Best Midi Controller For Traktor Pro 2

We pick ten of the best MIDI drum controllers on the market, with models from Native Instruments, Livid, M-Audio, Akai and more all making the cut.

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While the past few years have seen a surge in the number of hardware drum machines (the best of which are covered in this handy list), there has been an equal increase in the number of MIDI controllers designed for sketching beats on. Despite these controllers having their roots in Akai’s classic MPC, the most recent developments were arguably kickstarted when Native Instruments introduced the Maschine back in 2009. Its seamless fusion of hardware and software was the solution computer-based beatmaking had been missing, offering the experience of a hardware drum machine for a fraction of the price.

Since then, the market has grown exponentially, with Livid, Ableton, Arturia and even Akai developing their own fusions of software and hardware, and others such as Livid and Keith McMillen developing touch-sensitive devices with a more open approach, letting the user tailor the controller to their own expressive needs. In this list we run down the 10 best options, from portable, affordable options, right through to fully featured units which can take pride of place at the heart of a home studio setup.

Akai – LPD8

In order to do this, we’ll have to map some commands in the Controller Manager which is located in TRAKTOR PRO 2’s settings. Once in Controller Manager, a new MIDI mapping can be created by pressing the “Add” button, and selecting “Generic MIDI”. We can then configure our MIDI controller via the In and Out ports. Midi Fighter 64. 400SE Ean Golden Edition Mapping for Traktor Pro 2. With all VCI-100’s but those with firmware version 1.4 work the best.

One of the most compact controllers in our top ten is Akai’s diminutive LPD8, which places MPC quality drum pads and controls inside an extremely portable package. Featuring eight light-up, velocity sensitive MPC-style pads, the LPD8 lends itself to the live performer or studio musician for whom space is at a premium, allowing for some surprisingly precise and dynamic performances. In addition to the pads themselves, the LPD8 features eight Q-Link knobs that can be assigned to almost any parameter in any software you choose to work with.

The LPD8’s extreme portability and flexibility is further demonstrated by the fact that it is powered from the USB bus from your Mac or PC without the need for cumbersome power adapters or troublesome drivers. The functionality of the controller can extended by making use of the editor software that ships with the unit, allowing you to save up to four presets for instant recall. In addition, program changes can be made mid-performance by using the appropriate function buttons. With the kind of form that slips comfortably inside a backpack with a laptop and room to spare, the LPD8 is ideal for those who like to make beats on the move.
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Korg – padKontrol

The padKontrol may not be the newest controller on this list, but Korg’s products are generally marked out by their longevity. With an XY pad, roll and flam functions for precise and realistic drum variations, customisable velocity curve, the padKontrol’s 16 fully customisable pads – made possible with the editing software – is surprisingly deep for such an affordable product, which is why it’s been around for several years now.

As well as the pads and XY control, there are two assignable knobs for added convenience and flexibility, and the USB-powered unit features standard MIDI I/O and a foot pedal port for full tactile control. Visual feedback is basic, coming in the form of a simple three digit display and basic LED illumination for the pads, but at the price you can’t expect much more. Mapping the unit is a simple operation with the editing software, but if you prefer you can simply load any of the presets for all of the most popular DAWs on the market as well as the software that the unit ships with. Together with the packaged software, the padKontrol is the perfect solution for someone just getting started in the world of production.
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Akai – MPD26

If you’re looking for something a little more basic than the MPC Renaissance, but still want the form factor of the classic MPC, then the MPD26 is worth a look. It may pack less features than the Renaissance, but the MPD26 still retains the familiar look of the classic MPC workstations, including six assignable faders and knobs, and 16 velocity and pressure sensitive pads. The pads have dual functionality when used in conjunction with the time division button and the note repeat function that are also found on the classic MPC machines – something especially useful in programming hi-hat or shaker patterns quickly.

As well as being plug and play over USB, there is standard MIDI I/O so you can incorporate a keyboard controller and an additional sound module if you wish. Further control of the pads is afforded by the addition of MPC-style full level and 16 level velocity staging, allowing for stable and accurate performances, while swing control can be applied to your productions by specifying the exact degree of timing your personalised swing requires. Although the pads don’t feature the backlit technology of more expensive controllers, there is a large display that allows you to keep your eye on parameters as you work. Despite being one of the more affordable options on our list, it will appeal to seasoned MPC users as well as those that are new to beat programming.
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Keith McMillen – QuNeo 3D

With a name like the QuNeo 3D, and a form that looks like a bespoke video game controller, you’d expect a controller that does things a little differently, and that’s what you get. Originally financed through Kickstarter back in 2012, the controller’s layout follows the classic MPC model with 16 performance pads, a touch strip cross fader, rotary style controls, faders and buttons. If you think the funky exterior is window dressing for a lack of innovation you’d be wrong, as the QuNeo 3D contains some inventive features that are of significant note. Each of the performance pads also doubles as an XY-style control, and this multi-zoned design comes into its own for other applications. For example, when using the QuNeo in a step sequence mode, the backlighting allows for two steps per pad. Every surface on the controller is both pressure sensitive and velocity sensitive, including all of the buttons and rotaries, and the design of the backlit LEDs allows some of the surfaces to double as VU meters for added visual feedback.

