Archive for the ‘Gear Porn’ Category

Akai MPD24 vs M-Audio Trigger Finger

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

AKAI MPD24 Recently I picked up a new Akai MPD24 replace a dying M-Audio Trigger Finger. I’ve used the trigger finger for years, but sadly the pads on the right side of the unit stopped responding a couple of weeks ago, and it started to send some wierd junk MIDI data to ableton. A replacement as it turns out was problematic. The product has been discontinued, and the few places still ‘selling’ them online always seem to be out of stock. M-Audio will still service them (cheers to M-Audio / Avid), but the RMA process takes some time, and I needed something in the meantime.

Well, the MPD24 is Akai’s answer to the Trigger Finger, and I’d read a lot of positive reviews, so I thought I’d check it out. I compared it to the Pad Kontrol, and a few others out there, but after playing with them at my local dealer, I liked the feel of the MPD24 a lot more. Frankly the Korg Pad Kontrol has a lot of nice features, but it feels like a toy made out of cheap plastic, and the pads just did not have the right feel or size for me. So I went with the Akai.

MPD 24Well, my first impressions are pretty good. It’s reponsive, easily programmable and adjus

hard to do. Yes, they might be in different octaves, but in that case you use a bloody number like the trigger finger did. C0 for middle C, C3 for C 3 octaves up, and so on. Why they went with numbers… well, it just strikes me as somewhat lazy, and it does make it somewhat irritating to program as an instrument.

Now that being said, I really appreciated the fact that out of the box it worked brilliantly as a drum controller for Abelton, which is why I bought it. Also the bundled programming sofware was very straightforward and much easier to use than that piece of crap Enigma software that M-Audio provides, which frankly doesn’t bloody well work on Vista or Win7, and doesn’t much care for Wine either. The pads have a great feel and repsonse, and trigger cleanly where ever you strike them, unlike the trigger finger which can be picky if you hit the pads on a corner. I did however miss being able to roll on the pads to get good aftertouch, and the analog style slider for pad sensitivity is something I loved about the trigger finger. The one touch sensitivity operation on the akai is neat, but not particularily useful for live situations.

The construction of it is far better than the trigger finger, but it looses a lot of points for missing features that I’d come to rely on. Still, at the price point that I paid, and the ease of use with my software of choice, I’m pretty happy overall. I’m getting the TF repaired for sure, but this is a great tool to have in the toolbox.

I hope that M-Audio ressurects the Trigger Finger. It was such a great product, and there are tons of people out there that love it still. The MPD24 is a great alternative, but won’t quite replace it for me.

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I love my APC-40

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I got to say that I love the Akai APC-40 Ableton controller. I’ve used Ableton Live since it first came out in 2001. I got a free copy with some audio hardware I was buying for a DJ gig at the time. I’d recently started making the transition from CDs and traditional vinyl to digital (Final Scratch), and needed an external sound card for the ole laptop. I spent a small fortune on what turned out to be a lemon of an audio interface. However, the promotional package I bought came with a stack of bundled software, containing a bright green disk in a white envelope with this authorization code for something thing called ableton live, and a stack of pro-sessions sound libraries. There was no manual, no explanation, no indication of what it was, and to be frank, bundled software usually sucks monkey balls, so I put it aside, and it sat there for weeks.

Well, a Saturday afternoon a few weeks later, I was kicking my heels looking for something to do. So, I decided to check out this bundle of software to see if there was anything even remotely usable. I set up and installed this ableton thing, and fired it up. My first impression was that though the interface was a little unusual, this piece of software looked like little more than an updated version of the old Amiga Tracker Software. Having been a fan of a number of ProTracker 2 for Amiga I decided to play around with it. 10 minutes later I was in love. This was shockingly good software written with composition and live performance in mind, and not just another DAW or software synth. It had everything I had ever wanted in a audio application. It was mind blowing.

AKAI APC-40

AKAI APC-40


Over the last nine years, the product has just gotten better and better. I will admit that some of the features are making it a little bloated these days, and it is starting to get to the point like some of it’s predecessors (like Cakewalk, Cubase, or Reason) where there are so many options and capabilities that option paralysis is a becoming a common problem for new users. That being said, if you do know what you are doing, and what you want, there are few tools out there that even come close. The only criticism that I had was that despite being written for live performance, the fact is that trying to click on clips, loops and controls on a computer screen is just not feasible in a live situation. Yes, the software supported midi learn, but this meant painstakingly setting up midi devices and having to map them to the on screen controls every time you changed anything. Such a pain! Mostly, you just ended up mapping drum pads as triggers and using bank switching to access additional controls, or having to carry all kinds of otherwise useless equipment just for the control knobs.

A few controllers have come out over the years, but nothing great. The novation is a great launchpad, but what about effect controls, what about my cross fader (I am primarily a DJ), what about… well you get the picture.

