Support and chat about Akai's range of MIDI controllers, including the MPD. MPK and LPD
By kaloo Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:55 pm
should i or shouldnt i get a mpk 25?

pads,keys,other problems with it ?

it would b great to have it cause of the pads,note repeat,arpeggiator,keys and its compact size for travelling.

pls help

thanks
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By Metatron72 Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:25 pm
kaloo wrote:should i or shouldnt i get a mpk 25?

pads,keys,other problems with it ?

it would b great to have it cause of the pads,note repeat,arpeggiator,keys and its compact size for travelling.

pls help

thanks


You can find the threads here but the MPK49's more than once had reports of one the keys in the last octave breaking and popping out of the keybed.

And the pads on all the full size MPD/MPK's are mounted wrong. You have to use Full Level or open the unit up and install MPCStuff's Fat Pads or fill in the gap between the pad sheet and the sensor sheet with silicone if you want a cheaper solution.

Personally I find the Note Repeat on MPK's and MPD's to be completely useless. The only way they can make something like that work is to have MIDI clock from the MPD/MPK. So you have to set the MPD/MPK to MIDI clock internal. In my experience this screwed up my latency every time. If you set the MIDI clock to External on an MPD/MPK you lose note repeat. I trust MIDI clocks in quality audio/MIDI interfaces, MPC's and other hardware sequencers. I'm not leaving anything under the control of a MIDI clock in a plastic MIDI controller with no sequencer.

If you can avoid the key issue and fix the pads, and maybe find an alternative for Note Repeat they are decent I suppose. I would probably look at Novation or an M-Audio board and just get a separate pad controller. The Korgs are cheap and pad sensitivity is off the charts out the box.
By kaloo Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:36 pm
Metatron72 wrote:
kaloo wrote:should i or shouldnt i get a mpk 25?

pads,keys,other problems with it ?

it would b great to have it cause of the pads,note repeat,arpeggiator,keys and its compact size for travelling.

pls help

thanks


You can find the threads here but the MPK49's more than once had reports of one the keys in the last octave breaking and popping out of the keybed.

And the pads on all the full size MPD/MPK's are mounted wrong. You have to use Full Level or open the unit up and install MPCStuff's Fat Pads or fill in the gap between the pad sheet and the sensor sheet with silicone if you want a cheaper solution.

Personally I find the Note Repeat on MPK's and MPD's to be completely useless. The only way they can make something like that work is to have MIDI clock from the MPD/MPK. So you have to set the MPD/MPK to MIDI clock internal. In my experience this screwed up my latency every time. If you set the MIDI clock to External on an MPD/MPK you lose note repeat. I trust MIDI clocks in quality audio/MIDI interfaces, MPC's and other hardware sequencers. I'm not leaving anything under the control of a MIDI clock in a plastic MIDI controller with no sequencer.

If you can avoid the key issue and fix the pads, and maybe find an alternative for Note Repeat they are decent I suppose. I would probably look at Novation or an M-Audio board and just get a separate pad controller. The Korgs are cheap and pad sensitivity is off the charts out the box.


Thanks,see i saw a lot of people saying stuff like this.
for me it was a perfect choice due to its small size,plus pads plus keys,all in one...but yeah,basicly,its shit.

also have used before axiom 49 ,the older version,but didnt have anything configured with Reason,also the pads didnt feel too good.

so u say korgs are good ha ?i know theyre cheap too.

what about axiom 25 + korg padkontrol ?
how do u feel about the akai mpk mini ?

and thanks for the reply,by the way.
User avatar
By Metatron72 Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:49 pm
I'm looking in Reason now, the Axiom 25 (1st and 2nd gen models) is supported in Reason's remote options. That basically means that Reason will have you use preset 10 on the Axiom and do it's best to intelligently map Reason rack devices, generally trying to follow the GUI's from left to right. (Example if you have 8 knobs they are going to default to a Combinator's 8 macro knobs).

I have a few controllers that Reason supports natively and it's great, you seldom have to do any manual mapping.

The M-Audio pads aren't the greatest, but I find them reasonably responsive. (I have the same pads in a Trigger Finger.) But for 16 very sensitive ones a used Korg padKontrol is about $99. They lack the faders and more knobs of course, and also note they have no bank switches. But you can use 4 of the presets to do essentially the same as having 4 pad banks.

So I can see an all in one unit being the want, but again might be better to get two controllers and have no issues. (padKONTROL is light and portable, although not super durable, still I love the pads on them. They respond to the lightest taps.)
By kaloo Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:20 pm
Thanks a lot.you helped a lot.will def look into korg,i've used it before and it gets the job done,and the pads are good indeed.

Will have to see the axiom also,heard from more people its good so these two could be a good option for me .

Thanks again