haha I'm using the dashboard part behind my steering wheel as well sometimes. And my office desk of course, but my colleague does the same all the time 🤣
You laugh, but I did this about 20 years ago. I attached piezo triggers to my steering wheel, connected them to a battery powered drum module, and AUXed it into my car stereo with a Y cable that also connected to a portable CD player. Then I drove around, drumming to my favorite songs
That's excactly what they did here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mUP4o2qoUvE.html and here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CS6r-lFTyRk.html
I was lucky enough to preorder the FGDP-50 when it was released and received it last week. I have to say it's truly amazing for the price and very addictive. Having always tried recording drums into my DAW from keys, the feel and features of the FGDP are way better. The built-in sounds are really great, but this thing comes into its own when you start digging deeper and creating your own kits or adding samples. The depth of customisation and functionality is amazing, everything from triggering multiple sounds from a single pad to velocity triggers for each sound, assigning aftertouch to all sorts of things including filtering, resonance, effects and more. The UX is designed very well and you get the hang of navigating and switching between functions or settings really quickly. The built-in speaker is actually quite tidy for its size and enough to have fun noodling on the sofa using the built-in battery power. I haven't quite figured out all the midi functionality yet as there's lots of settings you can change and configure, but the fact it has both USB audio and USB midi is amazing. Also this device supports polyphonic aftertouch! Remarkable, well done Yamaha - hope you continue supporting this with firmware updates and more tips and tricks on how to get the most from it.
@@javierromero1331 Pretty much silent if you play them with your fingers. They are similar to silicone, so not too soft but then not rock hard like plastic. Obviously if you put it on a table and it wasn't completely flat and then banged it with your fingers, it might make a bit of noise, but you can put it on your lap or a softer surface and play without much noise at all. The pads are very sensitive and you can adjust the sensitivity, so should be fine.
I'm an ex pro drummer with not enough room to mic my kits and don't play em much either way as I write more on guitar and keys. These units are just what I'm looking for besides Garageband and Logic built in 'Drummer's rarely play what I want so seriously looking at one of these!
This is not only great for myself in my home studio, but my two year old will love this. And I know he is not the target audience, but getting him interested in making music while "working" with me is great.
The 50 must be a lot more in-demand than Yamaha anticipated because it went straight from preorder to out of stock on every EU online store (with 4-8 week delays announced for restock).
had a go on these in the yamaha flagship store in tokyo the other day! pads felt great to me. the internal speaker obviously doesn’t sound amazing but that’s physics for you. i’m very tempted.
Saw this and thought it would be mega popular. Bought the 30 on a whim and have been absolutely delighted with it. The speaker is absolutely fine for messing about with and is more than loud enough for my usage. I love the pickup and play nature of it. I would love a real drum kit but just don't have the space. For me this is the ideal alternative. Also love having the option of plugging it into my laptop and loading up ezdrummer. I spent a grand on the Machine Plus and I much prefer this as a drum machine
Do you think the 30 is the nice middle ground? I use an iPad, with MidiFighter 3d but its pads aren’t velocity sensitive. Can it work with a computer as well?
@@Densmode3dp for the price, I'd say the 30 is a great middle ground. The pads are not as sensitive as say the Native instruments, but for me the are more consistent. I'm a novice finger Drummer, and I know some folk are not a fan of the pad layout, but for me, my drumming has got significantly better in the last two weeks compared to the previous year using a standard 4x4 pad layout. It's weird, I don't have to think about which pad does what. I find it very intuitive. I can't speak to the iPad, but it works for me with Reaper and PC. It's maybe just the limited on board sounds, but I find the sensitivity for ghost notes sounds better when used as a midi device.
@beenmicrophone581 I dont have the 50, but making any kind of changes in the settings is painful on the 30. The screen probaly makes a tremendous difference in the speed it takes if you want to adjust levels or pad settings. But for me it doesn't justify the extra spend for the 50. I have to say, it has impressed me as a pure drum machine. I love just getting ten minutes to jam while the dinner is on or at half time during the football.