The QuNeo comes with scripts for popular platforms such as Serato Scratch Live, Traktor, and Mixxx as well as DAWs such as Reason, Logic and Ableton Live. This controller is the same size as an iPad, making it convenient for travelling with, and is also iOS compatible, with mappings available for both the Beatmaker and Korg iMS-20 apps. With a layout that includes a crossfader and plenty of buttons, as well as the innovative multi zoned pads, the QuNEo is a great all-rounder, and one of the most adaptable controllers on the market. For producers and even DJs who need a lightweight, portable controller with more expression than most others, the QuNeo comes highly recommended.
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Arturia – SparkLE

Billed as a drum production workstation, the SparkLE from Arturia looks less like an MPC and more like a distant relative of the hugely popular Roland TR-808 drum machine. As opposed to a grid of 16 pads, the SparkLE features eight performance pads located along the bottom of the unit with 16 step sequence buttons directly above, making the SparkLE extremely intuitive to use with the included SparkLE software. The unit’s simplicity is mirrored in the software itself, which can be opened in stand alone mode or within your DAW of choice, making it a versatile addition to any setup. The hardware layout is perfectly represented in the software with only song toggle and swing controls not being accessible directly from the control unit itself.

The drum sounds come from a mixture of digital samples and physical modelling synthesis, with the option of incorporating your own drum samples if you wish. The workflow of the SparkLE is also fast and gratifying, with handy XY pad making for a great performance feature to manipulate the software’s effects. The XY pad manipulations can also be recorded as part of your pattern and there is even a tune mode that allows you to play melodic material using the step sequence buttons. However, as befits the SparkLE’s modest price point, it does lack a screen, meaning you will need to use your monitor for feedback, but with an unfussy layout and easy operation, the SparkLE is the ideal option for beginners.
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M-Audio – Trigger Finger Pro

An update of the classic Trigger Finger drum MIDI controller, the Trigger Finger Pro’s brushed aluminium exterior looks like the perfect marriage of classic MPC drum pads with 808 style step sequencing. It features everything that you need from a modern beat controller, including 16 RGB backlit pads with velocity and pressure sensitivity, assignable knobs and faders, a large display screen, and a built-in 64 step sequencer. M-Audio have also developed the Arsenal software to help manage the preset library and mapping templates, working stand alone or as a plug-in. The onboard step sequencer also works away from your computer and with the MIDI connections available on this unit; you can also sequence external synths and drum machines.

This USB powered controller also comes with a generous amount of added samples and software in the form of the AIR drum pack, Hybrid 3 synth and extensive samples. Finding itself in direct competition with more expensive hardware solutions such as the Maschine and the Push, it’s unsurprising that this new version is quite a leap in terms of both aesthetic and function. Having said that, it isn’t quite as high end as those units, but those looking for an affordable solution that offers a similar experience are advised to investigate the Trigger Finger Pro.
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Livid Instruments – Base II

This dynamic controller comes from Livid, the bespoke MIDI controller brand that is based in Austin, Texas, who have been impressing with their flexible controllers for some years now. The Base II is the closest they have to a dedicated drum controller, though in reality its flexible and open layout would make it just as appropriate for sample triggering. The main control surface comes in the form of 32 pressure sensitive pads including backlit RGB visual feedback, nine touch strip faders (which are also note and velocity sensitive), eight momentary touch buttons and eight function buttons. The backlit RGB technology is reflected in the touch faders and buttons, not only the performance pads, making for good continuity throughout the entire unit. With an sturdy chassis, and dimensions and weight that allow it to be easily carried around in a bag next to your laptop, the Livid Base II offers a serious alternative for users that are in need of a controller that isn’t designed for any one specific DAW or software package.

One key advantage of the Base II is that it has no moving parts, meaning that there are no faders to replace or encoders and knobs to fall off, which give it an advantage in the durability stakes. As a USB powered MIDI controller, the Base II will also map to any software that supports MIDI learn, including Ableton Live, FL Studio, Bitwig and Traktor, as well as other software such as pro visual mixing packages like Arkaos Grand VJ and VDMX. The hardware also comes with an editor that allows you to customise your setup or even run scripts for well known platforms. As an updated version of the original Base controller, improvements in the button design, chassis and the addition of more convenient bank saving and MIDI message updating make this controller ideal for those who need a platform to suit very specific needs.
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Ableton – Push

With 64 velocity and pressure sensitive pads, and simple navigation buttons and knobs, this hardware controller for the ever popular Ableton digital audio workstation is arguably the tightest integration of hardware and software on the market, with the exception of perhaps the Native Instruments Maschine. Designed specifically for Ableton by Akai Professional – the manufacturers of the famed MPC hardware, the quality of the Push is perhaps the highest of all the units tested.

