how hard should it be to play 'original' mpc1000 pads?

I bought an mpc1000 recently on ebay with the original pad design, and the guy described it as "gently used, works perfectly". I contacted him before the sale to confirm that all the buttons and card reader, etc worked, and told him that I understand it's used and expect that a few pads may be dying or something, but just wanted to know everything upfront. He just reiterated that it does work perfectly and was fully tested (he doesn't sell audio specific equipment, looks like he sells all kinds of consumer electronics).

I finally got it today, and it feels like a few pads are easy to play normal/slightly heavy pressure, about half require some pretty heavy hits with 2+ fingers, and the other half I have to hit REALLY hard with almost all my fingers to get them to play. I did make sure I was hitting pads that had samples assigned.

I'm wondering how hard you should really have to hit these things, and what is reasonable to expect for a used mpc. Is it common for a "gently used" mpc1000 to have pads in that condition?

The guy has a 100% feedback rating, so I doubt he's trying to screw me, (and I was planning to do the pad upgrade anyway), but it doesn't quite sit right that this thing feels almost unusable for that many pads to be so hard to make work.

The model is the MPC1000BK, and I payed about 395. Everything looks clean, the only issues are that and one loose end cap with some broken tabs, but don't really care about that.

Thanks,
Tyree G.

When I was testing this at first I had the pads set to 'full level' and was hitting in the center of the pads. I noticed that for many of them if I hit toward the upper or lower edge of the pad (sometimes left/right but others not) it's only really bad on a few of them and the rest are ok. But if I take "full levels" off, I get mixed results. Usually the upper part of the pad works the best, but for some I hit it hard and the sound is sill really low (quiet).

I was looking in the manual, but I don't see anything specific about certain parts of the pad being meant to respond differently for playing samples. Sorry if this is pointed out somewhere/a dumb question, but I'm trying to figure out if this is something I should just be taking as reasonable for a used mpc, or if I should be talking to the seller to try and get some money back I can put to the pad upgrade.

Do you have "pad sensivity" screen in mode10 & F4?

Original pads were breaking pretty fast if one was playing with no full level and hittin them hard.

Pad sensitivity should be consistent across all 16 pads and you shouldn't have to whack the pads to get a decent level. You should aim to hit the pads centrally as even with perfect pads you'll find hitting the edge will sometimes not work correctly.

In a nutshell, it sounds like you have a worn out, failing set of pads, which you would fully expect on an 8 year old MPC1000 with the original pad design installed.

I would assume the seller just switched it on, saw everything light up, hit some pads and assumed all was okay.

If you were planning to get the pad upgrade regardless, them perhaps no big deal as long as you are happy paying $395 for it.

If you don't mind playing with full level, I suggest you get a roll of aluminium tape and tape pieces of it under the rubber pads, that's what I did. I got my Mpc 1000 for 220€ and the tape cost me 4€

Thanks for all the replies. Just looked up the pad sensitivity feature, I'll check that out. Yeah, I don't know that it's worth the trouble of arguing with the seller, I just wish he either would have been more up front about what he did/didnt' check.

As far as I could tell, for ebay at least the price wasn't great or terrible, just about average for a BK. I might have been able to wait around for a better deal there or on craigslist, but I'm happy with it. Plus I could wait around only to end up with the same thing if it's that common/expected, so I guess it's cool. That pad upgrade ain't cheap though, damn!

While i'm learning I'll just deal with what I have / try a DIY solution until I'm ready to get the upgrade. Thanks again for the help!

i got some stock pads for sale cheap!

I have a blue 1000 that I (stupidly, complacently) have not fixed yet. The bottom four are FUBAR and they require the strength and precision of ancient kung-fu masters to play on. Been saying I'll upgrade for a while but that just hasn't happened. Soon... (I'll keep telling myself )

medearis wrote:I have a blue 1000 that I (stupidly, complacently) have not fixed yet. The bottom four are FUBAR and they require the strength and precision of ancient kung-fu masters to play on.

LOL! Yeah, that's how it feels if they aren't on full level on some of them. Not so bad at full if I hit the edge of the pad for now... That upgrade is not cheap, but I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and do it now instead of waiting... I'm sure it'll feel way better.

I'd jump on it. It's a full-blown upgrade, not just a copy of what you already have in your MPC... whole new mechanism. I would have upgraded by now but I can't get myself off of my SP. Think I'll be fixing them as a Christmas gift to myself though.

yeah, I checked out the install video before and saw the differences. That's funny, "Christmas gift to myself" was the justification I was using too, lol.

Merry Christmas!