In other news, we had such a great response for our drum kit that we brought to the Chicago Full Moon Jam that we're going to be spending some time developing the kit further.
We're eagerly awaiting these two drum pad midi controllers, so we can get a good feel for how the software works with so many buttons.
We're trying this low-cost non-pressure sensitive drum pad because it has so many pads:
I've had issues with Novation knobs before, but this is all buttons, so it should integrate well.
The plan is to assign each row / column to be a set of 8 different variations on a drum sound. For example the first pad might be a kick drum with low resonance and each other button in the row increases the resonance.
This might also make a good step-sequencer, but it depends on how hard it is to implement the protocol to change the LEDs.
There are a lot of different ways to program this, so I'd be interested in hearing any suggestions for design metaphors.
The other controller we're working with is the Akai MPD218. It has a lot fewer pads, but they are pressure sensitive.