Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
golemus
Posts: 277
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:26 am

Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by golemus » Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:19 am

I would like to get a good pad controller for drum racks. Currently I have Akai LPD8 but the problem is that it is difficult to know which drum rack slots the pads are actually controlling. And I would like to have 16 of them.

Ideally I would like that the pad controller controls always the thing I see in the drum rack. So that when I browse with mouse up or down in the drum rack and there are new slots in the view, the akai pads are automatically mapped to the new slots.

So that always whatever I see in the screen is mapped to the pads on my table.

Do you know if Akai MPC Element can do this...?

http://www.thomann.de/fi/akai_mpc_element.htm


Another one I have been looking is Akai MPD 18. It is much older though and has been criticized of stiff pads.


Recommendations..?

delicioso
Posts: 1331
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:28 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by delicioso » Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:24 pm

golemus wrote:I would like to get a good pad controller for drum racks. Currently I have Akai LPD8 but the problem is that it is difficult to know which drum rack slots the pads are actually controlling. And I would like to have 16 of them.
You should check out Maschine. Maschine 2.1's new Live 9 templates for its MIDI mode are much improved, especially visual feedback of parameter names and value feedback from Live on the dual displays/knobs/buttons. With Drum Rack, there's now more LED feedback so the pads with samples/instruments loaded light up. You can also scroll up and down rows of pads as well as moving by whole octaves.

golemus
Posts: 277
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:26 am

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by golemus » Tue Apr 29, 2014 10:14 am

delicioso wrote:
golemus wrote:I would like to get a good pad controller for drum racks. Currently I have Akai LPD8 but the problem is that it is difficult to know which drum rack slots the pads are actually controlling. And I would like to have 16 of them.
You should check out Maschine. Maschine 2.1's new Live 9 templates for its MIDI mode are much improved, especially visual feedback of parameter names and value feedback from Live on the dual displays/knobs/buttons. With Drum Rack, there's now more LED feedback so the pads with samples/instruments loaded light up. You can also scroll up and down rows of pads as well as moving by whole octaves.
cheapest maschine (mikro mk2) costs 333eur. It is three times as much as MPC Element and 3.5 times as much as LPD18. Even now the LPD8 mostly collects dust so I don't want to make that big investment before I am sure that I need them.

Is there really something that justifies maschines high price? I really don't have now time to learn another DAW (maschine DAW), just want to finish fast the tunes that I have.

And I suppose there are a lot of drums with Live9..? Can this compete with the ones in Maschine...? I really havent used Live9 that much and I havent yet installed any of the big sample collections that come with it.

panten
Posts: 924
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:02 pm
Location: South of London

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by panten » Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:14 pm

If I were on a budget I'd go for the Korg PadKontrol and Stray's pKC for Live script. No need for Maschine here. The padKontrol pads are supposed to be great I hear.

tdollrsign
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:57 am

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by tdollrsign » Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:00 am

golemus wrote:I would like to get a good pad controller for drum racks. Currently I have Akai LPD8 but the problem is that it is difficult to know which drum rack slots the pads are actually controlling. And I would like to have 16 of them.

Ideally I would like that the pad controller controls always the thing I see in the drum rack. So that when I browse with mouse up or down in the drum rack and there are new slots in the view, the akai pads are automatically mapped to the new slots.

So that always whatever I see in the screen is mapped to the pads on my table.

Do you know if Akai MPC Element can do this...?

http://www.thomann.de/fi/akai_mpc_element.htm


Another one I have been looking is Akai MPD 18. It is much older though and has been criticized of stiff pads.


Recommendations..?

Have you checked out the KMI quneo? I have been using mine with ableton for about year now and its honestly the best pad set I've used since my 2000xl, saw some at guitar center on clearance for 129? I paid more for mine and almost picked up another just cause of the price..

Fritz609
Posts: 49
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:00 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by Fritz609 » Sun Oct 05, 2014 10:34 pm

I have also been eyeing the mpc element to control drum racks. I need something portable and the element is thn and has nice pads. I also checked out the quneo but waaaaaaay too much configuring and mapping and this and that and im not into all the geek squad tech stuff. I just wanna plug play, map a little, and ,ake music. The padkontrol was an option until i found out its as thick as a decade old jar of peanut butter. Nice pads tho. Mashne mikro would be cool but, do not like maschine workflow and would be expensive to purchase just for drum racks. I wonder if i can buy a used maschine mk1 or mk2 w/out software and use it as a general purpose controller. Anyone have any ideas? Didnt mean to jack thread. Just figured it was somewhat relevant to the topic.

beatz01
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:09 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by beatz01 » Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:58 am

What's thick about the Padkontrol ?! Is it because of iPads people nowadays can't lift a PK anymore because it's "too thick" ??

