Best drum pad controller?

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 2:39 am

As a lot of people by now have discovered, it's really not easy to play drum patterns from a weighted keyboard.

I'm thinking about buying a 4 by 4 grid pattern drum pad controller. Can anybody recommend one? I'm looking for something fairly decent.

Thanks!

Jeremykeys

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 3:01 am

I use maschine but for only a controller I wonder how you would like the QuNeo. I have a Qunexus and I am a little underwhelmed at the variance between its pads as in the sweetspot changes but A lot of people rave about the Quneo. I would love to have a role rise as I think ti would work well for all the things I want to do, including drums pads.

voip · Post by **voip** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 10:45 am

Not sure which keyboard you have, but the nanoPAD2 works very well out of the box on the Korg Kronos, and should be usable with a USB to MIDI converter on most other boards, although it may need to be configured so the pads map to the drums of choice. On the Kronos, the top row of nanoPAD2 keys map to the Kronos chord pads.
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Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 12:52 pm

Why just 4x4? I would look into some of the novation products as well. And Korg has a drum pad at one time. It was sued during the initial launch of the Kronos several years ago, seemed it worked very well. It was the Korg Pad Control.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 12:54 pm

I'm hoping to use it with my Cubase 7.5 Groove Agent S.E. 4 drum program as well as my Kronos.
I've seen a couple of youtube videos and they all seem to use the 4 by 4 grid pads. I've never used or even touched one so I'm wondering which one is the most responsive and, well, I guess easiest to use.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:52 pm

If I use a fixed velocity the Qunexus is very responsive and although I haven't played the queen I bet it is a very good controller which goes way beyond just a 4x4 layout as each individual pad can be assigned four different parapets on each corner of the pad, as I understand it. Might be best to just start hitting the stores and try some out.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:06 pm

I'm going to have to do that. I've seen some videos with the Korg Nanopad 2 that look pretty interesting so I might not be locked into the idea of a 4 by 4 controller. Plus I like its price and availability.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 2:27 am

Keep in mind some of these controllers will offer poly after touch and some won't, if all you want is to trigger some drums and not much more the korg is a great value.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:55 pm

I just basically want it for drum programming. It looks like it's heading into the Christmas present list! I'm good with that. I'm not in any hurry.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:28 am

jeremykeys, so have you picked up your pads yet? Just curious how its working out for you.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:59 pm

Bertotti wrote:jeremykeys, so have you picked up your pads yet? Just curious how its working out for you.

Yes I have and I think it's pretty good. I also learned that I'm a really bad finger drummer.

I've learned that I have to have it on a firm surface and not a padded seat to play. It bounces and wiggles too much. When I connected it to my kronos and called up the Studio drum prog, it just worked fine. No fiddling around with settings at all. I've connected it through my PC which instantly picked up the drivers. You have to have it plugged in before yu power up your computer and through Cubase I loaded up /groove Agent se4 and it worked pretty well although I do have to map some of the programs drum pads to the Nanopad2's pads. I've seen videos of people playing it and they make it look easy. It's not but I think it just takes practice. I like it a lot!

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:03 am

Excellent! Enjoy! Thanks for the reply it is nice to see someone finish up a thread instead of leaving it hanging!

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:56 pm

You're welcome! Hopefully one day I'll become somewhat proficient at finger drumming. Practice practice practice!