Yamaha finger drum ? uh?

Pxlhg

@NeuM said:

@Pxlhg said:
It's looks super interesting but I wonder how long it would take for a normal person to get as good as the demo dude (Tom Kroker). He says it's easy to learn but that's not to be trusted is it as he works for Yamaha. Anyway, I will take a long hard think over if it might be worth saving up to. Beside the guitars I don't have any hardware (I have usb keyboards) so it could be fun. Hmm...

Everything about the development of the FGDP

Have you ever seen "Dr. Mix" on YouTube 'play the drums' on a keyboard? One can get very good playing this way with a bit of practice. I'm sure there are some subtleties which would be lost with any purely finger based input method, but you can get pretty close.

I have not. There are always talent that can do anything with anything, I remember this keyboardist that could make it sound exactly like he was playing a guitar. It was 30+ years ago I came across that man and I can't for my world remember he's name, he was a Reason user and that's how I got to know about him. I have a keyboard with some pads but they are not good as they are to hard (insensitive).

Edit: Isn't this the Cubasis demo dude!?

fisherro

@HotStrange said:

@fisherro said:

@HotStrange said:
I’m actually getting more and more interested in this. Right now I’m more considering the DD 75 to get the actual feel of playing drums more. I don’t have space for a full set but that would work. And I’m not sure I want to give that up. But man does this look cool (to me) and audio and midi over usb is cool.

This could either be a really big deal or not a deal at all. I’m hoping the former.

For what it’s worth, I’ve got the DD-65 (the predecessor to the DD-75), and I’ve been very happy with it. I find it a great compromise between finger drumming vs a larger kit. The only issue (it sends the MIDI for closed hat even when the pedal is down) has, I’m told, been fixed in the 75.

Thanks. I’m a drummer first and living in a tiny home with neighbors I can’t fit or reasonably use a real kit or full size electric kit so that’s probably the best I can do. Gonna try and snag one in the next month or so I think. How’s it feel playing wise?

I’m not a drummer, so I’m not good enough that it any shortcomings it has feel-wise impacts my playing. 😄 I’ve never used a practice pad, but I’m guessing the feel is similar to that.

fisherro

@raabje said:

@HotStrange said:

Thanks. I’m a drummer first and living in a tiny home with neighbors I can’t fit or reasonably use a real kit or full size electric kit so that’s probably the best I can do. Gonna try and snag one in the next month or so I think. How’s it feel playing wise?

From my understanding, when you drum silent with sticks, there is still a lot of noise in your house, that neighbours can hear of feel. So a kit that can be played with hands would be better.

With my DD-65, there certainly is noise, but I wouldn’t call it a lot. My neighbors certainly can’t hear it. I suppose maybe if you were heavy-handed enough it could be pretty annoying in the house, but I still doubt the neighbors would hear it.

Now, it might be a different story with a more sophisticated electronic set.

And speaking of hands, the DD-65 can also be played with hands bongo-style.

HotStrange

@fisherro said:

@raabje said:

@HotStrange said:

Thanks. I’m a drummer first and living in a tiny home with neighbors I can’t fit or reasonably use a real kit or full size electric kit so that’s probably the best I can do. Gonna try and snag one in the next month or so I think. How’s it feel playing wise?

From my understanding, when you drum silent with sticks, there is still a lot of noise in your house, that neighbours can hear of feel. So a kit that can be played with hands would be better.

With my DD-65, there certainly is noise, but I wouldn’t call it a lot. My neighbors certainly can’t hear it. I suppose maybe if you were heavy-handed enough it could be pretty annoying in the house, but I still doubt the neighbors would hear it.

Now, it might be a different story with a more sophisticated electronic set.

And speaking of hands, the DD-65 can also be played with hands bongo-style.

I think my cats will be the ones that get the most annoyed 😂

I’ll probably get a full size kit whenever we upgrade to a bigger house in a year or so, but I think the DD75 will be fun for now. I have a friend that has one and the couple of times I’ve played it, it was a ton of fun. But that was long ago.

raabje

Thomann has the 30 on stock. I almost ordered it. But then I thought, I have this Korg Nanokey studio, with pads as a keyboard.

I can set the velocity of the keybed to mid heavy, or heavy, so they have more dynamic range for finger drumming. They have almost no travel, so this work better than normal piano keys. The drum pad section of the Nanokey studio give only 8 sounds, the normal keys give me 25 sounds.

I use Beathawk's acoustic drum for drums. I need to transpose the incoming midi a bit, first drum sound is on the A note, that must be the first key pad on the left, then I have more range. I have Audiolayer too, with a some nice drum kits.

