Yamaha finger drum ? uh?

Danny_Mammy

not quite sure what to make of this product, was it made by a Japanese dude in a sleeper cell within the depths of the Yamaha HQ building or is it any good?

very unexpected product.

Svetlovska

FGDP-50, £279, in stock now:

https://www.musicmatter.co.uk/yamaha-fgdp50

“48 built in preset kits and 1,500 voices to play on with the FGDP-50's ultra-sensitive drum pads in an optimized layout.

Ergonomically optimized to facilitate organic and vibrant finger drum performances, the Yamah FGDP50 features 18 pads, with eight additional RGB-lighted pads. The layout is designed for finger drumming, pads and sound libraries are also tailored to that purpose. For instant inspiration the FGDP-50 houses a high qulaity built-in speaker with the powering from batteries, so it can easily be operated on the move.

The FGDP-50 offers support for flash drives for playback and recording and additional features like Note Repeat that further bolster the creative capabilities of the finger drum pads.

Yamaha optimised the FGDP-50's pads to optimally support finger drumming. The layout is directed by the anatomy of the hand, so a typical three-finger performance is particularly easy to pull off: the thumb kicks the bass drum, the index finger hits the snare and the middle finger plays the hi-hat. This is merely a suggestion, of course – it is just as possible to use fingers of both hands or to come up with entirely different finger placements. The pads themselves are also designed with finger drumming in mind. They react more delicately than other drum pads to accommodate for the lesser energy usually exerted by fingers while also implementing appropriate dynamic control. For added expressive versatility, pushing down on the pads mutes the sound, recreating a cymbal choke effect. With this ergonomic setup, organic finger drum performance are a cinch with the FGDP-50.”

Danny_Mammy

i'm confused if i should be wanting this or thinking it's completely useless?

michael_m

It looks like someone cut one of those Microsoft ergonomic keyboards in half.

Bruques

@Danny_Mammy said:
i'm confused if i should be wanting this or thinking it's completely useless?

I don't imagine useless. But probably the only proof would be in having it for a few days and seeing if its all press release hype or it really feels more ergonomic than a grid, and any more sensitive than average pads.

Since finger drumming as a term first popped up in the mid 2000s, fastforwarding through Jeremy Ellis, David Fingers Haynes, Araab etc to this year and Fred Again's appearance at Glasto looks like a finger drumming equivalent to what KT Tunstall's appearance on jools Holland did for looperism, and we may be on the cusp of finger drummers in more bands, finger drumming as a pathway at music schools etc. and this might just be a finger drummer's equivalent to the SPD?

Consider me curious, albeit I mainly play melodic / harmonic rather than drums, nevertheless very interested.

Stuntman_mike

@Danny_Mammy said:
i'm confused if i should be wanting this or thinking it's completely useless?

😂

Stuntman_mike

Looks like an office peripheral

richardyot

I mostly program my own drums, and the way I learned how to do this was by finger-drumming on an AKAI MPD 226. I spent some months learning how to do a bunch of different drum beats and it really taught me the fundamentals of rhythm.

So I can see why this gadget could be worthwhile. 🥁

RXQ02165

For a long time, Japanese musical instrument manufacturers have avoided releasing avant-garde products, but I never expected YAMAHA to release this...I have no idea what they were thinking.
I personally think that releasing something a little strange can be appreciated, but the price may feel a little middling.

Maybe YAMAHA is trying to compete with Roland's AIRA Compact series with their own interpretation?
Or maybe they're trying to train finger drum performers.

rvr

Do want!

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

Looks like maybe they needed to use up some old DX-7 LED displays they found laying around the warehouse.

raabje

Pretty cool devices! Price difference between the 30 and 50 is huge. Maybe the 30 is something for me to train my finger drum skills. thanks for this tip! Thomann has them, but not at the moment.

audiblevideo

Mas video

jollyDodger

No midi I/O, no battery, no multi-velocity\round-robin. No separate headphone out with metronome… But I do like the layout, it’s similar how I map 4x4 pads.

Danny_Mammy

it has midi I/O and audio I/O via the USB C

it has velocity and polyphonic aftertouch.
and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that last 3 hours apparently.

a downer is that its sample rate is 44.1khz and not higher

HarlekinX

Ordered the FGDP-50 yesterday. Hope it arrives soon.
Rhythm and coordination training on the couch. And work for the fingers.

