Akai MPD218 Review & Tutorial

Looking for a versatile and budget-friendly pad controller? In this video, I review and walk you through the Akai MPD218, a compact yet powerful MIDI pad controller perfect for music producers. I cover its key features, including velocity-sensitive pads, assignable knobs, note repeat, and how to fix a common MIDI channel issue that can prevent it from working with certain virtual instruments. Whether you're using it for drums, synths, or custom mappings, this guide will help you get the most out of your MPD218. Watch now to optimize your setup and improve your music production workflow!

#mpd218 #akai #review #musicproducer #soundengineer #recording #mixing #music #musica #musician #studio

[irax]

Hi - Do you know if the pads (and functionality) in their MPK Mini Plus are the same here in this MPD218? I've seen enough "real MPC drum pads" written. And do you experience double triggers often?

[Panæra]

Doesn't matter which hardware, what sort of instrument, if you have an issue, YouTube vids are usually not helpful. Full of bluster, wasting your time, annoying. UNTIL you find the unassuming, pleasant video of the middle aged Canadian, that really helps you. EVERY TIME! 😀

[JudgeFish]

You don't need to set the midi channel on the individual pads, Use the auto-populate tool for global adjustments.

[fahadahaf]

If the tempo issue is anything like the MPK Mini 3, try turning on clock sync in your DAW and set your MIDI out to the the pad/keyboard. After that, your pad/keyboard should use the tempo set in the DAW

[JeffyG]

I just bought a used MPD218 for $50. It’s perfect for iOS / iPad in its simplicity and size. I’m so impressed, I’m toying around with it in Logic and Ableton. You missed the mass change feature in the Editor software to change the midi channel for all pads and/or encoders in one click. I’m using different midi channel assignments in different programs (pads and encoders) for specific plugins, effects and virtual instruments. Owners are dumping these for more recent devices, but I think it’s very underrated for what it is. 16 pads X 3 banks = 48 pad assignments AND 6 encoders X 3 banks = 18 encoder assignments. The combined 48 pads and 18 encoder can have 16 different programs = 768 pad assignments and 288 encoder assignments. That’s crazy flexible!

[ShaniAce]

1:19 Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for! Someone playing drums on the pads and showing off their velocity sensitivity! Finally someone who gets it right.

[kbeatz]

Also what Akai fails to tell you is if you want the rotary knobs to control the Q-links inside the software you need to make sure that [Control] and [Track] buttons are lit under Preferences> MIDI/Sync for your respective midi controller (i.e MPK Mini or MPD218). If [Control] button is not lit (or selected) then the rotary knobs on your controller will not map to the Q-links. I now can control up to 12 Q-links depending on which Q-Link Mode I'm on in MPC Beats software. I plan to do my own video on this process cause there's more to it. Oh and this has nothing to do with that Midi Learn function which ain't worth a crap!

[brianrobison]

Thanks for the clear overview. And thanks especially for the MIDI channel tip!

[Sick_Dude-lw]

That smile at the end after all these years ..channel 1, 😅😊

[kushsakhu]

Thank you for your insightful review. 👍🏾

[thedave]

In the past, MIDI Channel 10 was always reserved for the Drum track. I'm sure that's no longer the case, but I'm sure that's where that decision originated from.

[RocknRollkat]

Excellent presentation and very helpful, thank you !

[forsale]

Thank you so much for the set to channel 1 Gem.

[garycrouse]

really excellent tutorial .thanks alot roman. Just borrowed from local library ( nice)

[arcadeapocalypsemusic]

Have a question for you. I have 3 hardware drum machines I use & what I normally do is record & trim individual one shots from them into my DAW & then arrange patterns within the DAW's sequencer. I'm hoping for a new, more hands on workflow where I could connect all drum machines to one device with drum pads & set let's say map a kick from 1 machine onto 1 pad, map a snare from another machine onto another pad, etc. & then play live patterns on the device's pads into my DAW. Would that be possible with this? Or would I still have to record/trim each hit seperately from the drum machines into my DAW, then map the recorded hits onto the pads on this to play live patterns? The latter would be alot more time consuming

[bhrisphoria]

2:16 sounds like the intro to Fireworks by Animal Collective

[matstjean]

Ohhh! that controller who double trigs your finger drumming!

[ssbfan]

I just want something that I can plug into my loop pedal via 1/4" audio jack to loop behind my guitar, can I do this? I don't even care about all the fancy PC stuff I just want easy drum beats to loop when playing through my amp

[chrisbryson]

Hello, not sure if this is a dumb question but can I upload any sound into the pads? Like if I just want to add some ambient noise or something prerecorded into my band’s set, would this machine be ideal?

[sbeuvefreefr]

Hi,
As you do, I use the MDP218 to drive many kind of device, softawre.
each time I need to remap pads the way I choose.
i.e. for finger drumming pattern, I want 2 pads for the same Kick
To launch sample, I need 1 note for each pad, etc.
my question is :
Must I adapt Midi mapping in MDP218 with a saved pattern for each device, or must I change Midi mapping in each device with every time the same config in the MPD218.
sorry for this pretty confusing question