Fender's first pad controllers put timeline navigation, chords and finger drumming under your hands, in 16- and 32-pad sizes.
Fender has moved further into the studio with Fender Motion, a pair of creative pad controllers first shown at NAMM and built around its Fender Studio Pro software, though ready to run with any DAW. They come in 16- and 32-pad versions.
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Both are built on RGB polyphonic FATAR pads, notably the keybed maker’s first pad design. With RGB touch encoders, touch strips and a colour display, the pads are context-aware and switch between drums, chords, melodies and scales depending on what you’re doing. This means the same grid can handle finger drumming, playing a line or laying down chords, no mouse needed.
Chord Mode brings more than 30 playable, custom-voiced chord progressions and assignable scales, so you can build a part in key without memorising shapes, while the touch strips handle modulation, pitch and effects by hand rather than drawn in afterwards.
With Fender Studio Pro, the controller moves around the timeline, reaches plug-in and transport controls, and drops in a virtual instrument, audio track or effect from a dedicated Add button, so recording, editing and performing happen without going back to the screen. A perpetual Fender Studio Pro licence comes with each unit, so the DAW is included, and MIDI I/O connects synths, drum machines and hybrid gear for computer-free or mixed setups.
“The Motion controllers feel like a direct line between what I’m thinking and Fender Studio Pro,” says artist and producer Yaahn Hunter Jr. “I prefer pads when programming drums and triggering samples, but Chord Mode surprised me with how much faster it makes writing on the fly, and tweaking plugin parameters live with the knobs means I can express myself artistically without having to draw in automation lines in Fender Studio Pro.”
The Motion 16 pairs 16 pads with nine knobs and a touch strip, a compact option for a desk or smaller rig. The Motion 32 doubles the pad count to 32 and adds more touch strips, though it runs eight knobs rather than nine, making it the pick if you want more pads under your fingers at once.
Both are due in Australia from early September through Link Audio. They’re built with Fender Studio Pro users in mind, but the any-DAW support and MIDI I/O mean players on other setups aren’t locked out.
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