Sturdy drum pad controllers?

My personal problem with MIDI controllers has always been build quality; I'm pretty hard on my possessions and eventually pads need a real whack to get them to trigger - I've had this problem on SP and MPC samplers.

So, looking into computer-linked ones lately, I'd be interested to know what people have found as hard-wearing, for live use or otherwise - the market for pad controllers seems pretty small if you discount the expensive software package ones (the PadKontrol, the MPD, and a couple of others) so it might be possible to find the actual sturdiest.

Arturia's build quality seems pretty sturdy. I haven't used much else but they're nice and solid/heavy.

the padKontrol is £120, not sure if you'd call that expensive? I've gigged/practiced extensively with mine, tend to hit pretty hard and it's still working fine after a couple of years. Then again I do cheat and stick on 'fixed velocity' which does away with having to batter the pad. Can't help but do so though.

  On 8/25/2014 at 3:51 AM, b born droid said:

the padKontrol is £120, not sure if you'd call that expensive? I've gigged/practiced extensively with mine, tend to hit pretty hard and it's still working fine after a couple of years. Then again I do cheat and stick on 'fixed velocity' which does away with having to batter the pad. Can't help but do so though.

wow, i phrased that terribly - i meant the padkontrol was one of the few examples that didn't have an expensive software package with it. that's good to hear. i use fixed velocity a fair bit myself so that works fine.

PadKontrol is pretty sturdy for the cost but it is an all plastic case so might not take 'real' abuse.

Pads on mine are fine after years but im not whacking them on a daily basis.

I got mine for use with the Nerve AU/VSTi as you get a special version to run with the Padkontrol that turns it into a much more integrated drum machine with a x0x style step sequencer with light feedback on the pads.

That's a basic over view of an early version. Bit ot but adds valur to the PadKontrol imo :)

Doesn't someone have some pretty great mods for the PadKontrol? Sure it's the same dude who does some custom Push scripts. Added a lot more functionality to it.

i got an arturia beatstep today. mainly for the step sequencer, but the pads and build quality on it seems pretty amazing considering the price.