Question about HDD installation.

I am considering taking the plunge and throwing a hard drive in my MPC, just I no longer have to worry about space.

My one concern, though, is that the MPC's pads are obviously made for pounding. Compared to the Korg Pad Kontrol I used to use, I have to hit these pads REALLY hard to get stuff going. That's really not a problem for me, but I noticed the hard drive goes in directly under the pads. Could that possibly be an issue, constantly pounding on the area right above a shock-sensitive device? Or has (hopefully) Akai considered this and put a nice, absorbent layer there? Has anyone ever heard of issues with this?

Thanks for the advice.

Has not been a prob for me.. BUt I do not BANG on my pads at all. Are you using Full Level? Old Pads?


The HD will be fine. Laptop HD's arevery stable and sturdy.

Maybe banging isn't the right word. But when I was using my Pad Kontrol, it was so wonderfully sensitive. I could get very expressive drum patterns going using nothing but my fingertips. And I could do one finger per pad.

On the MPC, it requires more pressure than I can muster using one finger per pad. Not that it's really a bad thing. I'm not complaining about it. I just really do have to hit it a lot harder than I did on the PK. I realize I could do Full Level, but most of the time I need at least a little bit of velocity control.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I will probably be installing a hard drive in the next couple weeks.

I don't know if you have the new 1000 pads or the old unstable ones but I'm sure the Pad Kontrol blows away both of them. However it's worth checking out the sensitivity adjustments available in the latest JJ OS as they can help a great deal.

get JJ OS

JJ OS is coded so that the hard drive is only spinning when it needs to be accessed (as in, only when you are in the load or save screen) so the hard drive should remain relatively inactive during any times when you would be really hitting the pads

I believe the Akai OS has the hard drive constantly spinning no matter what

I am using JJ os 2 1.19. That is excellent that he coded it that way, to keep the drive from running when not in use.

Also, it is a brand new MPC, black. I am getting more used to it, and sort just trying to find a sens. setting that works for me. Thanks again everyone for the suggestions.

When the drive isn't loading/saving anything it is powered down and locked, I imagine you don't pound on the pads much during this time as it won't do much of anything anyways.

When loading/saving try not to drop, punch, hammer, kick etc your MPC.

Besides that though, pound away!

NearTao wrote:When loading/saving try not to drop, punch, hammer, kick etc your MPC.

I'll do my best to keep that in mind, especially the part about kicking it, but no promises. I can really get carried away sometimes.

My life really improved after changing the sensitivity level of the pads. No need to bang those pads no more. Still the new pads must be a lot better to play.

When the old style pads work (before falling apart) they will actually produce a hotter signal than the new pads. My old pads are still intact mostly because they don't get used for playing much. When I do use them the overall sensitivity is set to 9 or 10 with the ALL option because that's the only way I can get any velocity control (not really consistent velocity control, but with those pads it's about the best you can do). For the new pads you'll probably want to set that control a lot higher.

BTW an even better solution is to get that Pad Kontrol back and plug it into the midi input.

elektrik_muz wrote:BTW an even better solution is to get that Pad Kontrol back and plug it into the midi input.

Really you think? I have a pad kontrol and haven't been a big fan of it compared to the 'crappy' 1k pads. I think I'd agree that the pad kontrol is probably more responsive to velocity, but to me it feels like I'm having to hit them even harder than the 1k pads. I should probably try a side by side comparison though to be fair.

I haven't been able to try the P. K. against the new pads so I can't comment on that, but yes I would tend to prefer them. Original poster seems to like them...

If you like them both for different purposes you can always set them up for different sounds and use both.