Synido TempoPAD Midi Controller Beat Maker Machine for Music Production, Portable USB MIDI Beat Pad Controller for Beginners with Durable Carrying Bag, 16 Backlit Beat Pad, 4 Assignable Knob

The pads are amazing and responsive. I get no notable latency on bluetooth, and having so many features customizable is incredible for power users. Beginners may get overwhelmed at the possibilities, but this is a controller that can grow with you as you learn. Carrying case fits neatly inside of a backpack, I take it and my iPad gen 9 everywhere I go. The Tempopad C-16 along with a well equipped suite of iPad apps are a very affordable alternative to the MPC.

I bought this on a whim so I could control the music transitions in my dungeons and dragons games with physical knobs instead of digital knobs from the software, and so I could rebind the buttons to perform various functions such as controlling lighting. It does a fantastic job of this- especially with midi to keyboard shortcut programs. What I didn't expect was the ability to customize the input of each button and knob, and for there to be 3 pages of inputs you can toggle through! This probably works great for it's intended usage, but there's so much value from a technical standpoint if you know how to use external software. I currently use it with my art tablet too, as I've bound a lot of keyboard shortcuts to it. I've gotten insane value out of it, and it's fairly small for convivence too! I am unsure if you can do more with the lights. I'm sure it's possible given the right modifications or software, but my only complaint is I haven't found a built in function to swap between lights dynamically. I was hoping for more cool lighting effects.

Hard to figure out

Feature rich, simple setup

I didn’t realize you need software to use this… seems obvious, but I simply didn’t realize. hopefully it’s worth the full 5 stars once I start using it.

Initial device was faulty, the company tried to walk me through steps, and when it still was not working offered a new device. When received, review will be updated further.

The pads have an excellent feel, and the unit itself is solid and well built. With TRS MIDI, BT MIDI, and USB MIDI, the connectivity is great. Battery power is also a big plus. The four banks of pads and knobs allow for extensive mapping, and it pairs especially well with Koala Sampler, making it feel almost like a standalone device. I also love that MIDI CCs for the knobs can be configured directly on the unit without needing an app. If a future firmware update allowed naming the knobs, that would make it even better.

Just so you know what you're getting: Yes, it's portable in that it can be moved. But you're totally tethered to a computer, or an iphone/ipad (no android support). This device makes no sound, has no speaker, and has no headphone/speaker output. So, it's not standalone portable, if that's what you're thinking. It just has a midi output that can only be ran into a midi-compatible amp with a midi-compatible cable. It HAS to be ran through another device that's running third-party software. Looks like it only works with Apple devices and Windows computers. This device only has configuration editing software. There's no recording software or sound libraries that come with it. When you plug it into a Windows computer, it does nothing unless you have some kind of additional studio software. Don't think you're going to be able to just plug this thing in and start cranking out beats in a few minutes, unless you already have everything else that you need that doesn't come with this device, and you already know what you're doing. I have no clue. I'm a beginner, and this device, believe it or not, was supposed to be for beginners. The configuration app hurt my brain just looking at it. So, I guess it's going back in the box, until I have a lot more time to figure it out, and a thousand dollars to spend on a new laptop, midi-compatible amplifier, and a cable. Either that, or I am returning it. It's not exactly what I was expecting.