Honestly, imho the PK is still the best drum midi controller on the market.

regretfullySaid
Posts: 8913
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 5:50 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by regretfullySaid » Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:34 am

If Stray is cool with it I could sell my nativeKontrol pK scripts cuz I sold em a while ago. Not so much because there was a problem with them, but because I've minimalized and mostly just use Quneo.

If anyone's interested...
ImageImage

ansolas
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Location: Earth ~ Europe ~ Germany ~ Cuxheaven

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by ansolas » Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:48 pm

push *cough*

Fritz609
Posts: 49
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:00 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by Fritz609 » Mon Oct 06, 2014 11:37 pm

I was tempted to buy another push but couldn't justify the price for now. I cherish my push too much to put it around America on a bag.

tdollrsign
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:57 am

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by tdollrsign » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:37 pm

Fritz609 wrote:I have also been eyeing the mpc element to control drum racks. I need something portable and the element is thn and has nice pads. I also checked out the quneo but waaaaaaay too much configuring and mapping and this and that and im not into all the geek squad tech stuff. I just wanna plug play, map a little, and ,ake music. The padkontrol was an option until i found out its as thick as a decade old jar of peanut butter. Nice pads tho. Mashne mikro would be cool but, do not like maschine workflow and would be expensive to purchase just for drum racks. I wonder if i can buy a used maschine mk1 or mk2 w/out software and use it as a general purpose controller. Anyone have any ideas? Didnt mean to jack thread. Just figured it was somewhat relevant to the topic.
I have a barebones template made specifically for triggering in Drum Rack, I can send it your way if you end up with a quneo. Takes about 30 seconds to load it up.. Lemme know!

H20nly
Posts: 16057
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Location: The Wild West

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by H20nly » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:58 pm

i have an Akai MPD 24 that isn't doing anything with its life... i swapped it out for a PUSH. i'd be willing to part with it for some kind of trade or very little cash.

Schmidi
Posts: 322
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2003 2:07 am
Location: Seattle

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by Schmidi » Thu Oct 09, 2014 3:08 am

Gotta recommend the Quneo as well. One of the most versatile midi controllers out there, though that does mean you will need to do some editing in the supplied editor at times. Quneo also has some of the finest pads outside of professional high end electronic percussion pads (DrumKat etc).

Padkontrol is a close second in terms of features and pad quality.

I have tried all of the Akai pads, and they have extremely poor sensitivity in comparison to Quneo and PK.

Fritz609
Posts: 49
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:00 pm

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by Fritz609 » Thu Oct 09, 2014 3:42 am

tdollrsign wrote:
Fritz609 wrote:I have also been eyeing the mpc element to control drum racks. I need something portable and the element is thn and has nice pads. I also checked out the quneo but waaaaaaay too much configuring and mapping and this and that and im not into all the geek squad tech stuff. I just wanna plug play, map a little, and ,ake music. The padkontrol was an option until i found out its as thick as a decade old jar of peanut butter. Nice pads tho. Mashne mikro would be cool but, do not like maschine workflow and would be expensive to purchase just for drum racks. I wonder if i can buy a used maschine mk1 or mk2 w/out software and use it as a general purpose controller. Anyone have any ideas? Didnt mean to jack thread. Just figured it was somewhat relevant to the topic.
I have a barebones template made specifically for triggering in Drum Rack, I can send it your way if you end up with a quneo. Takes about 30 seconds to load it up.. Lemme know!
That'd be cool. Thanks. I'll let you onow

login
Posts: 1870
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:41 am

Re: Akai MPC Element for drum racks...?

Post by login » Thu Oct 09, 2014 4:24 am

MPD 32 has nativekontrol scripts, but the pads will probably need to be moded with mpcstuff pads http://www.mpcstuff.com/mpd32stuff.htm


That would be a good combo.

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