AR MK2 pads, sensitivity changes over time? Difference on black vs grey units?

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#21

I love sending Elektron feature requests. Thanks for the reminder to send this one in.

I actually got a human reply from them once. I think they really read them!

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#22

My black model doesnā€™t.

Currently, I feel the ā€œit takes time to wear in the padsā€ story is more believable than ā€œblack and grey have different settingsā€. Happy to hear evidence the pther way thoā€™.

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#23

Yeah Iā€™m too starting to believe that, especially now knowing also Black model does that. Might also be tolerances in the carbon contact sheets manufacturing, maybe some are more ā€œsensibleā€ than others.

Regardless, they really should implement a velocity curve/sensitivity setting, I donā€™t get why they still didnā€™t as itā€™s a simple fix and kinda mandatory for a drum machine with velocity padsā€¦

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#24

Of course I know that all already, and I donā€™t even want to finger drum. I just turn on FIX and use the trig keys when possible. But I love performance mode overly much, I even use that to mute tracks :stuck_out_tongue:

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#25

Wow. Pretty interesting!

  1. Put both machines in Mute mode. I would say the pressure that is needed to mute them is pretty light and about the same

  2. Switched to play mode.
    Black unit: I had to apply around 10%-15% more pressure to be able to hear the sounds.
    Grey unit: I had to apply around 40%-50% (!!) more pressure to be able to hear the sounds

So indeed you might be right that this is an firmware issue. And even in the black version there seems to be some kind of ā€œcrosstalk filterā€ applied. But not to a degree as it is in the grey version.

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#26

Jammed a bit today to confirm this. Yes the black one is quite a bit better. But in reality still not good enough for fingerdrumming as you would do it on a MPC. So in the end it does not matter that much cause I will input notes into the sequencer anyway. Mute states and performance behaviour is exactly the same on both units. Which is probably the most important for most users.

I thought about buying a newer black one and sell the grey one. But to be honest itā€™s mainly the color I like more. Thinking about getting a black A4 in the future so grey and black just does not look as cool :wink:

For serious fingerdrumming you could add a cheaper MPC pad.