Akai MFC42 hum problems

Here's a question.
For those getting the hum is your unit the Gray and White or the Blue unit?

Could be something in the early units or a corner they cut in the later units.

As far as the MFC being better than the Factory that's not an easy statement to make.

They are different in sounds and features and originally they the price was almost the same.
When you compared the sound of the two you would quickly see that they were really different in their sound.

At the time the MFC came out I compared it to the the filter input on my Prodigy, The Filter Factory and Sherman 1.

Ended up selling it to a friend.

ntalec wrote:Here's a question.
For those getting the hum is your unit the Gray and White or the Blue unit?

Mine is the grey and white.
Didnt know there was a Blue.
was it the same colors as the MPC2000XL-MCD blue one?

ntalec wrote:Could be something in the early units or a corner they cut in the later units.

Could be.

ntalec wrote:At the time the MFC came out I compared it to the the filter input on my Prodigy, The Filter Factory and Sherman 1.

if 1 is the best to your ears and 4 the worst, in what order would you put MFC, PRODIGY, FILTER FACTORY and SHERMAN1 ?

ntalec wrote:Ended up selling it to a friend.

If I cant fix mine im up for selling it. Maybe someone else can fix it and put it to use...

Yeah the Blue was to match the MCD.

The Prodigy would sound the best for what I wanted which was a smooth ballsy filter.
My Prodigy was one of the early units that I had to do the CV/Gate and the input mod to add them.

The Sherman 1 was an amazing filter but it's a really aggressive filter that can do some extreme things.
It's probably more than most people are after and pretty costly.
The reason I prefer the Prodigy was the Sherman required that you watched out so you didn't get heavy handed.

The Filter Factory sounded more analog than the MFC but at the same time wasn't like older analog gear.

The MFC wasn't a bad sounding filter just think of it more like a classic DJ filter with better resonance and control.

Any would easily be a a useable filter.

yea mine is the older grey unit too .... seeing this almost got me wantin to open it up .... i found a repair guy localy that said hes pretty sure he can fix it ... but if its as simple as retouchin the solder joints then maby i should give it a shot .... i dont run up a service bill equivalent to wut i bought it for lol ... hmmm i might let dj alx go first on this one see what he goes thru and then decide ! im rootin for you yo! lol

I have this same problem with the left output emitting a noisy hum/ringing sound which, especially when filtering the low-end, is really problematic.

I've problem shooted as far as I can, everything is grounded to the same output, the switch is on line rather than phono and you can hear the sound in headphones as well as speakers so it's definitely coming from the MFC.

Was anyone able to solve this issue? If soldering helps, where exactly should be re-soldered. Any help would be appreciated!

Kalou wrote: If soldering helps, where exactly should be re-soldered.

Pretty much anywhere you see a solder joint. You can go over it with a high-powered magnifiing glass to see if you can spot any cracks, but cold solder joints can sometimes be very hard to spot visually so a complete once-over is the safest bet.

Thanks for the response. Did you have this problem too and if so did you soldering manage to fix it?

I really like the filter, but at the moment it's kind of useless for stereo filtering with the low end hum and I won't want to have to sell it as such!

I don't have any specific info on the MFC42, cold solder joints are just a common problem. I have fixed other terminally malfunctioning gear just by retouching connections thou.

Just to be clear do you mean apply fresh solder to the already existing joints or remove the old solder and put fresh joints on? The latter would be a bit risky, and I'd rather just sample with the R channel in mono to avoid any serious damage.

Unless a connection is obviously lacking solder the only thing you have to do is reheat the joints. No new application or removal of solder needed.

i took mine into a repair shop and the guy charged me 40 bux kept it for a month and ...then called me up saiyin there was no hum i agued with the guy and he basicly said im crazy... any way he was old and probaly def .....sure enuff i toolk it home and it was hummin ... fukin bulllshit ! thinkin bout takin a trip to LA and let vst's look at it ... or might get brave and check for cold solder joints

billynojokes wrote: hmmm i might let dj alx go first on this one see what he goes thru and then decide ! im rootin for you yo! lol

http://lockerz.com/s/237904305

I just opened up mine. I GOTS to fix this since my Vestax PMC05Pro2 just failed working...

hey guys,

I fell in love with the MFC42 recently.

but i get a distorted noise (like vibrating metall) when i'm in Low Pass or Band Pass mode, with Cutoff somewhere around 10 o'clock:
https://soundcloud.com/defex/mfc42-lowp ... 92/s-il0vm
(to test i switch to my Xone92 filter from 0:06 till 0:10)


first i picked up a MFC quite cheap, it is a bit worn out (1 poti broken, 2 starting to fail),
and now i found another one, that looks like new - while i gave the first one to a friend to hopefully fix it.

both are from the grey series and they seem to share the same problem as described above, also they sound the same on mono and stereo filter.
also i tried 6 different cables & it also sound the same on the headphones.
what do you think? i guess that's not the hum you meant?
do i have bad luck - or should it really sound like this by construction?

any cure?

thank you
D