FIX YOUR DEAD PADS - PICS & INSTRUCTIONS INSIDE

Smoove03 wrote:

monophonic wrote:I haven't banged a 2K, um, on a.. lol

what I dislike about the 1K pads is that when you hit the corners, it feels like there's nothing underneath them.. I had a problem with the notes repeating when I hit the pads, but turns out it's just my way of playing. (cause I'm used to programming beats on keys.. I hit and release the pad real quick, I was told I should give it a push-like hit)

offtopic: do you have that problem on the 2k?

my fault im just gettin back to this thread...

well on the 2k you have to hit the pad with some authority. if you tap it too lightly sometimes or hit it on the corner, it may double tap. i used to think something was wrong with my pads, but naw. you have to hit them in the center and hit them like you mean it sometimes lol. dont be afraid to abuse your pads

I guess the 2K uses the same pads mechanism.. or, the same pad sensitivity, cause that's exactly what happens on the 1K.

bassics wrote: (...)

Wow mp, these are great pics...very clear!!, I haven't been on here in a while but this very detailed, nice one...I remebered a while back someone talked about using aluminium foil and he accidentally shorted out his MPC...well I decided to give this a go [not teh shorting out bit haha] the reason I wanted to try this is after a few carbon re-makes I still kept finding the pads would slowley die on me.

OK,what I did was,once the pads were open I fixed a rectangular piece of foil exactly the size of the sensor etch to the underside of the pad, again I used the UHU glue and let dry in the sun for pretty much all day, I put it all back together again that nite and it works better than any other thing I've tried so far, EXTREMELY responsive, kinda feels like you have 0-127 velocity in a faster curve, I found performing "ghost" notes easy to do by resting my finger on the pad and lightly pressing when needed, I also found I didn't need to "pound" the pads as hard...I have only done the 2 faulty pads so far but will remove all pads and discard the carbon in favour of the foil over the weekend...I hope that helps...my next thing is to remove the "Numeric" button and swap it for the "Up" cursor as its starting to play up on me...pce

Clear Pix = Nikon Coolpix (sounds like a stupid slogan )
hehe, my 3.34 megapixel digital camera is obsolete now.. I need to upgrade.

Did the short occur from using the foil on the pads? that sounds unlikely..
he must have did something else!

You said "extremely responsive".. that I like!!
very tempting!
except that my carbon are in top shape now.
I'll keep that in mind for later.. when the pads start going downhill.

Cheers!

personally speaking i think aluminium foil is a bad idea. it conducts electricity significantly better than carbon, and therefore will reduce the dynamic range of the pads, meaning that it'll be hard to accurately get the particular response you want from them. you're better off using Antonym's modification, and if you want ultra-responsive, use full level. my 0.02c

monophonic, i think what i read ages ago was the guy didn't fix his foil piece down properly or he made the piece too big and it came in contact with the frame thus shorting...

modnar, I only ended up going this route after repeatedly fixing my pads both with the original method & then by fixing to the underside of the pad but eventually they both lost their sensivity over time. After several attempts I bought an MPD16 and started using Battery again.

I have found the aluminium foil replacement to be just the thing for me. I won't be taking photos, starting a post or encuraging others to do so, just wanted to let ppl know that it is actually possible & it worked really well for me.
It is a shorter curve I agree because of the increased conduction but its weird cause that is exactly what I wanted, I feel I have greater control even doing ghost notes...anyways...maybe it won't last for me just like the carbon repairs but I really felt it was either do something or let it gather dust in the corner.

monophonic wrote:In order to get to know the MPC a little better, I felt like opening it. (maybe that doesn't make sense to you, but it does to me . Besides, a little cleanup can't hurt. Now I happen to have my trusty Coolpix990 nearby, so I took pictures of the whole procedure. And added some green circles where something needs to be done. Think of it as an addendum to the original post.

I wanted to inspect the carbon in my pads, so after reading the 1st post, here's what I think: once you remove the grey rubber pad from the base, there is no way to get the pad back under the black-metal-frame that used to hold it [pic 15].. So if you want to restore the pad to their factory-like state, you have to remove the whole pad board [pic 07] and use a knife to loosen the black-frame clips [pic 15] and fit the pad under it. I did just that. When the pad finally was back in place, I used pliers to tighten the frame around the pad. I covered the pliers with some black duck take to avoid damaging the black-metal-frame [last pic]. Notice the contact points of the pliers with the pad.. when you apply pressure that way, the pad will fit nicely and feel solid just like it was.

