Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By OldBones Sat Nov 28, 2015 9:24 pm
I literally just paid for my MPC500 which should arrive by Wednesday.
I currently have a small spare room studio that's centred around Maschine MKII.
I also have a 8 month old baby boy and as the studio is upstairs I'm not getting in their as much as I'd like.
Made the decision to buy a small sampler that I can mess with downstairs once my wife and boy are sleeping and after reading several reviews of several units (SP404sx & SU200 were in the running) the MPC500 was the obvious choice.

What I'm really asking is how you would integrate the 500 into my existing (and future) setup. What will the 500 do better than what I have (I'm thinking drums, swing, but unsure) already?

Setup: PC (StudioOne), Focusrite 2i2 (hopefully upgrading to minimum 8in/8out at some point next year),Monitors, NI Maschine MKII, Turntable, Control Surface (FaderPort), Midi Keyboard (Impulse), Bass Guitar, Bass POD, Acoustic Guitar & several Mics.

For the most part I plan on sampling into the MPC either via vinyl in my studio or from Apple Music (via iPad and a UCA222) if I'm in the family room...

I dunno... I figure I can make a whole beat/flip on the 500 (I do most of my stuff now in Maschine - inc instrument tracking) and then track out to S1. But I'm not looking to replace Maschine. Just wondering how the 500 adds to it.
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By astromonk108 Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:58 pm
well ive never used a maschine before, but i cant imagine it lacks anything that the 500 has other than portability. Which is great. I snagged a 500 for pretty much the same reason, had a daughter and it was super convenient to hammer out beats away from the desk. Its a pretty capable little tool. I've made beats completely in the box, or ill just make loops and resample them as a .wav and save it to the CF card and load it into my main setup. I like to layer drums together on it and then resample in the box and save it, build my own kits and stuff. Right now im practicing to use it to trigger my beats for live performance.