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Help Me Identify This Instrument


MadManMike

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I was at Life in Vauxhall on Friday and they had a guy playing a digital drum unit next to the DJ.

The unit itself was a similar size to a CDJ1000, possibly slightly larger.

It had button top assigned to drum sounds - for example the front of the unit made bongo sounds, the back made snare and hi hat sounds.

I need one of these.

It's not a Korg Kaoss Pad.

Help!

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Was it not a Korg Pad Kontrol?

That's a big square with a small kaoss pad in the corner, then the main bit is I think 16 big pads that are assignable via MIDI.

Have a picture:

Korg_padKONTROL.jpg

Flipp has that, the little buttons light up when you tap them. I had no idea how to use it but i had great fun watching the squares light up when i touched them. He might be able to give you a better review of it than i can... but it looked sturdy enough.

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I have used just a standalone Kaoss pad, it was pretty cool.

The Korg just doesn't look like it can handle rapid drumming, or if someone was slightly heavy handed it looks like it wouldn't cope.

EDIT: I must stress this is more for just straight drumming over the top, not really effects. I am getting a Pioneer DJM mixer that will handle effects (Though I try to avoid effects, you get carried away and ruin the mix)

Edited by TheScientist
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Are you looking for playing with sticks, or fingers?

The PadKontrol is REALLY f**king swish. Assign the pads to any midi note you want - change between toggle or momentary switches - you can change the velocity curves... loads of nice little features. The XY pad isn't actually a Kaoss Pad - don't let them fool you. It's an XY pad - but you can assign any MIDI CC to each axis. (Pitchbend/mod/aftertouch... Not sure if you're for hardware/software preferance).

Being that it's MIDI, it can act as a synth, drums, a sample deck... You can set the XY pad to be a global filter sweep, or channel specific.

2 assignable knobs.

For what it does - it's really f**king good. Designed for finger playing - not sticks.

True - it doesn't look massively sturdy - hell, it doesn't FEEL sturdy - but I've given mine a good wacking, and it's yet to show any problems.

There's the 16 pads - and you can push the "bank" button, and each pad turns into a bank. This means you can have 16 banks of 16 pads.

Can change the midi channels, so you can even have specific pads for playing a synth, one for a smapler, and the rest for a drum kit all in one bank. You get 16 of those mother f**kers :P

If you're looking to play with sticks - the Roland units are pretty sweet - though had you looked into the Alesis range?

http://www.alesis.com/controlpad There's a "Performance" pad, too - though that's purely for audio. Bit harder to navigate - MIDI is just so much easier to assign new voices to. Just hook it up into whatever sampler FL has.

There's a bunch of others out there - but I've got an early morning tomorrow.

I'll add you to MSN (assuming your address isn't kept private).

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Thanks for the info dude, it all seems a little over the top that's all - I appreciate you can do tons of stuff with it, but all I really want is to do a little tribal drumming over the top of DJ sets.

Not with sticks either, we're talking in the middle of a tune just bust out a minute or two's drumming over the top then mixing into another track :)

Youtube Video -> Original Video

This kind of thing but over the top of a track :)

Looking at the Korg, it would appear that the sounds are not inside the pad, they are on a laptop or PC?

If so, it's out of the game instantly - this needs to be a standalone unit, not midi controller.

EDIT: Also, the buttons on the Korg appear to be really small, not so good for live drumming - especially if you're slightly drunk :)

Edited by TheScientist
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That's what I'm trying to determine - why is the Roland more expensive?

Is it more dedicated to drumming rather than sampling / midi control?

The only turnoffs for me with the Korg is the small buttons - it seems like you're only meant to tap them with one finger rather than really get into and do a live performance, and the fact it appears you have to connect it to a PC.

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Might be loaded with samples.

No doubt it'll be more robust... It's a Roland... They're bombproof :P

I'd place most my money on the above, though.

Roland samples are always nice (just look at the 808 and 909) ^_^

If you do get it - fancy letting us know why it's more costly?

Quite interested, now.

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After asking around it appears that the Korg is more suited to studio work - the Roland seems to be all about the hectic performance.

I'm 80% sure I'm gonna go for the Roland to be honest, unless anyone comes up with a really good point in favour of the Korg.

Once I get my xmas bonus I'll let you know what the Roly is like :)

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