Well here is the first of a free series on youtube by MPC master Jeremy Ellis on finger drumming basics... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEpLD6vD43E

You should be able to link through to the lessons using the side bar or related links but if not just copy/paste the title of the current vid into the youtube search bar and change the lesson number to the next in the series. He has a youtube page and a website too so that might might make things easier. You obviously don't need to use the same controller, sounds or mappings to work through these lessons (my mapping is DRASTICALLY different than his). They are all based on standard drumming concepts. 

Cheers.

And I wish Gustabo would remove whatever image he has in his sig line that prevents the page from fully loading. :-/

Beepster


And I wish Gustabo would remove whatever image he has in his sig line that prevents the page from fully loading. :-/

Sorry, didn't know that I was causing any problems.

Not you, man. Just wherever that image was hosted. It might be my browser. You're cool. Thanks for taking it out though. The little "waiting" Windows swirl was driving me nuts. Cheers. :-)

Beepster


Not you, man. Just wherever that image was hosted. It might be my browser. You're cool. Thanks for taking it out though. The little "waiting" Windows swirl was driving me nuts. Cheers. :-)

No problem

Again- Thanks a lot.
I think I've pretty much ruled out Maschine as an option.  With a few exceptions there seems to be tons of people with them that can't figure out how to make them do what they want to do.  Also I get the impression that the majority of NI's content is targeted at the DJing crowd, Hip Hop producers and folks that engineer dance music for clubs.  I've got nothing against any of that - I've just never been into the clubbing or dance scenes.  I'd still rather listen to a few gifted musicians than an army of techno whiz kids playing with midi driven groove maschines.  I'd rather listen to James Brown (What a band!) than sampled slices out of groove clips of James Brown being remixed.
Call me old-fashioned......
Hell, just call me old!

  When I was researching it seemed AKAI stuff and the pK were the best options for pad sensitivity and durability. The NI stuff is in there too but they have such a variety of products not necessarily geared towards proper finger drumming. Lots of more loop trigger oriented devices like you said... however the ones they DO make specifically for smooth pad controlling are supposedly the bees knees... but are WAY more expensive. Like $900 kind of expensive. 

  Sounds like you'd do fine with an AKAI (around $300) or a pK (under $200). Just check reviews and vids and I'm sure you'll find what works for you. That's what I did and I knew NOTHING about MPC stuff before I started researching last winter and ended up with the pK. 

If I had the dough though I think I'd rather have an AKAI. Cheers. 

Beepster


  Well here is the first of a free series on youtube by MPC master Jeremy Ellis on finger drumming basics... 

he has used other controllers also.. I guess it's depending on who is paying him to demo them ;-)

Heh. I just call them MPCs even though that's kind of a brand/model thing. Makes sense. Midi Pad Controller. It was real pain looking around for something suitable as a complete n00b because no one seems to use a standard name for the bleeping things.

Roland does some pads in the HPD & SPD series - more expensive than the Korg style though