Solo,
I had a chance to play with the controllers a bit last night. The keyboard controller is really nice for my purposes (adding simple bass parts, strings, winds, sample sounds, etc. Mostly playing around). The keys have a nice give to them and the buttons are responsive and easy to use. The octave buttons light up to show you when you're not in the "default" postition. Very useful since it only has 25 keys and if you're looking to play up and down a regular keyboard you'll need to switch real-time. It was easy to set up in
Studio One and
Reaper.
As for
the MPD18 (pad controller), the jury is still out for me. I'm thinking about taking it back actually. The response on the pads is kinda wonky. The one mapped to the kick drum in my software (
EZ Drummer) especially. I bought mine used so I can't say whether the same problem exists for sure with a new one, but I have read
reviews that say that the pads are not very responsive. There is a button to make it turn off the velocity sensitivity which basically just outputs at the top volume no matter how hard you hit the pads. I had to turn that on or else most of the time I couldn't hear it. I thought that I would like the pads for tapping out drum beats, but honestly I think I could use the keyboard or I'll just end up clicking in the notes in the piano roll because the pad sensitivity is so bad. Not conducive for tapping out fast metal beats. Also I don't like the layout and I can't figure out for the life of me what to set things to in the editor to map the pads how I would like them. Not very user friendly and the documentation is not very good.
Hope this helps a little. I'll try to remember to post an update when I've spent more time with them. Good luck in your own search!