Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
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By strength Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:22 am
my verdict is the 500 is kinda weak and this is comin from somebody who was mad exited about this piece. i think the pads are one sheet unlike the 1000 but and its a big but, theres space between the pads and the sensors underneath and u have to hit the pads pretty hard even on full velocity, if u dont hit em hard enough they just dont trigger cause the rubber doesnt press in enough to touch the sensor. the sequenser timing is on point just like every other mpc. one huge issue that encountered right away thou was pads triggering other pads when the sequense plays back unless theres a setting in there that was on to do that on purpose. then i sampled a 2 bar loop just to mess around recorded it but as soo as the loop came around it triggered a different sound froma different pad bank instead of the sample and though i didnt have much time to figure out why i poked around a little and could figure it out. another thing is my polyphony ran out after like maybe 6 voices and this is wack. i made a bassline out of 4 bass notes then sequensed a drum loop consisting of a hihat, kick and snare then i put another bass note over it and that bass note wouldnt play when the loop came around and no, there was no mute groups on however the mpc 500 does have mute groups or 1 mute group i think which is cool u can also normalize samples, reverse and extract which is also cool and something i didnt expect to see. any feedback....? for those who actually read this whole saga lol
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By AMG Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:53 am
i agree with the pads. they're not very responsive. it doesn't trigger the sound if you tap it softly, which really sucks. i've actually went to GC a few days ago and compared the pads velocity response to the 1K and 2500. the 2500 had the best velocity response.



i guess akai didnt work to hard in the pad department when it came to the small boys(1000 & 500)!

By INA Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:50 pm
**** them then.

are they more, equal or less responsive than 1k's?
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By Upright Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:58 pm
Well as an owner of the 500 I will agree with the pads thing although they are not all that bad. All those other things that your experiencing like the polyphony and the triggering of other sounds I have never encountered....you may have hit a blank pad in a different track(not aware of the fact that you hit it)and then assigned a sample to that pad later. whatever the case may be I am sure that it was user error.Your problem with the hi-hat and baselines could be because the 500 actually has 4 mute groups not 1,it is very possible that you had one of these mute groups on.


I tried to do the same thing you did....thinking that the 500 was just like any other mpc, I turned it on and thought I could just bang something out without a problem. The truth is that there are a lot of fields and parameters that can be adjusted inside the 500...most of which without the knowledge of the manual you wouldn't know about or how to adjust them. Once I started reading through the manual I began to understand that the 500 is a very,very powerful mpc(for being a portable unit).

With all this said I have never had a problem with my 500 that wasn't caused by my own ignorance.





For those of you thinking of buying a 500 here's a headline for you: You will have to read the manual.............I repeat......You will have to read the manual!!1

Hope this helps. :)
By INA Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:49 pm
Once again, please. Do the 500 pads feel better than 1000 ones or not.

Thanks guy
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By es-k Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:51 pm
INA wrote:Once again, please. Do the 500 pads feel better than 1000 ones or not.

Thanks guy


READ AROUND. i have just came to this part of the message board a couple tiems when im really bored.. and just browsing around i already know the answer
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By Upright Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:32 pm
INA wrote:Once again, please. Do the 500 pads feel better than 1000 ones or not.

Thanks guy



They feel just about like the 1000's pads. Then again I don't own a 1000. When I compare the pads to my 2500's pads they do not respond as well to soft taps. I think this is because the 2500's pads are bigger. I really don't have a problem with the 500's pads at all. :)
By INA Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:03 pm
es-k wrote:
INA wrote:Once again, please. Do the 500 pads feel better than 1000 ones or not.

Thanks guy


READ AROUND. i have just came to this part of the message board a couple tiems when im really bored.. and just browsing around i already know the answer



I've been readind different opinions. "mpc500 pads are not like 1000 ones, built in a dif. way etc", or "they don't follow ok to soft hits". Just wanted to know why akai changed the building way to get the same **** result, man
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By strength Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:45 am
INA wrote:**** them then.

are they more, equal or less responsive than 1k's?

a lot less

By INA Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:10 am
thanks
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By strength Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:02 am
INA wrote:Once again, please. Do the 500 pads feel better than 1000 ones or not.

Thanks guy

they like as different as mpc pads can be, the 1000-too sensitive, 500-not enough...... 2000-perfect