Akai Pro MPK61

[frustro]

I have owned an AkaI Pro MPK61 for 11 years but it hasn't been usable for 4 of those.

I loaned it one and ONLY time to a fellow musician in Boise Idaho and after chasing him down for a month he dropped it at my doorstep in the middle of the night.

I have the No Firmware on boot message. This happens when you try to update the firmware and don't have the syx file to actually upgrade it with. There is no failback, no safety net.

There is also no support or any firmware available that I've been able to find in all the times since it was returned years ago.

I have messaged everyone I have ever seen post one for sale or made a video of one in use but I don't get a reply or I get the attitude of an old Ham radio operator that just says mean stuff when you ask for help.

Akai (or that company that bought them) refused to provide any help then or now.

Current owners if they reply at all say to call Akai and call me an idiot for wiping it.

I do have a 1.0 version for the MPK88 and try every few months to convert the syx to hex and edit the bytes and have managed to install it but split function is broken as well as the pads and the midi values are not correct for the keys, pads and other tactile controls. So I have abandoned that for now.

I can't look at it without feeling disgusted with the guy that wiped it, the non existing support, lack of archived firmware by other owners and the general attitude of the replies to threads created about this subject by the two other people like me that I found in dead sites on archive.org and closed/abandoned threads. The lucky few that did get support fram Akai years ago never shared the file anywhere I've been able to find.

It's like a national f#$@&ng secret or the recipe for Coca-Cola or the dam Crabby Patty.

Can anyone help at all because I'm about to move into a new home and it is going to get filled with TATP and thermite just to get a 30-30 round at about 50 yards and be blown to bits from the explosion.

I'm not going to store it anymore and I'm not going to sell it as is or to some jerk that wouldn't dump a sysex for me but fix it and flip it.

If my tone is a little towards the cranky side well, like I said it's been 4 years of no replies rude replies and dead ends. I just don't get why the.... elitism that surrounds this controller.

I just want to use it with my DAW and/or microKorg again

 

[Biggles]

Sucks.

Have you also posted same as above on dedicated Akai forums?

My first thought is that there is probably a Member there who has the most latest firmware.

Alternatively destroy the thing and buy a new MPK

 

[happyrat1]

Try asking about it on https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php

 

[frustro]

Anything not archived and was able to post to regarding this was eventually removed for telling them exactly what I thought of them after their snarky and rude replies. In reality it was mostly the same people just at different sites.

Latest firmware is 2006 or 7 iirc. They are the ones that say call support or buy a new one. But they have it because they said they got it , back in 2009 or 12 or whenever. So I ask they get shitty about it and won't do a sysex dump. They have all been like that, no sorry I don't have the file or the instrument, or I have it but it don't power on.... No idea why.

My stubbornness impels me to keep with learning and trying to reverse engineer the firmware I do have until I beat it into submission just so I can post it on every site I can.

 

[frustro]

Try asking about it on https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php

For me his voice just.....I can't on YouTube. I've never even considered to use his forums with thousands of users. I'll see a project with a link to eev and just leave the site I'm on altogether. I don't know why, that doesn't make sense. Maybe I tried but couldn't read anything there without hearing him in my head. I'll give that shot too. This is my last few tries of asking around again and trying sites I haven't before such as here and in a few moments over at eevblog.

 

[happyrat1]

If you bite the hand that feeds you don't exprct much respect here.

Honey and vinegar...

Nuff said

 

[frustro]

Absolutely agree. Although personally I try to not be either.

I try to just say my problem, what I have done, what I would like and then hope for the best.

Maybe it's me but look at what I have and don't have here.

I do have
2 Suggestions to go elsewhere.
Buy a new thing.
Be nice.

I don't have:
Anything relevant to the topic.

I don't know why, I don't post a reply on anything unless I have something that would be useful to the op. I'm almost 50, been on the Internet since 1987 and this looks like trolling or poorly written bots.

 

[happyrat1]

Why not post the simple question, "looking for Akai Firmware?" on Twitface, or whatever the hell the kids are using these days?