Customer Reviews

M-Audio Trigger Finger Drum Pad Control Surface

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Unlike the first reviewer my experience with Trigger Finer has been a good one. At first it took me awhile to figure out how to get the device to control the drums in Impulse (Ableton Live) once I realized that each pad had to be set in order to have each tone mapped it was a breeeze. I suspect that maybe the first reviewer as well as any midi newbie might have difficulty in that respects since it is not plug in play as M Audio states....it is program and play, however once you get it programmed correctly it is effortless. The htinkg is it is soo expandable and programmable it may be to its own detriment especaiily for peolle who are not fimiliar with mapping out midi controllers.

Tried this after using (and returning) an Akai MPD16, which looks pretty similar - but this feels better, responds better, has more features and is easier to use. And unlike the previous reviewer, I didn't have any problems whatsoever with hooking it up: I just plugged in the USB cable, it worked, no drivers needed, end of story. Great with Ableton Live, and just amazing when hooked up to percussion instruments like StormDrum. Highly recommended.

I bought this product because I wanted to experiment a drum-playing gesture in computer-music making.

But, if used as it was a percussion, it suffers of unreliability: if you don't hit the pads perfectly at the center, they don't respond reliably to your gesture, since they are not too sensible, you have to hit them quite hard, if you are thinking at a drum, at least for me.

Anyway, I realized that the pads can be used for purposes other than drum-like playing. In fact they act as a key of a piano-like keyboard, i.e. they send note-on message when pressed and note-off when released (not immediately after the note-on like most other drum pads). Also each pad can be used as a different pressure controller, with independent tracking, by assigning a different controller to each pad. This is like having actual polyphonic aftertouch, a feature which is missing to most of keyboard controllers. This permits you a non-conventional gesture that allows unusual and powerful musical approaches.

The tracking quality of the four vertical sliders are very good, the best I have found in a control surface so far.

The quality of the eight knobs is also good even if not at the level of the sliders.

Summing up, it is a very good product, I recommend it.

One guy gave this product a 2 star and mentioned that it should come with pre programmed sounds. ITS A MIDI CONTROLLER!!!!!! SOUNDS COME FROM YOUR COMPUTER NOT THE DEVICE.

Another guy says that this is a horrible device and gave it 1 star b/c he can't get it to work with Reason 3. The problem is that in the newest update of Reason 4 the trigger finger is already listed in the presets. But in older versions you have to set it up manually. When you set it up manually in an older version of Reason you have to list it as a "Keyboard Control Surface" not just "Control Surface". DO THAT AND IT WILL WORK. I GUARANTEE IT. This issue is not a trigger finger falut.

I give this product 4 stars. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is b/c enigma (included editing software) could be a bit easier to use. The whole self programming midi thing is a bit confusing for most people. If you are really good with Midi you shouldn't have a problem but I find Midi as a whole a bit confusing. Just stick with Enigma's presets and you should be good. Most of everything you would use it for is preset. (Reason, iDrum, ect.)

I recommend this product.

I just got this today and it was really hard to figure out how to make it work in reason so I'm posting what worked for me here.

To get trigger finger working in reason set the global midi channel to 1. To do this press 'save & exit' and 'exit' at the same time to enter edit mode. Use the channel slider to select channel 1.

Press 'save & exit' and then hit a pad to save it. Then to assign the right notes to the pads enter edit mode again and hit pad 1 and use the 'note' knob to set it to C1. (not C.1 which is c#1). That sets it to your bass drum. Press 'save&exit' again and press pad 1 to save your setting.

Before you define the rest of the notes, get it working with reason. Go into Preferences->Control Surfaces and add the trigger finger as if it were a regular keyboard. Set it to be the master keyboard.

At this point DO NOT press anything on the TF because it may cause reason to freeze.

Instead close reason and restart it and make a redrum and set the midi keyboard to point to it and you should be able to make the kick play using pad 1. If it works, go through the rest of the pads and set them to the right notes (c1, c.1, d1, d.1, ...) and save your settings and you should be ready to go.

It is also possible to set it up not on channel 1 via the Reason midi bus at the top of the rack. That doesn't work very well because then it seems you can't record midi events into the sequencer.

Since I've only had this working a few hours I can't say how reliable it is but it does play pretty well and I suppose I'm glad I got it even though the setup was very nonintuitive and not very well documented.

If this is being sold by Streamline Audio, be aware that this in not the Trigger Finger at all! It is just the metal mounting bracket!!!

One review gave it 1 star and said it wasn't XP compatible ha ha. A few others griped about it not working well with Reason 3, that's an oooooold version of Reason (5 just came out) I run 4 and it works great with it. Setting it up wasn't exactly plug and play, for Reason any ways. But it wasn't hard. The unit feels well built, it's plastic but it's pretty hefty and doesn't move around when I'm banging on the pads. I like how the pads feel, but I gave it 4 instead of 5 because it doesn't have transport controls. Which would be play/record/bar forward/bar back for those wondering. I run Windows 7 64 bit and OSX, it works perfect in both, drivers are on M-Audio's web site.

using PC SP3,ableton 7,reason 4,komplete 6 with battery 3 etc.

enigma is a joke for programming assigning drums, its like EVERYTHING ELSE M-AUDIO does for software,half a$$d support,and NO Detailed Instructions...so be prepared to sign up for COUNTLESS forums on how to use it...i have to put the same question on diff forums to get a straight answer (ableton,propellerheads-reason,m-audio) the best one is Etechdocs...they actually have a nice tutorial,programs only Sometimes recognize it,im always reloading the drivers.....dont buy it, in fact, Boycott m-audio, im never buying any of their trash again!!

Akai mpd24, or mpd32 is a better buy

NOT FOR XP, SONAR, AND DIFFICULT TO FIGURE OUT IF NEVER USED BEFORE. NEED BETTER INSTRUCTION MANUAL. DO NOT KNOW HOW TO OPERATE!SOFTWARE IS CHEESY AND NOT COMPATABLE/SOMETIMIE...

I've had the trigger finger for about three weeks now. The first problem that I had was mapping controls. Even though the Trigger Finger comes with M-Audio's Enigma, the program sometimes works. For what ever reason Enigma will recognize Trigger Finger intermitly. I still have trouble using it in Reason and Fl Studio 8. The Trigger Finger has more of a headache than its worth. Unless you plan on using it with ableton or protools don't buy this.