Don't believe the hype, all it takes is a good thinker. People go through little phases were they get in slimps and think the reason why there not making good stuff is because they need some more equipment. Yeah I do have a 64 key midi synth, but I went out and bought a mpd16 and hardly used it. Even with the midi controller I still use my Keyboard keys to program sometimes. I have a sony viao labtop, and my keys spring back up after I press so they kinds feel like pads, but works great as well, and your keyboard keys will give you 2 octives to play with. I would get a midi keyboard and forget about the mpd16 or a trigger finger. Chances are if your not a drummer, your only gonna find single instrument use effective for it, meaning you lay all your kicks, hats, snares,and crashes separate. If you want to go the drummer route, you'll have to train your hands to do it with the absense of your feet, which will probably prove itself boring, atleast to me. I'm not gonna to learn how to play a 16 pad controller, you might as well learn the keyboard, or how to use a real drumset. Also, 9 times out of 10, when you see somebody programing on a mpc, they're hitting 1 pad at a time. The 16 pad thing is alot of hype. Classic put it perspective one time, but I don't think no body really caught on. In reference to using those pads, it's not about the pads, it's about the feeling. When you program music on a computer it is visual and audio. For beginners this can pose a serious problem and cause you to waste money thinking you need to buy more sounds, controllers, hardware, whatever, just because you can't really place your fingers on the things that are going wrong. It's hard to separate the visual from the audio on the computer, because there is so much visual stuff you have to navigate threw on it. On the hand, you have the mpc, with this tiny little lcd and black letter and numbers you always need to get close to to see. When your making beats on this, your using your ears mostly, and things sound good because they sound good, not because you know they are visually in the correct quantized space. It's a different type of experience in making music, and that is what needs to be takin from the mpc not the pads. If you really gonna be into producing, start getting the things that are going to help you become fully functional like a condenser mic, 48v pre-amp, hardware compressor. Get the stuff that will enable you to produce a complete product if feel what I'm sayin. I sold my mpd, and bought those three things I just mentioned to you, and the only thing I miss is the idea of having pads. The pads are hype homie. Sorry for the ear full, just thought I'd put you up on some game.