There needs to be an FGDP-70 that does things properly. 6.3mm stereo outputs. MIDI DIN in/out/through. USB via a vastly more robust connector than awful MicroUSB like USB-c, full sized type A or B. Even the oldskool MiniUSB was robust compared to MicroUSB - it should NOT be on brand new products coming out in 2023
Yes, I was a bit disappointed (with both instrument and video) and also wondered: is there any multi-trigger capacity in the pads (for instance for playing rim shots of a snare, or going from bell to edge on a cymbal)? Can each pad play ghost notes or will it just choke/retrigger the sample and thus require duplication or triplication of the same sample in different pads? How does it integrate with drumming programs like superior drummer, etc?
Why? This does what you need at a price that doesn't break the bank. The 3.5mm stereo output jack sounds great through amplified speakers, and delivers enough power for headphone listening. Furthermore there's a setting that allows you to choose if the internal speaker gets muted when you plug in to the jack output. MIDI DIN output would be nice but USB delivers both midi and audio in both directions! And it powers the thing. I do agree USB-C would have been a bit more robust than micro USB, but it's not really a deal breaker. What makes this such a great product is the price and the degree of configuration and customisation possible. It will be interesting to know how many sales of the FGDP-30 versus 50 there will be, although the 30 is still pretty good on the midi side and internal sounds.
There are already 2 price tiers, I'm suggesting the more expensive model should have all the things musicians want. There is no price difference on changing USB ports.. as even if USB-c may be a bit more expensive to put on.. then the old A/B/Mini ports are as cheap as MicroUSB. If you're relying on that port for everything it HAS to be robust. IMO the FGDP-30 can be cut down as much as possible.. and the FGDP-50 should have been for pro musicians. Both of you seem to have missed though that in my first post I suggested an FGDP-70 tier above the FGDP-50, so it wouldn't even affect you if you wanted to put up with these annoyances. I can make do with 3.5mm also, but pro gear should have dual 6.3mm outputs. It does not "double or triple" the price to add on MIDI ports, extra audio outs and use a sane USB socket
I got the 30 and it’s fun so far. What is always going to hold these back from natural drummers is not having a bass pedal! Provide a bass pedal switch and it makes this an actual drum set!
I really wish they had put some footswitch functionality into this. For example, a trigger input that could be assigned to any pad. Start/ stop etc. I would have paid more for that.
Pretty cool gadget. I like the fact the pads are laid out ergonomically, specifically adjusted to the shape of a human hand. GJ, Yamaha! Also, I'm linguistic ultra-geek! Tim's accent sound vaguely Germanic, but I can't put my finger on it (no pun intended). Is this a Danish accent? xd
wow i'm really interested in this but just what i need another drum machine lmao, I have a mpc live 2 and a drum brute but this thing looks awesome when I'm jamming acoustic guitars with friends and the fact it can be used with midi and I could hook up a midi drumset and actually play it is amazing. I think i'm ordering one.
No input for kick and hat pedals? Yes, I know "finger drumming"... uh, hmmm. It's amazing that ALL of these type controllers... NONE of them have input for kick/hat triggers ... why do we have to think of these things?
This could have been so cool with USB-C and proper midi capability. Writing drums with a keyboard is horrible, this could have been a really good solution. I wonder why they didn’t think this through properly
I wonder if quest for groove channel will review these. Would be interested to hear his take on the layout. Looks promising. Think yamaha need to make midi mapping templates for all the vst drum plugins bfd3, addictive drums, toontrack superior drummer, kontakt kits, otherwise they are pretty limited to the quality of the yamaha stand alone sounds which are ok but not pro. Don’t under estimate the amount of faffing around with the default vst kits have to be remapped to any midi drum pad controller. This why templates would be needed to save time.
