At this year’s Winter NAMM Show, we spied the unannounced iRig Pads at the IK Multimedia booth. Now, IK has officially announced that the iRig Pads – a MIDI pad controller for iOS, Mac & Windows – is now shipping.
The iRig Pads is a portable MIDI pad controller. IK says it’s the smallest ‘groove controller’ on the market – so it will fit anywhere you can store an iPad, in a backpack or a laptop bag.
iRig Pads is also low energy consumption device – it draws its power directly from its host device, so does not need a separate power source to be fully functional.
It can be used with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, via the included Lightning cable (30-pin connector sold separately), without the need of an adapter, as well as with Mac and PC via the included USB cable.*
Here’s the official intro video for the iRig Pads:
iRig Pads 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.
In addition to the pad controls, the iRIg Pads offers two knobs, two buttons, one slider and one push-button rotary encoder. 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 popular apps right out of the box.
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,. In addition, by registering their iRig Pads, users will be able to receive The Grid, a collection of 50 SampleTank instruments (800 samples) and 50 MIDI patterns – designed specifically for use with the iRig Pads.
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 iOS app, such as FL Studio Mobile, iMPC Studio and GarageBand or Mac/PC software such as MPC Studio, Ableton Live, Maschine, GarageBand and more.
Downloads:
- The SampleTank Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- The SampleTank App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- The GrooveMaker 2 Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- The DJ Rig Free App is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
Pricing and Availability
iRig Pads is now available for US $149.99/€119.99 (excluding taxes) as well as on the IK online store.
*iRig Pads are currently being tested for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus compatibility.
One missed opportunity: no Korg-style mini-jack MIDI connectors. The space is there, more manufacturers should provide these!
Is Korg’s mini-jack MIDI connector an actual standard or is is something proprietary to them?
I don’t remember seeing this before. Seems like companies are all moving to USB MIDI, I’d like 5-pin MIDI connectors, but obviously devices have to be thicker to accomodate that.
Arturia Beatstep has mini jack MIDI connector.
Only three pins on a MIDI jack are actually used for MIDI, so connecting those up to a 3.5mm TRS jack is super easy. I guess I’m not sure if the TRS-to-DIN pin mapping is standardized. Though, there are really only two possible configurations (assuming sleeve is always ground).
IK has used them before, on their iRig MIDI interfaces. Line 6 did too on theirs. I haven’t tried the Korg but the other two were interchangeable.
Now! World is changed, and never back anymore.
Background music now is – Trap, not dubstep.
Trap…yes….crap….for the background ?… ok !!! but for the foreground I’d take real music….Miles Davis anyone ?
meh i’ll take dubstep anyday. i like the sound of the 808 too but not enough to base an entire genre around it. where did all the basslines go?!
I like the iRig stuff, but I am always put off by the name, iRig. It just makes it sound like a toy for iDevices. I don’t think they do themselves any favors, calling it iRig, while being midi class compliant – must result in a lot of lost sales to android, PC and linux users. As I know this isn’t a issue but it still puts me off buying.
But 16 pads at this price isn’t too hot, But be great with pressure – look at Arturia miniKeys, Lower cost with 8 velocity and pressure pads (16 on two banks), 25 mini keybed with velocity, 16 knobs, 2 touch strips and a footswitch input.
Yep. & IK is the epitome of consumerism and great ideas that never actually pan out that well in reality.
I’ll qualify that a bit by saying if this was made by Behringer… I’d be more interested 😉
…and KMI Quneo! < seriously good bit of kit for similar monies!
I'll shut up now,… bit drunk… 🙂
Mini Launchpad competitor. What I love the most about the launchpad is the capability to control the leds with MIDI messages.
Anybody knows if this is possible with the iRig Pads?
According to the product page:
“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.”
It seems this is possible.