• Usable as MIDI controller, so you can play drums in any App/AUv3.
• It supports polyphonic and channel aftertouch
• Registers as an audio interface. So played audio can be recorded directly via USB and additionally send output from e.g. a DAW through the device speaker as background track.

HotStrange

I kinda dig this lol and it would be cool as a midi controller for the Klevgrand apps.

Danny_Mammy

I love the Japanse, they just throw something out leftfield every once in a while.

I'm super curious about how the pads feel, that's the make or break for it in the end IMO.

RXQ02165

I'm mainly a keyboardist, so I don't really have much of an interest in this instrument, but for people who use pads to play drum tracks, etc., it seems that there is demand for it for purposes other than performance.

@Danny_Mammy
thank you. The idea of ​​Japanese manufacturing stopped about 30 years ago. The reason is mainly due to the cut of unnecessary development costs due to the long recession.
Recently, it seems that young developers who are willing to take on challenges are gradually growing up, so I'm looking forward to it.

raabje

I do hope it has this choke setting to keep it realistic, a drummer has two hands and two feet, and is restricted to that. You cannot play a toms fill with 2 sticks and the hihat at the same time.

The 30 would be enough for me to keep it simple and straight forward. I have to say when I watch the guy playing, it is like blind typing on a qwerty keyboard. It looks a bit silly.

BroCoast

It looks like an answering machine.

Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX

michael_m

@BroCoast said:
It looks like an answering machine.

Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX

Although I somehow don’t think it’s the answer…

I’ll stick with my LaunchPad and my electronic kit for my drum needs.

HarlekinX

"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

HarlekinX

@BroCoast said:
It looks like an answering machine.

For me, it looks like my good old label printer 😄

Edward_Alexander

@michael_m said:
It looks like someone cut one of those Microsoft ergonomic keyboards in half.

That was my first thought when I saw the video thumbnail.

@BroCoast said:
It looks like an answering machine.

lol this too! 😂 exactly!

HotStrange

@HarlekinX said:
"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

So can you not map everything with the Launchpad from the iPad itself? I’m iOS only and have been considering one but I need to be able to map drums and samples to it using the iPad.

I’m also interested in this Yamaha one though. It seems great.

Blipsford_Baubie

@HotStrange said:

@HarlekinX said:
"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

>

So can you not map everything with the Launchpad from the iPad itself? I’m iOS only and have been considering one but I need to be able to map drums and samples to it using the iPad.

Yes, you can. 👍 LP X owner.

HarlekinX

@HotStrange said:

@HarlekinX said:
"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

So can you not map everything with the Launchpad from the iPad itself? I’m iOS only and have been considering one but I need to be able to map drums and samples to it using the iPad.

I’m also interested in this Yamaha one though. It seems great.

The Launchpad is primarily meant as a clip launcher. But it must be supported. On iPad I only know Loopy Pro that supports it perfectly. And there is Atom 2 which is interesting but not really my workflow.

Then it has a great keyboard functionality, if you like this kind of layout.

For drums/fingerdrumming/anything else you can use up to 8 custom layouts. There are some working presets but I didn't found them ideal.
This is no problem because the custom layouts are fully customizable to your liking. Which MIDI value to send and which color the button has. And all changes are stored on the device.
The editor is Web-Browser based, so you don't need to install any software.

BUT the big caveat is that it requires that the Web-Browser supports MIDI communication, and iOS/iPadOS does not support this. Neither Safari nor 3rd Party Browsers.
That means you need a computer for this.

I went all-in iPad for music creation although I also own a MacBook. Configuring the custom layout to my liking was tedious because the Launchpad has to be connected to the computer for changes. But to test my layouts, it had to be reconnected to the iPad. It works but is no fun. With the Launchpad Pro MK3 you can use a trick. Connect the USB to the computer and the MIDI output with a MIDI to USB adapter to the iPad. But this does not work with the Launchpad X or Mini. They have no extra MIDI out.

Just my personal experience. I use it way less than i thought.
But it is a great and beloved device, so your milage may vary 🙂

HotStrange

@HarlekinX said:

@HotStrange said:

@HarlekinX said:
"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

So can you not map everything with the Launchpad from the iPad itself? I’m iOS only and have been considering one but I need to be able to map drums and samples to it using the iPad.