Yes, Quest for Groove had orderd those and wanted to review them. Btw. I already have one and you can create your own MIDI maps and store them as user "triggers" on the device. It's also possible to export them, so I guess that should make it easy to share custom mappings. It's actually very nice that you can set and switch the MIDI mappings on the device itself. I think it's very much like what you meant with templates.
@@eimaistoyoutub It's good enough I think, but it's less sensitive than my Launchpad Pro Mk3, even after increasing the "ADGain" on the pads. But the Launchpad Pro Mk3 may have one of the most sensitives pads on the market overall. I've also heard that it's less sensitive than the Maschine MK3, which seems to be a bit less sensitive than the Launchpad Pro Mk3. The FGDP is clearly much more sensitive than the pads on my Arturia MiniLab 3. I cannot say how this applied to other FGDP units, only have my own to compare. I wish the FGDP pads were just a bit more sensitive, since I'm the type who likes to play with less force. But what I really like and appreciate is the ability to configure the velocity curve and sensitivity for each pad individually.
As someone who has neither the Launchpad Pro Mk3 nor the FGDP, but thinks they both seem great, I wonder if you feel the what the FGDP brings to the table is worth the extra investment. Not that it doesn't look awesome, but obviously, you can finger drum on the Launchpad and a whole lot more. Now that you are using them both, is the FGDP enough of an improvement in that area to justify both controllers? @@FannonF
@@tateforgey : That's a good question. I've now tried for a few days to play with the Launchpad Pro Mk3 again, and I have troubles. Even though the sensitivity of the pads is more to my liking, now I find the pads much too small. I think the layout of the FGDP is much better for playing drums and I will stick to playing drums with the FGDP, not the Launchpad. The advantage of the launchpad pro is that you can use it for non-drum pad layouts or generic 4x4 layouts that you sometimes have in your DAW (Ableton, Bitwig). Having colors also helps here. The Launchpad is much more flexible and unopinionated when it comes to the layout. But where the FGDP layout works fine, it works better than what you can customize the Launchpad Pro to, imho.
What was old is new again, see the Yamaha's previous finger drum entries MR10 (analog) and DD10 (8bit samples). The whole concept never caught on, guess 3 times is a charm.
I purchased it mainly for the percussion, the sounds are first class, especially the African kit which allows you to change the pitch of the drums, you may be able to do this with every kit but the other kits aren't programed that way. I have read the manual, but the programming is somewhat cryptic and there doesn't seem to be any tutorials on programming it. If you are a keyboard player or a percussionist you should be able to play this with one hand. The lack of a sequencer and the limited control of the sounds puts this into Wavedrum Mini class, not a pro instrument .I really need to learn how to program it before I can comment further.
if the pads were quick enough, sure. side by side testing against NI keyboard and AKAI MPC, unless only I am holding the one bad one, reveals that the Yamaha has substantially less ability to capture quick light attacks and figures. Wish it worked better, layout aspect is great, pads feel nice.
Now why couldn't yamaha make it look decent and not like an old landline voice recorder? That thing is so uninspiring looking. I feel like I need to check it to see who called while I was out.
Key question - dynamic control-- AKA Does the sound get louder the harder you hit it? Or is it just one sound when you hit the button. Yamaha pianos mimic the acoustic mechanical action on their digital piano's so one would think the same could be done w/ drums???
They need to do this as a pure midi controller, for those who only want to drive pc/laptop sounds. Cheaper, and the s/w side of it is infinitely more flexible.
I sort of feel badly for ALTERNATE MODE. TrapKat simulacrums are now plentiful in curtailed form and their finger drum was unique and now being dropped. They even had a PANKAT. Their MALLETKAT I guess is still somewhat in demand. I remember Finger Drums by PAIA back in the 70s. I build my own hand percussion setups for guests to enjoy on bookings (I'm a special events pianist) But I'm guilty. I ripped off KAT's FATKAT years ago but with spring tension adjustment capability.
