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

[squelcht]

Picking up a new pair of pads soon...Been eyeing the PadKontrol (especially the newer black model), as well as the Akai MPD18....The Akai is $100 bucks cheaper (new anyhow) & seems simple enough for the job---However the PadKontrol seems hella' more versatile...And I'm not sure if the Akai's pads on the MPD18 are as good as the higher end MPC/MPD models...Anyone care to drop their 2 cents in the suggestion jar?

[madlab]

I've been trying both and bought the padkontrol, mostly for pads sensitivity reasons. There's a huge difference and the PK wins quite easily. Mine is white because we don't have the black model yet in France.

[squelcht]

And I believe the PadKontrol is one of the only pad controllers that has clear/lighted pads to show midi feedback...Its probably a no brainer to not pick up the Korg...Though a hundred bucks cheaper is a hundred bucks saved

[Shillelagh Law]

+1 for padkontrol

[madlab]

And I believe the PadKontrol is one of the only pad controllers that has clear/lighted pads to show midi feedback...Its probably a no brainer to not pick up the Korg...Though a hundred bucks cheaper is a hundred bucks saved

If accuracy is what you need, padkontrol is no brainer. The dynamic range of the MPD was pretty narrow compared to the Padkontrol. For me this only was enough to justify 100€, which is more than 100$ nowadays.

By the way I tried to get feedback for the padkontrol by routing anotther midi track back to it but with no success. Can someone please explain how to do it ?
Edit : Finally found out what's happening with the feedback. It works, but not with drum racks, because when the PK is chosen as a control surface, the cells in drum racks aren't assigned chromatically, at least from what I see in the settings of the PK. Pressing pad 2 on the padkontrol also lights up the pad 9 because the midi note that is sent is 'mapped' to another midi note when it goes back to the padkontrol. Feedback worked perfectly with the scene I made for impulse for example.

[supamonsta]

+1000 for padKontrol + FARMPAD !!!!

[squelcht]

And I believe the PadKontrol is one of the only pad controllers that has clear/lighted pads to show midi feedback...Its probably a no brainer to not pick up the Korg...Though a hundred bucks cheaper is a hundred bucks saved

If accuracy is what you need, padkontrol is no brainer. The dynamic range of the MPD was pretty narrow compared to the Padkontrol. For me this only was enough to justify 100€, which is more than 100$ nowadays.

By the way I tried to get feedback for the padkontrol by routing anotther midi track back to it but with no success. Can someone please explain how to do it ?
Edit : Finally found out what's happening with the feedback. It works, but not with drum racks, because when the PK is chosen as a control surface, the cells in drum racks aren't assigned chromatically, at least from what I see in the settings of the PK. Pressing pad 2 on the padkontrol also lights up the pad 9 because the midi note that is sent is 'mapped' to another midi note when it goes back to the padkontrol. Feedback worked perfectly with the scene I made for impulse for example.

So the PadKontrol doesn't map to drum racks correctly when its assigned as a control surface?

[supamonsta]

So the PadKontrol doesn't map to drum racks correctly when its assigned as a control surface?

seems the truth dear kitten

but with farmpad, and PK not assigned as a control surface, you'll discover a whole universe of possibilities, WITH FEEDBACK

but yes, no, it won't "automap" to the drumracks you'll click on...

cheers

[SubFunk]

So the PadKontrol doesn't map to drum racks correctly when its assigned as a control surface?

seems the truth dear kitten

but with farmpad, and PK not assigned as a control surface, you'll discover a whole universe of possibilities, WITH FEEDBACK

but yes, no, it won't "automap" to the drumracks you'll click on...

cheers

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.

basically a C2 on the PadKONTROL will trigger the C1 note in a drum rack...

or do you guys talk about something different? that works in my case, perfectly well. (weird is that the note assignment is correct with impulse!!?!!)

and Farmpad is a must if you have the PadKONTROL.

[madlab]

Suqechlt : It does, but strangely the note assignments on the padkontrol don't fit those that trig the drum rack cells when played from a kbd. As I said, there must be some note mapping in the user remote doc. Would the feedback work if I simply remapped the notes corresponding the the individual pads in the text file ?

[delicioso]

Padkontrol DOES map to Drum Rack by default. You just have to choose padkontrol as a control surface in preferences and the default factory scene 1 will instantly map to Drum Rack. You never have to worry about manually mapping the right octaves this way.

However, if you're on a mac, you should definitely use the free farmpad and create manual mappings because you get so much more with this setup.

[squelcht]

Padkontrol DOES map to Drum Rack by default. You just have to choose padkontrol as a control surface in preferences and the default factory scene 1 will instantly map to Drum Rack. You never have to worry about manually mapping the right octaves this way.

I thought choosing the PadKontrol as a control surface was causing him to NOT be able to use the drum racks correctly....Hmm....Me soo confuuused

madlab??

[SubFunk]

^^^ it does, i just needed to alter my scene for the padK, but apparently the default scene 1 does the job ( i deleted all the default stuff)

[nuxnamon]

padkontrol easily over the akai mpd series.. i had a mpd24 and it sucked balls.. pads felt very stiff and very unresponsive/too responsive at times. padkontrol probably has one of the better pads out of all the 4x4 pad controllers. only second to Maschine..

[SunshineLui]

i had a mpd18 and was quite happy with. it its solid build, has note repeat and the responds is ok

than i was testing the padkontrol and throwed my mpd away (selled it).
the responds of the pads is much better in my view and the feedback responds works great with midi notes if you send it back to the pk. with the mpd you have 3 banks ok but the pk got 16scenes which are like bank. setting up the padkontrol is much more fun und you can do it all at the device for the mpd18 you always need the software editor

+1 padkontrol