Electronic Music

So the thing about electronic music is that it runs on electrons, and you need to get those electrons in and out of the music somehow. In the case of my MPC-1000, this happens via a fairly standard IEC C14 connector on the back panel.

I say "fairly standard" because this one has some aftermarket modifications.

You're not normally supposed to be able to see light through them. I was going to show the cracked shell on the bench but when I tried to push the crack open a little bit, well...

Anyway, the good news is that this is a simple fix. Just take off the heat shrink, unsolder the wires from the old connector, solder them to the new connector, forget to slide the heat shrink on so depin the PCB connector to slide the pieces on from the other end, shrink the heat shrink, reassemble the PCB connector...

And then pop it back into place.

Looks good as new, aside from the staining on the sheet metal. But that just adds character and tone to the sounds.

And the good news is that it even still works!

So that's nice.

If It's Worth Doing Once

So the time has come to crack open the MPC1000 again, hopefully for the last time.

The replacement pad sensor sheet came in to replace the one with the unfortunate manufacturing flaw. So, let's dig in.

The top case comes off in the usual manner, and the pads just pop right off, revealing the sensor sheet support bracket underneath. With 4 more screws it can be flipped over, and we'll release the flat flex and then unscrew the adapter PCB to free the bracket (and its attached sheet) from the unit.

A little preview of the before and after, the new pad sheet doesn't have the unfortunate manufacturing defect cutting through the trace for pad 4.

But before I put the new one on I have to peel the old one off, and it's properly stuck down. Slow peeling and cutting the adhesive with a hobby knife is the way to go here.

And after about 20 minutes of that it's off.

Or mostly off, at least, there's still plenty of adhesive residue left that we really need to get rid of so that the new sensor sheet lays flat against the bracket.

To deal with this I opted to soak the bracket in d-limonene, and the cheapest source of that I could find was Zep citrus degreaser concentrate.

I managed to only spill a little bit on my toes, so I now have very clean toes and an unusually clean spot on the floor of my car hole. Could be worse, I guess.

I let it soak for about 40 minutes, then it was time to go at it with a scotch brite pad.

The fact that the adhesive was now orange seemed like a good sign.

And it was a good sign indeed. Just a little bit of scrubbing with the pad and some water peeled the adhesive right off.

So that was a lot less work than the first time I tried.

After a rinse and dry the bracket is clean and very grease-free, so it's time to reassemble.

Peeling back half of the backing paper gives you something non-sticky to hold onto while you carefully position the sheet.

And once it's lined up, you just pull out the rest of the paper and smush it down.

Then plug it in.

Which is a bit tricky since at least this particular revision of the board doesn't have the type of connector with a release mechanism, so you need to use some force to jam it in.

Anyway, reassembly happens.

And we use the pad calibration screen in JJOS to check our work.

And it looks like luck is on my side this time, all of the pads work!

I guess now I just have to figure out how to use this thing.

Even Illumination

I was messing around with calibrating my 3D printer today (pro tip: pressure advance is a miracle) and while I was waiting for the test prints to print, I decided to replace the tact switches in the MPC 1000.

I really should have replaced them when I was in there the first time, but they gave every outward appearance of actually working. Oh how foolish I was to think that they would be reliably functional.

Luckily there's not that many of them and they're pretty easy to get to.

I also took the opportunity to swap in some diffuse LEDs now that my jumbo pack of diffuse 3mm LEDs came in.

This is most certainly an improvement, though it's a little hard to appreciate on camera.

The yellow and red buttons down here saw the biggest improvement from the diffuse LEDs.

The illumination is much more even, despite the camera making it look cartoonishly bad.

Anyway, replacing the LEDs and tact switches went well, thankfully there weren't too many of them to go through.

And with that, the unit is one step closer to being fully refreshed.

Though the pads themselves are misbehaving a little, so stay tuned for that I guess.

The Cash Register

The AKAI MPC is one of the foundational pieces of hardware in the hip hop music scene, basically taking over from record players, pause tapes, and earlier samplers, taking off in the 1990s and continuing to this day. It became so ingrained in the production workflow that it became nicknamed "the cash register" due to how much money was made with it... and also because the original units like the MPC 60 looked uncannily similar to actual cash registers of the time.