Cool, but this is clearly going to be superceded every 18 months by an incrementally better product that should have been the original product. Sort of the iPhone product cycle revenue method. Or the boss method of making 8 different looper pedals, each missing a different useful feature. That's the problem with hardware, they create one limiting aspect in each product that makes you dissatisfied enough to buy the next version. That being said my brain does like lights and buttons, so I still might buy this.
How about a drum machine like this aimed at people who produce rock music? Seems these machines are always aimed at people who produce rap, techno, EDM, (fill in the blank). Have auto fills for people who aren't as skilled creating beats. Have rock templates with good samples for that style of music.
It's not a drum machine so you cannot programme patterns into it. It's designed for live playing and internally it only records audio to USB, not midi data. However your DAW is more than capable of doing the rest. It does have repeating functionality so you can generate repeated sound triggers at various note lengths e.g.. 1/16, 1/8, triplets and so on. You can also set each pad to either latch on, toggle or single trigger depending on how you set up the note on, note off etc.
NO it's like a drum kit, guitar or pair of bongos .. YOU play it 'live' .. it does have USB midi though so you can quantise your playing in another sequencer (mpc sp-404mkii, machine or a DAW)
There's a huge problem with this unit that completely excludes it from performance play: unlike all the other drums, the snare and kick are only one pad, so fast rolls on them are incredibly unreliable as they don't register a press unless you've completely lifted your other finger off the pad. A super frustrating flaw that absolutely cripples the performance and can make the experience feel unreliable and terrible. I'm thinking of buying a 2nd and having them side by side just to fix this issue.
Seemingly doesn't understand the biggest problems drummers face with 4x4 pads. We need more pads for more sounds. Your excuse against it was extremely weak. This looks cool but I fear the muscle memory is going to be a disaster and I have serious concern on pulling off tom rolls to the smaller buttons. Why are the two buttons so large? I think this caters to an extremely casual audience, which hey, great, but misses the mark in so many ways for advanced players who literally use a drumpad as a primary instrument. I play my akai mpd218 more than I play my vdrums. This audience is small and sadly considerably underserviced. To see this much effort go into a product and feel unable to or even want to use it is just... sad. The playing on display here is far less complex then things get. If you simply made an akai style pad with a 5x5 grid, I'd have bought it today. If you had a unit capable of running superior drummer or Steven slate, you'd have even more.
I get their idea. The long buttons mimic the spacebar on the laptop keyboard - you press it with your thumb, regardless where. The idea of Yamaha is to look less at the pads. Which is fine, especially with sensitive pads, but still - most people myself included wont like it. Time will tell how many will use it for real.
I think it's designed for people who can't practice drums in their apartment. You can also take it with you and jam with a friend who has a portable keyboard like a Yamaha Reface or something. Like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zSisrqvpy0o.html
80's level tech dressed up like it's something new 😏 very sad. No round robin samples just machine gun snares 👎 on the other hand I'm thinking of getting an MPC One+ from Anderton's... now that's a device that isn't 40 year old tech pretending to be new.
yes it does appear to be 1 sample per pad, though yamaha do have the technology in for instance my Yamaha dtx multi 12 to have 4 sounds layer per pad. so this does lead the FGDP-50 to sound drum machine like BUT ... you do have 26 pads (fgdp50) so you can assign multiple snares on several pads or 3 different hi hats to break up the "machine gun" ness EDM and electronic kits do sound better and the percussion kits sound pretty decent.
@@endoflevelboss there is a humanize function for each pad from the manual: Effect of hitting the same Pad repeatedly Item (Display)DescriptionSetting RangeHumanizeWhen this is turned on (1-4), a natural variation is applied so that the Voice is not too uniform when the same Pad is hit repeatedly. The effect becomes greater as the value increases.Off, 1-4
is this humanize option in all the preset kit's we heard in the tech demos? .. or was it added after the product fell into demo finger drummers hands for videos... not idea.. once punters get a hold of the unit's we will hear what it does and how good it works.
