Yamaha FGDP-50 Finger Drum Pad Controller Reviews
As beat-making becomes more accessible, finger-drumming is a quick, intuitive way for seasoned or burgeoning musicians to get hands-on with their rhythm! Yamaha’s FGDP-50 is an all-in-one recording, composition, playback, and groove-crafting machine dedicated to the emerging world of finger drumming, fully capable of powerful standalone or interoperative use. Each of its 18 performance pads is arranged ergonomically to maximize accessibility while accommodating the distinct workflow needs of working with your hands. Moreover, each pad is equipped to process aftertouch and velocity sensitivity, ensuring you capture every nuance of your performance. You’ve also got eight assignable pads for additional sampling, one-shots, and more to customize your kit. Beat-makers at Sweetwater appreciate the portability-minded design, from its slim form factor and onboard speaker to its rechargeable battery, vivid LCD display screen, and built-in Rec’n’Share feature that lets you instantly record with backing tracks straight to your mobile device. What’s more, your interoperative potential explodes with opportunities when you consider the FGDP-50’s DAW compatibility, MIDI and audio over USB, and the 3.5-millimeter auxiliary input to process, flip, and manipulate samples on the fly. You even get a tone generator for maximum expression, with a dedicated USB-A port to connect to host for uncompromising integration with almost any setup.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Super intuitive and fun.
Right out of the box, after a charge I was playing with out even looking up instructions. I'm used to 90s style drum machines, so maybe that's why this came so easy to me. As others have said, USB-C and stereo L&R 1/4" outs with an additional headphone output would have been better. Built in samples are great… I tend to use the natural sounding ones. I wish it had a simple step-sequencer built-in like my old Roland DR-5. Also, 5 pin midi ins and outs for connecting external gear. But, I knew all those shortcomings when purchasing. I'm short on time these days so having something I can literally just turn on and drum away is great. Speaker sounds good too— really surprised me. I'm using it with a looper pedal and layering other instruments. I haven't messed with importing my own samples yet. Also: BE WARNED: if you have young kids, they will want this for their own. Any time mine see me turn it on, they're all over me wanting to play with it. Haha.
Fun pads
I'm really enjoying the FGDP-50. The built-in speaker sounds great, the pads are rather responsive, and all of the default tones are quite nice. There are a lot of very useful options for manipulating the pads in the menus (which are also fairly easy to dive) and the ergonomic layout makes this easy to jam on for a long time.
The only drawback I can identify is the lack of looping on the device. This is easily addressed externally but it would have been cool onboard.
I can see a lot of potential uses for this device and am impressed with the functionality and build quality. If you're in the market for a drum instrument / controller, this will deliver for you.
Yamaha FG DP 50
As an international Sweetwater customer i always get looked after.
I placed my order 2 months ago and no sooner had it arrived to the Sweetwater warehouse
my Super Sales Engineer Dennis Konicki had it out the door in no time.
I was super pumped to use it in my show over the weekend on Saturday night.
It didnt arrive but it felt like xmas all over again when i saw it near my office door on the Sunday.
Super easy to use and some great sounds.
Although i am not a finger drummer and as an electronic musician i have alot of bases covered this is a great little addition to my setup.
Excellent quality unit.
I will be doing another live performance soon near the beach in my town before the end of January and definitely utilising this piece.
Big shout out to the worlds best online music store Sweetwater and my Sales engineer Mr.Dennis Konicki.
Cheers
Andron Van Es
aka Marvin Nelson
lots of fun
The stock kits sound great and they included a good variety of kits, and even some eastern/western percussion instruments, also the pads are very responsive. I just power it on and start jamming, battery powered portability, decent internal speaker. You can tell they put a lot of thought into designing this product. Instead of programming drums in a traditional step sequencer I am jamming on the track. Lots of fun to improvise fills and flourishes. Definitely glad I bought the 50 version because it has an LCD screen and additional pads.
Quite possibly the most innovative electronic percussion unit in decades
Ergonomically you wont find an easier instrument to play, and you can expand the sonic palette with your own samples. The only thing I wish it had was a separate 1/4" stereo line out.
Brings expressive percussion to my sample-based workflow. Cuts down on production time, too.
I produce downtempo instrumentals with vinyl-sourced samples and a hardware-only workflow. Drum programming has always been a bit of a slog for me, because placing triggers on a grid so often fails to capture the natural motion and intent of a live percussionist. I find myself painstakingly balancing velocities and nudging individual hits this way or that, in hopes of humanizing the arrangement or imbuing it with a groove.
Enter the FGDP-50: after a few months practicing finger drumming on this unit, I am now able to lay down vibrant & humanized rhythm tracks in a fraction of the time I once spent on grid recording.
It's got some 50 unique kits ready to go within 10 seconds of booting up. It has an internal battery and a punchy little speaker, so I can practice in bed or wherever the mood strikes me. I can load its user memory with my own home made sounds, my favorite drum packs, and I can even build "kits" comprised of musical samples, textures and washes.
While this unit has made production a much smoother and more enjoyable affair in the long run, it's also gotten me deep into finger drumming as an artform. Make no mistake, the FGDP is a musical instrument more than it is a drum machine. It is limited only by the skill and creativity of its user. Be prepared to put in work and expect to reap rewards - namely the ability to conjure up lifelike, custom built drumloops in seconds.
The only thing I would change is the file system and configuration process. While the unit sounds and plays fantastic right out of the box, if you'd like to use it to its full potential and add your own unique sounds, you'll be doing a fair amount of menu diving on a two line screen that reminds me of the MC-505.
Nice hardware with a tragic flaw
This is a really innovative machine - the equivalent of a new model of typewriter keyboard that's faster and more usable. Nicely built.
The tragic flaw, which makes me feel that, should this be a successful product, we'll be buying again in version 2 — is no MIDI. I knew this fact going in. But I don't know I appreciated how much of a crying shame it is that this can't act as a MIDI controller. It would be awesome to swap this in place of any of the 4x4 grid controllers. Hence my conviction- really now, my desire - to have this output midi over USB.
This means it's a bit more of a novelty act or you - but wicked fun anyhow.
Great Little Live Percussion Tool
I bought this to use with my loop rig to play live drums along with my guitars. I previously (and still) use(d) a Roland HPD-20, and while I think the Roland is better for what I do now, I don't think the Roland is better--they're two different tools. This one has excellent samples and feel, the ergonomic finger-drumming layout and trigger sensitivity is really amazing, and overall it's excellent. It's not the most intuitive thing I've ever used, in terms of changing the pad locations or settings, but you can do it. My one-star deduction is because this (as has been said on the web many times) is lacking some very commonsense pro features, such as USB-C (why doesn't anyone ever use anything else?), MIDI in (it only does MIDI out), and professional output cable types (it only has stereo 3.5mm). For my use case, I lock-taped the Roland stand mount to the bottom of it and stuck it on the HPD-20 stand, and that setup was excellent. In the end, though, I did go back to the HPD-20, keeping this around for fun and maybe later for home recording applications. I hope that they will someday come out with a professional version that has those improvements--the sound and use are really amazing and fun.
