Are drum pads on a keyboard necessary?

[ESPplayer7]

Im new to recording and I wanted to get an 88 key keyboard with weighted touch but i cant find any with drum pads. Im new to recording and i was wondering if they are necessary? I was looking at the axiom.. are all the extra knobs worth it? is 61 keys enough?

 

[mellotron]

Based on what I know so far, I think it depends on if you're more comfortable with or prefer pads. I'm fine for now with just using synth action keys to input MIDI drums. But I haven't tried pads yet. I kind of wish I'd kept my Axiom instead of replacing it with a Micron, considering all the good softsynths that are out there. It would probably be more convenient to have a lot of knobs if you're into a lot of tweaking, like with Reason or activating effects on the fly. So it also depends on if you're going to do that too.

 

[Steve Henningsgard]

They're only necessary if you need drum pads! Personally, I use midi keyboard controllers to add orchestra & piano parts to my live-recorded songs. If you're doing primarily electronic music, and don't have a good way to record some basic midi drums, pads can be useful.