big pads on the 1000

This may end up a bit of a pipe dream idea but i'll post it anyway for fun.

Got a nice new shiny faceplate kit for the 1000 the other day, and while i was taking the old one off i started wondering whether the big pads from the mpd16, etc and other mpc's have the same kind of setup ribbon cable that goes to the PCB board for the new 1000 upgraded pads. Someone may be thinkin "of course they do", but anyways, i had an urge to find out, so i grabbed the screw driver and took apart my mpd16, which i use as midi so i can have either 32 pads(eg bank A on the mpc and bank B on the mpd16) or just simply coz they feel better anyways. I sussed the ribbon cable and checked that all the wire bits go to the same ways etc. as the ones on the new 1000 pad setup, and yes, they do! So now of i course i couldn't help myself from trying this out: I took the ribbon cable for the new 1000 pad censors out of the small connection piece that goes to the PCB board and slotted in the one from the mpd16. And it worked! Although i couldn't get any good type of positioning to really use the pads properly, i've at least found that the bigger pads for other mpc's and mpd's are compatible with the new 1000 pad upgrade PCB board. Everything on the mpd16 pads work as though they're the pads that came with the upgrade, the velocity is all good, each pad corresponds with the right pad on the os, and each pad goes to the right mode screen, only thing is the pads have to be rotated 90 degrees to the right(i think it was?) in order for the pads to line up, if that makes sense.
Not that the new 1000 pads aren't pretty much the same and work fine, but it was still interesting to find that the mpd pads work just the same and that if i or anyone else wanted to go on a bit of a customisation rampage, this could be an option. Still not sure whether i'll give it a go, would take some planning but would be good fun.
Just a bit of interesting information for yuz anyway.

peace

whoaaaa man, good work!!!!!

nice insight, and props on the adventurous spirit....

it'd nuke the portability for the most part but for a strictly home mpc1000, that could be a worthwhile mod....

cheers!

i've been brainstorming the idea a bit today, luckily i have the old 1000 faceplate i can mess around with to sort of visualise things a bit better and get some more clearer measurements without leaving my mpc naked and out of use.
But what i'm thinking so far is mounting a square piece of wood on the top of the faceplate thats 17x17cm. This will leave an almost 12mm border around the new big pads once they are mounted. Also this fits nicely between the q-links and all the other buttons opposite, like rec, shift, etc. Only thing is the wood will need to be a good thickness thats not too thin coz it's gonna have to hang down around 3.5cm from the bottom of the mpc and is gonna need to be able to take some beating. But also it will need to be thin enough that the F buttons above the pads aren't too hard to get to.
Next thing i'm thinkin is cutting and shaving all the bits off of the faceplate of the big pads so it ends up just one flat plate with the pad censors on it and the ribbon sticking out the side(keep in mind this metal plate will be smaller in height and width than the wood baseplate). Of course i'll need to organise a way of getting the ribbon cable down into the mpc, but this shouldn't be a problem, just cut a piece where necessary out of the wood base to poke the cable through. I don't really wanna screw the metal plate to the wood or anything like that though, my next step will explain why:
I'll get the old plastic faceplate for the mpd16 and shape this as one flat plate to the size of the wood baseplate so the pads sit right in the middle. So it will go like this: wood baseplate, then the metal plate with pads sitting in the middle, and then the pads held to the wood with the plastic faceplate on top and screwed to the wood in the corners.
The PCB board can be easily screwed to the bottom of the wood somewhere.
Gonna need some spacers i think for the plastic faceplate to compensate for 2mm thickness of the pad rubber and that pad censor sticker. Also i'm thinking to make it a little cleaner looking some kind of rubber strips or something would be good around the edges between the faceplate and the wood.

This is just my first idea though and the easiest one i could think off the top. Any suggestions would be appreciated, i'm feelin this is gonna be a good project.

Now that's a big pad right there...

AWESOME


I wish the 1K was just slightly bigger w/ 2500 pads or whatever your MPC of choice is.
I like the modding scene allot like the PSP's.
Which means if it wasn't for 3rd party development I wouldn't even use it.
While I'm dreaming...

