Best Standalone Finger Drumming Pad Controllers: Let Your Fingers Do the Drumming With These 5 Fun Instruments
The best standalone finger drumming pad controllers from Native Instruments, Akai Professional, Yamaha, and more.
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Take your finger drumming on the road and to the next level with these five best standalone finger drumming pad controllers – for all budgets.
Best Standalone Finger Drumming Pad Controllers
A few months ago, I wrote about the best finger drumming MIDI pad controllers under $500. These were the top controllers for connecting to your computer. Many finger drummers prefer to work this way, triggering drums from Addictive Drums.
However, sometimes you want to get away from the computer and work in a different setting like the living room, at the beach beach or even on a bus. DAWless finger jams, anyone? If this sounds like you and you’ve been on the hunt for the best standalone finger drumming pad controllers, read on.
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Native Instruments Maschine+
Native Instruments’ Maschine series is incredibly popular with finger drummers and for good reason: the pads are excellent. Responsive, sensitive and a joy to play, working with a Maschine is like nothing else. For many, a basic Maschine Mikro or Maschine Mk3 will suffice but if you feel the need to speed away from the laptop, consider a Maschine+.
A standalone groovebox, Maschine+ has everything you like about the regular series but all self-contained in one very well-made box. You get 16 lovely pads, two screens, on-board instruments and effects plugins plus plenty of delicious drums to trigger. And, being a controller at heart, you can always connect it to your computer to trigger Addictive Drums or whatever drum plugin you favor. This makes it one of the best standalone finger drumming pad controllers on the market today.
- Native Instruments Maschine+ product page
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Akai Professional MPC Live II
The Akai MPC series of samplers goes all the way back to the 1980s and the MPC60, the original 16-pad groovebox. That lineage continues today with a number of models, including the standalone MPC Live II, our choice for hip-hop finger drummers wanting to trigger chopped samples and melodies along with drums.
This modern MPC is a fully-equipped beast with an internal DAW and instrument and effects plugins. Although you’ll be focused on the pads, there’s also a touchscreen, something I wish the Maschine+ had. The MPC Live II is also eminently portable with its own lithium ion battery and even on-board stereo monitors.
Yes, it’s expensive and probably overkill for basic finger drumming but if you’re also a producer and you want to tap into some deep hip-hop heritage, this is the way to go.
- Akai Professional MPC Live II product page
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Yamaha FGDP-30 / FGDP-50
Most finger drumming pads use the same style of grid, whether eight, 16 or 64. Pad sensitivity may vary between manufacturers but the non-ergonomic layout remains the same. Yamaha decided to try something different, developing the FGDP-30 and FGDP-50 models specifically with finger drummers in mind. Both feature the same unique pad organization, which follows the contours of the human hand.
Differences between the two models are related to sounds, with the 30 having 1212 voices and 39 preset kits and the 50, 1500 voices and 48 preset kits. Both contain acoustic drum sounds based on Yamaha’s DTX series. The 50, which also has a screen and eight extra RGB pads, lets you tweak the sounds and also import your own samples.
While both units have onboard speakers and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, making them portable and standalone, the 50 offers more functionality. However, as they can both work as MIDI controllers, get the 30 if you just want to try the ergonomic layout. Either one, they’re two of the best standalone finger drumming pad controllers available – especially for the price.
- Yamaha FGDP-30/FGDP-50 product page
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Roland SP-404 MKII
Roland’s SP-404 MKII phrase sampler gets a lot of love as a production device but it also excels in the live department thanks to its DJ mode. Finger drummers have taken to it in a big way too, thanks to its very poundable velocity sensitive pads. You can even adjust the velocity settings for each one individually, making it customizable to your playing style.
The SP-404 MKII has 17 low-latency RGB pads for triggering samples, 32-voice polyphony, and 16GB of internal storage. Loop capture is great for recording performances and resampling allows you to sample through the many onboard effects. It’s also portable, able to run off a mobile battery or via six AA batteries (though a rechargeable lithium-ion battery would be better).
The SP-404 MKII is a solid option for standalone finger drumming performances and song production. It’s also a lot cheaper than some of the other devices on this list.
- Roland SP-404MKII product page
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Ableton Push 3 Standalone
This will be a controversial entry. Most finger drummers prefer a grid layout with 16 pads. Anything more and the pads can get too small. (Even the SP-404 MKII is pushing it in terms of pad size.) Ableton’s Push 3 Standalone has a whopping 64 pads. With this kind of layout though what you lose in pad size you gain in sound-triggering options. Plus they’re MPE, which opens up all sorts of performance possibilities.
Push 3 is, essentially, Ableton Live in a controller. How you react to that statement will tell you whether you as a finger drummer need this device. If you’re already a Live power user and the idea of having it in a lithium battery-powered portable device with built-in audio interface is appealing, the not insignificant price may not matter. If you’ve already built up muscle memory for Maschine or MPC, then this will probably just frustrate both you and your wallet.
Also worth considering is the Ableton Move, a smaller and much more bank account-friendly Live-type device. Is it one of the best standalone finger drumming pad controllers? Only time will tell.
- Ableton Push 3 Standalone product page
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2 responses to “Best Standalone Finger Drumming Pad Controllers: Let Your Fingers Do the Drumming With These 5 Fun Instruments”
Best Standalone Finger Drumming: Repeating the same phrase for SEO over and over again.
These are nice but check this out: Google: “creative tech nerds” click on its “synth project” page and scroll down to it’s “Rhythm Section” instrument. This includes everything you need for an entire rhythm section!