very true.
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My MPC is back from repair and after finger drumming on the Force for 3 weeks it dawned on my how loud the Mpc pads actually are. From a feeling point of view, the pads on the Force felt soo much better. But way too tiny.
Which got me wondering, what has the best pads?
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Vibing the SP-404 MKII pads ATM. They are the perfect size for me.
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After watching one of the videos, above, Iām sold on arcade buttons. On a piano keyboard, velocity sensitivity is important to me, but on a finger drumming pad, Iād be willing to sacrifice velocity for responsiveness, ease of playing, speed. If the drum soundsā velocities were set carefully, I would probably not miss velocity sensitivity.
Also, Iāve tried velocity sensitive drum pads before, and they didnāt feel comfortable.
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From what I can tell, all the really serious finger drummers are using maschine, the pads are apparently more responsive, especially to light touches.
My piano teacher once had me play a piece at like 35bpm and it was a real pain lol.
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My biggest gripe is with the noise level, sometimes I feel like I play to the pad noise rather than the pad sound.
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Not to sound too boring but the best pads are the ones you haveā¦ I started with Maschine and would prefer their pads but now Iām on MPC and have to make the best of it. To a certain degree it just takes time to adjust to it. And I talked to folks who prefer MPC pads over Maschine pads because they find them too soft so it is something very subjective. In the end everything is usable these days and the sample choice can bring you quite far already.
Watching David Haynes fingerdrum who also prefers MPC pads over the Maschine pads shows me that itās me and not the pads 
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Iām not saying I would perform better on one rather than on the other, just annoyed at the noise level, after some time on the Force, the noise of the Mpc really hit me.
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Maybe pacticing with headphones would help but I know what you mean. Have you tried different pad sensitivity settings? Maybe a more sensitive setting will help with the pad noise since you will need a little less force.
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I found I canāt even get close to full velocity on my 404mkII pads if fixed velocity is not on. I could hit them with a hammer and it would still be way lower than 127.
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David Haynes is a beast on the pads. So is JBlack, he has a lot of good videos on technique, pad setup, etc
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you might enjoy watching these:
according to dude, today, on a budget, I think he likes the presonus atom.
but as others mentioned maschine gets good reviews as well.
I dunno why - I have a block on hardware that MUST be used with specific software - Iāve never been able to embrace NI. perhaps I just donāt understand it.
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Agreed, I play at fixed velocity because of it.
There are settings way up in the 404 MKII thread that people had success with. Iām just too lazy to look for it.
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Yep, I am using my MPC pads too, no way I could go to maschine just for more sensitive pads. It is interesting to see all the differences in equipment and uses between different groups of people though. The finger drummers on machines remind me of a cross between beatmakers who use MPCs and the people who use the Haken Continuum for expressive playing.
Glad to see this thread finally come alive after 7 years lol.
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Iām planning on doing some industrial finger drumming, beats like JK Flesh or if I find a band member, WinterkƤlte.
Once I learn how to play on tempo and without my fingers getting stuck to each finger other.
However there seems to be quite a genre divide between those who Maschine and those who Mpcā¦
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Yeah for sure, that is exactly what I was trying to say lol.
tried them all (well, almost).
Korg PadKontrol (discontinued) still has the best pads.
(but i swithched to Launchpad because size does matter 
)
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Buddy Rich and many other drummers warm up in the 60bpm range before they unleash the dragon. Itās a discipline worth investing in. I practice drumming at 60 bpm a lot and it helps with stick control. The same goes for using maschine pads. I will play 5-10 minutes between 60-70BPM before I go faster. It makes a huge difference with varying your timing for different parts of the song .
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I think this is perfectly sensible.
The coupling of hardware/software needs to be appropriate.
I want to finger drum != I want to install, learn and deal with issues in software
Also unless the device is class compliant/self contained, youāre dependent on continued software support, in the operating system of your choice, in order for your device to not become a brick. That seems like too much of a dependency for me.
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