I got a PadKontrol. Hooked it up to my synth on the drum patches and trying to see if I have any talent to do some real time drumming. I guess I can quantize... getting better though!

I've been working on playing the drums on the PadKontrol. I'm good enough to keep a basic pattern going, it's adding fills and all is where my timing and rhythm seem to get a little off. Of course I can play and record a drum part in sections or midi and quantize, but I'd like to get to the point of being able to play the drum parts of a song all the way through, as close to "live" as possible. Not necessary, but I'd like to develop the skill. One thing I have found that is interesting is playing melodies controlled by the pad rather than playing on the keyboard itself. The sounds are the same, but having the notes laid out on the pads lends itself to a different style of playing. Also, with being able to assign each pad to the note I want to sound, more intricate melodies could be played with less of a chance of hitting a bad note, and notes spaced further apart on the keyboard scale could be assigned next to each other on the padkontrol. I haven't as yet explored all the midi possibilities of it yet (transport control, triggering samples, etc.) I'm concentrating on drumming thus far.