Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

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Rane
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Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by Rane » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:01 pm

I'm pretty new to Ableton/midi controllers. My first was the Arturia MiniLab. I really liked the drum pads and figured I'd get a controller with more pads that was hopefully more sensitive.

So, I bought an MPD18 with aftermarket MPCStuff pads.

Worst.

Purchase.

Ever.

The pads are terribly lacking in sensitivity. I even pulled it apart to try out the "increased sensitivity" mods that everyone talks about. Nothing I did brought it even close to the Arturia's sensitivity. Plus, who thought it was a good idea to design a square pad with hollowed out corners and a round convex disk as the triggering mechanism?

It's like the finger drumming equivalent of being on a ship at high seas!

Perhaps I am being a bit over-dramatic, but I was just surprised that these things don't have a lot more negative reviews. Yeah, if you play it long enough, you start to forget what the good pads feel like, but a quick jump back the the Arturia and you hate the Akai again.

My review's probably overly negative, but I figured I'd just throw it out there for anyone considering these controllers without actually trying them. Believe me. One person's awesome is another guy's garbage.

yur2die4
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by yur2die4 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:14 pm

No I agree. Never understood the allure. There is one weird cool feature though. You can keep your finger pressed on the pad and let up very slightly without letting go and push again abruptly. It'll let you retrigger the pad.

Aside from that, they absolutely lack the sensitivity of newer pads.

102455
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by 102455 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:34 pm

What exactly were you expecting at that end of the market? They're not hand crafted by Roger Linn or anything!

njh
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by njh » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:04 pm

102455 wrote:What exactly were you expecting at that end of the market? They're not hand crafted by Roger Linn or anything!
Is your last name Akai? Why would you get so defensive about this review?
The poster tells you what they were expecting, they were expecting drum pads that are on par with other products of the same value.

I feel the review is pretty accurate for Akai drum pads. Compared to other drum pads Akais feel like an extremely cheap toy. Adding to what the poster said about the trigger part of the pad being an oval inside of the square pad, you have to basically pound on those things with the highest velocity setting to make a noise. If you miss hitting the oval sensor part of the pad you wont trigger a sound.
There is no getting around it, Akai has made some horrible drum pads.

eddiex
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by eddiex » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:38 pm

i won't go so far as to say akai's pads are as awesome as maschine's pads or anything, but i actually dig the akai pads. the MDP18 was my main deal for quite a long time. a couple things, on the MPD....just starting out? set your rig to "full level".....not to be a "D" but if you aren't on "full level" and you are having sensitivity issues....it MIGHT be your playing. another thing i had to learn....check your sampler/simpler and drum rack velocity settings (in LIVE) i forget the default settings for all of those....but set your velocity settings to 100% (there abouts). there is also a velocity plug in LIVE. again, definitely not saying that the MPD's pads are as great as other controllers out there.....but you can get the mpd to play pretty decently with a few adjustments.
also as you said, one man's trash is another man's treasure...its true. for me, i like the fact that i had to play the MPD a little harder, to get the sound i wanted. it sorta helped me be a better player, not that i am johnny fingers squarepusher or anything....but, for me, it helps to have limitations.
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TheNobleNemesis
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by TheNobleNemesis » Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:17 pm

I know that feel :s

Purchased an MPK25, thinking i'd be able to replace my Maschine Mikro, and when I used the pads on the thing, I literally had to use arm strength to push the pad in to trigger it. With the Maschine, you just have to give it a little tap and it'll trigger at a decent velocity, but with these, it was quite literally impossible to use them in any practical way.

TLDR; Don't buy the MPK25 if the pads are part of the reason you want it.

102455
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by 102455 » Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:59 pm

njh wrote:Why would you get so defensive about this review?
Perhaps because the OP was so offensive - calling Akai pads "complete garbage" is a rather sweeping statement.

