Hi all,
 
    Just purchased X2 a couple of weeks ago. I've been working through some tutorials and haven't really done anything serious with it yet.  I'm running a W64 box with a VS-100 interface and an APro-300 as my main control surface.  I've been thinking of adding a pad controller to my hardware.  I've seen this question kind of posed before but it has been a while.
    Any recommendations would be appreciated.  I've been looking at the Akai MPD32s & 26s, NI Maschine or M. Mikro, and I'm a little compelled to check out the Novation Zero SL surface although it doesn't appear big on pads.  I'm fairly sure the Akai unit's would fill the minimum bill but if I'm going to drop 200 or 300 should I skip by them and go for an older maschine since I could get it with additional content?  Note- I'm not into making Dance, Hip-Hop or electronica.  I write mostly Blues, Rock and Folk type tunes. (A little Celtic here and there)
    Would I be better served by just picking up a Korg Nanopad 2?
I've never played with any of these things before but have read about them all and there are a million folks touting their personal favorites.  The only pads I've used were on the Apro or my iPhone.   So, I guess the bottom line is - what works wells with Sonar X1 or 2 and or what is the easiest to setup and configure and reconfigure, etc.
    I know maybe I should put this in the hardware forum but I wanted comments from the X1 and X2 users if possible.  Thanks in advance for any opinions.  I value the ones I see posted here.
 

I have the Akai MPD26 and love it! Works great with Sonar.

I have the Korg stuff, to many "blue screens of death " with their
USB drivers. Now they are gathering dust.
I use my DR-880 drum machine for pad triggering.
I use Yahama products for keyboards.

Don B

Thanks for the reply.  I have an old Yamaha S08 88 key weighted synth that I love but I can't put it close enough to my desk to make it convenient to use a lot.  I have it hooked up and I play with it though.  (sort of)
I never even thought of looking at what Yamaha has to offer in the way of controllers though.  I think I will though!
 
Thanks again.

Thanks for the response.  I may have to drive the 30 miles to the nearest Guitar Center and play with one.
I was sort of comparing the MPD 26 to the Korg Pad Kontrol earlier.  It's odd how subjective a piece of hardware can be but I guess no one wants to admit that they made a mistake by purchasing something.  The Pad Kontrol owners say the pads are of better quality but the Akai owners say the Korg is a plastic piece of junk.
 
Works well with Sonar is what I'm looking for though!
 
Thanks again.

I own a padKontrol and although it's a bit of a pain to learn how to map once it's going it is quite nice for the price. AKAI and NI or whatever probably have better quality but you are paying quite a bit more for it. Just be sure to get the latest drivers for it and when you install it choose the USB port you want to use and stick with it (for some reason the drivers get confuzzled or something when you move it around... or so many complaints on the Korg forum state). 

I wouldn't get to psyched about using the XY pad for the rolls and flams it advertises because it's tricky to operate that way but it is quite good for messing around with parameters and effects.

The sensitivity is great with the right program and with BFD I'm get some very nice, realistic sounding drum parts with it. It wasn't so great with Session Drummer so I just set it to fixed velocity with SD3 and intended to tweak them in PRV later... but yeah, got BFD now so that's not an issue.

I got mine from amazon for $160 and they threw in a generic foot controller which I map to a kick sound and although it's not GREAT it does the trick. The pedal note with the pK can only be set to full velocity... (I think).

Cheers.

Hey Thanks.  I'm a tech and I've run into USB printers and flash drives that get "married" to one particular USB port and won't work with anything else as well.  Thanks a lot for the advice.  I got burned by Behringer a while back when I bought one of their controllers so now I'm careful.
If not for a guy named A.J. on this forum I would have never gotten any use out of that BCR unit.  I used it for a couple of years after A.J. published his fix for it .  About six months ago I traded it to a DJ for two Shure SM57s. (A great trade!) Behringer was zero help at the time so I avoid their equipment whenever I can.
I use Toontracks Superior Drummer 2.3 for most of my drums but I like to throw in some some humanity to keep from sounding mechanized. Toontracks stuff gives a lot of variety so I never have to add a lot.  Thanks for the response.  (Great pic!)

Akai stuff is sound, there are p[lenty of users who can cop up ACT stuff...

for the money an older Korg Kontrol will also do the trick...ebay it...gives you another A/D option...mine works fine on a WIn7 64 machine...

No problem. I think I'm one of the very few dudes here who owns a pK so it's hard to get pK specific advice on this forum and the Korg forums are VERY slow moving (I don't want to say it sucks because the archives are good but you can wait weeks for an answer if you get one at all).

Now just to be clear I'm referring to the actual padKontrol not that nanoKontrol or microKontrol stuff. Lots of problems with those reported online (pads failing, cheap and flimsy, easy to break, poor sensitivity, etc...). The pK is plastic but it's decent quality plastic. If you are familiar with M-Audio stuff I'd say the plastic is about the same quality. You wouldn't want to drop it but I slap the thing like a freak without worry. The AKAI dudes are definitely bound to poo poo the pK because AKAI made the originals and as far as I know they are mostly steel but as I said you are paying quite a bit more. They also don't have the XY pad which is actually a pretty cool feature.

I used to actually play drums (can't anymore for various reasons) and I'm using mine to play acoustic kits in BFD Eco for rock/metal and the results are very realistic indeed. Nice smooth fills, no machine gun nonsense, great ride, hi hat and cymbal hits. I don't have anything I've recorded with it up on soundcloud yet but there are vids on youtube of guys using it for acoustic kit work quite skillfully.

If you do end up buying it and want some help getting it set up let me know. I'm usually around or you can PM me. The manual is very confusing (was to me anyway) but once you have it figured out it's pretty easy work with. I don't bother trying to use ACT with and just program the actual unit to be set up the way I like. I've never managed to get the editor librarian to work properly (didn't try too hard) but it has 16 banks onboard that stay in the internal memory (more than enough for me). There are some little quirks like you have to have it turned on BEFORE you open Sonar or it won't transmit a signal. Also it is an older product so I'm not sure how much longer it will have driver support. It works with Win7 and X2 perfectly but I'm not sure if it'd gonna have drivers for Win8 or beyond so that's something to consider.

Anyway here are some neat pK vids...

Drum solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of2t9QQbck

David "Fingers" Haynes jamming with Victor Wooten at NAMM on what appears to be a padKontrol (he really opens up in this particularly around the 5:00 mark): http://www.youtube.com/wa...0s&feature=related

Just found this one which is a guy showing off nativeKontrol for the pK (I had never heard of it until today). This is very intense and I think I'm gonna be looking into it myself: http://www.youtube.com/wa...88&feature=related

And my personal fave some guy playing a pK like he's strumming a guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGAZuSWq7Y   lol

Thanks again. I do appreciate the insights.  I've been thinking of taking the Groove 3 course on how to think like a drummer though. HA!  After 30 years of playing I'm not sure I can even think like a guitarist!