OffsetGuitars.com

Hey Friends,

So I'm looking for a midi/usb device that I can use with Ultrabeat to control the step sequencer. I grabbed an Akai MPD232 on a whim for these purposes and have found that, despite having a step sequencer built into it, it doesn't interact with Logic in that way even though the rest of the controls can be synced to it.

Does anyone know of or us a pad that works for this? I want to get into using step sequencers but I find having actual controls in front me easier than doing it with the mouse.

Korg Nanopad? It’s cheap and has 16 pads, but you’re going to have to step to a second bank with that.

Does that Akai not allow midi mapping of some sort?

Ultrabeat maps to the first 24 keys of a midi keyboard and then chromatically after that, just like my old Alesis D-4. I use my Akai MPK keyboard for sequencing. It has 12 pads, so I would need to toggle a second bank in order to do the 24 notes available, but I just use the keyboard. I do use the pads for other percussion input though.

I have never used Maschine or anything else. Ableton make a cool pad controller that does a lot, I think called Pulse(?) that can be used with Logic, but not sure if the integration is as native as Ableton.

Are you trying to use the pads as a trigger for an already recorded sequence?

Or are you trying to program a step sequence with the pads and transport controls?

You should be able to do either with it properly synced and mapped to Logic. I only use the pads as triggers for sequences or percussion though, never for programming. I use sequencer buttons or the keyboard keys for that.

Sorry I totally missed all this. Thank you for responding!

So basically what I realized is that I bought the Midi Pad with the wrong premise of what it could do. It CAN do mapping and it CAN do sequencing, but it doesn't interface with Logic's Ultrabeat, which is what i bought it for, aside from just replicating the sound. Ultrabeat itself apparently doesn't like allowing MIDI stuff to sequence it, so I realized I either need to do my sequencing in the DAW itself or get a drum machine so I can do it on the physical thing.

Ok got it. For some reason they never allowed real time sequence recording in Ultrabeat. You have to sequence a midi pattern and import it. I just use the pattern maker or trigger sounds, so that’s a different method than what you want.

I don’t no if the Maschine interface would work any better and it’s a lot more money.