Axiom 49 vs Korg PadKontrol

diglife · Post by **diglife** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:56 pm

Ok...since i've already decided that the mpd24 is out...what about the Axiom 49 or 61 vs the KorgPadkontrol. I won't be making a ton of beats and right now all i have is an E-mu Xboard 25 and an old no frills 49 key keyboard that just happens to have midi...no knobs or anything fancy...keys are dinky on the 49 keyboard. the Emu is cool and i like the knobs...just curious what you guys think would be the money best spent.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:04 pm

sounds like you technically have the controls you need, so instead of listing options yourself, why not share what exactly you are trying to acheive by updating?

Cheers,
Andreas.

diglife · Post by **diglife** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:53 am

i guess i just want to have a studio environment that is more conducive to making tracks. I want to spend less time clicking a mouse and more time tweaking knobs and playing keys. I know that "technically" i have the keys but seems like the axiom is a solid piece of gear that has pads. Since i'm not a beat maker but do incorporate some percussion from scratch it seems like the way to go. Weighted keys would be nice vs the flimsy feeling keys i use now. I want to control the DAW as much as possible with external pieces of gear. It seems like the Axiom is setup to give a lot of control. I just have reservations about spending money on a midi controller for percussion if i can get some of that built into a better midi controller than i currently have. Just want to make the best decisions as i piece the studio together. Are the pads decent on the Axiom?

Sherman Banks · Post by **Sherman Banks** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 7:03 am

The Axiom is a pretty good piece of gear. I bought one when they came out and it's been the center of my production gear. The controls are pretty sharp and the pads feel really good, not to mention the durability. I'm buying a Korg PadKontrol as well just to enable me to use Live more like an MPC, but I produce hip-hop and its more accomodating to what I do. You wouldn't be sorry to get an Axiom, but my first one had power issues so be sure to test it thoroughly before your return date expires.

rat · Post by **rat** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:04 pm

axiom is good, padkontrol is good...
my problem with the axiom is that it can be annoying sometimes..even if you have everything set-up, sometimes the automapping gets weird and you have to pay attention to what channels you are on,what presets you are on...
sometimes for me, the pads stop working for drums, but work fine for bank switching..
this kind of shit just slows me down more than anything

it is still a great piece of gear, but to tell you the truth, i got remote zero for about 270 with tax, and that has made my studio feel legit, and it is much smaller. the pads aren't very good on it, but good enough to trigger clips and samples. where it really shines is the display and ease of use.. what i particularly like is that for automap, when you tweakin the top row of kmobs, there is a button right below that if you hit it resets whatever you are tweaking o the original value.
the axiom and padkontrol are great INSTRUMENTS, but the zero gives you control over youor studio, with nice helpful displays..
thats my opinion, dont know if it helped you

dancerchris · Post by **dancerchris** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:51 pm

From what your saying the Axiom 49 is a nice compact (everthing thrown in) type of board. You can get basic mix controls on 8 channels and enough pads to run impulse. I have one (as well as the PK) and it is what I use most often. However nothing on it is premium. The faders are short and not motorized, the pads are akin to triggerfingers, etc.

IMO the PadKontrol is the best set of pads on the market (best volume range) and I like using the xy pad for drum rolls. You won't be replacing this with an upgrade.

My $0.02