SETUP

Drivers

No driver software is required for the AKAI MPD232 to be installed. The device is a USB class compliant and your Operating System will auto-install the necessary driver when connected with a USB cable. The unit offers external powering as well, but is not required for the unit to operate (USB bus powered)

VirtualDJ Setup

Download and install VirtualDJ from https://www.virtualdj.com/download/index.html (in case you have not done already)


Once VirtualDJ is launched, a Connect Window will appear. Login with your virtualdj.com account credentials. A Pro Infinity, a Home Plus or a Pro Subscription License is required to fully use the AKAI MPD232.

Without any of the above Licenses, the controller will operate for 10 minutes each time you restart VirtualDJ.
http://www.virtualdj.com/buy/index.html

A detection window will appear next, verifying that the device is properly connected.

Click to OK.

The unit is now ready to operate.


For further software settings please refer to the User Guide of VirtualDJ. http://www.virtualdj.com/manuals/virtualdj8/index.html

PADS

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

P *PROG SELECT

Use this encoder to select a Program (1-30). By default the unit initializes with Program 16 which is named as VirtualDJ and is pre-assigned with VirtualDJ actions. Push the encoder to load the selected Program. See Advanced Setup for further details related to the other Programs

S SHIFT

Hold this button down to access secondary actions as described in the SHIFT ACTION column.

M1 *PAD BANK

Select one of the 4 available modes for the 16 PADS. Sampler, Effects, Pads and Transport mode

P PADS 1-16

The 16 Pads offer different functionality depending on the selected PADS MODE.

* The PROGRAM select knob and the PAD BANK buttons are hardware controls, they do not send any MIDI message, so cannot be assigned to a VirtualDJ action.

PAD BANK A - Sampler Mode

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

P PADS 1-16

The 16 Pads trigger Samples 1 to 16 of the selected Sampler Bank

Stop the playing sample 1-16 of the selected Sampler Bank. Useful when the Stutter or the Un-mute trigger mode are selected.

PAD BANK B - Effects Mode

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

P PADS 1-16

In Single Effects mode :
Pad 1/9 : Triggers the selected Effect on the Left/Right Deck. If FX Temp is enabled (Pad 8/16) the Effect will be activated while the Pad is pressed (temporary)
Pad 2/10 : Selects the previous available Effect of the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 3/11 : Selects the next available Effect of the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 4/12 : Toggles between the Single FX mode (LED Off) and the Multi FX mode (LED On) for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 5/13 : Controls the 1st FX button (if available) of the selected Effect for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 6/14 : Controls the 2nd FX button (if available) of the selected Effect for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 7/15 : Controls the 3rd FX button (if available) of the selected Effect for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 8/16 : Toggles FX Temp mode for the Left/Right Deck. Effects will be triggered temporary when enabled (LED On)

In Multi Effects mode :
Pad 1/9 : Triggers the selected Effect in FX Slot 1 on the Left/Right Deck. If FX Temp is enabled (Pad 8/16) the Effect will be activated while the Pad is pressed (temporary)
Pad 2/10 : Triggers the selected Effect in FX Slot 2 on the Left/Right Deck. If FX Temp is enabled (Pad 8/16) the Effect will be activated while the Pad is pressed (temporary)
Pad 3/11 : Triggers the selected Effect in FX Slot 3 on the Left/Right Deck. If FX Temp is enabled (Pad 8/16) the Effect will be activated while the Pad is pressed (temporary)
Pad 4/12 : Toggles between the Single FX mode (LED Off) and the Multi FX mode (LED On) for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 5/13 : Selects the next available Effect in FX Slot 1 for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 6/14 : Selects the next available Effect in FX Slot 2 for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 7/15 : Selects the next available Effect in FX Slot 3 for the Left/Right Deck.
Pad 8/16 : Toggles FX Temp mode for the Left/Right Deck. Effects will be triggered temporary when enabled (LED On)

All PADS offer the same functionality as without SHIFT pressed

PAD BANK C - Pads Mode

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

P PADS 1-16

Trigger the Pads of the selected Pads page. Pads 1 to 8 trigger the Pads for Left Deck. Pads 9 to 16 trigger the Pads for Right Deck. See Pads in VirtualDJ Manual for further details

Trigger the action assigned to SHIFT+Pads of the selected Pads page. Pads 1 to 8 trigger the Shift Pad actions for Left Deck. Pads 9 to 16 trigger the Shift Pad actions for Right Deck. See Pads in VirtualDJ Manual for further details

PAD BANK D - Transport Mode

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

P PADS 1-16

Pad 1/9 : CUE button. When track is paused, sets a temporary CUE point at the current track's position. When track is playing the button stops the track at the stored CUE position and previews the track while pressed.
Pad 2/10 : STOP button. Stops track at the CUE point or the beginning of the track if not set. When paused, cycles through all the stored CUE points.
Pad 3/11 : PLAY. Play/pauses track
Pad 4/12 : SYNC. synchronizes tempo and phase with the ones from the opposite deck
Pad 5/13 : Selects the previous/next (smaller/greater) available Pitch range. Global setting - applies to both decks
Pad 6/14 : Pitch Bend - . Temporary (while pressed) decreases track's tempo. Tempo will resume to the value designated by the Pitch fader.
Pad 7/15 : Pitch Bend +. Temporary (while pressed) increases track's tempo. Tempo will resume to the value designated by the Pitch fader.
Pad 8/16 : Pitch reset. Smoothly resets Tempo to its original value.

