Akai MPD and MPK pad mods - tips for better pad sensitivity

[hiphopdontstop]

no problem. Everyone needs to do this mod. They will be so much happier.

[hiphopdontstop]

just a reminder - the video link is posted, a few messages up.

Glad you guys are finding this thread helpful!

[ThrowAway]

Any one done this to an mpk yet? I am nervous to do this, Ill give it some more time to see others results first.

[toph]

Any one done this to an mpk yet? I am nervous to do this, Ill give it some more time to see others results first.

See my post above:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?p=977619#p977619

Surely I don't want to animate you to do it and it's your own risk:

You have to unscrew all of the bigger screws at the bottom of the MPK, the you can flap the top. The circuit boards are fixed on the top.
When you opened it, you only need to do the following to get to the pads:

- pull off the cable from the led-circuit-board (pitchbend & mod leds on the bottom)
- pull off the cable coming from pitchbender mod-wheel from the circuit board right to the wheels
- then you have to unscrew the four silver screws of the circuit board next to the wheels
- and to unscrew the four silver screws of the steel plate (the pads are hereunder)
- put both (circuit board and steel plate to the right and you can take the rubber pads to "tape" them.
- after taping them, you just do all this in the other direction.

Not really difficult, if you've seen a electronic device from inside before, know how to use a screwdriver and are not afraid of ribbon cables.

Christoph

Edit: It took about half an hour to modify mine.

[ThrowAway]

I dont use the pads for anything anyways, might as well give it ago. Not done much to electronics but i can change the brakes, water pump and alternator on my car, cant be harder than that. Any tips for a total mod newbie?

[toph]

Any tips for a total mod newbie?

Pull off all cables, be sure that there is no voltage on the device.
Be careful with those ribbon cables! And look for yourself to be grounded before you begin, so you don't destroy anything inside because of electrostatic charge.

And: It's really not like circuit bending or electronic modification, it's just unscrewing, pull off two cables, taping the rubber and screwing.

Christoph

[trikster_b]

Alright, so I took apart my MPD24, and I've taken every single screw off, but the circuit board (?) won't come off because of two little plastic things. I can't think of a way to remove them, or if they can even be removed.

http://i26.tinypic.com/2lm467a.jpg
http://i26.tinypic.com/11l3r68.jpg

Sorry about the blurry second pic, but it's a little plastic thing that holds the board down tightly. Anyone know how to remove it? Hopefully I didn't miss the answer somewhere...

[hiphopdontstop]

Hmm. It's got to be able to be removed, because someone had to assemble it initially at the factory. So dig in there, see if you can get that plastic piece off. From what I read with others online, they were able to modify their MPD24s.... hmm.

[hiphopdontstop]

I would just go ahead and break the plastic piece off, to get under that circuitboard... I wouldn't think it's a huge deal. Then again, if anyone would like to correct me or stop you from doing that, chime in... but if I were you, I'd get in there... careful not to break the circuitboard, but feel free to show those two plastic pieces who's boss.

If the MPCs can have pads swapped out, and if the MPKs, the MPD18 and MPD32 all have easy access to the pad sheet and sensors..... I see no reason why we can't get in that MPD24 and do the same.

[trikster_b]

Yeah, I might just do that. It's already got like 20 screws holding it down; removing those shouldn't hurt. I'll wait a bit to see if anyone else did this successfully on their MPD24; otherwise, I'll just break them off. Thanks for all your help man! I'll report back in the thread so other MPD24 owners can see if it can be done.

[trikster_b]

Finally finished it, and hooooolly shit does it work well. the plastic things weren't holding it down, it was 4 nuts underneath 4 of the knobs. took them off, and the board easily came off. I put 5 layers of tape instead of 4 just to be sure, and it worked really well. I can just tap it with a fingernail and it produces a much louder sound than before. I'm so glad i did this; now i can use it for what I wanted it for. hiphopdontstop, you are the man. if anyone is reading this and wanting to do this, DO IT. you won't regret it.

[magestro]

I followed the post from the Beginning and y`all finally got me hooked to the idea of giving it a try - gonna post how it worked out though it takes the weekend for me to settle down and work it out.

And anoher praise to the man that initiated it: hiphopdontstop

Cheers bwoy

[rikhyray]

Question. Is it just to make MPD pads behave like padKontrol`s or it makes them more accurate/ balanced in general?
I must say that despite cheesy build and reputation of M audio the Trigger finger pads worked the best of them all. I never liked padKontrol much, never been my ideal controller, so making it like pK wouldnt be interesting for me. Making them better, yes.
Since it is serious operation I want to know before even starting, I would love to have pads behaving more accurate, responsive but to me it does not equal padKontrol. I am musician-player so have no need for touch playing, which is obviously why padKontrol is so popular with non players. Not only thst I am percussionist but trained on `finger` percussion like tabla, so I can hit with whatever velocity the issue with Akai pads is not just being difficult for non percussionist (lack of hit strengh) but unevenness = unpredictability to much an extent. I learnt to adjust but would be great to have it improved.

[dom]

sorry lazy to read the whole thread... i just answer the headline.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/facepalm

cheers,
dom

[SubFunk]

EDIT:

that bad?

by the way the OP changed the titel by the way... and what's wrong with buying the right thing and not using or having to use a mod, if people need a padkontroler then they should choose decent pads and not faders and additional crap, if they need decent faders they should buy a decent fader controller... what's wrong with that? he?