So this way I can work in the box with Loopy Pro or AUM. I will try this setup first, to see if I like finger drumming.

Bruques

Tons of people I'd be interested to see play it, but none more so than David Fingers Haynes

jollyDodger

@Bruques said:
Tons of people I'd be interested to see play it, but none more so than David Fingers Haynes

my 2c

He's using a traditional 1=kick / 2=snare / 3&4=HH so it's laid out horizontialy. HipHop style. Mainly due I guess that mpc drumkits are allways laid out like that from the manufactuare or 3rd party packs, and re-doing them everytime you want to swap a kit is a pain. You can see he has rotated the mpc slightly so its half vertical/horizontal.

Keyboards imo suck for doing 16th / fast rolls, pads have a bounce to them and are fairly hard hitting.. so this is achievable.

The main differences with the Yamaha is that it's vertical layout with the kick at the bottom, and the pads are mirror'd so you have different(or the same) kicks on each side at the bottom, more like a traditional drum kit. Lots of people on YouTube layout thier pads like this. With smaller pads like a launchpad you need to mirror all your pads so you can do 16th (mostly for HH's etc). With larger pads, the size is good enough just to use two fingers on the same pad, but some people still mirror the pads anyway. You can see on the Yamaha, the pads that you need to hit faster are larger so you can do this.

Personally, I take a standard mpc kit layout, have big pads and just physically rotate the box anti-clockwise 90deg, so i can keep the standard kit layout of manfactures, but also have a vertical layout with the kick on the bottom right, and snare & HH above it. You dont have to do it physically (I was just making a point). One way to do this on most groouveBoxes is to create a midi-loop (midi-out to midi in) and then have a preset kit one uses for finger drumming, that then drives all your kits with sounds in them maped the standard way. The midiHub is a great way of doing this hassle free. Or if your on an IPAD, just map the pads that way.

p.s. fingerDrumming is hard - especially if you have not played an percussion based instrument before (I include keys as a percussion instrument) - we are talking many years of 10min a day for most mortals.

how do you set up your pads?

spiteface

I received the FGDP-50 yesterday and haven’t really put it down since. So much fun to play. I haven’t done much besides play along with songs/riffler/piano motifs using the speaker and headphones but seems like you can really customize a lot. I’m a guitar player with no keyboard or finger drum skills besides dinking around a little with my Arturia minilab. I can already play it well enough to have fun playing along with other stuff (with very simple fills, haha). Love the real drum kits. To me they are miles better than anything I have on my iPad (I have everything, I think).

Really liked this video of a guy using the 30 (and loopy pro!):

HotStrange

@spiteface said:
I received the FGDP-50 yesterday and haven’t really put it down since. So much fun to play. I haven’t done much besides play along with songs/riffler/piano motifs using the speaker and headphones but seems like you can really customize a lot. I’m a guitar player with no keyboard or finger drum skills besides dinking around a little with my Arturia minilab. I can already play it well enough to have fun playing along with other stuff (with very simple fills, haha). Love the real drum kits. To me they are miles better than anything I have on my iPad (I have everything, I think).

Really liked this video of a guy using the 30 (and loopy pro!):

How are the built in sounds? Also have you tried using it as a midi controller yet?

I’m still interested in this but not 100% sold just yet.

spiteface

@HotStrange said:

@spiteface said:
I received the FGDP-50 yesterday and haven’t really put it down since. So much fun to play. I haven’t done much besides play along with songs/riffler/piano motifs using the speaker and headphones but seems like you can really customize a lot. I’m a guitar player with no keyboard or finger drum skills besides dinking around a little with my Arturia minilab. I can already play it well enough to have fun playing along with other stuff (with very simple fills, haha). Love the real drum kits. To me they are miles better than anything I have on my iPad (I have everything, I think).

How are the built in sounds? Also have you tried using it as a midi controller yet?

I’m still interested in this but not 100% sold just yet.

To my ears the acoustic kits are fantastic (qualifier - I am a guitar player and not a drummer). I have seen comments that say some of the sounds are dated/cheesy. There seems to be way more hits than misses on the preset kits but I’m a 90s rock guy so a bit dated myself... The guy who did the video I posted has a video running through all the presets.

I anticipated using it as a midi controller but I like the internal sounds so much I don’t have any desire to really do that at the moment. So far, the real appeal to me is using this as a self contained instrument - just pick it up and start playing. I’ve grown tired of running cables, setting up midi, etc, etc… I’m sure I’ll get around to running the usb to my devices eventually though.

