Aspiring Finger Drummers: New Yamaha FGDP-50!

Rex Rox

Rex Rox

Power User
I suck at keys and drum programming. I also don't like the canned results you get with something like EZ Drummer and midi drum grooves.

I tried a 16 pad M-Audio Trigger Finger in the hopes it would allow me to better "finger drum" parts into my DAW. Unfortunately due to the ergonomics of the pad layout I still sucked using the Trigger Finger. It was better than a keyboard but only by a small margin for me.

I saw a YT video about Yamaha's FGDP-50 and thought what the hell (it's only $300) - so I preordered one. For anyone interested in crafting their own drum parts by "playing them" on a midi controller this is the one. I have only had it around 4 days and I am already creating the best drum parts I have ever done. Using the midi out to drive Superior Drummer 3 I can see a future where I will be able to create the drum parts I hear in my head without any hand editing in a midi editor. Play them in and be done!

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in playing your drums into a DAW over a traditional keyboard or midi drum pad. The layout of the pads makes a ton of ergonomic sense over the alternatives I have used.
 
I may need to check this out. I suck at programming drums efficiently and have the same issue as you with pre-programmed loops. I also tried the Akai MPC but I didn't enjoy that.

This looks pretty well thought out...
 
I saw the release of this in my feeds while back. Looks interesting. I've tried lots of finger drumming methods. Seems they've designed a layout to make finger drumming make sense vs just a generic midi pad controller with a grid of square pads. How is the pad sensitivity? I really liked MPC thick pads on my old Akai MPD232. When I first saw this Yammy design it reminded me of my very first little finger drumming machine. The Zoom Rhythm Trak 123. The drum sounds weren't exactly stellar but it was easy to use. I've since gone balls deep and got a full edrum kit. Roland TD17KVX. I didnt like finger drumming on midi keyboard or pads so much but should I decide to sell the edrums I could see myself taking a closer look at this Yamaha FGDP.

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Chewie5150 said:
I saw the release of this in my feeds while back. Looks interesting. I've tried lots of finger drumming methods. Seems they've designed a layout to make finger drumming make sense vs just a generic midi pad controller with a grid of square pads. How is the pad sensitivity? I really liked MPC thick pads on my old Akai MPD232. When I first saw this Yammy design it reminded me of my very first little finger drumming machine. The Zoom Rhythm Trak 123. The drum sounds weren't exactly stellar but it was easy to use.

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The layout is very well thought out. They put all the most important stuff on the bigger pads (Snare and Kick) so you can easily hit them even when you reposition your hand a little for other kit pieces. The sensitivity of the Pads is great - much better than the ones on my old Trigger Finger or on my Arturia Keylab 61 anyway. I never tried an MPC. On the FGDP-50 the velocity registered even varies greatly from center of pad to edge of pad. So besides pressure that is another nice way to get dynamics easily. My other controllers don't do that as consistently (Trigger Finger kinda, Keylab not at all).

My hands are average sized so I don't feel cramped or stretched on it. If you have freakishly large hands (like a wookie ;)) YMMV. I thought I might want to move a few pieces around in the layout, but after playing the default layout I really like it and don't see changing it. I started using the top row for some percussion pieces and that works nicely too.

I haven't finished a deep dive into everything it can do yet but even so it was well worth the $300 already. Short of an electronic kit and learning to play the drums it is the best option I have tried.

BTW: I had a Roland Electronic Kit for a while in my studio - but after almost a year (with lessons) I could still only play mediocre 8th rock. Good drums are hard!
 
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I have been thinking this would be the cat’s meow since I saw it in my Yamaha newsletter. Of all the potential issues with recoding every part myself, getting convincing drums is a huge Achilles heel for me. If it wasn’t that I have my eye on a few new pieces of gear right now I probably would get it. Maybe this would be the most practical, useful and cost effective gear to get?

The other piece of gear I recently found out comes in at a $5000😳 and should be officially released today. I haven’t even brought up the idea with the wife yet. It will take some major negotiation skills. Maybe more skill that I can muster.
 
I saw this over the weekend and 100% plan to get it. I recently picked up a Presonus Atom SQ for a similar reason--midi keyboard without the "keyboard"--but this would have been a better fit.
 
Rex Rox said:
BTW: I had a Roland Electronic Kit for a while in my studio - but after almost a year (with lessons) I could still only play mediocre 8th rock. Good drums are hard!
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This is something I've been considering as my Roland kit is mostly collecting dust. That being said, I never intended to master the instrument but use it as a tool for beat creation to be cleaned up in post. I could just slowly layer in kick, snare, hi hats (not caring about accurate timing) and seeing the kit pieces in real life position just made it easier on my brain than arbitrary assignments on a pad or midi key. That is a very expensive way to accomplish what the FGDP could do. The design of this FGDP is just a different way of assigning kit pieces to a natural way of your resting hand...that wouldn't take much to get used to with practice. I like that better than just a grid of pads or row of keys. Now, if i were wanting to develop as an actual drummer then there's now question the Roland is the way to go...so this Yamaha has me thinking of the finger drumming to trigger my SD3 as well. A few hundred dollars vs my ekit that i spent over $2k which i could easily sell. Could save myself some cash....
I need to try one to see how it fits with my Wookie hands before I take it any further. Been looking online and don't see it avail in Canada quite yet. It's not even on the website for our main music store chain Long & McQuade. Might be some time before I can test one out.
 