My dream MPC would be:
1) The size of the 1K or just slightly bigger w/ the bigger pads.
2) The ram would be 512MB instead of 128MB (always running out)
3) The screen would be color & be hinged.
(On Roland gear that color screen makes a workflow difference, no Don Flemenco pretty shit!!)
4) There would be outputs 5 & 6 (maybe even 7 & 8, but I'd take just 5 & 6 for size)
5) The sampler engine would be 24/96 like the last king of the MPCs,
BUT with the ability to also do 22k like the famous SP. People been begging for this for years.
6) The polyphony would be doubled, period.
7) The data wheel would be much more stout like Nym's & the F buttons would be rubber, maybe even all the buttons.

Diss me for dreaming if you want, but that would make music w/ quality like a DAW, be easier to use, & would last longer.

Good work though man!

and I'd pay the price

wouldn't mind the tampax pad upgrade incase i spill my drink on my 1000.

i'm really scratchin my chin now,

checked out mpcstuff.com before and realised they have the pad censor strips for the 2000, 2xl, 3, bla bla, and also for the 2500, but apparently the 2500's are different, according to them, to the rest. Which i find strange because the only reason i would think they might differ is because the 2500 and the 1000 go to mode screens and sh!t like that using the pads. They say on the site that the 2500 censor strips can be used for the 2500 and the mpd24. Now, the censors i tried with my 1000 are from a mpd16, which is quite an older model (probably the same as the 2000 and so on models), and is visually identical to the ones for both the 2500 and the 2000, 2xl, etc. So I'm guessing that these version 2 pad censors for the 2500 are a bit more durable than the last, and that's all (unless someone else knows any more difference???)
Anyway, my point is that this could open up the possibility for a big pad upgrade for the 1000 or an array of other sh!t, maybe a modified mpd and 1000 so the mpd can be connected to the 1000 at will to use big pads as if they were on the 1000, because at the moment, connected via midi, the pads on the mpd can only be used as just extra pads and not for mode screens or numeric, etc.
Also gets me wondering about all the other things that might just work like other model mpc's controls connected to a 1000's different pcb boards, like q-links, cursor buttons and the rest.
Could open the door to some really cool modifications.

But for now I'm just stickin to this cool big pad upgrade. Got a nice solid wood baseplate organised today and cut it to the right size, next I'm gonna fix it to my old 1000 faceplate somehow and because mpc-stuff kindly sent me a second pcb board for free(was having some problems with the new pad upgrade and thought the pcb board might be a dud but was not) i can use that one to screw into the appropriate place on the underside of the wood without having to sacrifice the one already in use in the 1000 incase something goes wrong. I'll be sure to take photos of the process if someone asks and for my own future reference if i wanna improve on it or whatever.

yes pics please.

some info--

in between old/new akai: sensors are created by same inventor, different company
akai followed mr Eventoff from Interlink to Sensitronics.
new sensors are more of a laminate, thin affair. luckily, jjos offers far more in the way of pad calibration, which complements the new style sensor immensely. furthermore, i modded my rubber pads by eliminating the air gap between rubber and sensor. i turned my NOTE ON sensitivity all the way to 16 and now if i BREATHE on these pads, i get a response - yet no ghost notes crop up unless i hit a pad with 2 fingers.

as for the 2nd layer of options (mode, save, etc) those have nothing to do wtih the hardware. that's all software. the hardware is just resistive sensor technology.

you're engaging in some exciting stuff here. makes me want to see if i can't find a parts/repair MPD16 to screw around with.

Thanks nym, looks like the newer censors would be the go then if i was to buy some stuff specifically for this modification.
The advantage of buying a new sheet of censors is that i can stick em onto whatever kind of surface i make for the baseplate, this is much easier than having to dice the hell out of the mpd's baseplate. Then the only thing needed is a rubber pad sheet and either the plastic faceplate from the mpd cut to size, or some other material cut to the shape of the faceplate.
Interested in how you fixed the air gaps, did you put something under each pad or maybe some spacers or something on the baseplate so the faceplate pushes harder down on the rubber pad sheet?

just an update on the bigger pads

I've been messin around with a few designs in my head, but pretty much know what i'm gonna do now though, just a couple of minor things to figure out and hopefully i can do a pretty solid modification on this thing.
I haven't got any pictures yet in the way of the big pads being installed so that they can be used comfortably, i've decided if i'm gonna do it i may as well go hard on the design and alter my old 1000 faceplate to accommodate the pads properly.
For now though if you guys want you can check out some pics i took earlier today when i took everything apart again for a more serious second test of the mpd16 pads, just to show that this actually works. Just check the pictures on my myspace, it's:

http://www.myspace.com/rendrz

peace

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