LinuxMusicians

Yes, the Akai LPD8 and the Icon i-Pad.
Velocity sensing is ok, but don't expect wonders from such a cheap controller. And it isn't very fine grained too, I think about 10 steps or so, maybe even less. With the X-Y pad you can do fast repetition of notes or glitchy stuff. But don't expect much from the touchpad either, it's not very touch sensitive. Even though it's cheap stuff it does feel sturdy. You can throw these kind of controllers around and after that they'll still work.

AutoStatic wrote:Yes

thanks

Capoeira wrote:f_ck, i think i will buy one, too

are there any similar products?

what can you do with drums and this x-y-controler?
is the velocity-sensitivety good?

Tha AKAI LPD8 is pretty similar, just without the XY controller, which is very cool for things like double bass drum or a snare roll. I am just beginning to explore this thing, but it's real fun. More a toy than an instrument, I reckon, but it is very useful with Hydrogen, I already made some good beats and grooves with it. The sensitivity can be set in four or five steps and was good for me once I made the settings like I wanted them to be. Buy it, I don't think you will regret it.

Jan wrote: Tha AKAI LPD8 is pretty similar, just without the XY controller,

thank you, too

LPD8 has knobs, could be verry handy

i will see if i can try out the korg somewhere

Just received my MPK Mini. Neat little keyboard/controller/drumpad! The keys are a bit too small for my taste but for simple ideas it will work. And it has MIDI feedback indeed. So I'm playing a Hydrogen pattern now with the pads lighting up on the beat! My own private little disco, cool stuff

AutoStatic wrote:Just received my MPK Mini.

nice, so you don't need the Korg anymore and can send it to me. lol

The Akai MPK Mini is on my wishlist. Looks like a neat way to get keys, knobs and pads on my desk without taking up too much space.

@AutoStatic How much configuration is required? I've not done much with Linux and MIDI and none via USB. How about a wiki page about it?

steevc wrote:The Akai MPK Mini is on my wishlist. Looks like a neat way to get keys, knobs and pads on my desk without taking up too much space.

@AutoStatic How much configuration is required? I've not done much with Linux and MIDI and none via USB. How about a wiki page about it?

I don't have personal experience with the MPK Mini, but I read that it runs perfectly and the configuring software can be run under wine. Hope that helps.

Alex, I was thinking more of how to map the pads and knobs to the various apps. That's not something I've done before. I assume there are USB standards that make this simple. I'd be looking at using the pads with Hydrogen and the knobs with Ardour and effects plug-ins. I expect this must be documented somewhere. Any suggestions?

I've noticed that when you search for things like 'linux midi' a lot of the results are pretty old, e.g. the Howto is from 2004

http://www.midi-howto.com/

I would hope that there have been changes since then that make it easier.

BTW I see there is a new audio Q&A site at

http://audio.stackexchange.com/

There are some Linux questions there. People might like to contribute to make it more useful.

steevc wrote:@AutoStatic How much configuration is required?

Practically none. Just hook it up and it gets detected properly and then you can connect it to your apps. It also has a MIDI in port that reacts to incoming MIDI messages (unlike the nanoKONTROL that has MIDI in too but only for configuration purposes). The default mapping is a bit weird but the configuration software works well with Wine so you can easily modify the mappings.

steevc wrote:I assume there are USB standards that make this simple.

Mapping MIDI notes or CC's has nothing to do with USB. You can either modify the mappings on the device itself or make the mappings in the application you want to use with the device (if it supports it).

steevc wrote:I'd be looking at using the pads with Hydrogen and the knobs with Ardour and effects plug-ins. I expect this must be documented somewhere. Any suggestions?

Hydrogen works well with the MPK Mini, but like I said, the default mapping is far from conventional so you might have to reconfigure the MPK or Hydrogen. Not sure about Ardour, is it possible to control effect plug-ins in Ardour with MIDI?

Although I said I was considering the Akai MPK Mini, I'm now thinking I may just get a nanoKontrol as I have a MIDI keyboard anyway. Korg have new versions of the Nano range, but the nanoKontrol seems to have lost a fader and the scene selection, but gains some buttons.

Even just having transport controls to hand will make life easier. I'm still fairly new to this recording lark and still working out what the tools can do. My latest effort incorporates some Hydrogen drums

http://soundcloud.com/steevc/heavy-hornpipes

steevc wrote:Even just having transport controls to hand will make life easier.

To be very honest, I actually use the nanoKONTROL for this sole purpose atm. And I assigned the other buttons for muting and soloing tracks. I barely use the faders and knobs.

Best,

Jeremy

AutoStatic wrote:

steevc wrote:Even just having transport controls to hand will make life easier.

To be very honest, I actually use the nanoKONTROL for this sole purpose atm. And I assigned the other buttons for muting and soloing tracks. I barely use the faders and knobs.

I think I've done the opposite I haven't yet bothered much with the transport controls, but I've had great fun hooking the faders and knobs up to parameters in PHASEX and tweaking sounds in real-time, preferably while Seq24 or an arpeggiator keeps firing MIDI notes at it!

AutoStatic wrote:

steevc wrote:Even just having transport controls to hand will make life easier.

To be very honest, I actually use the nanoKONTROL for this sole purpose atm. And I assigned the other buttons for muting and soloing tracks. I barely use the faders and knobs.

I got the nanoKontrol yesterday and already have it working. A slight glitch was when Jack seemed to select it as an output device and got errors as it doesn't handle audio.

I got as far as setting up some transport controls and faders for a few tracks. I can see that the faders could be a problem if you have a mix set up and want to tweak it as the faders are likely to be in the wrong places. That's the down-side of non-motorised faders, but inevitable at this price range.

I tried setting some buttons for mute/solo, but they seem to be working as momentaries. I suspect this is something you have to use the Korg app to configure. I'll admit that I have not RTFM yet.

I'm reserving some judgement, but I think it has lots of potential. I've not played much with synths and effects, but I can appreciate @pneuman's comment about tweaking sounds. Doing it on-screen with a mouse can be fiddly.

I'm interested to hear more on how people use various gear. I'm still new to recording and so don't know what is possible. I intend to blog more about my experiences soon.