Selecting a pad controller

Musicians have more choice than ever among the plethora of finger drumming pad controllers. Producer and educator Robert Mathijs offers this advice. For me, pad sensitivity and responsiveness is everything. I hardly use any of the knobs or sliders or whatever else comes with the controller. I go for the pads and see if they respond well. I test in two ways: Playing a beat on the pads gives an immediate “gut feeling” response on how the controller responds to different dynamics. This is the most important metric I use. I usually know within 20 seconds if a controller in its current setting works for me. Checking the response for soft hits is very important, so I usually test every […]

More MIDI

digitalDrummer explores a new compact MIDI hub. CME, which revolutionised wireless MIDI with its compact, easy-to-use WIDI products, has stepped up the game with a couple of new router-type devices. digitalDrummer got to test the “host” version – the H4MIDI WC. What’s in the box Like its WIDI siblings, the H4MIDI WC is a compact, fuss-free box. It is significantly larger than the WIDI transmitters and receivers – mostly to accommodate a bunch of input and output jacks ranging from USB to traditional five-pin MIDI. Essentially, the device is a two-in, two-out MIDI router which allows you to connect a number of MIDI devices together. To further enhance connectivity, users are able to easily add a wireless Bluetooth board – […]