Featuring a classic step sequencer mode for fast pattern creation or real time recording, the multi-coloured backlit pads offer clear visual feedback as well as being ideal for sketching out beats on the fly. In addition, the hardware also features a revolutionary way of playing melodies and harmonies in any key or mode, while the pads can also be used to launching clips in the traditional manner. Unlike some grid style hardware which only allow the use of one mode at a time, the Push’s pads can be split into sections, allowing you to use it as a drum controller and play basslines or melodies at the same time. The hardware itself is designed to be as mobile as possible and it will fit into a backpack with your laptop, and is powered through the USB bus as well as featuring two assignable footswitch inputs for further convenience and flexibility. If you’re a seasoned Ableton user, there’s no better option than the Push.
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Akai – MPC Renaissance

Akai’s MPC series of workstations have attained a legendary status in music production circles, with its 16 pad layout becoming the standard performance setup for almost all modern drum controllers since it first hit the streets in 1988. As times have changed, so has the MPC’s reliance on an internal memory source, and the MPC Renaissance combines the classic hardware design with MPC software for your Mac or PC. Along with the highly responsive, multi-coloured backlit pads, there are 16 knobs, comprehensive transport controls, a large display and clearly labelled navigation controls, while there is also the possibility of sequencing 64 tracks directly from the control hardware.

Unlike many MIDI drum controllers, the MPC Renaissance includes a four-channel USB audio interface with a dual port USB hub featuring dual XLR/1/4” TRS combination inputs and an input specifically designed for a turntable. For those who might want to use the Renaissance as part of a wider setup, the versatile connection possibilities are complemented by a pair of MIDI inputs and four MIDI outputs. Classic MPC users will be glad to hear that the famous swing, note repeat and transport controls are all present on the new machine, along with a mode that simulates the sound of older MPC units such as the MPC60.
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Native Instruments – Maschine Studio

Since its release in 2009, the Native Instruments Maschine has become ubiquitous thanks to its high end hardware and professional integration with its accompanying software, becoming the go to solution for many wanting to make beats. Recent years have seen the software becoming closer to a standalone DAW in its own right, and the flagship Maschine Studio is the ultimate tool for those wanting to get the most out of Native Instruments’ rich software solutions. The impressive hardware includes 16 RGB coloured pads, a jog wheel, plenty of soft button controls and knobs, and two large colour displays that help you get full control over everything from waveforms, patterns, scenes, mixer levels and metering.

The Maschine software itself boasts a rock solid pattern based sequencer, advanced drum synthesis, high performance sampler as well as a full compliment of effects and instruments, as well as an 8GB library. As with most sequencers of this type, it is possible to finish productions in stand alone mode or by opening the Maschine software in your DAW of choice. Being a USB MIDI controller, it’s fully possible to map the controls of this hardware to any software you like, but if you are looking for a complete audio production solution, then not many come as comprehensive as Native Instruments Maschine, which was originally made to be a beat production tool. It’s perhaps this that offers the highest recommendation possible.
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I am quite thrilled about what NI has done in Traktor Pro 1.2. The introduction of logical controllers in the MIDI mapping opens a world of fun for MIDI mapping junkies. It also enables much better collaboration because mappings can be maintained in smaller logical units, so there is no need to maintain a single monolithic configuration for all controllers anymore. Since each logical controller also gets its own modifiers we now also effectively have unlimited modifiers. The addition of a tool that shows the current modifier states will also become an invaluable tool. Several other additions are also welcome be them small or big: Preparation list management now seems much more useable, 2 additional FX controls will certainly be useful even if just 'misused' as a sampler, 3 new effects (I especially like the beat slicer), being able to show the comments in the deck details really helps out when using DJ notation. Again the biggest thing for me are the changes around MIDI mapping, which are a huge step forward I hope that NI gives them a few more bits to make them truly useful. Rainer has already started on an update for the Traktor Pro Bible.

I have long been complaining about how the current MIDI mapping in TP 1.1.x makes collaboration needlessly hard. Since everything sits in this gigantic monolithic configuration, which when exported is not human readable, it meant that there was no sensible way to share only parts of your config. Changing one area brought with it the huge risk of being incompatible with others who used the same starting point. Now with the logical controllers, I can keep separate mappings for each of my controllers, I can actually even have multiple logical controllers for each bigger feature. Furthermore I there is no longer a need to worry about what channel my controllers are working on, since for each logical controller I can decide which MIDI controllers it should listen to.

