Hi everyone and Robert, I appreciate your passion to finger drumming! Great gear guides on your site too.
Here’s a little video of me with the FGDP-50, this is the kind of stuff I have fun with:
I still contend that not having the snare and kick pads split in two is a major blunder, silencing the pad just because another finger is down is ridiculous. There’s also instances where it’d be impossible to lift the other finger in time i.e. you want to do two snares a few milliseconds apart from each other as an accent. Real double beater pedals and snare drums don’t work like this, you don’t have to lift your foot off the first beater to trigger another kick and unlike fingers snares are so bouncy that you’ll never risk laying your stick on a snare drum after hitting it. Hitting 24th notes/rolls is really aggravating, I’d rather it play the note when I hit it than drop the sound entirely if I fail to lift my other finger in time. With absolutely extreme amounts of precision it’s possible to avoid this issue and it’s gotten a little better with practice but some of us just want to jam out and be expressive without risking dropping a note. I really hope they release a revised version with a split kick and snare, aside from having to hit the pads a little hard to actuate them this thing is nearly perfect.
Thanks for sharing! It sounds great and I can totally see how you hit the limits of this device with those single kick and snare pads. You need everything to respond very smoothly when you’re going for this metal/jazz fusion cross over kinda thing. Thats’s some seriously busy music.
You do get a lot out of this thing already though. I’m also hoping for a pro version!
I didn’t rehearsed too much, just improvised over the tune, so, forgive me for anything…
All sounds are from the FGDP50, bit I used some samples stacked in the snare and hihat pads. I purchased the snare one shot sample pack from The eDrum Workshop some years ago, and don’t remember where the cymbals sample come from…
I removed the drum track and recorded using the Rec’n Share app from Yamaha. I noticed that the video is not perfectly synchronized, but could not figure out how to solve the problems…
Yes! Groovy! Thanks for sharing this. I see the drumkit in the back there and I wonder why you decided to try out finger drumming on an fgdp-50 (since you clearly already have drumming experience … probably on a real kit?)
I like this video a lot. It demonstrates how you can get some very decent sounding drums out of a small portable device like this. Very nice!
Hi, im new member of this forum and also fresh user of FGDP-50 So Hello Everyone
I would like to invite you to vote for my idea for a dedicated editor for FGDP. The more positive votes, the greater the chance that Yamaha will consider creating something like this because a dedicated application would allow you to create your own kits faster.
If you also have some ideas of your own, I suggest you post them on ideascale
Yes, I play acoustic drums since 8 years old, but love the portability of the FGDP50. I have also a Machine Mikro and just purchased today a Nektar Aura to try out…
I dreamed about a portable drumset for years!
I can now sit in front of TV with my wife and practice a bit in my FGDP, or play late nigth witout disturbing the neighbors (I live in an apartment) !!! Wonderful.
As I am get used with finger drumming, I will record some more videos…
Hi brother. I have a Yamaha FGDP-50 and it’s focused to fast results and day-by-day work. I do not have experience with another keyboards layout to compare.
I’m percusionist from Brazil and acquired FGDP-50 to enrich my percussion set. Studying the manual i saw that’s a very powerfull tool!
Yes, please include a new page with “maps” to FGDP-50 default set/layout (Maple, for example). It would be higlhy usefull for novices om Finger Drumming.
Hey I posting here - after re-reading instructions it seems to be the best place to get an answer from Rob and the knowledgeable community. Subject is the new FGDPs, so here you go.
I am looking for a musical instrument that I can find enjoyable and that can help my kids (8-10 yo) to explore and to play music outside of the more formal musical teaching they are receiving in classical instruments (guitar and violin). They expressed in the past the desire for a drum kit, but wife was quick in stopping any idea of the kind. But I always thought they would benefit and enjoy playing need some rythmic instrument (bass guitar was an idea too).
Then very recently I found this channel and started thinking that finger drumming could be easy, accessible and rewarding (I am sure it requires a lot of practice too).
So, given the above, I was thinking that the one of the new Yamaha FGDP (and I tempeted more by the -50) would be the best option given that they are not super familiar with pc and stuff. We do have a focusrite,a decent PC and an old iMac; I guess a Mikro MK3 with prices dropping would also be an interesting options (probably the one I would pick if it wasnt for the kids).
I think an FGDP (50 or 30) is indeed a good choice for kids. The 50 especially resembles a classic toy “keyboard” that can make fun sounds and play songs. Some nice colored lights in the pads and stuff. The difference being that this is for drums and not piano type stuff.
I think it’s a very inviting device. More so than a laptop setup with software.
That said, I have this very long video about it also explaining why I like the Maschine vs the FGDP. At this time I don’t have that much more to say about it. No new insights or changes of heart or anything.
I’ve just gotten an FGDP-50 and I’m really loving it so far. I’ve noticed that the minimum threshold feels a lot higher on the device than it actually is, I think it’s that the drums make almost no sound at velocity 1 so you have to get them up to 10 or so. They feel more sensitive into addictive drums. It’s still not as sensitive as my linnstrument but I think it’s close to my launch pad x
For the snare pad you can trigger one side while holding the other, you just have to hit with more force than the other hand is pushing down with. If you’re just resting a finger it doesn’t stop you using the rest of the pad.