The Pads offer the same functionality when SHIFT is pressed

CONTROLS

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

S SHIFT

Hold this button down to access secondary actions as described in the SHIFT ACTION column.

M2 *CONTROL BANK

Select one of the 3 available modes for the 8 CTRL knobs, the 8 Faders and the 8 buttons.
Sampler, Effects and Pads mode

* The CONTROL BANK buttons are hardware controls, they do not send any MIDI message, so cannot be assigned to a VirtualDJ action.

CONTROL FADERS (ALL MODES)

KEY

ACTION

F1 FADER 1

Adjust the volume of Samples on 1st column (1,5,9 and 13)

F2 FADER 2

Adjust the volume of Samples on 2nd column (2,6,10 and 14)

F3 FADER 3

Adjust the volume of Samples on 3rd column (3,7,11 and 15)

F4 FADER 4

Adjust the volume of Samples on 4th column (4,8,12 and 16)

F5 FADER 5

Adjust the volume of Sampler Group 1. Read more here about Sampler Groups

F6 FADER 6

Adjust the volume of Sampler Group 2.

F7 FADER 7

Adjust the volume of Sampler Group 3.

F8 FADER 8

Adjust the volume of Sampler Group 4.

CONTROL BUTTONS (ALL MODES)

KEY

ACTION

B2 BUTTON 2

Select Left Deck

B3 BUTTON 3

Select Right Deck

B4 BUTTON 4

Set current position of the selected Deck as Loop Entry (Loop In) point, to create a manual loop

B5 BUTTON 5

Set current position of the selected Deck as Loop Exit (Loop Out) point, to complete a manual loop. Use this button again to exit a loop

B6 BUTTON 6

Triggers a Loop of the selected size in beats on the selected deck

B7 BUTTON 7

Halves the size of the Loop

B8 BUTTON 8

Doubles the size of the loop

CONTROL ENCODERS

KEY

ACTION

SAMPLER MODE (BANK A)

E1 ENCODER 1

Adjust the Master Volume of the Sampler Output.

E2 ENCODER 2

Selects a Sampler Bank.

E3 ENCODER 3

Selects a Trigger mode for the Sampler (On/off, Hold, Stutter and Unmute).

E4 - E8
ENCODERS 4-8

Not used.

EFFECTS MODE (BANK B)

KEY

ACTION

SHIFT (SECONDARY) ACTION

E1 ENCODER 1

Single FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect on Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 1 on the Left deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 4th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 1 on the Left deck

E2 ENCODER 2

Single FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect on Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 2 on the Left deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 5th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 2 on the Left deck

E3 ENCODER 3

Single FX mode : Adjust the 3rd Parameter of the selected Effect on Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 3 on the Left deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 6th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Left deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 3 on the Left deck

E4 ENCODER 4

Not used.

E5 ENCODER 5

Single FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect on Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 1 on the Right deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 4th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 1 on the Right deck

E6 ENCODER 6

Single FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect on Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 2 on the Right deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 5th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 2 on the Right deck

E7 ENCODER 7

Single FX mode : Adjust the 3rd Parameter of the selected Effect on Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 1st Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 3 on the Right deck.

Single FX mode : Adjust the 6th Parameter (if available) of the selected Effect on the Right deck
Multi FX mode : Adjust the 2nd Parameter of the selected Effect in FX Slot 3 on the Right deck

E8 ENCODER 8

Not used.

PADS MODE (BANK C)

E1 ENCODER 1

Selects a Pad page on the Left deck. Read more here about Pads

E2 ENCODER 2

Adjust the Parameter 1 of the selected Pad page on Left deck.

E3 ENCODER 3

Adjust the Parameter 2 of the selected Pad page on Left deck

E4 ENCODER 4

Not used.

E5 ENCODER 1

Selects a Pad page on the Right deck.

E6 ENCODER 6

Adjust the Parameter 1 of the selected Pad page on Right deck.

E7 ENCODER 7

Adjust the Parameter 2 of the selected Pad page on Right deck

E8 ENCODER 8

Not used.

OTHER CONTROLS

SOFTWARE CONTROLS

KEY

ACTION

1 STOP

Stops the selected deck at the previously used CUE point. When paused, cycles through all available CUEs

2 PLAY

Play/pauses the selected Deck

3 REC

Starts/stops the recording of your mix

* HARDWARE CONTROLS

KEY

ACTION

H1 NAV

Use the Up/Down/Left/Right Navigation buttons to navigate through the Parameters and Pages when a Program, or a Sequence is edited

H2 PRESET

Use this button to select the Preset mode. When selected, the LCD screen displays the properties of the selected Program when the NAV buttons are used

H3 EDIT

Use this button to select the Edit mode. When selected, the LCD screen displays the properties of the selected Program when the NAV buttons are used

H4 GLOBAL

Use this button to select the Global Edit mode. When selected, the LCD screen displays the properties of the selected Program when the NAV buttons are used

H5 NOTE REPEAT

Press and hold this button while striking a pad to cause the pad to re-trigger at a rate based on the current tempo and Time Division settings

H6 TAP TEMPO

Press this button in time with the desired tempo to enter a new tempo (in BPM). This will affect the speed of the Note Repeat feature.
Note: This button is disabled by default since the external MIDI clock source is enabled. If you wish to disable external Midi Clock from VirtualDJ, right-click on the AKAI MPD232 entry in VirtualDJ Settings->Controllers tab.