HotStrange

@spiteface said:

@HotStrange said:

@spiteface said:
I received the FGDP-50 yesterday and haven’t really put it down since. So much fun to play. I haven’t done much besides play along with songs/riffler/piano motifs using the speaker and headphones but seems like you can really customize a lot. I’m a guitar player with no keyboard or finger drum skills besides dinking around a little with my Arturia minilab. I can already play it well enough to have fun playing along with other stuff (with very simple fills, haha). Love the real drum kits. To me they are miles better than anything I have on my iPad (I have everything, I think).

How are the built in sounds? Also have you tried using it as a midi controller yet?

I’m still interested in this but not 100% sold just yet.

To my ears the acoustic kits are fantastic (qualifier - I am a guitar player and not a drummer). I have seen comments that say some of the sounds are dated/cheesy. There seems to be way more hits than misses on the preset kits but I’m a 90s rock guy so a bit dated myself... The guy who did the video I posted has a video running through all the presets.

I anticipated using it as a midi controller but I like the internal sounds so much I don’t have any desire to really do that at the moment. So far, the real appeal to me is using this as a self contained instrument - just pick it up and start playing. I’ve grown tired of running cables, setting up midi, etc, etc… I’m sure I’ll get around to running the usb to my devices eventually though.

Thanks! I think I’ll be 50/50 if I get between. Half using for midi half for internal sounds. It looks sweet though. I’ll check out his channel later on tonight and have a watch.

raabje

@spiteface said:
I anticipated using it as a midi controller but I like the internal sounds so much I don’t have any desire to really do that at the moment. So far, the real appeal to me is using this as a self contained instrument - just pick it up and start playing. I’ve grown tired of running cables, setting up midi, etc, etc… I’m sure I’ll get around to running the usb to my devices eventually though.

I am wondering, does the Yamaha finger drum also work as an audio interface. This was the text I have read:

Connect the FGDP to your computer or smart device for seamless transmission and reception of MIDI and Audio Data. Unlock a world of possibilities, from triggering software sound sources to recording your performances in a DAW. Let your creativity soar as you compose your own tracks with ease.

It would be great if this device can act as a two way audio interface for Ipad.

HarlekinX

I am wondering, does the Yamaha finger drum also work as an audio interface. This was the text I have read:

Connect the FGDP to your computer or smart device for seamless transmission and reception of MIDI and Audio Data. Unlock a world of possibilities, from triggering software sound sources to recording your performances in a DAW. Let your creativity soar as you compose your own tracks with ease.

It would be great if this device can act as a two way audio interface for Ipad.

Yes it does. Two way. And it works great.
It appears as hardware input and output in AUM and others.
The hardware output can be used to send audio to the speaker.

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

This is not a fault of the Yamaha FGDP.

It's a disgustingly bad implementation from Apple. You can not choose your audio interface on the iPhone or iPad. The last one connected will be activated.
So if you simply use Headphones or the Speakers of your iDevice, you have no problem.
But when you already use any audio interface like a Motu M4 or a Scarlett, this great feature gets annoying. Because even when you just want to use USB MIDI, you first have to connect the Yamaha and then reconnect your real audio interface (USB MIDI will still be available)

Sometimes I hate Apple.
I hope Yamaha will bring an update to make the audio interface optional while keeping USB MIDI.
Because Apple will not fix this for at least a year until iOS 18. Probably never.

zzrwood

@HarlekinX said:

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

espiegel123

@zzrwood said:

@HarlekinX said:

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

Only Logic can do this. Apple has not made the API available to developers.

Pxlhg

@espiegel123 said:

@zzrwood said:

@HarlekinX said:

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

Only Logic can do this. Apple has not made the API available to developers.

That's poor logic from their side, I hope they plan to make it available for all devs. I'm really thinking hard on buying this finger drum, I don't have any synths or groove boxes so it could be fun.

zzrwood

@espiegel123 said:

@zzrwood said:

@HarlekinX said:

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

Only Logic can do this. Apple has not made the API available to developers.

I would have thought that might get Apple into some trouble for anticompetitive practices if they weren’t allowing companies (with products they compete with) to have access to APIs in this manner?

HarlekinX

@zzrwood said:

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

That sounds interesting.
But even when there are multiple audio interfaces selectable in Logic (only) it does not solve the problem that my main output audio interface gets lost.
My iPad is connected to my KRK monitor speakers using a Motu M4.
After connecting another audio interface capable device, the connection gets lost and the M4 is not selectable from the main output selection on the top right.

