Akai MPC Live pads sensitivity

Hi,

since i have pretty much the same problem, i hope it's ok if i post in this thread.
I got my mpc live 2 days ago and while i enjoy much of the functionality i'm still wondering if my pads are working correctly. I also have to apply a lot of pressure to get them to trigger (settings: sensitivity: 16; threshhold: 3 (lowest without ghost triggers)).

Due to the pad construction (they seem to have hole in the middle for the led) i can get better results when i play the edges of the pads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luxyUk4rVWU
I recorded a short video where i compare the live (played at the center of the pads) to the mpc2kxl; unfortunately i messed up the sound a little bit and it's not that easy to hear it, but the 2kxl triggers everything correctliy then i switch over to the live and applly the same pressure. The two pads on the left (my kick & hihat) have a few dropouts and the pad on the right (my snare) almost never triggers at all. Then there is a comparison of triggering single pads.

I already searched the internet for answers but didn't really find an answer if this is the normal behaviour. Some say they never had issues, others say it needs time to break in and some say you just have to play the live with more force than other mpcs.

So i would really appreciate if any live owner could take the time and watch the video and tell me if this is a normally functioning live or if it seems like there is something wrong with the pads. So i know if i should send it back or work on getting better results by adjusting my style of playing like hitting the edges of the pads etc.

Thanks in advance!

KAS off Course wrote:Hi,

since i have pretty much the same problem, i hope it's ok if i post in this thread.
I got my mpc live 2 days ago and while i enjoy much of the functionality i'm still wondering if my pads are working correctly. I also have to apply a lot of pressure to get them to trigger (settings: sensitivity: 16; threshhold: 3 (lowest without ghost triggers)).

Due to the pad construction (they seem to have hole in the middle for the led) i can get better results when i play the edges of the pads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luxyUk4rVWU
I recorded a short video where i compare the live (played at the center of the pads) to the mpc2kxl; unfortunately i messed up the sound a little bit and it's not that easy to hear it, but the 2kxl triggers everything correctliy then i switch over to the live and applly the same pressure. The two pads on the left (my kick & hihat) have a few dropouts and the pad on the right (my snare) almost never triggers at all. Then there is a comparison of triggering single pads.

I already searched the internet for answers but didn't really find an answer if this is the normal behaviour. Some say they never had issues, others say it needs time to break in and some say you just have to play the live with more force than other mpcs.

So i would really appreciate if any live owner could take the time and watch the video and tell me if this is a normally functioning live or if it seems like there is something wrong with the pads. So i know if i should send it back or work on getting better results by adjusting my style of playing like hitting the edges of the pads etc.

Thanks in advance!

This is the exact same problem I had, but unfortunately I don' t have other MPC style for comparison. I'll buy another unit sono anyway, but that' annoying

So at least we‘re talking about the same „problem“, let‘s see if we find an answer. I would just really be curious to hear from someone whos happy with the pads on his/her unit if they get better results if they try to use the same playing style.

Because many of the complaints i read online were from people playing more pads at the same time with different fingers. And i can say myself that using 2 fingers to trigger one pad, like seen in a lot of videos, works a lot better, it just sadly isn‘t my playing style .

Also once the pads do trigger i can feel that they do have a good range of volume levels etc. so it feels like it could be the gap between the pad and the sensor is to blame and not like the sensors are bad or anything.

„Unfortunately“ i bought my unit as „B-Stock“ (had 2.4 firmware installed, so shouldn‘t be the one ciccio has sent back ). So the chance might be higher that it‘s a bad one. But on the other hand i have to pay 80€ more for a new one, so if i send it back it would be nice if someone took the time to recreate this with their mpc and tell me if they expect that an other unit will be any different from that one. ( i know it‘s hard to judge via video and there is no guarantees etc. but some opinion would be great)

Your sounds might be getting "canceled" by Time Correct. If you have it set to 1/8 but are trying to play your notes at 1/16, it's going to move them to the closest 1/8 note and it's going to sound like anything in between got erased. Try switching the TC option to 1/16 to see if that fixes that issue.

Thanks for the tipp, but i usually have TC set to „off“ and set the polyphony for my drums to 4 voices so that they wouldn‘t get cut off if i have double triggering etc.

OK, I received a new unit, it has the same pad as the old one, it even has the same knobs issue
Seems like monotremata was right and I need to practice a lot to get confortable.
It feel strange anyway, I've seen a lot of videos of David fingers haynes, I know he is a beast, but seems like he play really gently to get the right sound of a drum

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but this might be useful:

I'm in the same situation - MPC newb, got a Live 2 this week, and the pads were super stiff - weird double triggers and cancellation. I put it down to bad technique at first. But I kept having trouble, even with Full Level.

It's taken a few days to arrive at this setting, but changing the pad curve to D really helped. I guess it's some kind of exponential curve.

My settings are:

Pad Threshold - 3
Pad Sensitivity - 8
Pad Curve - D

Now I can happily finger drum, and also play instruments with expressive aftertouch. I expect as the pads give, I'll end up changing these settings, but for a new Live 2 out of the box, the above seems to work well (at least for me).

Its February 20, 2022 I recently bought another Black version of the MPC Live 2 and the first one I sent in to be fixed because of Pat's sensitivity having the exact same issue and thought that it was broken or malfunctioning because comparing it to my friend's ex and his retro MPC Live 2 the pads were way more sensitive on his than mine. I found the same situation where you really had to hit hard on the pads compared to the mpcx or the MPC live to retro. Yesterday I purchased another MPC Live 2 the Black version once again and it's the same issue right out of the box once again pads are very hard and don't trigger most of the time unless you hit them pretty hard. I also noticed going through pad sensitivity from the highest setting to the lowest setting made no difference they hit exactly the same as if there were no adjustment. I noticed the software version on this one was 2.6 and it's currently at 2.10.1 so this thing must have been made a while ago. Wondering if maybe they got a bad batch of pad sensor templates that got sent out. Now deciding whether to just get my money back and forget it all together because this is the second one that's had an issue or to try to maybe get the gold or retro edition and see if there any different but nobody's wanting to open a box to check that sensitivity which is making me consider just getting my money back and forgetting using MPC all together.

I find MPC pad sensitivity is one of the most variable hardware issues, I have many MPC models and every single unit has its own unique pad sensitivity profile. And none of them are as good as the sensitivity on my MPK249 keyboard's pads, nor a patch on my Mashine Micro 2. I returned a Live 2 retro as the pads were too insensitive in the centre. My MPC One has consistent pad sensitivity across each pad, but they are overall noticeably less sensitive compared to my MPC Live Mk 1 and MPC Touch. MPC Studio and Ren had completely different sensitivity as well. I've opened up an MPC Touch before and I really can't see how the snesor design can lead to such variability, there doesn't appear to be any likelihood of there being any 'gaps' between the pads and the sensor array like there could be on the old legacy models (sorted by adding a layer or two of electrical tape under each pad).