For the record I own an MPC1000 and the pads are far from "complete garbage" (IMO).

reeloy
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by reeloy » Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:49 pm

....the mpd 18 is to light for thick pads from mpc stuff...and the cheapest thing to get....

the mpc stuff guys tell everbody their pads work for all pad systems, but in fact they work best with a mpc...
it's a big difference if they're nailed to a heavy basement...

and these thick x tra pads are made for heavy use....ghetto style kind of thing... :wink: .....i got them on a mpc 1000 and hell yeah, it took a while to get used to them....

and the fame still comes from the real akai machines back in the days when there was no nukai in sight....

you want a real pad controler?....get an old mpc model...and go beyond finger drumming...

dredd i knight
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by dredd i knight » Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:30 am

Getting the MPD 18 is the whole of your problem here. the Korg PadKontrol. Madchine Mikro, the new available soon trigger Finger, even the the newish MPC Element would have all been a much better purchase. The mpd18 is the oldest lowest spec of all the pad controllers out there, and the pads are notorious for their lack of sensitivity. I feel for you man... Next time... REASEARCH, google is your friend :wink:

pencilrocket
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by pencilrocket » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:14 am

Who let the kid use interntet?

Division Monarchy
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by Division Monarchy » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:42 am

I owned an MPC2000 back in the day, the pads on it were great. It was a production piece that I always kicked myself for getting rid of.
I picked up an Akai MPD32 a year ago & I think the pads are pretty bad. You can turn it on to full velocity & it's better, but there goes any sense of dynamics in your programming. You can always use the Velocity MIDI effect in Live & set a range, but it's still not the same.

The whole MPD line is not very expressive & the MPK is even worse. Akai really lost quality I think.

Maschine pads are the new standard, they are amazing. The redeeming thing I'll give Akai is that they seemed to get the pads better for the Push controller, but I think Ableton held them to a standard.

I can't say Akai pads as a whole are complete garbage, but yeah, I understand your disappointment. They do not keep it consistent across their product line.

ecapsretuo
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by ecapsretuo » Sun Feb 16, 2014 2:51 am

TheNobleNemesis wrote:I know that feel :s

Purchased an MPK25, thinking i'd be able to replace my Maschine Mikro, and when I used the pads on the thing, I literally had to use arm strength to push the pad in to trigger it. With the Maschine, you just have to give it a little tap and it'll trigger at a decent velocity, but with these, it was quite literally impossible to use them in any practical way.

TLDR; Don't buy the MPK25 if the pads are part of the reason you want it.
I certainly second this. My experience was the same.
However, I have found the pads on Push to be sensitive adequately and very much playable. :P
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Khazul
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by Khazul » Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:45 am

I still have an MPC2500 and TBH I fid the pads on that need to be hit too hard even on max sensitivity. I guess its ok if that's all you play, or you also play a fully weighting piano keyboard and tend to hammer it.

I much prefer to play the pads on NI maschine. I think its a personal taste thing.
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Rane
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by Rane » Fri Feb 21, 2014 3:32 am

dredd i knight wrote:Getting the MPD 18 is the whole of your problem here. the Korg PadKontrol. Madchine Mikro, the new available soon trigger Finger, even the the newish MPC Element would have all been a much better purchase. The mpd18 is the oldest lowest spec of all the pad controllers out there, and the pads are notorious for their lack of sensitivity. I feel for you man... Next time... REASEARCH, google is your friend :wink:
Agreed, getting the MPD was definitely a mistake (it's already back on ebay). The funny thing is that I did a TON of research. Generally speaking, a lot of people seem to like the Akai pads, especially with the MPCstuff upgrade.

That's kinda' why I posted this. Google seemed to be lacking in negative reviews. lol

dredd i knight
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Re: Akai Pad Quality = Complete Garbage

Post by dredd i knight » Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:03 am

Rane wrote:
dredd i knight wrote:Getting the MPD 18 is the whole of your problem here. the Korg PadKontrol. Madchine Mikro, the new available soon trigger Finger, even the the newish MPC Element would have all been a much better purchase. The mpd18 is the oldest lowest spec of all the pad controllers out there, and the pads are notorious for their lack of sensitivity. I feel for you man... Next time... REASEARCH, google is your friend :wink:
Agreed, getting the MPD was definitely a mistake (it's already back on ebay). The funny thing is that I did a TON of research. Generally speaking, a lot of people seem to like the Akai pads, especially with the MPCstuff upgrade.

That's kinda' why I posted this. Google seemed to be lacking in negative reviews. lol
Fair enough.. What are you thinking of getting instead? I've had a korg kontrol and really liked it. I now have Maschine mk ii and a push and would say I prefer Maschine for finger drumming, but push is still pretty good for that. And I've got to say that the new trigger finger looks like it might be am interesting proposition...

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