Akai MPD18 Pad Controller

Last week DJ A.D.D. was kind enough to let me borrow his Akai MPD18 for an extended trial as he has recently gotten a much snazzier model. For my purposes though, the MPD18 fits in perfect with my DJ rig. It integrates into Virtual DJ and is great for initiating sampler/sound clips. As a bonus I can also use it to drive VST instruments (or virtual instruments). Even better, I managed to get a MIDI to USB cable. This lets me hook up my old Boss DR202 and also trigger MIDI effect in VirtualDJ. All in all, I have more buttons than I should ever need and a quickly growing DJ rig. I ran through a practice mix session and while there is going to be some additional learning time needed, I was able to integrate all of the equipment into my mixing style with ease. I spent a good deal of time working up a new MIDI map. I also finally mapped in a crossfader EQ mixer setup that will work nicely when mixing track to track. Again, I tried it out for the first time last night and the test run went excellent. You should hear some of these new tricks by this week’s Pirate Radio (still on for 2/16/10).