Akai MPD218

Thie little pad controller is a great design. It's small, compact, with 3 pad banks and 3 knob banks easy to switch. The pads are very reactive, sensitive, very nice to play. They equal or are even better than Native Instrument Maschine.
The only feature that I would like extra is the colour coding of the pads to match Ableton's drum racks for a live performance setup. The MPD pads light up only red.

Great thick and sensitive pads. Unfortunately, the unit has limited editing capabilities which is acceptable at this price point. The bundled software alone is more than worth it.