MPD218 USB MIDI Pad Controller

EDIT 7/14/2019: *There is 3/8" black cloth "pickup coil tape" on Stewmac.com. I use this for guitar work, so I had some on hand, but it just so happens it's the perfect width for this job. I also recommend the Double Stick tape, also available on Stewmac, and using this on the bottom of the black cloth tape. This ensures good adhesion to your rubber MPC pads. The black cloth tape seems to be more consistent than traditional electrical tape, and is easier to work with. Simply cut it into one inch strips and layer them together as needed, with double stick tape on the bottom. *I'm using 2 strips for most pads. Add more and see if you like the feel or not. Adjust accordingly. *I've found that setting these up is a balancing act. Every single screw makes a difference: installed/not installed, and how tightly installed, both on the circuit board itself and the red shell/cover that fits over the device. As for the tape: more tape can actually reduce the velocity range/sensitivity, which can be a good thing. Hyper-active pads that are triggering with too much velocity compared to the others may benefit from extra tape, not less. Balancing act. *Currently I'm using no screws on the circuit board at all. On the hard red plastic cover, I'm using only the 4 outside screws, and have them slightly backed off, about 1/4 turn. This seems to be enough to hold everything in place, and gives great sensitivity response with the least amount of accidental triggering. *I still get double triggering if I use the "Full Level" button, and I still get some accidental triggering of other pads, though they're usually at such a low velocity you can't hear it. My main problem was the Snare triggering the Closed Hi Hat pad(s), so when I'd do Snare and Open Hi Hat together, often the Open Hi Hat would be completely cancelled out by the Closed Hi Hat pad triggering. Setting up the pad as I've explained here fixed that. It may be that a lot of these pads are defective. But defective doesn't mean "not salvageable." It's a ton of work, and a major pain, yes -- but salvageable, and beyond that, transformable into a great pad controller. Now, back to my original review: I carefully disassembled the MPD218 and cut electrical tape to fit over the pads. This is a well-known trick online, and the simple idea is this: it reduces the force you need to strike the pads with in order to trigger them, and especially to trigger them fully. As others have mentioned, the other setup option is to very slightly back off on the screws that hold the circuit board down. You can even leave only the 4 outer screws attached and remove the 4 inner screws. Or remove all the screws on the circuit board completely. I've had the best luck so far by removing all of them completely, and only using the 4 outer screws on the hard red plastic back cover. Tape method: Step 1: Remove the screws holding the cover on. You're gonna want a magnetic holder or well-sealed plastic bag to keep the screws in as you remove them...trust me. Now take the cover off. Step 2: Now remove the smaller screws that are holding the circuit board in place. Then carefully lift the circuit board and place it out of harm's way. You'll see a thin plastic sheet underneath with squares on it. Remove the conductive plastic sheet once you get to it. Remember: it needs to go back on the right way, i.e. the conductive side facing the circuit board, or else it won't work when you plug it back in. Shiny side = insulated side. That goes down on top of the rubber pad. Make sure the conductive Matte finish side is facing up when you're all done. Step 3: Now you can easily remove the pads. It's literally just a floppy mass of rubber, all one piece, that you can just lift out. Take it out, and get some electrical tape and some scissors or an Xacto knife ready. Step 4: Cut the tape, similar to how I did it in the picture. On the MPD218, the LEDs are dead center. So if you cover them with tape, the LEDs will be obscured and your pads won't light up. You can customize it however you want. I'm using two layers of tape. You may like more. You may like less. Step 5: Reassemble. And you're done! Good job. Now test your MPD218 for responsiveness. Now I'm enjoying my newly set up MPD218 much more than before. Very, very light touches also seemed to trigger nothing before, whereas now they trigger exactly what I want: very light, soft sounds. Just be careful with the screws and the circuit board when dismantling and reassembling this thing, and you'll be fine. It's a very easy fix. Just a bit time consuming when it comes to dialing it in perfectly. Overall I'm very happy with this unit. It looks good, was very easy to work on, and with a couple tweaks, it's performing extremely well. It needs to be set up properly just like any other instrument. Which is always a pain. But it's to be expected. The only major issue is the "Full Level" button, which I simply don't use. Akai really needs to address whatever is going on with that.

I bought the LPD8 model recently to save a little money but this MPD218 is night and day different. Same physical pads by the MPD218 support single finger light taps. You have to beat the LPD8 with two finger very intently to activate. Don't waste your money on the LPD8 unless you know what you're getting into. If you're finger drumming you'll majorly regret it. I can finger drum on the MPD218 all night.

Got this for a gift they absolutely love it. Great price easy to use.

I’ve been using this product for the past couple months and I’ve been loving it. I use it almost every single day for producing music, and it is a workhorse. I’ve used it for music production, finger drumming, and even live performances at my church. The 360 dials work great and give me a more tactile experience when automating filter sweeps and other effects. There is one caveat. The pad sensitivity is an issue that several other people have had, and I’ve dealt with it as well. Often times, the pads will register one “hit” as two. So when using on full velocity mode, there may be flams as you play. This bodes several issues. In finger drumming, when triggering samples, a double stroke can mess up the flow of the performance and create issues. When recording MIDI input, a double stroke means I have to search through the session to find the extra hit before I can quantize. In addition to double strokes when playing, sometimes other pads will actuate when not pressed. I may hit pad 1, and pad 9 may trigger as well. It also causes problems with finger drumming, as triggering a sample in the middle of the drum pattern ruins the flow of the session. If this was remedied, it would be a flawless product. Despite whatever issues I’ve had, I must say that I am in total love with this product! It’s portable, fun, and an efficient tool to get drum ideas into my Logic session! So much fun! Just wish the pad issues weren’t there...

