EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
ThrowAway
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by ThrowAway » Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:08 am

its possible to make them so sensitive that tapping as light as possible would trigger them, before I adjusted them the first time thats how it came out. How should I objectively test that out on the padkontrol?

humnumb
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by humnumb » Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:23 am

ThrowAway wrote:its possible to make them so sensitive that tapping as light as possible would trigger them, before I adjusted them the first time thats how it came out. How should I objectively test that out on the padkontrol?
An objective test would require actually testing out both units before making statements like "100 times more sensitive than any stock padkontrol."

ThrowAway
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by ThrowAway » Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:57 am

in this case im trying to tell you is testing is not needed. can the pad kontrol be triggered just by dropping the weight of your finger on a pad? Let me put my statement in simplest terms possible here because it seems like its being misunderstood. Pad sensitivity should be a non issue when choosing between both units being discussed because both can be adjusted to easily accepted levels.

Cool Character
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by Cool Character » Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:08 am

Just because it can register a hit at the lightest touch doesn't mean it's sensitive at all across the velocity range, not to mention as sensitive as __insert untested alternative here__.

SubFunk
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by SubFunk » Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:53 am

The weight of your finger alone is enough to trigger the PadK and you have a very smooth curve through the entire velocity range, plus the pad is excactly as sensitive from edge to edge, the unit is extremely light for traveling / gigging and solid built, you have farmpad for osx and visual feedback that even indicates if you send CCs or notes, without mucking about with the unit, i owned a MPC 2000 xl for years and the pads are a total shite compared to the PadK.

the PadK is the pad controller with the best and most expressive pads. period.

and for the record the worst (only judging the pads itself) is the triggerfinger.
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humnumb
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by humnumb » Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:42 pm

ThrowAway wrote:in this case im trying to tell you is testing is not needed. can the pad kontrol be triggered just by dropping the weight of your finger on a pad? Let me put my statement in simplest terms possible here because it seems like its being misunderstood. Pad sensitivity should be a non issue when choosing between both units being discussed because both can be adjusted to easily accepted levels.
Throw away the crack pipe. I've tested both and I can tell you that you just cannot play melodies with sustained notes on MPD/MPC pads reliably without the notes cutting off before you mean to. Padkontrol never has this problem

ThrowAway
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by ThrowAway » Sat Jan 23, 2010 7:14 pm

humnumb wrote:
ThrowAway wrote:in this case im trying to tell you is testing is not needed. can the pad kontrol be triggered just by dropping the weight of your finger on a pad? Let me put my statement in simplest terms possible here because it seems like its being misunderstood. Pad sensitivity should be a non issue when choosing between both units being discussed because both can be adjusted to easily accepted levels.
Throw away the crack pipe. I've tested both and I can tell you that you just cannot play melodies with sustained notes on MPD/MPC pads reliably without the notes cutting off before you mean to. Padkontrol never has this problem

I can do that with no problem, humernumb. as far as its sensitivity through out the velocity range I pretty much only use a soft and hard hit so I really cant say anything about that.

geekbeats
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Re: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol/Akai MPD18

Post by geekbeats » Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:22 pm

SunshineLui wrote:it's easy to fix, just save a default rack one octave shifted (down), fixed, or make a scene template one octave shifted (up), if you want to play already a lot of existing drum racks, and absolutely +1 for the PadKONTROL, the sensitivity of the pads are the winner of the pad controller game.
So I'm just now digging into customizing my PK and find it strange that I make my own scenes starting with C1, C#1, etc and they register as C0, C#0 inside Live. I don't think it's a huge deal, but it annoys the crap out of me.

Is it a bug?

If it's confirmed as such with no "hardware resolution", I'll give up and work around it... trying to pick my battles wisely ;)

delicioso
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Re: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol/Akai MPD18

Post by delicioso » Wed Feb 03, 2010 10:41 pm

geekbeats wrote:
SunshineLui wrote:it's easy to fix, just save a default rack one octave shifted (down), fixed, or make a scene template one octave shifted (up), if you want to play already a lot of existing drum racks, and absolutely +1 for the PadKONTROL, the sensitivity of the pads are the winner of the pad controller game.
So I'm just now digging into customizing my PK and find it strange that I make my own scenes starting with C1, C#1, etc and they register as C0, C#0 inside Live. I don't think it's a huge deal, but it annoys the crap out of me.

Is it a bug?
No. Different manufacturers have different definitions of what constitutes C0, C1...etc.

geekbeats
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by geekbeats » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:01 pm

Cool, thanks for the reply, that's definitely something I didn't realize.
I assumed MIDI notes and CC# were standardized.

dna598
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by dna598 » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:57 pm

Padkontrol is more enjoyable than using even apc/launchpad buttons IMO.

Cant use Farmpad (pc), but when I have it mapped for a specific purpose it wins for responsiveness. Drum racks implementation is a better experience also. Well,better than on the launchpad anyway.

Thanks a BUNCH akai!
ctrl + left/right = select transient

ctrl + shift + left/right = select between transients

ctrl + space = play selection

geekbeats
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by geekbeats » Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:34 am

but when I have it mapped for a specific purpose it wins for responsiveness
What pads do you have doing what in your setup?

I'm interested in a hybrid of what I found with the default templates from Korg, specifically the one for Live (scene #18 contained in their .zip pack)

This entire scene appears to be for performing "live" with your sets loaded and ready.

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Re: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol/Akai MPD18

Post by SubFunk » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:16 am

delicioso wrote:No. Different manufacturers have different definitions of what constitutes C0, C1...etc.
yup, there are two common definitions of middle C, yamaha C3 and roland C4

most DAWs, except Live, let you choose which of them to apply. (well in Live there are workarounds, like for most thinks, but it is a fiddle without end, i think it's the easiest to just program a scene on the PadK an octave up / down)
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geekbeats
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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by geekbeats » Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:16 pm

i think it's the easiest to just program a scene on the PadK an octave up / down)
Exactly what I ended up doing... about two hours longer than I would have liked :?

I didn't think to research it online because I clearly selected c0 inside the editor for the PK so assumed it was some type of MIDI sync, driver issue on my end.

In the middle of all of the research, I learned a lot of interesting information; how to set the pad sensitivity, native mode, etc... I'll search the ableton forums and definitely post the info if I don't see it.

Thanks again for all of the input, very much appreciated!

** Searched and found this thread that deals with the sensitivity settings ** http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51168

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Re: EDIT: Pros VS cons with PadKontrol--Best bang for the buck

Post by SubFunk » Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:39 pm

and if you are on a mac, don't forget to check out farmpad.
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