Cheapest Price: £91.00
Availability: Android and iOS
The iRig Pads is an excellent choice for somebody who wants a low-cost pad controller with a similar feel to MPC-style hardware sequencers.
While you won’t get the colour display and hardware editing functions of more expensive devices, you do still get an included application that makes this excellent to use with an iPad. Build quality is acceptable, with an all-plastic body that flexes a little bit but doesn’t feel too bad considering the low asking price. It’s also incredibly small, making it very portable for taking to gigs or throwing in a rucksack. The sixteen pads are solid rubber with a good amount of travel and they feature full LED-RGB backlighting, meaning they change colour in response to differing pressure and modes. Latency is equally pleasing, with no perceivable lag between pad triggering and note response.
Two included cables allow you to use it with both an Ipad and/or a desktop computer via MIDI, giving the device a fair bit of versatility within the studio. The included SampleTank iOS application is derived from its bigger desktop brother and features over 600 instruments plus more via in-app purchases. A handful of the included samples are excellent, while the rest are pretty average. You can of course use it with the full desktop version of SampleTank as well. The interface is slick and easy to use, with basic recording and loop functionalities that should be enough for the average iOS user.