Yamaha FGDP-50 Finger Drum Pad Review: A Workable DIY Drum and Percussion Solution?

/ Peter Berris

I don’t play drums. I don’t own a drum set. In fact, I’m under strict orders not to purchase a drum set. As a result, figuring out how to add percussion to my arrangements has been the single hardest part of recording do-it-yourself rock music.

After all, what is rock music without drums? Of course, there are solo acoustic sets. And there have even been some clever drum substitutes over the years, like Johnny Cash sticking a dollar bill in the strings of his acoustic guitar to make it sound like a snare on early recordings.1 But if you want straight-ahead, electric rock and roll, it’s damned hard to achieve that without drums.

Or is it?

Enter the Yamaha FGDP-50 finger drum machine. This rechargeable, battery-powered gadget is about the size of a text book and weighs less than my laptop. Playing the Yamaha FGDP-50 is as simple as tapping its big rubbery pads with your fingers. It comes preloaded with 48 preset drum kits that range from classics like maple and birch, to modern DJ suites, to genre-specific options like hard rock and classic jazz.2 Yes, it even has cowbell. 

So let’s break it down and see where the Yamaha FGDP-50 falls on the percussion spectrum between Keith Moon and clanging some pots and pans together and hoping they sound like drums. Here are my initial reflections after about eight months of using my FGDP-50.

The lights change colors.
There are several different types of wood represented, including beech, oak, and maple.
There are genre-specific kits like “modern jazz” and “hard rock.”
You don’t have to be a monster on drums to figure out how to use the Yamaha FGDP-50.

Is the Yamaha FGDP-50 Easy to Use?

I have found the Yamaha FGDP-50 quite easy to use with a very forgiving learning curve. When I started researching drum machines, I discovered that a lot them seem to require quite a bit of technical know-how. Some seemed to involve as much sound engineering and programming as actual playing. The Yamaha FGDP-50 was marketed more as a plug-and-play option. It has delivered on that front. 

First, if you are capable of typing or tapping, you can play the FGDP-50. You don’t need drum sticks. Second, the controls for basic functions are pretty straightforward. Within a few minutes I had figured out how to turn the machine on, cycle through the various pre-loaded drum kits, and adjust the volume. (I demonstrate much of this in the short video below). Within a half hour I had a pretty good idea of which pad produced which drum sound.3

For my purposes, that was about all I needed to know. The FGDP-50 likely has other features that I haven’t even explored. There are buttons I haven’t pressed. So far they haven’t been necessary.

Here’s a quick video demonstrating the basics of the Yamaha FGDP-50. It ends with some examples of how I have used it.

Could I use the Yamaha FGDP-50 for Recording in GarageBand?

My guess is that if you’re considering the FGDP-50 for recording you’re probably thinking about using it with GarageBand or similar software rather than, say, ProTools. That’s definitely the case for me anyway! I enjoy playing music far more than I enjoy sound engineering. I have made all of my DIY Rock Recordings in GarageBand, because it’s free, easy, and sufficient for my low-budget home “studio.” If you’re going for easy and good enough too, then I think you might enjoy recording with the Yamaha FGDP-50. 

It works pretty well with GarageBand on MacOS4. (Keep in mind that you may need to buy an adapter like a USB to USB-C depending on your laptop). In my experience, GarageBand recognizes the Yamaha FGDP-50 as a device when connected via the mini USB output. I record the Yamaha FGDP-50 as a “Mic or Line” input in GarageBand. I have noticed a couple of glitches.

  1. The line level volume coming out of the FGDP-50 is very low. There’s probably a way to increase that within the device itself, but I’ve found it easier to just crank up the gain within GarageBand. (The volume controls on the FGDP-50 increase speaker volume but don’t seem to alter the signal going into my computer).
  2. If you’re overdubbing drums onto an existing project, sometimes the track will play through the speaker of the Yamaha FGDP-50. After some trial and error, I have discovered that the issue seems to occur if the headphones are plugged into the jack on the FGDP-50. That issue goes away if I plug the headphones into my laptop. (If the headphones are already plugged into your laptop and you have this issue, unplug the headphones from your laptop and plug them back in).  

For a while, I thought there might be some audio lag between the Yamaha FGDP-50 and GarageBand, but I discovered that I was just an absolutely terrible percussionist haha! I’m still working on that.

Okay, but how does the Yamaha FGDP-50 sound in recordings?

Look, nobody is going to mistake the Yamaha FGDP-50 for Art Blakey, especially with me playing it. But honestly it’s surprisingly good. With anything like this, hearing a recording of the FGDP-50 without listening to how it sits in a mix isn’t very helpful. In the files below you can check out how the device sounds in the context of different recordings I’ve made, which range from Americana to hard rock.

