new akai controllers

[dave999z]

maybe the pads on that thing are better than on the mpk49. the pads on the mpk49 totally suck. you have to friggin' pound them to get a response. and having only 12 of them is, well, just pointless. need 16.

i'm thinking of replacing my mpk49 with an apc40 and some simpler midi keyboard. but, i need that keyboard to have at least 8 sliders, 8 knobs, aftertouch, and decent feeling keys. (i pretty much want an mpk49 but don't need pads or really even transport controls.) any thoughts?

[greenscreens]

when are these available and how much? curious about the keyboard

[TRS80]

I just ordered an MPK49. Hope I like it, I'm real tired of using the computer keyboard for Live.

I hope my DrumKat will plug into the MPK MIDI port, and work.

I need to Ebay me Kurzeil K2000 w/ sampler....I could never figure out how to work that damn thing.

[NewSc2]

can't wait for the keyboard to come out. bought a nanokey, used it 5 or 6 times, and one day i open up my bag and it's broken. pos thing -- Korg, if you advertise it as portable, make sure it can stand up to a little bit of abuse!

[synnack]

Yeah, I also have the nanokey and will be the new akai one the day it comes out.

The korgs are fun but shouldn't cost more than $25 based on how cheaply they feel.

One missing feature on all of them though is an ability to daisy chain the USB connections.

Too many damn USB thingies to plugin. If you could daisy chain them that would rock.

[SubFunk]

Yeah, I also have the nanokey and will be the new akai one the day it comes out.

The korgs are fun but shouldn't cost more than $25 based on how cheaply they feel.

One missing feature on all of them though is an ability to daisy chain the USB connections.

Too many damn USB thingies to plugin. If you could daisy chain them that would rock.

a +1 one for daisy chaining, i mean they work with an unpowered hub easy. daisy chaining would be wicked!

[Captain Johnson]

Best dedicated Ableton controller!


http://www.westenddj.co.uk/Product/VEST ... DJ/VCM600/

[channelite]

I don't like Akai controllers. So far, I had the MPD16 and 24 and sold them. My APC had a slight hissing sound, so I sold that too. I'm content with the Axiom 25 and Pad Kontrol.

[mrbiggs]

I've got my eye on both the LPD8 and LPK25..
The 8 pads on my Axiom are a joke as scrolling via Live skips 4 drum pads... Maybe there'll be another Live update to scroll 2 rows at a time instead of 3???

elxicano, if you hold your command key (or the PC equiv -- alt?) key down as you scroll, it scrolls one row at a time. This renders the eight Axiom pads awesome rather than a joke. I'd like to know if there is a midi cc or something for the scroll so I can do it without having to grab the mouse. Anyone?

[musikmachine]

Shop my friend works in is one sposed to be of the first in the uk to get them but they still haven't arrived. I've been waiting to get one but it's been a few weeks now.

Akai basically said these were being released to compete with the nanokeys and the build quality is a lot better. If/when they get them i'll go down and check one out. They have an ebay shop so i'll see if they will be selling them on there when they get them in.

[kconlan]

I'd like to know if there is a midi cc or something for the scroll so I can do it without having to grab the mouse. Anyone?

Unfortunately not. That's one of my biggest requests for drumracks, as well as being able to change the default scroll amount.

[wildcon]

I'd like to know if there is a midi cc or something for the scroll so I can do it without having to grab the mouse. Anyone?

Unfortunately not. That's one of my biggest requests for drumracks, as well as being able to change the default scroll amount.

Just about to post that question

Actually a pretty unbelievable omission by the Abes

[mrbiggs]

I'd like to know if there is a midi cc or something for the scroll so I can do it without having to grab the mouse. Anyone?

Unfortunately not. That's one of my biggest requests for drumracks, as well as being able to change the default scroll amount.

After posting that last night I started poking around the forums about it.
I found this interesting thread:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 84&start=0

I couldn't wrap my head around all of it, but essentially the idea is to use the Pitch midi effect to change banks of drums. I can't say whether it works for all controllers, but for the Axiom, which sends midi note messages to play the racks, it seems to have promise. I set up a midi effect rack with two pitch plugs, one set for +8 and one for -8. Then I assigned a key on my keyboard to toggle the first one on/off and another key to toggle the second on/off. So when i'm playing I can press one of the keys and the racks I'm playing transpose by two rows up or down. Obviously you could make it +12 or +16 depending on how many rows you want to jump.
This was a cursory experiment, but one I plan to look at some more. The problems I foresee are keeping track of which pitch effects have been toggled on and off. For instance, if both the +8 and -8 are toggled, they cancel each other out. Ideally, if you have a lot of drums in this rack, you can put in as many effects as you need going up and down by 8 each one. Then it's really going to get tough to remember to toggle one off before going to the next one. I'd like to find a way to make two keys -- one goes +8 relatively -- so it keeps adding 8 to whatever racks you're playing.
Maybe the thread I linked goes into this. It was 1am. I'll read it again today.

[longjohns]

consider the other methods too:

with a bunch of drum racks housed in an instrument rack, you can use a controller mapped to the chain selector


or

you can map a key range to the chain selector

or

with the addition of midiyoke (as described in the other thread), you can map a single key to go round-robin through the chains.

[wildcon]

The only issue I had with pitch (+12) was that if I was recording into a midi clip (loop) the recorded note would leap an octave.

Works fine for just playing hits from drum rack.

I haven't check the methods using chains etc.