dead pad taken apart...

notice the black square of graphite is ripped....lame.



the graphite sitting on my desk should not freely move around like that.it should be stuck to the gold sensor in the middle....


pic of all the pieces.






i've heard people talk about the circuitworks keypad repairkit working. i might give that a try one day. but for now the mpd-16 midi'd up to my 1000 is all i'm a do for real...

oh and the black frame all the way to the right in the last picture is easy to take off, but putting it back on in the same exact way is a btch.you can putit back on easily, but its hard to get it clamped around the pad as tight and as flush as it needs to be. if its a little off your pad will feel different than all your other pads. not impossible to do, but just something to keep in mind for anyone trying to take their pads apart.

bleh.

I feel ya on this pad thing. As i have mentioned before I've had 4 defective pads replaced by VST. The keyword is defective. I didn't use my pads hard, nor do I now. So because of this I use the full level feature all the time now. At one point and time, before i got my mpc fixed I was thinkin of copping an mpd to use instead, but never did. I love my 1k, but this pad thing kind of errks me to be quite honest.

Now how is this differnt from the 2000 and up. I would assume that the 2000 and up are built simular. Anyone have pictures of that?

Repairing that pad above would be a pain in the a$$. I believe I bought replacement for like eight bucks

I think the 1k is only one with different pads. I belive all the other mpcs are pretty much the as far as assembly. I know th 1k is he only one with 16 seperate pads. instead of it being all one piece.

the 2000 pads are a completely different design and feel.
on 2000's all 16 rubber pads come out together. its a sheet of pads (as opposed to the 1000 having each seperate pad containing the sensor).
if you look on vst's website you can see what i mean.



its my only complaint with the 1000. the pads feel stiff and die quick as hell.
(and before someone asks no, i do not slam on my pads..

so many people i know have had 2000's forever and they NEVER complain about pads going bad.



however their screens get lines and die so i guess there is enough hedaache to go around for us all....

metafor wrote: So because of this I use the full level feature all the time now. At one point and time, before i got my mpc fixed I was thinkin of copping an mpd to use instead, but never did. I love my 1k, but this pad thing kind of errks me to be quite honest.

i can definitely say i feel a difference using the mpd16.
you should still give it a shot, or maybe the trigger finger.

seriously, why have an mpc if you have to use the full level feature all the time??

^^^^^ This is true..... I might consider this. It does suck having to use the full level for various reasons. one being manually programming velocities. But we'll see what happens, or conclusion i come too.

Hey punch... thanks for posting those pad pics... I was curious about how it really looked after hearing people just describe it so many times. Good lookin out.

TBonus76 wrote:Hey punch... thanks for posting those pad pics... I was curious about how it really looked after hearing people just describe it so many times. Good lookin out.

yeah, no sweat man.
figured i might as well take pics since i got it open....





actually this has been my wallpaper for the last couple weeks.
i took it the first day i started going through this hell.

at least i've finally got everything back together and working again (minus two pads of course, but now i can trim and load stuff again).

Many thanks punch for posting those. i took my mpd16 apart, and they look completely different, i'll have to take some pics to show you all.

the mpc1000 pads don't look like piezo sensors, as mpc3000 (i think) suggested, i think maybe the other mpcs have piezo sensors, but the 1k has something else, who knows what.

Strange that they have not revised the design, usually manufactures will bring out a "superseded" part that has the design flaws fixed ,( most other manufactures do this) so maybe we should mass mail them ,

It worries me as well because i know its cheap to replace but living 10 000 KM from the nearest Akai service center means i take extra care regarding pads , (I disconnect all my gear from the wall sockets as well just in case of voltage spikes and im getting a decent pwr conditioner soon as well )

I still think the heat the 1K generates causes the damage to the pads but that just my opinion

I still think the heat the 1K generates causes the damage to the pads but that just my opinion

you could well be right, though i believe it is the constuction of the pads that is the main culprit.

i don't believe that they are piezo sensors, as piezo technology works by a special crystal material giving off a voltage when it is deformed.

the mpc1k pads on the other hand have a conductive pad of graphite (the little black square) and double spiral tracks of copper contacts.

now, when you hit the mpc's pad, the rubber top comes down and presses in the middle point of the graphite square, and so makes a connection between the two contact tracks.

if you hit the pad harder, the underside of the rubber pad (which is slightly domed in shape) deforms a little, so the area of it which is pressing the graphite square onto the copper contact tracks is larger, therefore the voltage getting thru is greater.

now to why the 1k pads break: i believe that the pads in the 1k don't have anything over the graphite squares, though correct me if i'm wrong.

in my mpd16, which i suspect has the same pad structure as the 2000/xl/2500 etc., the graphite squares are much larger, and they are attached to a plastic 'skin' which lays over the top of them, giving them support and protection.

in order to fix the 1k pads, we could stick some form of plastic over the top, but i believe that this would not work in the long run. but something along these line maybe.

@punchdrunk, in your pics it looks like the graphite square was attached to the creamy coloured part of the pad, there's two pieces of it still stuck on it. could you confirm that? many thanks

Good reference to know whats going on underneath it all. Thanks for posting, its always good to know about experiences like this before they happen.

P E A C E

Mr modnaR wrote:

@punchdrunk, in your pics it looks like the graphite square was attached to the creamy coloured part of the pad, there's two pieces of it still stuck on it. could you confirm that? many thanks

if you look in the first picture you can kinda see where the graphite square should have been attached. it should be attached to the gold sensor thing directly in the middle.

if you look at the corners of the sensor you can see the two tiny pieces of graphite that are still stuck to it.


if you could post pictures of the inside of the mpd-16 it would be most appreciated. i just got one and don't plan to take it apart (unless it breaks of course).

peace.

nice post.

do you wanna know something? i haven't used my mpc for about 3-4 weeks becasue ive been busy with holidays, traveling, andschool. anywyas, today i boot it up to see i get 2 dead pads, 1 and 2.

WTF? i hardly even use pads 1 and 2 anymore, AND about a month ago they wen't this bad. yeha they were going downhill, but today they hit the low end of the graph. kind of sudden if you ask me, its like they aged and went bad or something. i am extermely vexed.

i want to use velocity sensitive pads - if i have to use full levels in fear that my pads will die out then wh ydid i pay for velocity sensitve technology?

this is garbage.. FAH Q AKAI

next piece of gear im getting is far from akai,
(out of curiosity, what other drum machine, or good sequencers are out there? PM me, not trying to de-rail this thread)


whats an e-mail address i can e-mail akai at, one that doesn't receive a computer generated response??