Any free drum pad plugins?

Ask questions and get answers about how to make music in any particular way. Hardware or songwriting or whatever.
Post Reply
User avatar
Märk
Jump
Posts: 2048
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:35 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass
Recording Method: Presonus Audiobox 44VSL, Cubase
Submitting as: ROTR, svenmullet, I forget what else
Pronouns: master
Location: Canada

Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by Märk »

Hey everyone! Was wondering if anyone could recommend a basic drum pad/trigger/whatever you call it; I have an old Windows VAIO tablet and researched a bit to figure out *how* to do what I want, now I just need the drum pad software. I installed rtpMIDI on both the tablet and my desktop DAW, which makes MIDI devices available on the network (ie. wifi) and am able to connect successfully to my desktop DAW, now I want to install just a basic pad so I can tap drum patterns out on the touchscreen... I tried IsoPad, seems to do exactly what I need, but the layout is not configurable (I certainly don't need 84 triggers, just like 7) and its commercial big brother, XotoPad, costs too much money. (and isn't really what I want anyway)

TL,DR; I want to turn my windows tablet into a little drum pad which controls EZDrummer2 on my desktop DAW. For free. Google is not helping.
* this is not a disclaimer
User avatar
ujnhunter
Ice Cream Man
Posts: 1804
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:09 pm
Instruments: Bass, Keyboards, Crummy Guitar & Animal Noises (especially Donkeys)
Recording Method: Reaper 5.9x, Tascam FireOne/Behringer UMC202HD/Avid Eleven Rack/Line 6 UX2, Win 7 PC / Win 10 Laptop
Submitting as: Cock, Chth*.*, D.A.H. (Der Alter Hahn)
Pronouns: His Infernal Majesty
Location: CT, USA
Contact:

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by ujnhunter »

Not sure if this fits your needs, but @signboy just showed me this the other day: https://decomposer.de/sitala/
-Ujn Hunter
Photovoltaik - Free 6 Track EP - Song Fight! Liner Notes
Billy's Little Trip wrote:I must have this....in my mouth.....now.
User avatar
ken
Hot for Teacher
Posts: 3871
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 6:10 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass, drums, keys
Recording Method: MOTU 828x, Cubase 10
Submitting as: Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff
Pronouns: he/him
Location: oakland, ca
Contact:

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by ken »

I googled "MPC App Free" there seem to be a number of free MPC style apps. Is this the kind of thing you are looking for?
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - Berkeley Social Scene - Tiny Robots - Seamus Collective - Semolina Pilchards - Cutie Pies - Explino! - Bravo Bros. - 2 from 14 - and more!

i would just like to remind everyone that Ken eats kittens - blue lang
User avatar
Märk
Jump
Posts: 2048
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:35 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass
Recording Method: Presonus Audiobox 44VSL, Cubase
Submitting as: ROTR, svenmullet, I forget what else
Pronouns: master
Location: Canada

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by Märk »

ujnhunter wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 1:14 pm
Not sure if this fits your needs, but @signboy just showed me this the other day: https://decomposer.de/sitala/
Thanks, I tried it out, but couldn't get it to trigger any hits on my DAW? I'm extremely impatient and loathe to read instructions though, so that's probably on me. Looks interesting, and I will play around with it a bit.

I ended up just finding a cracked version of XotoPad :( It's a bit clunky to customize, but seems to be worth the work, there's virtually zero latency through my wifi network using rtpMIDI, and I now have a wireless, configurable drum pad that works with EZDrummer2 in Cubase!
* this is not a disclaimer
User avatar
Märk
Jump
Posts: 2048
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:35 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass
Recording Method: Presonus Audiobox 44VSL, Cubase
Submitting as: ROTR, svenmullet, I forget what else
Pronouns: master
Location: Canada

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by Märk »

ken wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 2:01 pm
I googled "MPC App Free" there seem to be a number of free MPC style apps. Is this the kind of thing you are looking for?
No, I have a nice drum VSTi already, I just wanted an interface to trigger it running wirelessly on my Windows tablet... I achieved what I was looking for using XotoPad, although I had to be a dirty pirate to do it :(
* this is not a disclaimer
User avatar
ken
Hot for Teacher
Posts: 3871
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 6:10 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass, drums, keys
Recording Method: MOTU 828x, Cubase 10
Submitting as: Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff
Pronouns: he/him
Location: oakland, ca
Contact:

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by ken »

Glad to hear you found a solution. Here is something for Ipad/phone that seems to be in line with what you are looking for: https://midipadapp.com/

That lead me to google, "midi pad app" and bunch of others showed up. Now I'm curious about doing this with my Amazon Fire. Is it complicated to get the tablet to send the midi to your computer?
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - Berkeley Social Scene - Tiny Robots - Seamus Collective - Semolina Pilchards - Cutie Pies - Explino! - Bravo Bros. - 2 from 14 - and more!

i would just like to remind everyone that Ken eats kittens - blue lang
User avatar
Märk
Jump
Posts: 2048
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 8:35 pm
Instruments: Guitar, bass
Recording Method: Presonus Audiobox 44VSL, Cubase
Submitting as: ROTR, svenmullet, I forget what else
Pronouns: master
Location: Canada

Re: Any free drum pad plugins?

Post by Märk »

ken wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:34 pm
Glad to hear you found a solution. Here is something for Ipad/phone that seems to be in line with what you are looking for: https://midipadapp.com/

That lead me to google, "midi pad app" and bunch of others showed up. Now I'm curious about doing this with my Amazon Fire. Is it complicated to get the tablet to send the midi to your computer?
On Windows, it was a snap! I installed that rtpMIDI service on the tablet and my desktop DAW, connected them together using its interface. In Cubase, I created a MIDI track, assigned its input to the rtpMIDI device and output to EZDrummer2, and started tapping pads in XotoPad on the tablet. HOLYFUCKINGSHIT it worked first try!

I have no idea how you'd do similar on Apple, but I am certain it's quite easy to do, as this stuff is all baked right into Apple software; that network MIDI stuff has been included in Mac OS X 10.4, and there is lots of apps and support for using iPads as remote MIDI devices in Logic X Pro, etc.

edit: Doh you said Amazon Fire... that's Android. I don't think you'll have a problem with that either though, there's tons of MIDI controller stuff for 'droid as well.
edit2: I found this
* this is not a disclaimer
Post Reply