Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By mmark187 Sun May 15, 2016 1:33 am
Hey MPC heads,

I got a MPC500 recently.
I've been reading the manual a few times, but still haven't found the solution to my problem.

I am attempting to play sounds from the pads, but the pad banks don't seem to be working.

In the default sequences/programs, the pads don't play any sounds.

I have samples on the CF card.
I've gone into Program Mode.
The samples play when I test them using the play button in program mode.
However, once assigned to a pad (i.e. A1), they will not play when I hit the correct pad.
I have triple checked the Pad Bank and enabled full velocity. Still no sound...

Am I in some sort of mode that doesn't allow the pads from playing any sounds?
How can I get this bad boy working properly?


Any insights are helpful.
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By RobS Sun May 15, 2016 9:25 pm
Does it happen with all samples?

It happened to me few times that the sample was playing in load mode but not when assigned and it was always caused by invalid name (too long, invalid characters, ...)

I would also check the format of the samples (16bit 44.1khz) and maybe resample them anyway just to be sure...
By Ark1 Thu May 19, 2016 3:55 am
Just recently got my hands on the mpc500, also. Haven't really had much of a chance to put anything together on it as I am running into a similar problem. I can't seem to apply sounds to the pads. There are already a few stock sounds on the pads that I can trigger and hear just fine, but having no luck assigning new sounds to pads.

Can enter record mode and hear my recording source just fine, record it, hit play to hear the recording, then when I go to assign it to a pad and hit "do it", after going into sequence and hitting the pad there is no sound.

If I do this on a blank pad I hear no sound and if I try to replace a stock sound on a pad the stock sound remains. Pad to sampler is switched on under midi/sync.

Same problem happens if I directly record in or import files to cf card.
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By RobS Thu May 19, 2016 1:22 pm
Strange. That rules out naming issues...

Can you load the sample without selecting the pad and then assign it through the program mode later?
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By Ill-Green Fri May 20, 2016 3:00 pm
Are you guys really assigning samples to the pads or assigning them to the CF card?

After recording, on the lower right of the screen is where you input what pad you want to assign the sample to. It will read as OF, which means samples are assigned to cf card. But if you place the cursor on OF you can change with the jogwheel to which bank and pad you want the sample on. There are four banks (A, B, C, and D) and 12 pads for each. Read the manual and learn.
By Ark1 Sat May 21, 2016 2:26 am
Hey, thanks for your responses.

RobS wrote:Strange. That rules out naming issues...

Can you load the sample without selecting the pad and then assign it through the program mode later?


I'll give this a try, as I haven't made it past this issue I've yet to figure out / try the other functions.

Ill-Green wrote:Are you guys really assigning samples to the pads or assigning them to the CF card?

After recording, on the lower right of the screen is where you input what pad you want to assign the sample to. It will read as OF, which means samples are assigned to cf card. But if you place the cursor on OF you can change with the jogwheel to which bank and pad you want the sample on. There are four banks (A, B, C, and D) and 12 pads for each. Read the manual and learn.


Yes I have been assigning the samples to specific pads within the banks, still to no avail. They aren't just being assigned to OF.

Cheers