do pads soften with time?

i know the topic of pads has been done to death BUT...

heres a question for users who have had their 500s for a while... do the pads soften up with time? i just got mine n they stiff as, so wondering will a good 'breaking in' make any difference or are they just permanently like that..

i mean after reading that the 500 had the legendary feel of the mpc pads i was a bit disappointed.


and yes ive turned up the pad sensitivity to the max. but what is the difference between the velocity curves ABC&D??

thanks for the help!!

I don't know about the pad softening..I've had my Mpc just for two months

But...Some things I do with these iffystiffy pads.
Full levels, of course. Then when I need some precise velocity editing etc I use the 12 levels function.
From the program mode you can also change the velocity>volume value, that might be helpful at times..
Oh yeah, of course I keep pad sensitivity at 16.

About the curves..
I use A curve. It gives the full velocity most easily, but it doesn't give as much variability in the velocity
as the other curves (if u wanna do snare rolls, percussion, etc). I don't know if i can explain it

Good way to test the curves is to to use note repeat function, u dont have to hit the pads, just push them to see how
they react in differend pressures.

i got my 500 used, but more or less good as new.. i was also a bit dissapointed with the "legendary" feel of the pads at first, they were more stiff then... well use ur imagination...
but after a couple of days of intense use/abuse, they got smoother than smooth.

Lampdog wrote:They will soften with more and more actual USAGE.

lol thats what i meant by softening up with time. i wouldnt expect them to soften up on their own accord

I don't see what's so bad about them. The stiffer they are the more room you have for level variation. If they're too soft you're always just getting high levels.

Lampdog wrote:
"Can the pads soften on their own or is there a function to automatically make them softer according to
what samples I place in it?"

lmao

bedouin wrote:I don't see what's so bad about them. The stiffer they are the more room you have for level variation. If they're too soft you're always just getting high levels.

true. but its just helps my groove much more if the pads are soft and you can really get busy without hurtin your fingertips. i hate jammin out on the mpc when u have to consciously bash the pads it takes out of the performance i reks

the MPC500 doesn't have the dying pad problem like the MPC1000, right?

emptysea wrote:the MPC500 doesn't have the dying pad problem like the MPC1000, right?

nope it has the standard sensors

for a good example of super responsive soft pads check out the korg padkontrol.

I've been using it to enter beats into the mpc with!

I have both and MPC500 pads are actually softer than the ones on padkontrol. It's not so much a question of will the MPC500 pads get softer but will they get more responsive/sensitive with more use.

I have the MPC500 pads set to sens. level 16 and curve A on all pads but it's still nowhere as responsive as the padkontrol pads. Even when using Full Level, the MPC500 pads struggle compared to padkontrol, especially when trying to play melodies with bass/synth samples. Padkontrol can easily act like a keyboard controller whereas the 500 pads have a hard time keeping sustain.

My theory with the 500 pads is that perhaps Nukai overcompensated on the design of the 500 pads after their unacknowledged disaster that was the MPC1000 pads and made the 500 pads super durable, and less sensitive as a result of that.

emptysea- very insightful!

softer pads, but very different response.

so, the question now is: will replacement pads or breaking in the 500 pads help them become more responsive like the PK?

it's really just a personal preference. some people love the mpc500 pads.

personally, I love the PK pads and would like to figure out a way to make the 500 more like the PK.

sometimes i spend hours with the 500 turned off just bashing the pads (mainly pads 6-12) to break them in. hope this works, cos stiff pads suck