Honestly,it comes with the territory of midi controllers, it takes some time to set them up correctly. The pads are pretty responsive to how hard you hit and the size is great for a small studio set up. It does feel cheap compared to what you could probably get,but thats not stopped it from working well for me this past year. Its definitely good if your using daws of any kind,and has a nice software for customizing the pads and even has 16 presets to adjust and swap through.

Being new to the MIDI controller world, this is the first of this type of gear I've purchased. After watching many reviews on YouTube and reading reviews here, I have to say that In extremely impressed with this instrument. The pads are excellent and respond well to all types of playing, the knobs don't have that 'cheap' feel but are firm quality endless turns. Truthfully I'm still learning the free software that came with it and it too deserve 5 stars. A small learning curve but it recommends several tutorials and how-to videos. Finger drumming on this has been a perfect experience. It also works with almost any DAW. For the novice or professional musician, DJ or producer, this is an awesome tool to have in your arsenal.

The pads on this MPC are prefect! It's nice and light, yet doesn't feel cheap. I only wish it was fully compatible with the MPC 1.9.7 software. Its capable to be used with the main drum selection section, but trying to edit tracks, and trying to play previews to instruments, neither works with the MPC software or MPC Essentials. It's not a major problem, as you simply have to substitute the MPC for the mouse, but I'd much rather use the MPC for the entire workflow. Thankfully, my MPC Studio is fully compatible in this area. I also have run into the double input (ghost notes) issue most people seem to be having. Also, my PAD 12 registers as PAD 8. :( I'll still find use for the MPD218, (MPC Software or Essentials + Mouse) But going forward, I'll be looking into MPCs that are only fully capable with the MPC software as I want to use my mouse as least as possible when creating. Hopefully the new MPC 2.0 software will resolve the compatibility issue. In conclusion, I will I only be keeping the MPD218 as a backup controller. But I am still somewhat disappointed. The only reason this doesn't get one star is because I have an MPC Studio and I like the thickness of the pads (well, the ones that work anyway). If this was my first MPC, I probably wouldn't purchase another one. It's simply flawed and takes the fun out of making music. If you are new to music creation, I HIGHLY recommended the MPC Studio over this. And a message to Akai Professional, going forward, please make all of your MPCs fully compatible with the MPC software, and no, not MPC Essentials, the real MPC software (1.9.x).

Great midi controller works with any DAW.

Excelente controlador de Pads. Es AKAI, un estándar. Incluye mucho software!

Le gros kiffe , je fait du djembé avec , ça parait fou mais avec les bons logiciels , c'est plus que faisable et hyper réaliste . Sinon , ce controleur laisse une impression de robustesse , ce qui est rassurant puisque l'on va tapoter dessus . Les pads sont biens sensibles et réactifs , j'ai eté vraiment étonné de leur jouabilité compte tenu du prix raisonnable . Ils sont bien gros et c'est vraiment appréciable lorsque l'on a des gros doigts comme moi . Les potars sont fermes , ils tournent a l infini , ça on aime ou on aime pas , perso ça ne me derange pas . Un bundle complet de logiciels est fourni ( ableton version lite, MPC essentials et 2 versions de big band drum , il y a de quoi faire ) et l'editeur de banques des commandes du controleur qui est très bien fait et simple à utiliser. Le cable USB est fourni , merci , ce n'est pas toujours le cas . Pour ce qui est du "problème" de doublage des frappes lorsque l'on appuie une fois sur un pad mais que deux frappes sont induites (c'est un petit problème récurrent sur les drums pads), il s'observe en fait lorsque l'on veut réaliser des touchers à très très faible vélocité. En effet , dans ce cas, les frappes sont souvent doublées mais ce n'est pas un problème je pense dans la mesure où ces frappes produisent tellement peu de son qu'on ne les utilise pas et on frappera toujours à une vélocité supérieure. Pour être plus claire, on frappera toujours machinalement plus fort sur les pads et avec une vélocité telle qu'on ne gênérera jamais de doubles frappes. C'est ce que j'ai pu observer pour ma part . Le seul reproche que je lui ferai c'est sur le système de gestion des banques avec un seul bouton pour passer d'une banque a l'autre , pas très pratique et surtout pas assez rapide lorsque l'on veut changer de banque en jeux live . Un potar aurait reglé le problème et n'aurait , je pense , pas couté plus cher ; c 'est un peu dommage . Aussi , des sorties MIDI auraient été les bienvenues mais bon , on se doute bien qu'à ce prix , des choix ont dus être faits pour tenir le budget ; et il faut bien reconnaître que privilégier la fiabilité des pads et leur jouabilité était le bon choix . Bref , j'adore cet "instrument"!

works fine.

Magnífico. Funcionamiento impecable y muy útil para trabajar con cualquier DAW

I just got this, plugged it into my Mac, fired up Garageband and it worked. No set up, nothing. Just added a drum track and it just worked. It seems to be well built, especially for the price. Pads feel good. It came with the USB cable required. It's my first drum pad so it'll take time to get good with it. So fun to use! Really great purchase so far. Perhaps I'll come back do another review after I've had it for awhile.