At least this gives me hope that this could be solved in iOS 18 ... in a year or so

HotStrange

@Pxlhg said:

@espiegel123 said:

@zzrwood said:

@HarlekinX said:

Buuuut ... devices that work as audio interfaces have one big drawback on iPad or iPhone
There can be only one. And the last one wins.

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

Only Logic can do this. Apple has not made the API available to developers.

That's poor logic from their side, I hope they plan to make it available for all devs. I'm really thinking hard on buying this finger drum, I don't have any synths or groove boxes so it could be fun.

I’m seriously considering it myself. I don’t have space for a drum set anymore and likely won’t for a while so this would be a nice middle ground.

zzrwood

@HarlekinX said:

@zzrwood said:

That’s not how it works in Logic - you can pick any input or output of any class-compliant audio interfaces you have connected… obviously that is only on iPad though.

That sounds interesting.
But even when there are multiple audio interfaces selectable in Logic (only) it does not solve the problem that my main output audio interface gets lost.
My iPad is connected to my KRK monitor speakers using a Motu M4.
After connecting another audio interface capable device, the connection gets lost and the M4 is not selectable from the main output selection on the top right.

At least this gives me hope that this could be solved in iOS 18 ... in a year or so

Do you have it configured within the “App Settings” in Logic, as per the screenshot below? I have an MC-101 and a Scarlett audio interface connected - unfortunately the MC-101 only identifies itself as “Audio In” or “Audio Out” - but that is just Roland… 🙄
It then appears under the main output section, as per the second screenshot.

HarlekinX

@zzrwood said:

Do you have it configured within the “App Settings” in Logic, as per the screenshot below? I have an MC-101 and a Scarlett audio interface connected - unfortunately the MC-101 only identifies itself as “Audio In” or “Audio Out” - but that is just Roland… 🙄
It then appears under the main output section, as per the second screenshot.

Even more interesting.
But does this mean I need to pay subscription fees for this to work? 🤪

And has Logic to be running/be in foreground when I connect an other audio interface?
And does it still switch to the last connected audio interface but now I can switch back without reconnecting my main interface?

zzrwood

Yes, you do have to subscribe to Logic…
Can’t answer your other questions as I only use multiple interfaces with Logic… but you can switch back and forth within Logic.
I have had a number of interfaces connected, including Korg Kross 2, Yamaha MX49, OP-Z, etc… and I can easily switch between them - in Logic…

HarlekinX

So, I invested the 5 bucks to test it, although I don't want to use Logic on iPad at the moment because it is still missing essential features.

Yes, when you go to the previously shown settings and disable "Autoselect Audio Devices", you can connect the FGDP without loosing the connection to your main Audio Interface. This is great because it means the the functionality already exists 🎉 Nice finding @zzrwood

Buuuut ...

• This only works when Logic is running. When you close it, the old behavior comes back (There can be only one and the last one wins)
• It will show both interfaces in the top right menu but you cannot switch between them there. It does not react. You can only switch inside of Logic.

So it is technically possible to have multiple interfaces but it has not yet fully implemented in the OS by Apple. And this is what i expect. API for other apps is all and good, but it has to be working without an app.

Now I cancel my 5 bucks subscription ... again ... until Logic has fricking MIDI Learn implemented.

raabje

@HarlekinX said:
Yes it does. Two way. And it works great.
It appears as hardware input and output in AUM and others.
The hardware output can be used to send audio to the speaker.

Okay, thanks! That is interesting, use it as a battery powered audio interface, for recording the internal drum sounds, and audio output (headphone). I am still thinking about buying the 30.

isal

When you use the FGDP-50 as an audio interface on iOS is the audio from the stereo input mini jack on the back of the unit also sent over USB to the DAW?

HarlekinX

Tested it. Yes.
Everything from the AUX IN on the FGDP-50 will be sent over USB and will be recorded in the DAW

raabje

@HarlekinX said:
Tested it. Yes.
Everything from the AUX IN on the FGDP-50 will be sent over USB and will be recorded in the DAW

That is great news, a battery powered audio interface as a bonus.

HotStrange

@HarlekinX said:
Tested it. Yes.
Everything from the AUX IN on the FGDP-50 will be sent over USB and will be recorded in the DAW

Wow good job Yamaha!

senhorlampada

Random thought of the day
This thread reminds me of this gentleman

isal

@HarlekinX said:
Tested it. Yes.
Everything from the AUX IN on the FGDP-50 will be sent over USB and will be recorded in the DAW

Thanks for checking. Pretty impressed that Yamaha went the extra mile to implement this. Really tempted to get one.