USB bus-powered drum controllers

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I'm looking for a USB bus powered MIDI drum controller, hopefully for around £200 or less. Does such a thing exist? I've seen lots of MIDI trigger pads that are USB bus powered but none of them seem to have pads large enough to play a beat with two sticks. 4 or 6 decent sized pads would do for me.

Ideally I'd find a device that could operate standalone ie using a built-in sound module and mains power but could also work as a USB MIDI input device running entirely off bus power

The Alesis Samplepad Pro looks like the sort of thing I want. It has a USB port but I've been unable to discover if it is capable of running off USB bus power.It was supposed to be released this month but it looks like its been put back to December now.

Finally, my OS of choice is Linux so I need something that is (USB/MIDI) standards compliant and not reliant on special drivers to function.

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For £100 more you could do worse than pick up the M-Audio Trigger Finger Pro:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/m_audio_trigger_finger_pro.htm

USB powered or use a power pack and output MIDI via DIN jack in standalone mode.

It's a pretty slick device IMO. Worth checking out, at least.

Peace,
Andy.
... space is the place ...

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Hi Andy

Thanks for your suggestion but that's not suitable for my purposes. I'm looking for a device with pads large and durable enough to be hit with two chunky, fast-flying drum sticks. Something like that is only suitable for single-hit sample triggering (likely just using your fingers as its name implies) and is unsuitable for paradiddles and pals.

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Oh, sorry ... I should have finished reading your post before shooting off my mouth! :oops:
... space is the place ...

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this one:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/medeli_cubeat_ ... l_drum.htm

should do it, I guess.

Or if this one has usb power, think it might:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_md_9 ... e_drum.htm

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Hi lfm

The medeli cubeat looks very much like the sort of thing I'm after so thanks for pointing that out. The price is well within my budget but it makes me wonder about its build quality, durability and responsiveness etc. I've just emailed Thomann to try to find out if it is USB powered and to check its not iPad-specific ie is it just a regular USB MIDI controller? If so it should 'just work' under Linux (and OSX). The only review on the site for it cast doubts over it working with anything non-ipad although they failed to mention if they had tried it under anything other than iOS.

The pads on the millenium 9 look like they could be a bit too small and they apparently aren't very responsive either as one of the reviews said they only sound if hit in the middle so that sounds unsuitable for double-sticked playing.

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10 years ago I used Yamaha DD-55 which had midi and possible to run on batteries - but no usb. Internal sounds and background tracks and stuff.
Pads were ok, I think, and you bought a KP-65 kick pad to get a better feel of kick drum with a proper kick pedal.

So if you get a usb midi interface that works with linux you can run that.

But why you want usb powered, I don't know. Maybe battery or adapter works for you situation too.

I remember that Roland has some 6-pad or 9-pad thingy at the time I chose DD-55.

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danboid wrote:The Alesis Samplepad Pro looks like the sort of thing I want. It has a USB port but I've been unable to discover if it is capable of running off USB bus power.It was supposed to be released this month but it looks like its been put back to December now.
Looks like a DC-in on it's rear panel marked '800ma' which would be too much current for a regular USB port (500ma for USB2 tops I think).

The Alesis Controlpad is USB powered but couldn't see any for sale, old model?

http://www.alesis.com/controlpad

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lfm:

Why would I not want a USB powered device? If it can be USB powered then it means I can simply plug it straight into my laptop/netbook and not have to worry about plug sockets. It's one less cable to worry about and get in the way. Bus power is one of the main advantages of USB MIDI over regular MIDI and its something I look for whenever I buy USB audio/MIDI hardware.

GaryG:

Well spotted with the Samplepad Pro's power input requirement! You're correct in saying that it exceeds what USB bus power offers so I think I'm prob safe in ruling that out now.

I was aware of the Controlpad but forgot to mention it. As you say, the Controlpad has EOL'd now but I think I'd prob be better off trying to locate one of those (second hand) rather than risk the Medeli Cubeat. The Controlpad looks like it'll take more of a beating, it meets my spec/budget requirements and at least I've heard of Alesis.

Is there really nothing else out there? It seems odd that there is only one currently available device (sub £500 or so) that meets my requirements.

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robojam:

Thanks for the suggestion but the Stryke looks like it is simply a rebranded and more expensive version of the Cubeat. They prob are made by the same manufacturer. I have my doubts over the durability, reliability and sensitivity of both so it'd be nice to get some feedback from someone who has used one.

PS 20k+ posts!?! That's more than I've ever seen anyone have on any forum so congrats!

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danboid wrote:PS 20k+ posts!?! That's more than I've ever seen anyone have on any forum so congrats!
and most of them from one thread :hihi: :hihi:

as for the simmons vs cubeat ?? i dunno if there is much difference, but 'simmons' is a brand with quite an electronic drum legacy. don't let it sway you, but i'd surprised if they'd put their name to something that was a complete p.o.s :shrug:

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el-bo (formerly ebow) wrote:
danboid wrote:PS 20k+ posts!?! That's more than I've ever seen anyone have on any forum so congrats!
and most of them from one thread :hihi: :hihi:
I assume you mean the quoted out of context thread...? :hihi:

I wouldn't have even realized that I hit 20K, only someone pointed it out to me when I was just a few away from it.

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Not sure what their status is now, or if it completely fits your desires and/or budget. But another member turned me on to these and it has become what I am most looking for in pads. (Just not very sure of the software). It does say it's plug and play for USB though (Powered by? IDK)

Mandala:
http://synesthesiacorp.com/mandala-mk29

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Hi BBFG#

The Mandala looks like fun but its a bit out of my budget right now and it looks like you'd need to use their app to configure it so I'd be dependent upon (hoping for) the windows version working properly under wine as they don't seem to support Linux.

Thanks for your suggestion!

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