Here’s the Yamaha FGDP-50’s “Oak Kit” in kind of a roadhouse blues context:

Here’s the Yamaha FGDP-50’s “Hard Rock” kit in a hard rocking context:

Here’s the Yamaha FGDP-50’s “1950s” Kit in a rockabilly context:

Here’s the Yamah FGDP-50 in an Americana context (I think this was the “Classic Jazz” Kit but can’t remember for sure):

My impression is that the Yamaha FGDP-50 is a bit more convincing in the context of a heavier mix with electric guitars. I think the Yamaha FGDP-50 sounds a bit less believable on an acoustic number like the Americana recording above. I’m not sure why that is. It might be that the Yamaha FGDP-50’s louder drum noises are more convincing than the subtler ones. The kick drums and snares sound pretty realistic to me. But I’m a bit less convinced by the cymbals. Depending on the kit they can sound a tiny bit harsh. I also haven’t figured out how to get a brushes-type effect. (That may be more of a result of my limited command of the Yamaha FGDP-50 than it is reflective of the FGDP-50 itself).

Can I play the Yamaha FGDP-50 at a jam?

I bought the Yamaha FGDP-50 for recording more than for jamming. That said, I actually did use it in a very casual acoustic jam with one acoustic guitar and a vocalist in a smallish room. It was definitely loud enough for that with just the built-in speaker. I think you’ll bump up on the limits of the built-in speaker pretty quickly if you are playing a larger space or trying to keep up with more than a small handful of acoustic instruments. In my opinion, the built-in speaker is not loud enough if you’re trying to jam with a real piano or electric instruments.

Could I gig with the Yamaha FGDP-50?

Let’s put aside aesthetics–I suspect that pulling out an FGDP-50 on stage would look incredibly goofy. In my (untested) opinion, gigging with the Yamaha FGDP-50 is possible but not overly practical. Yes, it is very portable. But one drawback is that the built-in speaker is not nearly loud enough. You could plug the Yamaha FGDP-50 into a PA through the headphone jack. I experimented with that briefly using a preposterous series of adapter plugs. The sound was actually a lot better than I expected, especially given that my PA is a budget model. I do think you would struggle to create realistic dynamics playing the Yamaha FGDP-50 live through a PA, however.

Here’s a very quick iPhone video of the Yamaha FGDP-50 plugged into a cheap PA speaker.

How is the Battery life of the Yamaha FGDP-50?

If you want to take advantage of the Yamaha FGDP-50’s portability, you are reliant on the battery. Yamaha says that it should be good for about three hours of use when fully charged.5 Some internet comments from users suggest that might be optimistic.

For me, it hasn’t really been an issue since I use the Yamaha FGDP-50 for recording. Keep in mind that battery life is not really an issue for recording, because you can use the unit while it’s charging. This means that when I connect my Yamaha FGDP-50 to my laptop for recording, the FGDP-50 is actually charging in the background.

What will my dog think of the Yamaha FGDP-50?

My dog has not registered any particular opinion of the Yamaha FGDP-50, but he’s also very used to me playing instruments and making noise. But, I bought a Yamaha FGDP-50 for my mother. She enjoys playing with it, but her German Shepherd is less fond of the device. She reports that he barks at some of the preset kits that include human voices. Neither dog has demonstrated any ability to play the Yamaha FGDP-50.

Conclusion

It’s possible that my opinions of the Yamaha FGDP-50 will change over time, but overall it’s been one of the most useful investments I’ve made in DIY rock recording. The Yamaha FGDP-50 has opened up a ton of songwriting, arranging, and recording possibilities.

The ease of use is remarkable. The sounds are quite good, particularly if you use the louder sounds like kick drums and snares in a heavier mix. I don’t think an electronic finger drum pad, particularly at this price point, is ever going to be a substitute for a good drummer on a good drum set. But if you’re a guitarist or singer-songwriter looking for an easy way to add some basic drums to your projects, I think the Yamaha FGDP-50 is worth a try.

  1. See https://americansongwriter.com/on-this-day-in-1956-johnny-cash-debuted-the-dollar-bill-trick-that-would-define-his-signature-sound/ ↩︎
  2. For official specs, see https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/drums/finger-drum-pads/fgdp-50/specs.html#product-tabs ↩︎
  3. There’s a diagram in the user manual, but I relied more on trial and error. ↩︎
  4. I have not tried to use the Yamaha FGDP-50 with Windows. ↩︎
  5. https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/drums/finger-drum-pads/fgdp-50/specs.html#product-tabs. ↩︎

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