A desktop finger-drumming trainer for the MPC and any 16-pad MIDI controller. Here's who makes it, and how it started.
I'm Rob Marshall. Music has been around for as long as I can remember: guitar from young, DJing through college and university, and an MPC of some kind on my desk since I was twenty. Then work and life took over for a long while, and the pads gathered dust.
A few years ago I came back to the MPC. The software that existed got me playing, and there were enough YouTube videos to fill a weekend, but the progression always felt disjointed: finger positioning changed between lessons, posture was rarely mentioned, and theory sat off in its own corner. So I started building the course I couldn't find.
You plug your controller in and pick a lesson. Notes scroll toward a fixed playhead, and every hit is timed against the click to the millisecond. At the end, a per-pad breakdown shows where your hands actually landed.
It suits two kinds of player: beginners who want a proper starting point, and more experienced finger drummers filling gaps in their fundamentals. It runs on macOS and Windows, works with any standard 16-pad controller, and is free while the lesson library grows.
If your controller behaves oddly, uses a non-standard layout, or there's a feature you'd like, send it over. Messages reach me directly, and I answer them myself.