Akai MPK mini - modifying the pads sensitivity

[janvierbam]

Thank you !!!!

[bsnider0031]

yeah my pads were fine, its the keys that suck.

[NosaThaProducer]

just did this mod i find 2 strips to work better than 3 just my opinion but regardless both are better than stock pads

[hardnrgocc]

@NosaThaProducer at some point I'm going to redo the mod with 2 layers because 3 layers is a bit too sensitive with my 8th pad being activated sometimes when hitting pad 7 or 4, and also gets stuck on

[killacam243446]

Does the board get hot enough to melt the glue off of the bottom of the pads? Dont want that ending up on the circuit board

[hardnrgocc]

@killacam243446 like any USB powered electronic device, it doesn't get hot

[cxzdas8]

Thanks for this video, I modified my Korg Nanopad2 same way and it works great now.

[DjEsemar]

mine are too

[LilDeeVee]

my pads are easy to hit

[hardnrgocc]

@LilDeeVee cool, maybe they've changed the shape/thickness of the pads slightly?

[sweetgyy]

i had a boss drum machine like that .it was a piece of shit

[thinwire]

great response about dropping the pencil ;). This problem has obviously affected lots of people. Does anyone know if Akai has actually made a public comment about it? I'd love to know what they said, if anything.

[soundboy89]

(...cont)

After several hours I gave up on the two layers and settled for just one. The sensitivity on the pads did improve, although not as much as in the video, but it did end up working properly.

[soundboy89]

I had a hell of a hard time trying to get it to work with 2 layers of tape. It became way too sensitive, with my hits triggering adjacent pads all the time. When I placed the board in the plastic enclosure and tightened the screws, it became worse, with some of the pads permanently activated. I don't know if there was anything I was doing differently from this video.

[hardnrgocc]

@soundboy89 I think the thickness of electrical tape is going to vary, and so some people would use 1 layer, others 2 would be better, some people 3 layers... I have to redo the mod because my 8th pad (top right) often gets activated by hitting adjacent pads, and also often gets stuck on for a while. I'll probably go for 2 layers, and maybe cut the tape a bit smaller

[MusicDAnthony]

Hitting the pads hard is the fun part of the pads, it's like playing the drums. But really cool idea though

[hardnrgocc]

@MusicDAnthony well, you can still hit the pads hard and the drums will be louder, it's just that with this mod, light hits have the intended result of a response from the drum bring hit, which is realistic, but weight the mods, you can hit the pads quite hard with no response at all, which is very unrealistic... Imagine dropping a pencil on a cymbal and hearing nothing at all...

[hardnrgocc]

@hardnrgocc "drum being* hit" ... "but without* the mods"... I wrote the response above on my phone... Swype typos

[klikk0]

thanx man! I need to open my unit to fix the usb connector, but it says on the back "risk of electronic shock - do not open" . Do i need to care about that?

Thanks for the vid dude!

[jacobgrudowski]

@klikk0 not if it has no electricity running thru it just un hook from the computer then take it apart.

[jimixdnb]

worked great for me, thanks! now the pads finally are the way they should have been in first place!! I really don't know why akai had to mess this up... the touch sensitivity from the lpd8 was ok... but yeah, except from the pads it's really a pretty decent controller!

[DjEsemar]

@jimixdnb decent? its amazing!

[rellom777]

nice dude!!