Other ways of increasing MPC500 pad sensitivity?

Thank you for your reply MPC-Tutor.

Indeed the sensors in the MPC 500 do not seem to be very good, period. While opening up the machine today to put in the tape in the pads I tried playing with my fingers directly on the sensors but I didn't notice too much difference...not great response either way.

With the tape in (6 layers of it on each pad) is as close as I get to playing the sensors directly. It is better than no tape but still pretty hard.

I have a nanoPad 2 also and the difference is abysmal. It is very easy to do a dynamic performance just with one finger on these pads as they are very responsive (I presume the much praised PadKontrol from Korg has the same feel). Fortunately I can play the samples on the MPC with the nanoPad via MIDI (and iConnectMIDI4 standalone). Still, I don't understand why Akai builds such poor pads with so bad action...Probably in the 1000 it is better due to the OS.

Do you still think that buying fat pads would help? Wondering if the extra volume would help, but I guess it will never be a nanoPad/padkontrol either...

Audiophillic wrote:
Do you still think that buying fat pads would help? Wondering if the extra volume would help, but I guess it will never be a nanoPad/padkontrol either...

The fat pads have built in 'corx', but in this respect these do the same job as the layers of electrical tape, i.e. reducing the gap between the underside of the pads and the sensors. So if the tape didn't do the trick, the fat pads wont do it either.

If your sensors are shot, you probably need a new sensor sheet.

BTW, a possible option could be this fix, which definitely works on the 5000 when some of the sensors have completely stopped working, but I reckon this is a completely different issue (there's a big difference between a sensor not working at all, and it still working but less sensitive) so only attempt this if you've already decided to replace the sensors anyway!!

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=159419

BTW, a possible option could be this fix, which definitely works on the 5000 when some of the sensors have completely stopped working, but I reckon this is a completely different issue (there's a big difference between a sensor not working at all, and it still working but less sensitive) so only attempt this if you've already decided to replace the sensors anyway!!

I wouldn't mind trying this, i don't think it will damage anything, it can only improve it. I don't know how long this MPC I bought off ebay has been sitting around and so it may well be that the same thing started to happen (to the air inside the sensors). Have you tried this on your 500? I guess it's the same, do a small cut just outside the border of the black sensor on the top and bottom, correct?