mpk49 pads

[nowaysj]

I'm hot in the pursuit of vibe. I SUPPOSE plugins and what not can be vibey. I vibe with maschine, but then that is because it is between my meaty hands and I can hold it, I can stroke it, I can pound it. I feel you matey, I have real affection for my 404sx. You know what could stand to look A LOT better, my MC909?! That is honestly a turd. Aesthetically.

[SunkLo]

Paint that shit gold.





(Don't actually)

[nowaysj]

I was hoping you'd offer to paint it. I was thinking tequila sunrise, and like a couple of hula dancers, and two dolphins making love in the shallows of the beach.

[SunkLo]

I'd have to charge extra for the dolphins' prehensile penises.

[nowaysj]

Rather than prehensile, can I get a discount for an apprehensive penis?

[SunkLo]

Mild trepidation is the best I can do.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

Paint that shit gold.





(Don't actually)

hahahhahaha

[SunkLo]

Still coming up with ideas for the graphics. I think I'm gonna put Clara Alonso smoking on one of the highrise balconies. Either that or up against the fence on the other side. Been learning how to do fog and smoke so hopefully that turns out nice. She'll probably end up being a stencil with a bit of additional hilighting. It's going to be hard-lit so the sharp contrast of the stencil look will be appropriate.

I was tempted to scrap the skyline idea completely and just have an X-ray of a broken neck. Maybe on an MPC heh.

Still gotta wait a while before paypal clears and then the time for everything to ship so I'm gonna practice some techniques in the meantime and test out any stencils I'll need. Gonna do some color tests and see if I need anything else in terms of paint. I'm hoping the silver chrome will work well instead of white and help add to that night time moonlight feel. Should look cool for stars too, especially under stage lights.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showf ... ost1072135

[SunkLo]

I don't intend to do it shittily. I dunno what you're getting at here. Several base coats of flat black plastic krylon will look mint. Everything on top of that will just be adhering to the base coat. I could see it looking terrible if I just soaked it in too much paint all in one coat. Lots of people paint their gear's faceplates and it looks great when done right. Check out those Ghost In MPC links I posted earlier.

Most of it will be the mural anyways so it's supposed to look painted. If I was trying to get it to be all one uniform color I could see it looking a bit weak if the coats weren't laid nicely. But most of it will be multicolored textures or stencils. I was considering trying to make it look more spray painted than it actually will, with intentional runs and fat lines. Hopefully with some of the stenciled elements it'll still have that graff flavour while also looking really polished. I'm expecting it to look really really dope. A lot better than a cut out vinyl hopefully.

If dudes can custom spray paint their motorcycles to look sick I'm sure I can manage with some cheap plastic.

[nowaysj]

I'm sure I can manage with some cheap plastic.

I'm not sure, but you go girl.

I've never seen any painting/drawing from you.

[SunkLo]

Oh don't worry about that. It's only paint and I'm a perfectionist. I can just keep painting over it if it looks shit. You don't really need art skills to spray a bunch of colors on and make texture with plastic wrap and newspaper. After that it's just stencils and doing some accents with a sculpting knife or fine brush. I do actually have artistic aptitude though. It's just taken a backseat since I got into music.

I'd be worried about the base coat if the paint I'm using wasn't specifically for plastic. I'm not really gonna need to sand or anything... I'll probably rough it up with a scotch pad and then clean it, just so the first coat goes down extra smooth.

The very worst case scenario would be just painting over everything again and having it be flat black like the rest of the hardware with some blue or orange accents. That's what I originally wanted before I got ambitious and saw some other custom jobs, so I wouldn't even be mad. Trust me though, it's gonna look fly.

[nowaysj]

pics my northern brother, im waiting for pics

[SunkLo]

I'm still in the gestation phase. Been collecting images with cool textures that fit my color scheme. I sent those customsynth guys an email asking what paint they used for a keybed they painted black. If I can paint the keys and keep it from wearing off I'll be so amped.

I've just gotta practice getting the techniques down. The stencils will be dead simple obviously but I've gotta experiment with getting a nice color mix when smudging and texturizing. I might use some mesh screen or something as a stencil to generate color variations on the buildings. Kind of like crosshatching so different sides are textured differently. I'd like to pick up a can of clear coat and some translucent colors as well but the closest hardware store is a bit weak on the selection.

I'm gonna wait till my parts get here before I actually start painting on the MPK because I want to be able to match the pad color in some of the sky blue. The blue I've got is more of a medium blue and I can't tell how light the pads will look in person. It'll all be a gradient pretty much from the silver of the fog to the orange, red, and blue of the sky into the black near the top extending onto the front side.

In fact I was wrong earlier; The worst case scenario is I just have to turn my design into a stencil and do it that way. Realistic or stylized, it'll still look cool. Ultimately it's a pretty simple design. The real eye candy will come from the texture of the sky and the clouds and fog. I've just got to practice getting the results I want with torn paper and plastic wrap.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

If dudes can custom spray paint their motorcycles to look sick I'm sure I can manage with some cheap plastic.

^ professionals who use proper purpose-specific paint, and only paint after sanding back, priming, sanding back, priming etc, and usually bake the paint on in a heating room/chamber.

go ahead man im keen to see pics when its done.. i dont doubt you at all, im just interested to see what you do.
i just dont wnana hear down the track that you ruined your gear.
good luck!!

[SunkLo]

Well like I said I can just paint the whole thing black if I don't like it.

And no, I'm talking about dudes using spray paint for their bikes and cars. I dunno how more purpose-specific you can get than plastic paint on a piece of plastic. If I was trying to get a uniform solid color I'd be more worried, but this thing is gonna look like a big swirly picasso mixed with some crisp stencil lines.

It's pretty impossible to ruin my keyboard. I'd consider a completely flat black faceplate an improvement over the Akai color scheme anyway. If I somehow manage to savage it beyond repair, I'll just remake my design in photoshop and order a new custom faceplate.

The only real difficult part will be adding button labels back on. I'm either gonna cut them out of masking tape and stencil them in that way, or just draw them in freehand with a pin dipped in paint. I might try to condense the words into icons instead so it's easier. I don't even use the performance controls or any of that shit. A lot of the labels are redundant anyway. As long as the transport buttons and menu buttons are clear I'll be happy.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

awesome man! sounds like you have it all well planned! make sure you post pics throughout the various stages of completion!
keen to see how it turns out.

[SunkLo]

Yeah once it's done I'm gonna start another thread with a step by step progress type of thing. I told Michael from MPCStuff that I'd send him some pics as well. I'll be able to share what I learn regarding the paint to help out anyone else who's interested in customizing their gear.

I'm gonna do some test sprays on the inside of the faceplate before I go live. I might have the remains of an old shitty casio around here somewhere that I can experiment on too.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

if all else fails, i reckon you should give these guys a go:

http://www.customsynth.co.uk/

[nowaysj]

If all else fails, I reckon you should sneak into lp's place and paint all his gear tangerine dream.