MPC Live pad sensitivity

I'm kind of struggling with the pad sensitivity on my new Live, no matter what settings I use I still feel like I'm slapping the pads pretty hard to get them to trigger.

I'm coming from a Maschine MK3 where I only had to slightly brush a pad for it to trigger, so not sure if its just a case of getting used to these stiffer pads? This is my first Akai product so I'm not sure how stiff the pads are actually supposed to be, I've only got the Maschine to go by.

Also, with the pad threshold at 1 I'm getting random pad triggering while the MPC is just sitting there. It seems that lowering the threshold is actually making them sensitive, but still requiring a bit of force to trigger with my hand, so not sure whats going on there...

I have already updated the unit to 2.7 just to rule out any firmware gremlins.

jamesfoley wrote:I'm kind of struggling with the pad sensitivity on my new Live, no matter what settings I use I still feel like I'm slapping the pads pretty hard to get them to trigger.

I'm coming from a Maschine MK3 where I only had to slightly brush a pad for it to trigger, so not sure if its just a case of getting used to these stiffer pads? This is my first Akai product so I'm not sure how stiff the pads are actually supposed to be, I've only got the Maschine to go by.

Also, with the pad threshold at 1 I'm getting random pad triggering while the MPC is just sitting there. It seems that lowering the threshold is actually making them sensitive, but still requiring a bit of force to trigger with my hand, so not sure whats going on there...

I have already updated the unit to 2.7 just to rule out any firmware gremlins.

It’s possible you have a bum unit, though it’s also possible Akai just has stiffer pads than most Maschine pads. Is it an option to exchange your MPC for a new unit to rule out you having a bum unit?

For reference, I also find my MPC Live far stiffer than my old M-Audio Trigger Finger Pro (which were super sensitive without random triggering and the pads themselves were also far softer). It might just be an Akai thing.

Never used machine so I cannot compare to it, but I do find the Akai Live/X to be more responsive than my MPC 1k pads. I've been considering upgrading to the thick pads to check out how much more responsive those are, but haven't bitten the bullet for that yet.

Same here, never used Maschine, but I had an MPC Studio Black before the Live and the Studio was a pain in the ass for the first month or two. The pads on it were so stiff I had to turn the sensitivity way up and basically just beat it for a few weeks every day before I could use it at the default settings again. My Live right out of the box was ready to go. I haven't had to touch the pad settings yet and this thing is working just the way it should. I don't know if they're the same pads as the Studio or not but my Live feels more like my older MPD226. That thing rocks and is so easy to play.

That definitely sounds like a hardware problem to me, with the random triggering and all that.

EnochLight wrote:It’s possible you have a bum unit, though it’s also possible Akai just has stiffer pads than most Maschine pads. Is it an option to exchange your MPC for a new unit to rule out you having a bum unit?

For reference, I also find my MPC Live far stiffer than my old M-Audio Trigger Finger Pro (which were super sensitive without random triggering and the pads themselves were also far softer). It might just be an Akai thing.

I've sent an email to Andertons where I bought it from, but I'm fairly certain I should be able to exchange the unit for another. Just waiting to hear back.

What is odd that after playing with it some more, hitting the corners and the edges of the pads is much more reliable. It is just the centre of the pads which require much more force to trigger the pad.

It sounds off... It may not be exact science, but I doubt it'd feel radically different from Machine.

On the other hand, one of my boys cannot play the MPC X without creating double hits and ghost notes, and you'd think he was trying to put his fist through the pads when he hits them. "Hit it like this" just doesn't translate very well for him I suppose

Good luck man!

I felt like I had to hit my Studio Black pads way too hard. Either that or they were so sensitive that they always triggered at 127%. I put the pad corx in from MPC Stuff, and they are much better. They still feel stiff though. Probably will put the fat pads in as well.

The pads on my machine mikro mark 2 are much more sensitive than those on an MPC live, I'd assume the same is true for the MK3 series