I do wish they’d split it in two though as velocity layers are pretty simple to set up using link groups on the l/r copies of the same drum - you set both to the same link group as send/receive, then put the minimum velocity of one equal to the maximum velocity of the other
I’ve had the FGDP-50 for almost a year now and love it ! You can walk into a jam with a portable battery powered speaker and you’re ready to go in less than a minute. Very fun!
I have noticed something very interesting about pad sensitivity which makes me think a firmware update could make this a much more sensitive device. If you simply “press” on a pad you will only see midi aftertouch messages (no note messages) and no sound will be triggered. If you tap on a pad you will get note messages and therefore trigger a sound. Now, if you lightly tap a pad you will “often” get aftertouch messages only ! This seems like an issue … that the firmware is prioritizing aftertouch over notes! Also, the aftertouch velocities you can get with light taps are very low - like <3. Note messages are generally double digits but you can sometimes get a velocity of 5 or 6.
So why does the firmware not always automatically add a note-on for the pad with the detected velocity? Clearly the pad is detected because AT messages seem very sensitive. Or if there is a reason they did this, make it an option you can select (ATPriority seems to describe this exact solution but I can’t see any difference in ATPriority being Low or High). It appears like the FGDP-50 algorithm for pad detection gets confused with light presses which I hope is solvable in the firmware (or maybe ATPriority is broken). I tried turning off aftertouch but that just stops the AT MIDI messages, the note trigger behaviour is still the same. I will mention this to Yamaha - fixing this should make the FGDP-50 noticeably more sensitive IMO.
I also think they should have split both large pads into 2 (or even 3). I can’t get a reliable flam on one pad (can’t lift my 1st finger fast enough sometimes or control the pressure just right). I map the middle pad (toms row) to the same sound just so I can get my flams to be reliable (with 2 fingers - same hand).
Yes, please mention this to Yamaha.
Also something that I’d like them to fix with firmware is some filtering out of double triggers. They are quite easy to detect, because they happen in a very fast interval (like 5-20ms), which could not be humanly possibly triggered anyway.
I also noticed the AT behavior and found it weird. My theory: You need to have a certain initial velocity to trigger the note-on. If your initial velocity is to low, but you keep pressing the pressure goes beyond the interval that is recognized. So if you convert such an AT event to a note, it might have a little bit of latency. But maybe they could define an acceptable range (5-10ms?) where AT can trigger a soft, low velocity note. And then they probably shouldn’t trigger AT at all if pressure comes on a note that isn’t currently triggered “on”.
Yeah - they certainly need to look at this. As I re-read the manual, the ATPriority setting seems like it really was meant to control this behaviour but “low” or “high” does not seem to affect anything as far as I can tell. I’ll ask Yamaha to explain this parameter as well.
I really don’t see a use for pressing a pad (i.e. not-tapping it) and having it only sending AT messages - the name even says it, “after” touch, AT messages should always be preceded by a note message. If there is “any” activity on a pad it should always start with a Note-on. From what I see, the pads are very sensitive to detecting pressure (AT), they just need to get rid of the logic they use to determine when to send the note messages. This filtering they are doing to try and determine if a pad is “hit” vs “pressed” is killing the pad sensitivity on this great device.
I may test the theory and write a simple midi filter to do this, i.e. start all AT activity on a pad with a note-on while filtering out the notes that the FGDP generates as long as the AT pressure on that pad is not 0 … just to see how much better it really could be. I will report back.
I remember the Novtion launchpad had a similar logic issue which impacted that device when the same midi note was defined for more than one pad (which we need as finger drummers). I reached out to them and they ultimately addressed it in a firmware update. Let’s hope Yamaha can do the same here. The FGDP is so close to perfect for me; pad sensitivity is really the only negative.
As far as double triggers, I don’t seem to have that issue, or maybe I have not noticed it. I will keep and eye out for this but yes, they should be able to do some filtering there as well.
I may test the theory and write a simple midi filter to do this, i.e. start all AT activity on a pad with a note-on while filtering out the notes that the FGDP generates as long as the AT pressure on that pad is not 0 … just to see how much better it really could be. I will report back.
Apologies if this deep dive on pad sensitivity is not relevant for everyone but I did write a Python filter to test this and it does greatly improve the pad sensitivity of the FGDP. I would estimate it closes the gap between the FGDP and the Maschine (which I have as well) by about 50%. The Maschine is still more sensitive (those as we know are magic pads) but it does help quite a bit. I’m hopeful Yamaha is able to make an improvement with a firmware update. Still the FGDP is a super fun device and a great “grab and go” for live jams.
I can share it but keep in mind it’s only a test. It cannot work as a workaround without jumping through some hoops. For one - it will not work with the same midi note on more than 1 pad. You would have to update to an fgdp layout with all unique midi notes. It also makes double triggers more likely. The real solution needs to come from Yamaha - ideally, if you turn AT off for a Pad they should support a much more sensitive note trigger for that pad - best of both worlds! There may be something in their implementation that prevents improving this but hopefully not. This quick experiment at least shows the pads are more sensitive than the latest release demonstrates - that bodes well for an update.
