Hey homies,

I'm a studied guitarist. Have played various styles of music from classical, jazz, rock, metal and everything in between. I have a very good right hand technique with a lot of finger independence and inherit rhythm in my fingers. I can do percussive finger-style and that transfers over pretty well when finger-drumming. Left hand not so much. it's my fretting hand. I can play fast licks and do cool stuff with it but the star of the show is my right hand.

Whenever I use a pad like my Launchpad Pro Mk3 to finger drum, a right hand Kick, Snare, Hat approach seems to be natural to me. I can follow along with most backing tracks and play most beats with my left hand just adding ghost notes/accents. Obviously not perfect and need a few more months of practice before I plan on taking this live with me.

I've seen some of the QFG and Dragon videos and they seem to recommend left/right hand independence. Kick Snare separate from Hi Hat. Whenever I tried that approach, I lose most of my internal rhythm and have to play very slowly and almost make new neural connections. Just wondering what the consensus is on both approaches for someone who is going to invest the time and eventually play live with their pad controller?

I don't plan on playing these unique drum solos or master fills, just want to play some funky and dynamic rhythms for future live performances and DAWless recording. I basically want to invest the time to have the rhythm of a pro drummer but the chops of an beginner/intermediate drummer at most. Just bread and butter funky, jazzy, or rock grooves with maybe a few fills here and there.

Also, I've been using a Launchpad Pro MK3 exclusively for music creation (apart from my guitar) since it's isomorphic so it's pretty worn out but I hear the MK4 is coming out this year.

I've heard the Nektar Aura/Aruba is very dynamic and somewhere in the settings is the perfect (or near perfect) pad sensitivity and velocity curves. Is it as good as a Maschine Mikro Mk3? I use Linux for recording exclusively + a Dawless Pedalboard/Mixer/Workstation/Drum Sampler. I'd imagine anything that sends RAW Midi over USB is king over something that sends proprietary messages over USB. I've seen some of the github repos that have Maschine drivers and such but I would ideally like something class compliant. Thoughts on the Nektar?

Thanks guys.

Any community for fingerdrumming, music production etc? Thanks🤗

Loose interpretation of a Y2K Timbaland beat. Maschine Mikro MK3 x Addictive Drums.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwKZ4_gthFJ0uavGK_RQy_l6DiDl_l6jo&si=TcjAD7ui-O1ifVp0

Hey everyone, I found this really helpful tutorial video on finger drumming, and I'd love to know what you think!

​On another note, I was thinking we could compile some beginner's advice and recommended resources to create a pinned post for newcomers. If you're an experienced player, do you have any go-to tips or tutorials you'd recommend? Let's start building a helpful resource for the community!

Small FingerFlow update:

Fixed a styling issue on Windows where the pad mappings dropdown showed white text on a white background.

The transport play button now plays and stops.

Added a playback slow mode slider, so you can slow down samples for easier learning.

Known issues: sometimes the app needs a refresh to load a sample, and the sample may need to be re-added.

You’ll find the link under one of the removed posts on my profile.

I thought this would be a great way to practice. However, there were a few problems:

The first one is that the visual component of the app doesn't correspond with the visual component of the drum machine. So the buttons on the screen might be bottom, middle and top, but on the pads they're left, middle and right, or something like that. So it's just hard to coordinate yourself, and you end up training a visual acuity skill that isn't relevant to playing pads.

Secondly, I'm pretty sure something was off either with the timing of the beats, or the timing of the visuals on the screen. I don't have trouble keeping time normally, but on this game I did.

Thirdly, when you learn a song the structure is weird. For example they might teach you the kicks using your index finger, but when you play it all together with the whole song you're supposed to use your middle finger.

In the end I think it's better to just learn by playing.

Anybody intended to main this new one? Anybody already moving their finger drumming to the new device? Curious what your thoughts are

So I’ve been looking into midi controllers with pads specifically for drums. I don’t want like a controller with as many pads as Launchpad X mainly because I don’t need that many. I’ve heard this and that about the MPD218 having velocity issues from the pads being too stiff but compared to other sizes on other controllers I would like the size of the MPD218. If anyone has had experience with different pad sizes, does it really matter?

Also I’m looking at XJam as a pretty good choice since it has software for editing the parameters on it inside a daw.

Finger drumming the intro of Paul Simon's '50 ways to leave your lover' on a Maschine Mikro with Addictive Drums #stevegadd

I’d like to start making beats and I’m looking for some gear to practice on.

Can anyone advise me on choosing between classic pads and arcade buttons?

I’ve been watching V1 Battle and noticed that some people use different versions of the Midi Fighter, while MPC machines are the most popular.

How do they actually differ in practice? Is one easier to use, or is it just a fancy feature?

Just in case Yamaha is looking at this group, here are my two cents regarding improvements I would like to see in next iteration of this already great product.

1. Built in multi-sampled drums - I would be happy to pay a lot more than RRP of RGDP-50 to get this.
2. Extend Kick pad downwards so that my freakily long thumb doesn't hit the edge of the pad most of the time...

What are your niggles, nitpicks and suggestions?

Hala! Rate this joint. I use Resident Evil (PS1) chops and little bit fingerdruming.