Akai MPD 18 Compact Pad Controller | BETTER ALTERNATIVE?
Before we talk about the Akai MPD18 Compact Pad Controller, grab a snack, sit back and relax because..
The MPD 18 midi controller is a pretty convenient and affordable solution to your beatmaking cravings. What is MIDI? It's about as bare bones as it gets, and there's nothing too spectacular about using it. While I liked the convenience, I didn't care much for it's pads. They are kind of hard and not quite sensitive enough for my liking. I felt like I really had to pound them hard to get any sort of reaction.
Easy to use with FL Studio.
Heavy duty. Not likely to break.
Nothing much besides a DAW of some sort. I use FL Studio.
Plug it in to your computer via USB.
Your PC should recognize it as the MPD18.
Go to Options > MIDI settings. This should be roughly the same for each, whether you're using Pro Tools, Reason, etc. You just need to find the MIDI settings.
Drag a sample from your folder onto one of the pads. If you have sound packs, they will be under your browser on the left hand side in FL Studio. If you're dragging samples, refer to this guide on how to sample in FL Studio. The basic concept is the same whether you are using the MPD 18, The KORG padKONTROL, or something similar.
Press the same pad on your MPD.
A really powerful tool inside FL Studio is the Cut by. After you've assigned sounds to your pad, they may overlap when you trigger them with your finger, leaving you in a heap of frustration. All you want to do is bang out those samples but if every time you hit a pad, the same note plays, then you're in for a headache! The cut by allows for extreme flexibility and control. The solution is to change each of those values to 1. Voila! Now make some magic happen baby!
The trigger responsiveness is just so so. You may experience delays in the trigger hits as well as ones that simply don't register.
This is a bare bones unit. There's not much in the way of knobs or faders.
Without the full level button on, the pads don't respond well. Even with it on you will still have to bang them pretty hard.
If the pads are slow to respond, you can adjust the buffer length or sample rate (Hz) inside of the audio settings. I personally did not know about this but others have tried it with good results.
Affordable pad with a durable feel. Pads themselves aren't the greatest.
Well that's about it for today my friend! I hope you've enjoyed this discussion of the Akai MPD18 Compact Pad Controller.
What do you think about the MPD18? What about the padKONTROL? I would love to hear from you. Until next time..