Has anyone tried connecting a drum pad to the OP-Z to do some pad/finger-drumming playing?

OP-Z
#1

Not an OP-Z owner yet but seriously considering for a DAW-less, portable and fun approach to jamming.

One thing I’m looking to have in there is the ability to do finger-drumming/pad-playing MPC-style jamming.

As far as I’ve seen it’s possible to hook a MIDI drum pad via USB with the OP-Z being the USB host (or even with the Oplab module via MIDI I guess) and with the new sampling firmware trigger samples, drums, etc.

… but has anyone actually try or can try and report back?

UPDATE: Seems like it’s possible, that’s great news, thanks guys for sharing! Follow-up question: Anyone with a Maschine Mikro MK3 around that can report how it works with the OP-Z?

#2

I could try later with my old korg padkontrol.
If it’s not working with usb it will work for sure with din midi.
On this unit you can select midi note and channel per pad so it should be good to jam on all the op-z tracks

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#3

This is also on my mind to try out. I’m a drummer, and that would be awesome if this would work.

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#4

It works with a midi Boss drumpad (mpd 4)

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#5

Works with a Roli Light Block

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#6

Awesome, thanks for sharing guys, seems it’s possible then!

Follow-up question: Anyone with a Maschine Mikro MK3 around that can report it works with the OP-Z?

#7

Cool! What is the best way to sync them up? Will the block work via usb cables, or just Bluetooth via phone app?

#8

A regular USB-C to USB-C cable. It just works. You may have to configure midi settings to get what you want, but they see each other just fine.

#9

My usb block stays in Bluetooth pairing on activation, and doesn’t just settle in the drum mode if connected with usb c to c cable. Odd.

#10

Hi. I tried to connect the KMI Qunexus and K-Board (not at the same time) but they didnt switch on.
Dont know what i do wrong, since Cuckoo clearly gets it to work instantly in his video.

(Edit. I first mistakenly typed Quneo)

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#11

i know the quneo has a low power mode that draws less current
did u try that?

#12

Hi. Thanks for the tip. I cant find anything about that in the manual though, so wouldnt know how.
They both do work with my ipad. Maybe its the adapter i use (usbA to usbmicro). But have to go buy a usbC to usbA adapter to check that.

Edit. Oshit, i meant Qunexus not Quneo. Sorry!!

#13

Hi, could you share your settings ? I can’t figure out how to properly connect it to the Z. I am looking at connecting it to the instrument tracks, with pressure affecting the volume of the notes. All I can achieve is the lightpad to affect random notes accross all instrument tracks

#14

Yes Quneo works a charm.
Bonus is that you can set each pad corner to a different sound, and set different channels per pad ; with the editor I managed to set 16 bass drum sound for the first column, 16 snares, etc etc, and you can create presets and activate them on the fly.
You have to set it to low power mode by holding the four center pads while switching the OP-Z. Not an easy on to do :slight_smile:

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#15

Yes, I’ve tried:

  • Arturia Beatstep: Works perfectly! Use MIDI Control Center to create a template matching the MIDI config in the manual. You can set the knobs for relative movement and all, pretty sweet! (I’ll upload my config here when I have access to it)

  • M-Audio Trigger Finger (old model): I got it to partially work, but I need to edit the configs to match the OP-Z. The problem is I need to use Enigma, which is a very old software with horrible UI that barely runs on macOS Mojave. Since this is a fine controller, I’ll set up some time to smoke up and make it easier deal with the frustration of creating a proper setup for it. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t work – it’s just a matter of patience.

  • MIDI Fighter classic: It works, but you can’t change MIDI channels on the fly without physically adding two extra buttons to the board (I know, right?). Also, you can’t configure MIDI notes for each button without creating a custom firmware. This isn’t very hard, but I can’t understand why they don’t provide a decent editor for this. And this is still the case for later models! Go figure. Again, I’ll upload my custom firmware here whenever I have the time to do it (at least it’s open source).

I also have a Maschine MKI (useless, only works plugged into a computer) and Ableton Push 2. I don’t see the point of using Push though.

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#16

Yeah, don’t see the point of using Push either, but just to report it works (Push2 to be more specific). Although I haven’t spend a lot of time tinkering because… well, I don’t see the point of using it! :smiley:

To answer my own question now that I finally got the Zed, I haven’t being able to make the Maschine Mikro Mk3 works, not even getting into MIDI mode, so there’s that.

I might search for something more portable and lightweight anyways (Korg Nano?) as future OP-Z companion.

#17

I tried with the KMI Boppad and had unsatisfactory results on the first go. I think this is on me, since I didn’t take the time to dial in what velocity/pressure/radius/etc link to via MIDI CC. But there is definitely potential there.

#18

What is the cheapest 4-6 pad that can be used with the OP-Z? I have a Novation circuit but that is way to large to carry around with the OP-Z.

Bigger than I want but this might do the trick:

anyone tried one of these cheap midi pad controllers?

#19

Korg Padkontrol is freaking awesome with the OP-Z

I have it set up the following way.

First row: kick track in different octaves
Second row: snare track different octaves
Third row: HH track in different octaves
Forth row : perch track in different octaves.

So far everything is like on any pad controller.
But in comes the XY pad. You set the XY to affect the pads on the Padkontrol, this means that the Padkontrol is functioning on all 4 tracks simultaneously. I usually put CC 1 and 2 (pitch and reverse) on it. The results are really cool.
Here’s a video of it in use.

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#20

Qunexus has some really squishy pads.