Hey there guys, I am interested in learning finger drumming but I have no experience in a music instrument before. What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning this instrument and which midi insutrment should I get. Moreover, where should I learn finger drumming

I'm ready to get into finger drumming seriously and want to get a 4x4 pad setup, and the Maschine Mikro MK3 seems to be a favorite (and I'm aware of the NI financial drama, but my assumption is that since it's a class-compliant MIDI device, it should just keep working even if they go away).

My one problem is that it's wide and it needs to fit on my desk (or else it won't get the love it deserves). Since I probably don't care about anything left of the actual pads, could I rotate the whole device 90º to the right so that I'm basically playing from what was intended to be the right side of it? The pads seem to be squares. The layout is a square. Is there anything about the pads that wouldn't work well rotated?

Thanks all!

Hi everyone,

For the past 9 months or so I've been fingerdrumming on a Xjam using the QFG layout and also following along his course and I am really loving it. This has sparked the question for me: would it be worth it to upgrade to a Maschine Mikro MK3?

Mostly based on two things:

1. Pad sensitivity: from what I understand, the maschine is the way to go in terms of pad sensitivity. While I do like the Xjam, I do sometimes feel like the sensitivity could be a bit better. I have already played with the sensitivity using the editor, but still, this always feels like it's either too much or too little. Especially since I am at the point of starting the Moeller technique course and it explicitly mentions good pad senstivity is a must

2. the size: whilst I absolutely love the form factor of the Xjam, I am a bit worried about it in terms of size. I have noticed that since playing, I feel like my hands have permanent very light sore feeling or something? Kind of hard to explain. I try to be aware of just letting the weight of my hand do the most of the work, but I do still catch myself sometimes hitting a bit harder. I do however mostly think it's just that I have relatively big hands/long fingers, so my hands cramp up a bit when playing on the small Xjam. I'm just worried if this is really related and what this might mean long-term.

Anyone else who made the switch from Xjam to Maschine Mikro MK3 who want to share their experiences? Or anyone else know the feeling I am talking about related to the size of their pad?