While the original was mostly just a sampler and basic sequencer, the modern MPCs have turned into an all-singing, all-dancing full studio-in-a-box workstation, and that excess of functionality and flexibility had somewhat turned me off the idea of ever getting one. If I wanted an "anything machine" I could just open up my laptop and fire up Logic Pro.

But then, as it happens, a cheap MPC 1000 popped up for sale in a bit of a sorry state. It had two redeeming features: firstly that it predated the explosion of music workstation features that have come to define the modern MPCs, being essentially still just a sampler and sequencer, and secondly it was cheap.

So, as these things go, it found a new home with me.

I could tell in the listing that this unit had a few things going for it. It obviously has the aftermarket pads installed front and center, which almost everyone will insist is a mandatory upgrade. The screen was working perfectly, which is a bonus as it's a common failure point. Finally, it was clear that someone had upgraded the firmware to JJOS, which is a $123 (as of this blog post) unlock.

But with the upsides came downsides, like the fact that every single key cap on the unit was broken.

And it was filthy.

And it was, let's say, customized.

So first things first, let's clear out the shrapnel of the old key caps.

Thankfully the tact switches underneath are fine, despite the grime they're swimming in.

And before I go putting things back together, I'm going to need to clean the case. Most of it is just a job for soap and water, but this sticker residue would need a more invasive treatment.

Isopropyl alcohol would cut through it pretty quickly, but a test in an inconspicuous area revealed it would also cut through the paint, which wasn't ideal.

Instead, I decided to try cleaning off the glue with ammonia.

Did it work? It sure as hell did.

There's not much I can do for the moment about the lost paint though, but I might come back to revisit that at a later date.

Now while the screen itself was in good shape, I couldn't really say the same about the clear cover.

I've certainly seen worse scratches, but this still called for some intervention.

I gave it a good polish, along with the rest of the cover while I was at it, and while it didn't take out all of the scratches, it certainly improved things by a lot.

Anyway, I got a new set of aftermarket key caps to replace the shattered originals, except that for whatever reason they don't make the purple direction key caps, instead substituting a boring off-white.

Luckily the original purple key caps were still in good shape, save for one that had a small crack in it.

A little super glue should hold it together... I hope.

And if not, I can always see about maybe painting the 4 spare key caps I have left over from the new set.

And speaking of the new set, let's get them in place.

But hmm, that's odd, I seem to have too many clear key caps and not enough of the off-white. I was just putting the off-white ones in wherever there wasn't an LED to shine through and...

Well isn't that peculiar, one of the LEDs is missing. What's even more strange is that, looking at the back of the board, it seems like it was never there to begin with. The solder pads look factory fresh and completely untouched.

It's peculiar that in all these years, since it was born into this world in 2003, nobody has bothered to drop in a simple 5-cent LED.

Well I certainly won't let that stand, so in goes 4 new LEDs: one to replace the missing one, and three more to make the rest of the Bank A/B/C/D buttons match. I figured that would be enough, the LEDs would probably be close enough that I wouldn't be bothered by the ones elsewhere being a bit different.

So there's just one final task remaining, which is to fix the feet. Two were missing, and the remaining two were kind of worn.

So off come the tired old feet, and the sticky glue residue, and on go the new replacements.

And then it all goes back together.

It's still far from perfect, but it's a huge improvement over how it arrived. I no longer feel compelled to wash my hands after every time I touch it.

And let's have a look at those new LEDs to see how well they blend in with the old.

Oh. Huh. Yeah that's quite different, isn't it? Amusingly, the new LEDs are so much more efficient that even the ones that are turned off are slightly visible with a faint glow.

Well, only one thing to do I guess.

Ok well at least they all match now. The only thing I'm a little put off by is that I only had clear LEDs instead of the diffuse ones, so the buttons are less evenly lit than they should be. I might go back in later and replace them again once I pick up some diffuse LEDs, since they're pretty easy to get to, but that's a job for another day.

In the meantime, I now need to learn how to use an MPC 1000.