Me and my friend are dj’ing togeter and i wanted to do something more than just beathmatching songs so i was thinking about buying buying a pad section (like akai lpd8) or maybe a midi fighter or NI X1 to control fx,loops and hot cues. what would you recommend? we got an Omni but as i say i want some more buttons.
The akai is very cheap and simple but maybe it hasn’t enough buttons.
The Midifighter has lots of buttons and is very good looking but if i could maby put some knobs there it would be better for fx?
The only bad thing i see about the X1 that it’s little price compared to the other and maybe NI will release a X2 after maybe a year or less ( update of X1 )
So tell me your opinion.
Btw we are using Traktor Pro with Numark Omni on Macbook pro laptop.
Akai Pads are nice, but the glory they offer is velocity sensitivity. Triggering ques/loops on the Akai is much more difficult than on a MIDI Fighter.
The MIDI Fighter is fast and has less bloat. The buttons are responsive and feel much better. You can also slap on a potentiometer (or 2?) for controlling vars.
Also, if DJ TECH gets the zones working you will gain more control (referenced in instructions).
Also, a good consideration is separation of units. Pads are more durable and easier to repair than knobs (potentiometers). Having a pad unit and knob unit is a wise choice.
The MIDI Fighter is one of the most fun controllers I have owned:
Simple, exact, perfect. Good job to DJTT.
Been catching a lot of bad press on NI for a while now. No bias, just truth. Lots of issues and poor customer service.
not sure if you’ve gone ahead and ordered yet, but i would just say that i’m really loving my korg padkontrol now that i’ve opened it up with farmpad. i got mine off craigslist for like 120 bucks, which makes it pretty comparably priced with the MIDI fighter i suppose.
anyway, on it’s own, the korg is cool b/c it’s got the two knobs, and an x/y pad, so there’s 4 potentiometers right there. but when you open it up with farmpad, you can do so much more. i love having all the extra little buttons on the left side open for controlling FX on/off and loop on/off. farmpad also allows you to use the x/y pad as a switch, so you have it activate an effect when you touch it, manipulate 2 aspects of the effect with just one finger, then it’ll turn the effect off when you lift your finger. snappy, eh? i don’t have much experience on other devices, but i’m pretty sure the padkontrol pads are also velocity sensitive, and can be tweaked to hell with or without farmpad. (oh, and farmpad is mac only right now, i should say)
maybe not related, but still cool: my friend who has a padkontrol uses MAXmsp and a program called monomulator. i think it only works for the padkontrol, but it turns the padkontrol into a basic monome wannabe that can run monome programs in max. he’s been having a blast with it. i, on the other hand, don’t know a lick about max. we midi synced one time over the network, wirelessly (macs are efffing awesome in that respect), and got some sweet sounds going with me running traktor pro and him running monomulator. good times.
Yeah i think i will take the midifighter because everyone seems to like it and it gives me an option to change it/ upgrade it later but maybe i will take both the midifighter and the akai lpd8 or something similar
You have a good point. The decision is hacking or not.
Personally I like to hack - got a LIVID DIYT coming.
IMHO, for DJ-ing, MIDI Fighter hits it hard. You’ve got fast acting triggers, easy to deal with, in a small footprint.
I gotta check out the what Farmpad is - that smells cool.
Thee are TONS of great controllers out there. A friend is assembling an Arduinome - but some of these options are not for the weak at configuration / programming.
If you want simple - get the MIDI Fighter with a nano control from korg. The korgs are a little cheap and disposable, but a good economical option.
Keep in mind, to upgrade and change the MIDI Fighter you need to solder the connections and build the case yourself. Just wanted to make sure everyone understood that.
It’d be worth looking at some of the other pads from Akai. They’re super nice.
I myself got an mPD18 a while back before the midifighter was available, and it’s really nice. It has 16 banks of pads, velocity/pressure sensitivity, note repeat, swing, and an extra fader slapped on. There are a bunch of other MPD controllers with varying amounts of knobs and faders
