Feature:
I bought this over the korg pad control because of its rotary encoders, faders and the transport control and the fact that it didn't have an xy pad.
It would have been nice if you could change the transport controls to output a standard midi signal rather than the mmc signal, this would have ensured compatibility with more apps eg I use samplitude and live and it doesn't work with either
another thing that would have been nice is if you could set some pads to play at "full level" and others to be velocity and pressure sensitive.
and an on/off switch could be useful, I'm not sure how long the screens last on these things (i guess things have improved since the s2000), however, it seems a waste to have the screen on when I'm not using it. the only way to turn it off is by unplugging the usb cable
overall, a nice feature set
Quality:
after reading how solid people thought it was, i was def a bit underwhelmed. It's heavy enough that it wont move thanks to the metal base, but the top of the unit is plastic and the whole thing sound a little hollow when you hit it. The faders feel a bit cheap, but really nothing major to complain about. The pads are good. But the rotary encoders, well one of them at least doesn't transmit data when you turn it, but when it's not being touched, it transmits which makes it difficult when 'learning' midi assignment in most soft apps. For instance if I go to assign knob 'k1', I turn k1, then I have to be quick to confirm this assignment before k4 replaces it. This is the only real problem with the unit, but it has completely soured my experience with the unit. After reading that this kind of problem with the encoders is pretty common, I fear it may be likely that i get a replacement with the same problem. Fingers crossed. It would be nice if someone would step up and make some decent pad controllers, rather than this consumer grad s^&t that all of the pad manufacturers have put out
Value:
I would expect something better for the money, but I'd be prepared to pay more for something truly rock solid
Desirability:
yeah, the screen is nice, I'd rather have plastic that looks like plastic and is proud of it rather than plastic trying to look like metal
Sound:
it's a midi controller
Ease of Use:
everything was easy to use thanks to the nice screen, had all of the features figured within a few hours and no driver needed
Support:
we'll have to find out about that
Overall:
perhaps if it was stolen perhaps I'd consider getting an mpc2500, but I'd do some pretty thorough research regarding their build quality after experiencing this akai product. I didn't really like the trigger finger pads and reading a lot about the korg pads falsely triggering when an adjacent pad was hit turned me off, I guess there's not much choice if you want something decent.
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