However that’s all changed. Recently I saw the Akai apc in DJ mag. I was intrigued. So I started looking around and pricing them out. I got a chance to attend a local demo, and knew that I had to have one.

So I scraped together the cash, decided to risk it, even though it meant eatting pot noodle soup for a month, and went out and got one.

The APC-40 has transformed my interaction with audio. I love this thing. I have been more productive and inspired in one month as a result of playing with this thing, than I have in the last 5 years. I’ve been recording, remixing and writing new material more than ever before!

Now that I’ve got this blog up and running, I’ll be posting my latest work soon.

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Yay! – New CD Player!!!

Friday, June 15th, 2001

Yesterday I finally got my other Pioneer CDJ100S DJ cd player! I bought the other member of the pair last month. I was originally going to pick up both units at the same time, but finances have been a little weird lately. Since Michelle has been living with me, the little daily expenses have been a little larger. Picking up dinner for two people instead of one, extra bathroom stuff, and other little expenses. So, not wanting for me or Michelle to starve for a couple of weeks, I put off buying the second unit until this month.

Now I have it! – Yay!

My old CD decks have served faithfully for the last couple of years, but about two months ago, the transport on the left deck started occasionally pausing mysteriously during playback. This meant that you had to baby the cd player very carefully during any club event. The bass beat in a room could even cause a pause due to vibration. It meant that I had to watch my levels so carefully that I couldn’t concentrate on the beat match or dance floor response. I often had to kill the bass in some of my favorite tracks, and even that might not have been enough. I took the decks in for service, but spare parts for a unit as old as my Denton decks were are very hard to find.

I finally decided to break down, and drop a couple of grand on new equipment. Besides, I really wanted some of the DSP effects and a wider level of pitch control that are only available on newer units. It was time to upgrade.

So I bought the new units from Masterplan. Although Masterplan is not the cheapest place in town for equipment, the staff are really nice, and actually the salesmen themselves actually perform with the equipment that they sell. That means that they will tell you honestly how various pieces of gear behave on the road, and will warn you about the oddities of any piece of equipment that you may be considering. While I was there I also found out that they should be able to get me parts to give the old Denons a repair and a good tune up.

I am in love with the new units! They are almost indestructible and have a really nice feel. The huge jog dial has almost exactly the same feel as mixing with vinyl. You get a lot more sensitivity and control than you ever had with my old rack mounted units. The ease of chase mixing with them is phenomenal. It will take a little while for me to get used to the sensitivity of them however. They have a much faster response than older units I have worked with, so I have a tendency to be a little heavy handed when trying to give a burst of kick or drag to a track.

I spent about 3 hours with them last night, practicing old tricks I used to be able to do on the Denons. Looping is a bit different and playback speed from a cue point is a bit slower than on the older units, but having the DSP effects on the unit allows me to hide all but the worst train wreck mixes.

The Pioneers are the same model that Issac uses for Sanctuary, and that I used for spinning the night of the And One and Covenant concert. I fell in love with them that night. They are a bit weird to get used to if you are used to the rack mounted types. They cue very differently and are far more responsive, so if you are not used to them, everything seems far to sensitive.

Michelle has tried using them a few times and although she likes them, she isn’t comfor

I myself can’t wait to use them in a live venue. Some of the features that they have are only accessible via a Pioneer mixer, but the truth be known, I hate the Pioneer mixers (except for the very high end ones). The sample, transform, send, kill, and independent channel eq on my Numark are a godsend if you are trying to create new tracks out of canned music or doing a live off the cuff remix.

Although you really can’t get away with doing that too often when spinning industrial music (the crowd are “purists” who want only “the album version with no changes”), I usually put on a bit of a show when doing 80′s tunes and it gets amazing response from even a small crowd. My favorite live remix to perform right now is my “You Spin my Venus” mix (Dead or Alive vs. Banannarama – so much fun). I am trying to work out something with an erasure / depeche mix for the opening night of Labyrinth after the Tranist strike. It will probably help if I can get a third CD going. There is an old single deck American DJ unit at a pawn shop not far from me, but my pocket still hurts from the new Pioneer deck, so it will have to wait.

I can’t wait to get home to play with them some more!!!!

Hmmm…. I should record some of my stuff and put it up on my website.

Hmmmm….. Maybee I should bloody well finish my website this weekend.

I have also been trying to work out a good control system to use my laptop as a sampler when performing live. The output level of my laptop sound card is a little weak compared to the other equipment, and it is a little slow playing off a cue, but I figure I can find something to push a bit more speed and volume out of it.

I have also decided that all modern dance music owes its structure to New Order.

Nuff for now. Gotta run away. I just though of a mix I can probably do live! Need some samples from the breakfast club though….

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