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PreSonus built the Atom SQ explicitly for its own DAW, Studio One, and it shows. The integration between the two is excellent. The build quality is good, especially for the price, and the unique staggered layout bridges the gap between a traditional keyboard and a grid-based pad controller." If you're considering Maschine just to control S1, in my opinion the Atom integration with Impact is way more useful than the overall state of Komplete Kontrol these days. I don't know if I'd call the Atom a "proper control surface for S1", though, that's more the Faderport series. I use my Atom for the transport, tap tempo, and loop movement, but all mixing and automation is better suited to the Faderport. The Atom and Atom SQ can't really do any mixing that adapts to the currently-viewed channel.
SQ isn't a 99 dollar 'toy' product, is a 225USD cost product to make music with and I can't even use it for composing anything. My Atom 16-pad has one bad knob after 2 hrs of use. Someone at PreSonus needs to step up their game and be responsive if they are truly concerned about how their products are received. I know it's a challenge to get a sophisticated (mechanical / electrical) product out the door and still have room for profit. But, at a minimum, if users and testers see constant Double Triggers in midi notes, then: do something about it (don't ignore it and make believe it's not happening). It's wishful thinking. As I stated above, after they've made several attempts to fix the core problem with firmware updates, it's improved slightly, but not improved nearly enough. I'm a bit restricted in how much I can say about this, but let's just say that I am VERY confident they understand what the core problem is. One would have thought that 'musician owners' want to do good in this world. Corporate bureaucracy and incompetence seems to have won out here. Editor – As you might expect with a name like Editor, this mode allows you to edit your work right from the MIDI controller. Of course, you need to be using Studio One or Ableton to utilize this mode correctly, but it really helps to simplify the process. Instead of having to use a mouse or keyboard, you can cut out the middleman and use the ATOM SQ for all your editing needs.When PreSonus talk about deep integration, they certainly mean it. This goes about as far into Studio One as we’ve seen Load one up and play melodies with the pads, control native PreSonus instrument parameters with the knobs and options like octave select with the eight A-H buttons. Load up an Impact XT drum module and the pads become loop or hit triggers, the knobs select volume, pan etc and the buttons different banks of sounds. Most controls are, of course, re-assignable. Alive in Live fully press and use your finger on the whole length of a pad / against the full pad just like on a piano key Ableton Live users in Editor Mode get something akin to control over Ableton Live’s device mode. Using toggles, you can switch the focus of whatever device you’re using — Instrument or Effect — or turn on/off whatever device you’ve selected to focus on. User Mode
Knobs – The knobs on the ATOM SQ are also completely customizable. You can use them to alter the pitch, velocity, or frequency of the different notes that you are playing so that you get the sound that you desire. These knobs are designed so that they can be rotated endlessly. This makes it that much easier to find the perfect sound that you desire.
Just beat it
But what this workaround is doing is preventing the ultra-light movements from your finger lingering/resting on the pad after a hit from being registered as a new Note ON gate. And some of us might tend to do a micro-bounce or micro-wiggle when we lift our finger OFF a pad, which can also trigger double-hits from ultra-low new velocity values. The one thing I wasn't able to verify is that the Mashine Mikro has poly aftertouch capability with the pads. I know the Launchpad does. Deep integration with Studio One's Pattern Editor allows for evolving step sequences that will bring your productions to life. You'll build compositions faster than ever before using the built-in step sequencer in Studio One and ATOM SQ. It's fast and easy for anyone who knows how to program a drum machine. Experimenting yields particularly rewarding results because ATOM SQ can constrain your performance to the scale of your choice. No more wrong notes! Context-sensitive screen displays valuable parameter information including CC assignments, swing, and much more I think all of us are well meaning and gave PreSonus a fair shot to do something to help, and they just don't care. More features -- no -- how 'bout getting these things not to double trigger (with a setup mode option to ignore the finger release double taps). These pads all have some bounce -- and musician's like bounce dynamics. We are being penalized here by not having our hands / fingers magically disappear after the first push down on the pads. In the real world, it takes time for our fingers to get off the pads. The world would be a sad place musically if our fingers aren't allowed to bounce a bit. That's why these Atoms are not playable. It seems like the physics of these pads was designed by someone who never bothered to listen to the results.
Pads – For anyone that has used a keyboard MIDI controller before, these pads are going to have a familiar feel to them. They are set up in such a way as to mimic a standard keyboard, making them very easy to jump in and start using right off the bat. That is not to say, however, that these pads are just carbon copies of a standard keyboard. They are actually much more versatile than that, as they can be used for a variety of different instruments. These pads will also change color according to the mode you are in, as well as the different melodic scales that you are using. This all works pretty seamlessly with the included Studio One bundle or Ableton Live. These pads are also pressured sensitive, which allows you to change the pitch so that you achieve exactly what you are looking for in your music. accidental 'bounces' or 'mis-triggers' that are less than 1/64 or 1/128 (time) after the previous (intended) triggerThe easiest way to demonstrate/reproduced this design flaw is to aim for the CENTER of each pad. Which is entirely natural to me, and obviously also to the other people also griping about the double-triggering. I mean, the center of every pad is brighter in luminousity, and your brain just naturally aims for this brighter area. Thanks for the replies edmisik and Robert. Sorry, my post hasnt been very clear, since I have multiple wants and was moving goal posts. I don't consider the Maschine for a control surface but for having great pads, buying into the NI eco system (the Komplete crossgrade sale price) and with the Maschine+ announcement there are bunch of them on the used marked you can get one for like 350€. The suggestion with the ATOM is good, I took another look at it and the integration seems way deeper than I first expected. On the contrary Atom SQ’s appearance seems much complicated than Atom and we can see it is much longer than Atom. It has many buttons and keys. It has a very interesting touch strip which increases its abilities. On the upper right side, it has a simple and small screen that can be used to get information on its performance mode and other parametric functions etc. Sure, you can probably workaround this by creating specialized macros repeating the same function as the built-in command or another macro and name them differently, but it feels like the proper fix should be easy to implement. The strange thing about the Launchpad which I'm somewhat concerned about is the quality control. It seems that nobody complains about the Launchpad Pro Mk3. It seems to be consistent. Like you can get several and they are all the same but the Launchpad X is not the case. Apparently you can play several side by side and the pads are not consistently the same. According to this guy whose videos have been super helpful by the way:
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