This Pad Controller Feels Great and Travels Well!

Excellent yet affordable

If you’re looking for an excellent yet affordable USB pad controller, then check out the Akai Professional LPD8. The most obvious and striking thing about the LPD8 is its size. It’s narrow enough to fit in a laptop bag with plenty of room to spare, and shallow enough to sit right in front of your keyboard and still let you reach your track pad and keys comfortably. But here’s the thing you’re sure to love: these pads feel simply incredible! And why wouldn’t they? Akai Professional has been the force behind pad programming since the early days of the MPC. The LPD8’s pads have that same responsive feel.

Nobody wants to deal with drivers

It’s no secret: nobody wants to deal with drivers. And with the LPD8, you don’t have to! Just plug it into either a Mac or a PC, and the computer will instantly recognize it. It does come with a handy editor program though, so you can easily reassign things like the note value of each pad or the continuous controller values of its eight programmable knobs. When you plug the LPD8 into a computer, you never have to worry about a power supply, because the LPD8 is totally bus powered. Other cool features are the sweet orange backlights that really add to your live performance, and four programmable memory banks for quickly reconfiguring your LPD8.

Akai Professional LPD8 USB Pad Controller Features at a Glance:

USB-MIDI pad controller works with virtually all audio software

Eight backlit, velocity-sensitive pads feel like MPC pads because they are

Eight Q-Link knobs control almost any parameter in software

Plug-and-play USB connection for Mac and PC means no drivers and no hassles

Small enough to fit in a backpack, laptop bag, and right in front of your keyboard where you want it

Four programmable memory banks

Comes with editor software for Mac and PC

USB bus powered — no additional power cable needed