Noob has pad sensitivity questions!!!

I bought a blue MPC new 2 years ago but I’m only just now starting to work with it. Loaded the JJ OS (4.89) , bought the MPC Beat-Making Tutorial off this website, and have made it to chapter 15: time to start recording my first sequences.

As I started to record my first track, I noticed a very annoying “double-triggering” of the sound as I hit some of the pads. As an experiment, I started over, and re-loaded the same drumkit I was trying to record a sequence with earlier. Discovered that if I simply *play* the pads and am not in “record” mode, I don’t have the double-triggering issue, which leads me to believe that I’ve missed something basic in my understanding of the setup instructions.

(Yes, I know the standard-issue Blue MPC pads are crap, and will replace them after Christmas – but in the meantime, I want to be sure I’m using this machine properly so I can continue to work my way through the tutorial and eventually actually make some *music* with it!!!)

So – I’ve got two basic issues:

1) is there any reason I’d get double-triggering in record but not when I’m on the “main screen” just noodling around playing the pads?

2) Reading through the JJ OS online manual regarding pad sensitivity parameters, as well as the explanation in Stan Steez’s unofficial manual – I still don’t get it!

Haven’t got a clue as to what these numbers and parameters actually mean. If someone could help break this down for me – I’m looking at that screen you get when you select
MODE + PAD 10 (other) and then select F4 (pad) which shows 16 pads with a line of numbers at the top, selectable for each pad…what, exactly does THAT number do?

And the part of the screen to the right of those pad numbers has options for setting Sensitivity (the default is 127,) Velocity (default: 0) and Pressure: (0)

So – where do I go from here?

one more thing…at the top of the JJ OS online manual page, it says:
“***Notes***
Those who exchanged the pad for a new pad or are using MPC1000 BK-N need to adjust pad sensitivity first.” So – the more I learn about how to do this NOW with the old crappy pads, the better I’ll be able to make the adjustments when I get the new ones (once I know what they mean.)

And I’ll bet I’m not the only one who has questions about this stuff.

Hey Rainbird, I believe JJ has gone through a couple of pad sensitivity revisions in the last few versions of the OS, you might find some benefit in updating to 4.93 ... hope it helps

I *do* intend to upgrade to the latest OS - as well as springing for
Version 2 when it comes out sometime in December...but I think
the issues I'm having and my lack of basic understanding of the
parameters goes WAY deeper, which is why I posted this to the
main MPC-1000 board rather than the JJ-OS-specific one.

So if anyone has a life-raft to toss me, I'd be much obliged.

you did nothing with your akai for two years?

True. Long story.

Not going there, either.

Anyway, the important thing is that I'm into it NOW.

And I got out the original Akai manual this morning and
looked up the section on "pad sensitivity" and also realized
that I had skimmed over p. 80 on the MPC-Tutor tutorial
as I was thinking somewhere in the back of my mind "this
will all change when I get the new pads." That's no excuse
for not learning how this thing works. I'll do more homework
before posting again.