OT: Hot-rodding the Akai MPD16 drumpad

I imagine quite a few people bought one of these planning on tapping out rhythms in Sonar. However, the pad sensitivity isn't really very good and a very firm finger tap is needed to trigger it. After playing around for a little while I just gave up and put it on the shelf. It was easier to use the keyboard for drum parts.

This was a big disappointment, and it only felt worse the other day when I played with the Korg Pad Kontrol and realised how much more sensitive its pads are to the Akai. Sigh, another bad purchase.... I sulked back into the studio and glared malevolently at the Akai.

But wait.... Since it's sat on the shelf for two years, it's sure out of warranty. Let's pull the lid off and see how those big rubber pads do their thing. To do this, remove all the screws and gently pull the fader knob off the front, then just lift off the lid and the rubber pad assembly just peels off..... hmmm.... there's a circuit board with black square sensors, covered in mylar film. Tap these and, hey, it's really quite sensitive. hmmmm......

Looking at the rubber pad sheet, there's a convex dome underneath which makes contact with the sensor pad. But it isn't actually quite touching the sensor pad. This means you have to give the rubber pad a fair old whack before you get any kind of a MIDI event out of the Akai.

Anyway, after a little bit of thought, I came up with a cunning plan which ended up working brilliantly. Also, as a modification, it's totally non-destructive, no glue or anything like that.

You need a roll of pipe repair tape for the trick. Most hardware stores should have this; it is black rubber tape that is just under an inch wide and about 1/32 inch thick, and it has a peel-off plastic backing. I think it's also known as amalgamating tape. Anyway, all you do is cut squares of this tape, about the size of the outer border of each sensor, and peel off the backing tape, then place the smooth side of the rubber tape (one side is textured, the other is smooth) to face the sensor surface. The tape will sit without sliding around. When you have all 16 sensor pads covered, just rub a sheet of paper over the whole thing to make sure that the rubber tape is pressed down firmly, then replace the pads on top. Now put everything back together again.

Now the unit should respond to the lightest finger tap. If any pad appears not to be operating any more, press each side in gently, as it may have temporarily jammed on the case frame; that happened to me putting the unit together. After that, all was fine. Now I have an actually useful gadget that is actually doing what I expected of it in the first place!

PS: The USB driver for this thing is total crap. It will crash your system and/or it will exhibit erratic MIDI timing when the system gets even moderately busy. Save your sanity and connect an external powerpack and use the MIDI port instead!.

ORIGINAL: Chrisma

Good post! I haven't any issues with Akai Config software or the driver and just recent discovered the a sensitivity setting for each is the software that ranges from -8 to +8. Have you download the latest driver and software from Akaipro.com? Also, did the mod improve the sensitivity on the corners of the pads?

ORIGINAL: aj

PS: The USB driver for this thing is total crap. It will crash your system and/or it will exhibit erratic MIDI timing when the system gets even moderately busy. Save your sanity and connect an external powerpack and use the MIDI port instead!.

It's because the drivers are not hyper-threading friendly. Disable HT and it is solid. Hopefully the new MPD-24s are better as I am planning to get one soon.

- KB

Even the new driver is crap. Machine rebooted spontaneously when left overnight with the MPD16 utility running. Unfortunately I am running a dual core box, so disabling one CPU isn't attractive. Anyway, I use the MIDI out and route it through my 8 X 8 MIDI switch so I only use the USB driver when I want to reconfigure the unit settings e.g sensitivity etc, then uninstall it. I really love this unit now - I wish I'd thought of this before.....

Looks like a weekend project coming up for ol moi. Sensitivity here I come. Warranty??!!...Warranty??!!...I don't need to stinkin Warranty!!!

Just added two layers of e-tape to the sensors and WOW!. what a change!
Thanks for the suggestion; never saw this post until today.
Gave up on the usb driver for the mpd16 a long time ago because it kept crashing my system when I was running a backup overnight.
Thanks again!

The quality of the e-tape makes a big difference. Cheap e-tape leaves a sticky residue and doesn't adhere for a long time.

I fixed what AJ first stated "the pad sensitivity isn't really very good and a very firm finger tap is needed to trigger it."
Based on the shape of the underside of the pad, you would have to break your finger on the corner before I added e-tape, not anymore!

Isn't that what the 30 day hassle free, no questions asked return policies at almost every music store I know are for?

If it sucks or the drivers are not working good - return it, or better still try it out first at your local 'smash it and trash it and we'll still sell it as new' GC is for?