H7 16 LEVEL

Press this button to activate/deactivate 16 Level mode. When activated, the last pad that was hit will be temporarily copied to all 16 pads. The pads will now output the same note number as the initial pad but at fixed velocity values that increase as the pad numbers increase (e.g., Pad 1 is the minimum, Pad 16 is the maximum), regardless of how hard you hit them
Note : Makes sense to use this mode in Sampler mode only

H8 FULL LEVEL

When enabled,
the 16 velocity PADS will send full velocity speed, regardless the pushing strength

T TIME DIV

When enabled, select a Time division using the CONTROL buttons B1-B8, which affects the Pads Repeat mode

* SEQUENCER

S SEQ STEPS

Each button represent a step in a sequence. Steps can be set from Edit mode. When a button is enabled, the selected track/sample will be triggered

B SEQ BANK

Select Steps Bank 1-16 or 17-32

S1 SEQ ON/OFF

Start/stop playing the sequence

S2 SEQ EDIT

Enter Sequence editing mode. Select Tracks 1 to 16. Not advised to use Tracks further to 16 (of other Banks), as those will trigger other VirtualDJ actions instead of Samples. Use the navigation buttons to manually edit their velocity (volume)

S3 SEQ REC

Start/stop sequence recording. When enabled, use Pads 1 to 16 in Sampler mode to trigger VirtualDJ Samples and manually create a sequence.

Read further about Sequencer in the AKAI MPD232 Manual http://www.akaipro.com/product/mpd232#downloads

* Note : All the above Hardware buttons do not send any MIDI message, so cannot be assigned to any VirtualDJ action.

ADVANCED SETUP

PROGRAMS & MIDI DEVICES

The MPD232 will be detected as 4 separate units in VirtualDJ Settings->Controllers tab as shown in the image above.

The 1st one (displayed as AKAI MPD232) is the one pre-defined in VirtualDJ (offers factory default mapping) and sends/receives MIDI/CC messages that use USBA1 to USBA16 MIDI Channels.
VirtualDJ reserves Program 16 and regardless of the changes you may do using the Editor or the EDIT mode of the unit, the MIDI Notes, Channels, Colors etc will not be changed and will be reloaded next time you start VirtualDJ.
You may use and program all other Programs (1 to 15 and 17 to 30), but make sure you don't use USBA16 MIDI Channel, or else operation issues may occur.
Since Programs 1 to 15 are pre-defined for other DAW applications, it is also suggested not to use any other Program except the Nr.16, unless you made sure that your preset Programs do not use USBA16 Midi channel.


The 2nd detected unit (MIDIIN2 or similar name on Mac OSX) holds the MIDI notes when USB B1 to USB B16 MIDI Channels are used.

The 3rd detected unit (MIDIIN3 or similar name on Mac OSX) holds the MIDI/CC messages sent when an external MIDI device is connected to the MIDI IN/OUT sockets at the rear panel of the unit.

The 4th detected unit (MIDIIN4 or similar name on Mac OSX) offers the MIDI/CC messages sent/received from the Remote application/device

The MIDIIN2,3,4 units can be mapped as "Simple Midi" in VirtualDJ.

The Programs can be defined and saved to the unit with the MPD232 Editor offered at http://www.akaipro.com/product/mpd232#downloads

RGB COLORS

Even though the unit offers the ability to color the PADS with different colors, those cannot be changed via MIDI. You can only change the On and Off state colors from the Editor.
The colors in the VirtualDJ Program 16 cannot be changed. The default preset will be re-loaded each time you open VirtualDJ.

VELOCITY

The 16 PADS offer Velocity and After-Touch Velocity and is pre-defined and used in Sampler mode to control the Volume of the triggered Sample.

In Velocity, the Volume of the Sample is determined by the initial pressure applied to the Pad when pushed.
In After-Touch Velocity, the Volume of the Sample is continuously affected by the applied pressure, as long as the Pad is pushed.

Both Velocity and After-Touch Velocity are disabled by default. Select the special AKAI MPD Pads Page (available only when the unit is connected) on any deck to enable/disable them. Use the 3rd Pad in the Page to reset the Volumes of all Samples to 100% (useful when Velocity is disabled and Volumes are left to 0% on release)


AKAI MPD - Pads Page

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For further Technical features and specifications, visit
AKAI MPD-232
Product's Page

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Hardware Integration Department 2017 - ATOMIX PRODUCTIONS


Reproduction of this manual in full or in part without written permission from Atomix Productions is prohibited.