Hello fellow fingerdrummers,
I recently bought a small midi-Keyboard that has 8 pads as a bonus (a Akai mpk mini mk3). I discovered that it is a lot of fun playing drums on the pad. Now I’d like to buy a Pad-Controller with 16 Pads. I first considered the Akai MPD 218, but Rob said in his videos that it’s not reliable.
Now I’m looking for a Pad with simple Midi-Mode. I considered the recommendated “Maschine Mikro mk3” but rob said " When you buy this device second hand, please make sure the firmware is updated and you can switch midi-standalone mode on and off. When you don’t own an official license to maschine software you might run into a problem otherwise."
So here’s my question: I would buy a new one, but do I need to update the firmware to use the normal midi-mode. I don’t have a windows or mac computer. Is it however possible to update the firmware on a linux computer? I do not want to use any maschine software, just a simple midi-pad-controller to play drums on my computer. Or would you recommend any other pad-controller that will work without any extra software and is kind of class compliant like my akai mpk mini?
Thank You
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I do not have a linux machine here at the moment to test this out but I don’t think the Maschine devices in midi mode are class compliant. They use some sort of driver installed on the OS in order to “activate”. If there’s nothing installed the Maschines will stay “dead” and you will not be able to do anything. So I highly doubt they will work on linux. Something like a Nektar Aura seems to have a better chance.
And wit that said, an akai mpd218 where you ‘fix’ the pads with tape where needed might be a pretty good solution as well. I depends on how shitty your mpd218 specimen is, but if its pretty good you can probably iron out the kinks with some DIY.
OK, thank you. Do you know anything about the presonus Atom? Might be a good alternative. I read somewhere that it’s class compliant on Mac, whatever that means.
I’m not sure but wat I do know with the Artom is that you cannot change the note value of the pads. SO you cannot say “this pad is note C1” or something. All pads have set values. That might not be good for you but correct me if I’m wrong.
Can I change the note value of any other pad controller without using a windows or mac software?
My favourite drum plugin is drumgizmo, where I can easyly asign the samples to certain notes. For example i could assign the Floor Tom to c (36), the Kick to c# (37), and so on. I can have different presets for each drumset that i can change easily. It takes some time to initial build a kit out of drum samples. But to change the note values goes real fast. It’s only an xml-file where I can change numbers and safe it under a new name.
But in a way you’re right. There a other drum plugins such as the avl drumkits where the notes a fixed.
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From my experience the software is almost always Mac/Windows. Maybe you can run things with something like WINE.
The nektar aura and Korg pad kontrol allow you to change notes on the device itself without using any software so that might be a good path to take in order to maximize flexibility.
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I made a request now at linuxmusicians.com. Maybe there are some fingerdrummers there that can make any recommendations for linux. I will post here if I found a solution.
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Ah that would be great. Thank you, I’m sure your findings will help out a lot of (future) finger drummers!
I bought a Launchpad X last weekend and tested it a bit. It looks like it’s fully supported under linux. It shows up as two different midi devices in jack. I think the first one is for the midi controller, I didn’t really tested it. The second one is for the midi notes and I can play drums or any other instruments with the pads. The settings are made with a browser, so no need for extra software.
Unfortunately I don’t like the pads. It’s not only that the pads a very small. I knew they are small but I wanted to test it. I have big hands and don’t feel very comfortable with it. The biggest problem for me is that they are not as sensitiv as the pads on my akai mpk mini. On the akai I can play p, mf and f. When I try to use the same power on the Launchpad I can play with no sound, mf and f. Even when I practice some time with the Launchpad I don’t get the same dynamic range as with the akai.
I’ll try a few more days but I think I’ll send it back.
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Have you updated to the latest firmware, turned aftertouch off and set the velocity to the most sensitive setting?
I found that in some cases those actions fix the problem.
