electronic music without limits

I recently came into conclusion that i need a pad controller to create drum tracks in my songs. This far i’ve made my drum tracks either by clicking them into the sequencer with my mouse or by tapping them on my midi keyboard. Neither one was the perfect way to do it. The problem with the regular piano-alike midikeyboard is that the keys must make a lot longer movement downwards to trigger the notes so that the drum-like feeling is missing. For example, you can’t play really fast drumrolls with a keyboard.. Or you can but it’s a lot more difficult and not so convenient.  So i started doing some research on pad controllers and i found two different ones which seemed to be exactly what i needed (and in the right price range of about 50 euros): Korg Nanopad or Akai LPD8. I decided to get the Akai because it has the knobs which i can assign into different effects on Logic. The Korg’s X-Y -pad would be interesting to try but i don’t think i would need that kind of an approach on controlling stuff in my sequencer.

I’ve been using the Akai for a week now and it seems just what i needed. The pads are great in drum programming and the assignable knobs make my workflow a lot easier. I have assigned some knobs permanently to control cutoff and frequency filter settings and some knobs to control the track volume and panning settings. The Akai supports four different programs and i have assigned the knobs in different programs into different soft synths. For example in program one i control the Logic’s ES2 synth and in program two i control the EXS24 sampler and so on.. This might not be the best way to organize the settings but i find it useful for me.

My conclusion is that if you are a hobby music composer like me and you have an extra 50 euros to spend on something, you definitely should get a pad controller. It gives you a whole new dimension on creating drum patterns!