We are excited to share IK Multimedia's announcement about iRig Pads as well as let you know we'll be publishing a review as soon as we get our hands on a review unit. Â We've reviewed a lot of IK Multimedia products in the past and this one looks to be on par with some of their best.
Interested to note that it draws power from the attached device and wonder how much of a drain that might be on the battery.
Please read below for the full press release.
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The ultra-portable, universal MIDI groove controller
iRig Pads is designed to be effortlessly portable. It's smaller than an iPad and less than 1″ thick – it's the smallest groove controller in the market. It has a slim, compact form factor and it's lightweight, which means that it can be slipped into any iPad or laptop bag or backpack and carried around with ease. For maximum portability, iRig Pads is a low energy consumption device – it draws its power directly from its host device and does not need a power source to be fully functional. It can be used with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch via its included Lightning cable (30-pin connector sold separately) without the need of an adapter as well as Mac and PC via its included USB cable. *iRig Pads are currently being tested for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus compatibility.Extreme versatility, custom controls
At the heart of iRig Pads is its 4×4 grid of 16 velocity-sensitive, backlit multicolor rubber pads. Each pad lights up in multiple colors – red, green, orange and every shade in between – depending on the velocity of your playing and the MIDI information sent by your chosen music app or software.
But iRig Pads does more than your average mobile pad-based MIDI controller. Its full spread of controls – two knobs, two buttons, one slider and one pushbutton rotary encoder – let you get creative. All controls are MIDI assignable and customizable: Up to 16 distinct MIDI maps or “scenes” can be saved, which allows for full control of apps and software on stage or in the studio. iRig Pads comes with 6 pre-programmed scenes designed to work with many of your favorite apps and software right out of the box.
Apps for Beats, Loops, Decks and more
To help you get in the groove, IK is working to make iRig Pads the ultimate controller for beats, loops and more by adding support for a growing suite of powerful apps and software. iOS users will be able to make beats out of the box with the included SampleTank® free, and they'll soon be able to control grooves and launch loops with GrooveMaker® 2 free for iPhone and iPad and remix their preferred tracks with DJ Rig™ free.
On Mac/PC the included SampleTank 3 SE (worth $99.99/€79.99), available as a standalone and a plug-in virtual instrument for every major DAW, includes over 6.5 GB of sample contents, 400 instruments and 150 MIDI patterns, for a complete music production workstation, out of the box (coming soon as download from the IK user area). In addition, by registering their iRig Pads, users will be able to receiveThe Grid, an exclusive and free additional collection of 50 instruments (800 samples) and 50 MIDI patterns – designed exclusively for beat makers and groove performers who use iRig Pads – for SampleTank on iOS and Mac/PC (a value of $9.99/€7.99 for iOS and $39.99/€29.99 for Mac/PC).
The SampleTank Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or atwww.appstore.com/
The SampleTank App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or atwww.appstore.com/sampletank
The GrooveMaker 2 Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.appstore.com/
The DJ Rig Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.appstore.com/djrigfree
And that's only scratching the surface – iRig Pads is also fully MIDI class-compliant, which means you can use it and customize its controls for use with virtually any MIDI-compatible app such as FL Studio Mobile, iMPC Studio and GarageBand or Mac/PC software such as MPC Studio, Ableton Live, Maschine, GarageBand and more.
Pricing and Availability
iRig Pads is now available from music and electronics retailers worldwide for $149.99/€119.99 (excluding taxes) as well as on the IK online store. Thanks to its generous feature set, included content value and universal uses for iOS devices as well as Mac and PC, iRig Pads offers the best quality to price ratio of any MIDI groove controller on the market.
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