AKAI MPD218 - is the included software worth it?

[PrestoColumbus]

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TLDR - does anyone use MPC Beats/DrumSynth500? Is it worth learning all that stuff?

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My simple home-based setup. I've never done much with the loopy/sampling stuff.

- DAW -> Reaper on laptop
- keyboard controller -> MAUDIO HAMMER88

I'm pretty happy with this setup, I wanted to add some AKAI MPD218 pads.

The MPD218 editor is pretty easy, just connect the MPD218 and edit bits how you want.

The MPC "beats" app seems like it's trying to be some sort of DAW? It's pretty confusing and doesn't respond the way I think it will. Is this app useful and worth spending the time trying to learn it? Or is it just junk they include with the MPD218 that is largely ignored?

Also there something called DrumSynth500 that might be some sort of vsti, but there's a complicated ilok manager and looks like they want me to pay for it which i'm not really interested in. Or is this software free for having the MPD218 and I have to jump thru some hoops to enable the vsti?

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thanks in advance for any experience you can share

 

[PrestoColumbus]

well i figured out I was just feeling obligated to use it because it came bundled with the hardware.

i wanted the hardware, i'm happy with the hardware, the hardware was worth what i paid for it

the extra software i didn't want. it may be good but i have what i need so i'm just going to delete it and be happy with the hardware controller that does what i want it to do.

i found a bunch of threads on reddit of people asking the same question. Someone bought an Akai thing, couldn't figure out the bundled software, and asked if it was worth the effort to learn when they already had an daw and vdsi's they were happy with