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Way, way, way back in the day when I was tracking songs on a 4-Track, I loved programming beats using the little Boss Drum machines. I moved on to piano style midi controllers to finger drum/program for years since I use it for all other programed instruments anyway but then bought an Alesis e-kit nearly a decade ago and used it for a few years, but...I'm a little old to spend the time needed to get really where I want on drums and splitting my practice time between instruments wasn't working. That Yamaha looks like it might address my biggest issue with those micro pad controllers as the longer pad on the snare enables easier ability to perform a roll which is near impossible with most products in this category (and something easy with a piano style controller with left/right hand samples mapped to adjacent keys). Littler pricier than I'd like but thanks for the heads up, piqued my interest for sure.
 
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I'm definitely going to get one of these soon. For the last 5 years I've been using a midi-fighter that I picked up used. Well, earlier this year some buttons started sticking and I took it apart to fix... now I can't get the dang thing back together correctly!
 
Horganovski said:
Much more important than the actual controler you use is how you use it IMO
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I am sure many of those lessons apply regardless of controller. But the grid pad pattern is obsolete as soon as you try one of these. The ergonomics are just way better and ergonomics are very important to me.

I played a grid pattern Trigger Finger for years. I found ways to mimic what's going on with the FGDP-50 by creating my own pad layouts on the TF and using multiple pads to trigger the same sounds (2 snare pads & 2 kick pads). But that doesn't work well for rudiment based tom rolls. You run out of pads pretty quick on kit with 4 or 5 toms. So then you have to layer in parts with custom layouts and cycle recording which is tedious! it is so much more inspiring and efficient to just be able to play the part you hear in your head in one shot.

If you can do that on your Akai then I am sure you don't need anything different. But it instantly improved my drum workflow. I will probably spend a quarter of the time on writing/recording drum parts now.
 
Looks cool, I'll have to check it out. I went down the rabbit hole on finger drumming a couple years ago. I like that it's all-in-one with a speaker and everything and the price isn't crazy.

EZDrummer + Novation Launchpad X is what I've been using for a while. Good pad sensitivity and 64 pads so you can customize it any way you want.

Also have an Elektron: Model Samples that is set up as a sequencing drum machine with EZDrummer samples, but it's more limitied and tedious to use.
 
shemihazazel said:
I haven't encountered something better for finger triggering than this.

https://morph.sensel.com/collections/all/products/buchla-thunder-overlay
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This looks to me as something more aimed at keys and synths (sliding on pads for modulation, etc.). For that I personally would always just use a midi keyboard.

The Yamaha was specifically designed for finger drumming. I am sure both devices can do either since in the end it's just midi. But the Yama was conceived from the ground up as a specialized finger drumming controller.
 
Rex Rox said:
This looks to me as something more aimed at keys and synths (sliding on pads for modulation, etc.). For that I personally would always just use a midi keyboard.

The Yamaha was specifically designed for finger drumming. I am sure both devices can do either since in the end it's just midi. But the Yama was conceived from the ground up as a specialized finger drumming controller.
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True, it has functionality for MPE, but from an ergonomic standpoint it's worked out well for me as a drum controller.
 
Just got mine today and charged it up. Never had anything like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m feeling like i have to smack the pads pretty hard in order to get things to trigger. Possibly operator error on my part, since this is my first ever drum pad, but I’m curious to see if anyone else on here has tried either the 50 or the 30 and could comment. Also, my coordination is DEFINITELY not there yet to play anything crazy, so this will be yet another instrument to practice (but hopefully easier for me than real drums because man, did I suck at real drums)
 
The Raven said:
Just got mine today and charged it up. Never had anything like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m feeling like i have to smack the pads pretty hard in order to get things to trigger. Possibly operator error on my part, since this is my first ever drum pad, but I’m curious to see if anyone else on here has tried either the 50 or the 30 and could comment. Also, my coordination is DEFINITELY not there yet to play anything crazy, so this will be yet another instrument to practice (but hopefully easier for me than real drums because man, did I suck at real drums)
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I haven't gotten one but I'm thinking about it.

The pads have adjustable sensitivity / velocity. Maybe try tweaking that?
 
The Raven said:
Just got mine today and charged it up. Never had anything like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’m feeling like i have to smack the pads pretty hard in order to get things to trigger. Possibly operator error on my part, since this is my first ever drum pad, but I’m curious to see if anyone else on here has tried either the 50 or the 30 and could comment. Also, my coordination is DEFINITELY not there yet to play anything crazy, so this will be yet another instrument to practice (but hopefully easier for me than real drums because man, did I suck at real drums)
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unix-guy said:
The pads have adjustable sensitivity / velocity. Maybe try tweaking that?
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Yes I was able to dial in mine so I can trigger a nice full velocity range. If you crank the sensitivity it gets harder to trigger softer velocity hits - but hitting the edge of a pad will bring down the velocity quite a bit.

I mainly use mine in my DAW to trigger Superior Drummer 3. Cubase has some really nice Midi plugins including velocity compression which I use a lot (even with my Midi guitars). It can really help to even things out velocity wise.
 
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