to Options>Data Display, and uncheck Hex).
I’d like to know what other people’s pads are reading when you really try to hone in on one single velocity. How wide is your velocity point spread? I know it’s subjective as we all have different skill levels.
Also, Robert, feel free to delete all this if this is out of the scope of what you have going here. I’m dealing with minutia and don’t want to open a can of worms when there’s not necessarily a problem anyway.
This is very interesting!
My two cents at this point are that in my experience I can get about 4 ‘levels’ of velocity out of my playing and I think that’s a combination of the midi notes velocity and when the drum software switches to another sample. So you basically have very soft, very loud and then two stages in between.
All of this works well for most recorded drum parts. All I ever did after recoding “real” drums" was making all those hits less dynamic and more consistent so in that sense you’re immediately closer to an end result when finger drumming.
That said, it is also the reason I got kinda stuck when trying to make a jazz course. I’m not giving up on it but it does sorta suck that the difference between a light tap and a big bang on the ride or snare is so easily made. Especially in those loose, jazzy situations.
The nektar aura might be a good device to try since it seems like you can increase the dynamic range by tweaking the settings (this thing is more tweakable than any other controller). Made a video about that.
Finally, I do believe that there is no big pad controller manufacturer out there at the moment who seriously gives a rats ass about making their pads this accurate and consistent 
In most cases just the trigger threshold is something people don’t even care about, let alone dynamic range. The cash cow seems to be to sell an ‘ok’ controller and then sell software expansion packs.
Thanks for the valuable insight.
Well that’s good and bad new, I guess. But at least I know where the industry stands at the moment.
And it makes sense since finger drumming is relatively new, but spreading thanks to people like you.
I, for one, will be adding two kt-10 kick triggers since my feet already know what to do. I think as more drummers awaken to the possibilities this offers, the industry will catch up. I hope.
Thanks again for your perspective.
Pete
Here’s a little glimpse of the future for you Pete. Some guy is building a controller that actually might do what we want it to do. It’s just a prototype, but it looks great to me and seems to work well!
Great! Looks like a smooth, easily controlled dynamic range. Will follow this. Thanks for sharing.