I’m also interested in this Yamaha one though. It seems great.

The Launchpad is primarily meant as a clip launcher. But it must be supported. On iPad I only know Loopy Pro that supports it perfectly. And there is Atom 2 which is interesting but not really my workflow.

Then it has a great keyboard functionality, if you like this kind of layout.

For drums/fingerdrumming/anything else you can use up to 8 custom layouts. There are some working presets but I didn't found them ideal.
This is no problem because the custom layouts are fully customizable to your liking. Which MIDI value to send and which color the button has. And all changes are stored on the device.
The editor is Web-Browser based, so you don't need to install any software.

BUT the big caveat is that it requires that the Web-Browser supports MIDI communication, and iOS/iPadOS does not support this. Neither Safari nor 3rd Party Browsers.
That means you need a computer for this.

I went all-in iPad for music creation although I also own a MacBook. Configuring the custom layout to my liking was tedious because the Launchpad has to be connected to the computer for changes. But to test my layouts, it had to be reconnected to the iPad. It works but is no fun. With the Launchpad Pro MK3 you can use a trick. Connect the USB to the computer and the MIDI output with a MIDI to USB adapter to the iPad. But this does not work with the Launchpad X or Mini. They have no extra MIDI out.

Just my personal experience. I use it way less than i thought.
But it is a great and beloved device, so your milage may vary 🙂

Ah okay thanks. I use Loopy Pro and Launchpad quite a bit so I’ve always had my eye on them but I don’t have a desktop and haven’t for a couple years and likely won’t any time in the immediate future. I’d mostly be using it for launching clips and loops anyway, but would not be able to reconfigure myself it seems.

Appreciate the help though!

HotStrange

@Blipsford_Baubie said:

@HotStrange said:

@HarlekinX said:
"Think I’ll stick to the SPD-SX"
and
"I’ll stick with my LaunchPad"
are both valid. Because in the end it only matters to make music and have fun. How, doesn't matter.

That said. Not so long ago, i bought the SPD-SX Pro. It was a really great piece of hardware, but ... if you don't have your own house and have neighbors, it is way to loud to play. I even bought floor dampers for the additional kick pedal. But the sticks hitting the pads and the kick pedal still where to loud. So I sold it. I couldn't have fun, always thinking that my neighbors get annoyed in the evening.

And the Launchpad is a great device for fingerdrumming. Probably the most used because it works perfectly.
But ... you have to configure everything by yourself, the mappings, the position/order of the drums. Yes, this can be part of the fun and learning process. And you have to connect it to an additional device that makes the sound and configure the software to your needs. Not real problems, especially when already actively using it.

When I saw this device on Youtube days ago, i was instantly hooked. I can take it wherever I want, it even has battery. Everything is already configured. Turn it on and start. And the pad layout is designed for fingerdrumming from the ground up. The specialists at Yamaha have analyzed and tested this intensively, for sure. And it can be used as a MIDI controller.

Again, we all have our preferences. And there are no good or bad devices as long as they get used and we have fun.

>

So can you not map everything with the Launchpad from the iPad itself? I’m iOS only and have been considering one but I need to be able to map drums and samples to it using the iPad.

Yes, you can. 👍 LP X owner.

Great thanks. How are you using it?

Blipsford_Baubie

@HarlekinX said:

….BUT the big caveat is that it requires that the Web-Browser supports MIDI communication, and iOS/iPadOS does not support this. Neither Safari nor 3rd Party Browsers.
That means you need a computer for this.

I went all-in iPad for music creation although I also own a MacBook. Configuring the custom layout to my liking was tedious because the Launchpad has to be connected to the computer for changes. But to test my layouts, it had to be reconnected to the iPad. It works but is no fun. With the Launchpad Pro MK3 you can use a trick. Connect the USB to the computer and the MIDI output with a MIDI to USB adapter to the iPad. But this does not work with the Launchpad X or Mini. They have no extra MIDI out.

>

Hi. I have the Launchpad X, no computer, and I’m able to configure the custom layout using my iPad mini 2 using the MIDISynth Control app.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midisynth-control/id1366849280