I am still missing a few critical things and a few new issues. For example I dont like that the mapping for In and Out assignments has been separated. This means I cannot just duplicate an In mapping and turn the duplicate into an Out message to also change an LED accordingly. Actually when duplicating the associated MIDI message is lost now. Furthermore Out mappings do not support MIDI learn anymore. I am hoping these are all just bugs that will get fixed.

There are a few issues where I think the new features need to be expanded a bit more. For one since each logical controller is totally separated from the others, it means that if I have common states in the various logical controllers (say a toggle to select deck A or C/B or D), these need to be duplicated for each logical controller. Also keyboard or HID logical controllers now have no way of interacting with MIDI logical controllers, since the modifiers are all separate. It would be nice if next to the local modifiers, there would also be global modifiers in order to be able to communicate such states across logical controllers. This should not be too hard to implement I would think.

More fancy would be a way for logical controllers to 'include' other logical controllers. This way I could make one logical controller that manages the deck selection by setting the relevant modifiers and LEDs. Now in my other logical controllers I could say that the deck managing logical controller should be included. This way even with just a single mapping for the deck management, all relevant logical controllers would set the proper modifiers locally. This would also make it possible to group logical controllers. For example my VCI-100 logical controller would consist of several 'sub' logical controllers. Could be useful to stay on top of what is used where and more importantly making sure that when exporting, I can easily ensure that all relevant 'sub' logical controllers are also exported.

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I am also wondering how to best do a 4 deck mapping. Lets imagine I have 2 controllers that handle 1 deck each. I would do one mapping which I can now easily import twice in order to handle 2 decks. However if I want to handle 4 decks, I would run into trouble. I would have to duplicate the mappings to handle the modifier to switch the left deck between deck A and C (and deck B and D on the right side). Worse yet, I do not see how I could make a generic deck mapping to handle deck C and D using the device target without making it impossible to also be able to run all of the possible combinations of decks. So I could do A+B or deck C+D but not A+D or B+C. The solution would be to allow choosing the device target based on a modifier. This way I could have one mapping for all 4 decks and support all deck combinations. The same feature should be available for selecting the FX bank so that a single mapping could be made to handle all 4 FX banks.

Best Midi Controller For Traktor Pro 2 Controller

Once we have that, it seems like 2 deck controllers like the VCI-100 would be at a disadvantage to 1 deck controllers in a way. With the VCI-100 I would be forced to map out the left and right side separately, since they send different MIDI messages. Well I could use Bome's to transpose the MIDI messages and send them via different virtual ports. Alternatively hardware producers could think about providing different modes for their 2 deck controllers. One where they send different MIDI messages as they do now and one where they turn their 2 deck MIDI controller into 2 virtual controllers that send the same MIDI messages for both decks. Of course this can be done in existing controllers already even without a firmware update using Bome's MIDI translator.

Best Midi Controller For Traktor Pro 2

Now comes one of my pet peeves. Unfortunately the exported configuration remains human unreadable with no formatting at all. This means its still impossible to figure out what one has actually changed when comparing two versions of a configuration file. On top of that there is no undo/redo feature, so when one works on getting a new feature to work, its easy to loose track of what has actually been done, which can often lead to unwanted changes and bugs due to experimentation. With the addition of logical controllers at least its easier to keep the number of mappings per controller down, so its a bit more possible to keep an overview of all the mappings and hopefully notice accidental changes. However with the crappy output format its still impossible for me to receive someone's modifications and be able to see what has changed. Take Ean who publishes fairly complex TSI's on DJTT, lots of people like it and then someone suggests a tweak and sends me a modified version. Trying to figure out what has changed is very tedious. Actually its short of undoable without two laptops next to each other. Managing the configuration inside a version control like svn is also a lot less useful as things are now.

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The window size for the preferences is still limited and non resizable. If it would be an easy fix, I am sure they would have done it by now, but I am guessing they have an architectural issues with their underlying window management toolkit. However I think the best course of action would be to provide an optional standalone MIDI mapping app. This app would provide the much needed real-estate for working on more complex mappings. It would allow much more flexibility in interaction. Like say I want to cut several mappings and move them into a different logical controller. Or I want to change the channel on several mappings. Actually just simple stuff like being able to search the MIDI assignments would be a huge help! It could also provide a TSI merging and comparison tool. Debugging tools could be expanded to also provide a logger for all messages and maybe even some visualization for what message is interpreted by what logical controller and what is executed as a result. Maybe there could also be a little community feature to allow exchange of mappings. Obviously this will also mean that features in this app can be expanded without worrying DJ's that their audio setup could be affected as its a separate app.