Who is using the AKAI MPD32 as a Drum Rack control surface?

[Play]

How do you like it? How is the mapping workflow? I'm wondering if it is easy to switch between banks of control over the faders, pans, sends and so on for every piece you have in a kit. Please share your experiences. Thanks...

[kb420]

I love it.

The mapping is great.

You can switch between banks of control over the faders, pans, etc., but you are limited to only 3 banks per preset. So basically you only have 24 faders, 24 knobs, and 24 buttons per preset. You can simply make another preset for another 24, 24, and 24 and switch back and forth between them with no problem at all. I really don't go crazy with that because I can get to the extra faders with my Remote 37 SL.

It looks like you already have one of those.


One last thing, the MPD's first preset is Ableton Live, but only Control Bank A is programed. You will have to program B, and C.

[Zygi]

can you tell more exact mappings?

i'm thinking about that mpd, but i can't find descriptions anywhere...

[Play]

Yeah on my Remote SL I cant seem to get the faders to control banks of the drum rack aux levels, you know the fader strips you get per pad/sound. It controls only the original drum rack midi channel and so on. I'm hoping the MPDs faders knobs and buttons map themselves specifically to the vol, pan, send, mutes & solos of only your banks of pad sounds within drum rack. I guess it probably acts only as a standard control surface, like the remote SL. I want just one box that maps perfectly just to drum racks like that...

This is what kinda excites me about NIs Maschine. You select a pad by hitting it and you have just that pad/sounds specific level, pan, mute, solo, send and so on... Im hoping to do this with drum racks... Maybe a task for Max for Live?

[kb420]

The MPD doesn't really automap anything. It has presets like a regular control surface.

I also notice that the Remote SL doesn't automap to drum maps.

If you to control the drum maps, I guess you could midi assigns faders to do what you want.

[Nick the Zombie]

Using the MPD-24 here with Drum Racks every day, and loving it! Like kb420 said about the 32, it doesn't do the automap thing but it's painless to switch between banks, etc.

[Eunjihan]

Hi KB240 and Nick the Zombie,

You guys seem to know a lot about the MPD 32 and how to program it, but I haven't a clue who to assign
the knob controllers to pan tracks. Neither can I work out how to programme the "bank" buttons to shift
the drum pads up the drum "scale" if you get me.

Are there any tutorials or step by step instructions out there I could follow?

I think it's a well put together piece of kit, but can only half use it right now.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Kind regards,

Eun Ji

[eddiex]

i love the MPD 32 its so versatile. you can do just about anything with it. i usually use it to play instruments and drum racks. i stick with the generic setting(not the ableton setting)....the pads play the scale or drum pads. the bank buttons either take you up and down the scale....that leaves the knobs and faders to program as you please using midi map in live. it is kind of overwhelming....but once you figure out what you want to do/control, it's easy to make it happen. i know flying lotus and all those dudes (i assume) have their pads set up to launch clips/scenes....and their faders and knobs set up to control different effect functions. here is a video by BATHS....he is really the only one of those guys who talks about his MPD 32 methods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpZScE07x8o

[Willyum]

You need this if you are on Live 9 with an MPD32.....
http://youtu.be/mjT7O5uFR8w

[v00d00ppl]

You need this if you are on Live 9 with an MPD32.....
http://youtu.be/mjT7O5uFR8w

I might pick up a used mpd32 for this and mod the pads with fat pads. Currently I am using the mpd24 with the fat pads mod and it works wonders on the drum rack.