Off Topic Disscussion - DELETE

right on man right on, i'm gonna call vst and ask about the pads. see what exactly the material is in those pads. it's gotta be something flexible, and it's gotta be something that conducs - otherwise we wouldn't need the carbon sheets at all.

some guy used tin foil to repair his. that's ghetto, even for ME, and i repaired mine with a goddamn glue stick. however, i'm gonna get to the bottom of this and order me some high quality graphite and high quality glue.

we kick ass.
peace
nym

i see the importance of the flexibility. good lookin on that, bassics. maybe it is plastic, as you mentioned. whatever the case may be, a flexible substitution of something that's not brittle as what's being currently used would make a big difference.

on a sidenote... props to samuraisam too, since i remember him being the first to dissect these pads. all you guys got my appreciation for doing all this. it will definitely make it easier for me and everyone else.

THATS WHATS UP PLS STICKY THIS ALSO ANT & BASS anything else yall find pls dont hesitate to post thanks

yeah big ups to all those takin their sh!t apart cause I tell ya customer support here in Australia for this problem is non existant...the "Authorised Distributor" Electric Factory told me to put it in an email and they would get to it in about a month cause they were just too busy…wtf?

OK, fair enough I didn’t buy my MPC1000 last week, but why should that make my request any less important?.. what about all those who are either under warranty OR just outta warranty? Either way that’s still not accecptable customer support to say sorry we’re too busy…either Akai don’t care what bunch of half assed company’s run their Distributorships or they are unaware…I mean how hard is it for Electric Factory to place an order for say 100 replacement pads [shit that’d cost em a fortune they prolly get em for about $5AU anyways and put 60% + GST on em! and then keep em in stock for the steady flow they are gonna receive of faulty pads coming in.
I would have bought new pads if I had the option but paying VSt $92US to me is not an option

i remember reading about your problem in australia. that really sucks. akai's customer support just sucks in general... but damn, that's a real slap in the face. i'm not gonna go on an akai bashing rant, but i wont hesitate to say that jack o'donnell needs to weed out all the jerkoffs and shape up the customer support on a global level as well as here in the states. some people will say that roland is just as bad, but i really dont care what roland does nowadays and they're irrelevant as far as i'm concerned. anyway, it's gonna take alot of time for akai to shape up customer support from within, as well as their global distributors. hopefully theyre taking notes as they read this thread.

yeah man, I'm tryin not to get on teh soapbox too much [this'll be my last rant promise] but Roland from personal experience here in Aus was really good, I had an old SP 505 and I emailed their support team a few questions and I had a response in no time...as for Electric Factory I suspect they got teh Distro because they been around a while, pity they can't deliver...Electric Factory actually have a fukkin extension to parts dept. that gets answered with " Hi you've reached XXXXX I currently no longer work for electric factory, please call XXXXXX and leave a msg"
How's that for service.......sorry to carry on but really its just the sorta sh!t you shouldn't have to put up with, its pathetic here...basically if you buy an MPC in Australia I suspect your on your own & you better hope you don't need any support.

rant over now

Roland can be hit-or-miss, depending on the situation. I havent had any problems with them from personal experience other than a backorder of parts, which I had to call about. But every situation is defferent. However, Akai's global distribution needs a serious overhaul. I'm sure that Sparq is doing everything he can to pass the word when problems like these come about. I'm not sure if he's read whats going on with you. I recall him telling us that Akai is going through alot of changes for the better (and I was skeptical about that statement at the time), but in time, I'm sure Akai will overhaul their international distribution problems. It seems like a huge issue to tackle, but I suppose it's somewhere on their agenda. Lets hope they take care of you guys down under with more urgency, given the circumstance.

yeah i agree, I don't think its even on their radar tho . A great product still needs the ground support, so yeah I hope for their sake they get it together down here

if not, feed 'em to the sharks!

I suspect that the "carbon" pad is actually a small sheet of electrically conductive rubber. I used to use an Alesis MMT-8 as my main MIDI sequencer, and those are notorious for having problems with their buttons, and the inside of the MPC pads seems quite similar.

This stuff was the fix for the MMT-8 buttons:
http://www.web-tronics.com/rukerekitc.html

It's two chemicals that you mix together to make a sort of conductive paint, for fixing TV remotes and the like. The problem is, once it's mixed, it's only good for about 48 hours, so you can't just keep it on hand. I actually have some still kicking around here, waiting for another MMT-8 repair.

The MMT-8 buttons are *not* pressure sensitive like the MPC pads, but they appear to work on the same principle; the more conductivity you provide between the strips on the circuitboard, the more velocity is registered.

I suspect that you'd have excellent results using something like cotton or cardboard or thin foam rubber, coating it with a thin layer of the conductive goo, then cutting out squares of the appropriate size in a day or so when it's dry... might be worth a try.

i remember seeing someone post something similar not too long ago, but i dont know if they used it. for $10.95, i guess it cant hurt to give it a try. but anyway, the more suggestions, the better.

yo that´s a useful tutorial, thanks alot m8 !!!

*BUMP!!!*

wow nearly 600 views in 24hours...this should be sticky'd...

This thread has just talked me out of getting an MPC 1000. I will wait for the 1000XL to drop next next year.