padkontrol tutorial for beginners

tacoloco · Post by **tacoloco** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:37 pm

Hey guys,
I recently purchased my first MIDI controller, the padkontrol. I'm using it with reason 5 & am having varying degrees of success with it.

I'm a complete beginner at this & was hoping that someone could point me towards some basic tutorials for getting started with the padkontrol - how to customise it, create loops.

I've looked high & low & i still can't find any tutorials for my skill level that can show me how to properly use this controller,

Thanks guys.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:42 pm

Hi there. I'm a beginner as well and posted a similar thread without any response so I've just been doing my own research and cobbling together what I can. I'm not sure I can't help you at this point but if you elaborate a bit as to what you are trying to do I might be able to point you in the right direction. I also have a bunch of youtube tutorials and forum threads bookmarked on various pK related topics. How familiar are you with general MIDI concepts? I found just learning about MIDI basics made working with the kP a lot simpler.

Cheers.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:00 pm

Oh and "customizing" it is a pretty varied subject as you can set it up to do so many different things like use it as a transport control, trigger loops, play it freestyle, etc or set it up to do multiple functions at once. As far as looping I think that's more a matter of learning how your sequencer/DAW software deals with MIDI tracks than the pK. The pK just manipulates the software. I've never used Reason but I'm sure it's very similar to other DAWS so it should have some kind of MIDI mapper and a procedure for recording MIDI tracks. There are many youtube videos and articles that discuss things like that. Just search for "Reason + padKontrol" and if you can't find something helpful try replacing padKontrol in your search with "drum controller" or something similar as it seems many pad style controllers behave in similar ways.

tacoloco · Post by **tacoloco** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:16 pm

Thanks for the input, it's been very difficult to find any suitable material for beginners. I really have no idea where to start, i guess i'll have a look at MIDI basics for now & take it from there.

I've been spending a lot of time going through the various Youtube videos for padkontrol tutorials, etc, but they seem to have an assumed knowledge that i just don't have at this point.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:30 am

I hear ya. Here, not sure if it will help you but this is the thread I posted asking for help with what I've managed to get done so far.

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=69523

Here's a couple of articles on MIDI for beginners that helped me quite a bit. They are quite old but they explain the basic concepts of MIDI which really haven't changed much.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_ar ... sics1.html

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_ar ... sics2.html

Here's some youtube vids that helped me get things set up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dArzyq-JdNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mzIx0OZ ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjQbHIxR ... re=related

I'll be updating my thread as I learn more stuff. Next I'm going to attempt to actually record a MIDI drum track using Sonar X1. Kind of burnt on the learning curve for now though and I have to get a handle on how Sonar works first. Might be another week or so.

Good luck.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:33 am

Oh and the owners manual does have a lot of pertinent info... it's just confusing as hell as is usually the case with fancy music gizmos such as the pK.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:45 am

aaaand I'm not sure if you have already come across this video but it seems to have a pretty basic explanation of how to set yourself up to record within Reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXlg-ocGZzM

I was looking at that one before I bought the kP. It kind of nudged me into my final decision to buy one. I had lost the link but searching "reason + padkontrol" brought it up so thanks for that.

Beepster · Post by **Beepster** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:03 am

Now I'm just cruising youtube vids for random pK crap. This has nothing to do with anything but it's effin' cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGAZuSW ... re=related

lol

tacoloco · Post by **tacoloco** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:39 pm

Thats awesome - thanks so much for all the info, I'll start making my way through all of them & move any future posts/questions to the thread that you've already started.