For those of you who think this is a redundant post, it's cool.. As for the others who have had issues with their MPCs but weren't sure/didn't have the courage to open their box.. here ya go! Now anyone* can do it.

Highlights:
-there's 9 screws to open MPC: 6 external + 1 flat one near Compact Flash [pic 06] + 2 underneath Compact Flash cover [pic 06].
-4 that hold the pad board + 2 cables
-2 that hold each pad + 1 cable

hope this helps at least 1 person out there. peace.
M.J.

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damn man i never knew u can remove t he whole board shit!!!! lol , i think this whole pad think can be designed differently , like make it like the other mpc's design , I HOPE AKAI WORKS ON THAT

seatown350 wrote:I HOPE AKAI WORKS ON THAT

dont hold your breath lol. be another decade before they worry about another pad design

my mpd is actually growing dust because i'm so comfortable now with my 1000 pads after i rereglued them

they just are gonna take a bit of maintanance over time is all, no big deal. i've grown comfortable with that.

Smoove03 wrote:

seatown350 wrote:I HOPE AKAI WORKS ON THAT

dont hold your breath lol. be another decade before they worry about another pad design

man then i'll buy that when they release it , i'll jus wait for that instead of fixing my pads , not that there is anythin wrong wid at this moment

my contact is workin great

i like the 1k pads better now than the mpd pads.

Ummmmmm..... when the use of a small knife was suggested in the first post, Im thinking now, it wasnt to be used to actually cut the rubber away to lift it up was it?? LMAO That shyt was not trying to lift up using the tweezers.

Guess I'll be ordering a new one after all.

Eddie Kain wrote:Ummmmmm..... when the use of a small knife was suggested in the first post, Im thinking now, it wasnt to be used to actually cut the rubber away to lift it up was it?? LMAO That shyt was not trying to lift up using the tweezers.

Guess I'll be ordering a new one after all.

The knife was meant to pry the rubber out. But I found that it didnt work so well and ended with a small hole in the rubber. So I removed the entire pad assembly in order to remove the metal frame to get at the sensors instead. It was much easier that way, since I needed to repair three pads. As long as you take your time pulling the whole assembly (as illustrated a few posts back), you'll find it alot easier once it's done.

Yo thanks for this thread everyone who risked their MPC experimenting with
better methods. Pad 7 has just gone so ima have to get my handyman on.

Just regarding the use of a magnetic screwdriver. There's no way I'd be
putting any sort of magnetic ish near my hardware, maybe its safe i dont know,
but it seems kinda dumb to have it near such sensitive equipment (hard drive, ram etc).

yeah don't use a mag screwdriver
just a little one
it's tedious but worth it. i'm still running on the contact cement solution.

seatown350 wrote:

monophonic wrote:In order to get to know the MPC a little better, I felt like opening it. (maybe that doesn't make sense to you, but it does to me . Besides, a little cleanup can't hurt. Now I happen to have my trusty Coolpix990 nearby, so I took pictures of the whole procedure. And added some green circles where something needs to be done. Think of it as an addendum to the original post.

I wanted to inspect the carbon in my pads, so after reading the 1st post, here's what I think: once you remove the grey rubber pad from the base, there is no way to get the pad back under the black-metal-frame that used to hold it [pic 15].. So if you want to restore the pad to their factory-like state, you have to remove the whole pad board [pic 07] and use a knife to loosen the black-frame clips [pic 15] and fit the pad under it. I did just that. When the pad finally was back in place, I used pliers to tighten the frame around the pad. I covered the pliers with some black duck take to avoid damaging the black-metal-frame [last pic]. Notice the contact points of the pliers with the pad.. when you apply pressure that way, the pad will fit nicely and feel solid just like it was.

For those of you who think this is a redundant post, it's cool.. As for the others who have had issues with their MPCs but weren't sure/didn't have the courage to open their box.. here ya go! Now anyone* can do it.

Highlights:
-there's 9 screws to open MPC: 6 external + 1 flat one near Compact Flash [pic 06] + 2 underneath Compact Flash cover [pic 06].
-4 that hold the pad board + 2 cables
-2 that hold each pad + 1 cable

hope this helps at least 1 person out there. peace.
M.J.

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damn man i never knew u can remove t he whole board ****!!!! lol , i think this whole pad think can be designed differently , like make it like the other mpc's design , I HOPE AKAI WORKS ON THAT

Yo, this really helped me Thank YOU! SOO MUCH!

Thank you for quoting the entire post!