Well my MIDI-less mind has sorted out how to assign a map to the Roland A-300 Pro for the IK Hammond B3, works as I would expect. This took me much much longer than it should because I am MIDI-clueless but I sorted it out.
Now to learn how to control the Hammond’s sound…yet another diversion into a rabbit hole I said I would never go down.
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with MIDI controllers and software, when in doubt, right click a thing on the screen then move a knob or fader, or press a button.
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Yep. MIDI Learn is the way.
Things are so much better now. This all used to be a big PITA.
Well this Roland is a bit older tech but still dead simple once I knew what I was doing.
It has a separate program to map buttons/faders/etc and you can save that to your PC and to the controller in 1 of 19 slots.
If I get any good at the organ, I would consider something a bit fancier (and two of them for the dual keyboards) but I will see how far I get with it first on the cheap.
It’s doing what I wanted it to do so I am happy.
That’s common.
What you’ll also find is that MIDI Learn in the DAW and VSTi plugin also work really nicely. And the DAW also will have its own Control Surface support features as well.
e.g.:
Yes to the DAW, totally plug and play, but don’t really want it for that as I have the the Behringer thing for that.
What is MIDI Learn?
Toggle MIDI Learn on, select a control in the plugin, twist a knob on the controller, it sets up the mapping for you
AH, nevermind, I get what you mean!
Thank you @howard & @Koldunya !!!
I knew about MIDI learn in Abelton but had no idea it worked on the plugin!
Wow that was much easier than how I was doing it!!
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It’s like magic. Love it so much.
The next thing I would suggest you pick up is to become really familiar with the MIDI editor in the DAW. When recording and editing virtual instrument tracks, you don’t record the sound output from the plugin; you record the MIDI input - keys, control messages, program changes, everything. This is then played back in real time, like a player piano. You then iterate on editing that until it is correct.
Later you can render the stem as audio to save CPU if you want but even that is generally unnecessary. I usually never do this unless I run in to CPU issues from a very heavy synth patch. Mostly I would do it for live use.
If you want to get really mindblown, you can also export and share the MIDI. And for keyboards, on many sites where guitar or bass would have tabs, you can just download the MIDI track and load it in the DAW to take a look. It’s basically the keyboard equivalent of tabs.
Some people just use them as is though that’s getting in to the cheezy zone. I generally don’t use them at all, but that’s because that’s a lot of the fun for me.
And of course there’s the more usual uses of MIDI; you can enter the MIDI now with your plugin and use it, and later if you get a hardware synth, you can route the MIDI track to it instead of the plugin and control the synth. This is probably 90% of the way I used to use MIDI.
Yeah I took a course in all that and have the general idea of how to edit etc but little to no experience. We will see if I get that far.
My list of things I want to do grows and for some unknown reason work still wants me to…we’ll…work.
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Really MIDI samples played by pro’s are great way to add a part to your tracks, especially when you add in a good sampler instrument, like kontakt. It’s a very deep rabbit hole for sure!
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So circling back on the drum pad thing (something playable with sticks vs. fingertips).
I am thinking about something I can record clips of sounds into and then use those sounds (mixed wtih regular drum/cymbal sounds) and then play/record beats into my DAW.
I have no desire to ‘program’ drum tracks into a DAW… at all.
I would rather go this other route.
Are these two the best options?
Is one better or have more useful options than the other?
I know there is another Roland near the same price point but not sure what it gives, etc.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StrikeMultiPad--alesis-strike-multipad
If I were shopping for drum pads, I would ignore any ability for the pads to generate sounds on their own and just use virtual instruments for that via MIDI from the pads. Then you just record MIDI from the pads and this also allows you very flexible editing if you need to change anything later. This will work live just fine, and is much more flexible; changing out drum kits or samples is trivial if you find you didn’t like the original one you used once in the mix, etc.
What you should target with the pads themselves is the overall form factor and playability that is right for you.
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Agree @howard but can’t seem to find an “empty container” pad thing per se like you suggest. They all have all this built in crapola too.
Unless I’m missing something.
I do want it small for sure.
Cool. The builtins don’t hurt, and are cool for practice and so on, so having them won’t hurt you; I just wouldn’t factor them in to a purchase decision.
Given that the Roland would always be a good choice; the Alesis might or might not be, depending on pad and controller quality, but I have no reason to doubt it and they tend to make solid gear.
Lots of other options out there too; I’m not really an expert on these or the more pro (multi-zone, etc) pads. Looks like fun though 
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This one does the job for me (only fingers)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MPD218--akai-professional-mpd218-pad-controller
Also yay for having access to Sweeteater again! 
Yeah, I want sticks, not fingers.