Documenting the MPC500's polyphony flaws

Please contribute to this thread with your own examples of when your MPC 500 gives up on you a/k/a when monophony strikes.

The MPC sequence was set to 106 bpm. I had a two bar 16 bit sample at 44100KHz rolling while attempting the following:

Take a short sample, a snare or a hi hat. Assign the qlink fader to the pad corresponding to this sample. Have the q-link fader adjust tune between the default values 120 to -120. Set timing correct to 1/32.

While the phrase sample is playing in the background hold note repeat, hold the pad with the short sound (snare/hi hat, what have you). Act like Mannie Fresh, drag the qlink fader from top to bottom.

Presto! I killed polyphony. Enter 1 voice monophony.

It might be worth adding that I was doing all of the above with my MPC 500 plugged into the wall outlet, using the standard Akai adapter. I had less than 5 MB of samples loaded. I use Audacity to edit all my sounds. I use a Kingston memory stick 256 MB - can't think of the exact serial right now but I a lot of y'all prolly use the same.

Anyone else?

Sticky?

Hi!

new mpc500 user here.

Well i just started messing with it yesterday, and yes i encountered polyphony issues.
It seems like when i get a two-bar loop sample (about 700 kb) playing it has to play alone. Whenever i wanted to add a drum to it, it just cuts the loop in random places.
Could be that i have to check many things like (mono/poly settings, convert stereo to mono and so on) but i just wanted to confirm that it seems like 500 has some problems like stefski said.
And one more thing - using the q-link and applying pressure can kill polyphony in seconds!

Btw. i just wanted to praise this forum, i found here many useful tips and information i needed! Keep up the good work guys!!

Moineau!

Well, if the sample you use note retrig with isn't set to monophonic (don't remember the correct mpc term) it will eat lots of polyphony, especially I think if it's a stereo sample (I guess a stereo sample will use two voices on the MPC as it does on most other samplers).

rydan wrote:Well, if the sample you use note retrig with isn't set to monophonic (don't remember the correct mpc term) it will eat lots of polyphony, especially I think if it's a stereo sample (I guess a stereo sample will use two voices on the MPC as it does on most other samplers).

Well, said retrigged sample is just a real short snare, trigged with no effects. Sure, maybe I should set my snares to mono/one hit. That doesn't change the fact that the unit can't compute fast enough to accomodate 3-4 voice polyphony.

What it seems to boil down to is that you can't compose/outline a track to a stereo loop in the background. This just makes me feel the 500 has RECALL written all over it. Seriously. Is this what anyone would attribute to the advertised "rock solid sequencing and programming/.../" and "32 voice polyphony"?

Aaah.. maybe it ain't all thjat bad. It's just really distracting. Never saw anything like this using my 1000 or 2000xl.

Well, I'm not saying that it's good, or that it's working as it should. (Haven't even tested yet). All I'm saying is:

Tempo 120, snare sample, 1 second long, stereo. 1/32 roll for one beat eats 16 voices if not set to monophonic trig. Two beats, and you're out...

My general feeling though, is that the polyphony probably is pretty OK, but that the algorithm for what voice to steal first when polyphony is low sucks...

stefski wrote:

rydan wrote:Well, if the sample you use note retrig with isn't set to monophonic (don't remember the correct mpc term) it will eat lots of polyphony, especially I think if it's a stereo sample (I guess a stereo sample will use two voices on the MPC as it does on most other samplers).

Well, said retrigged sample is just a real short snare, trigged with no effects. Sure, maybe I should set my snares to mono/one hit. That doesn't change the fact that the unit can't compute fast enough to accomodate 3-4 voice polyphony.

What it seems to boil down to is that you can't compose/outline a track to a stereo loop in the background. This just makes me feel the 500 has RECALL written all over it. Seriously. Is this what anyone would attribute to the advertised "rock solid sequencing and programming/.../" and "32 voice polyphony"?

Aaah.. maybe it ain't all thjat bad. It's just really distracting. Never saw anything like this using my 1000 or 2000xl.

If you are dropping the pitch of a sample to -12 you are doubling the length of it.
I just did this the other day without a problem.
I had an 8 bar phrase the I recorded from Live on Track 1.
It was a stereo track.
I overdubbed a kick, snare and a hi hat using note repeat.
The snare and hi hat were set to poly, they also had some ambience on them so the snare is a bit over a second long, the hi hat is about 1/2 a second. The kick was set to mono. These are all stereo samples.
I had no problem with voices dropping.
I also have a reverb and eq in the fx chain.
Are you running the 1.11 OS?

120bpm @ 4/4 = 2 seconds per bar

If you are using note repeat at 1/32 timing, that is 32 retriggers in that 2 second per bar

or 16 retriggers in 1 second

so, the first 1 second snare sample is still playing while the other 14 or 15 retriggers of the same snare sample in that 1 second are also playing

if the 1 second stereo sample is counted as 2 voices, since it is stereo

and if using the qlink slider to change the tune is making the sample play longer than the 1 second

then it is no wonder that you are using up 32 voices like this

SimonInAustralia wrote:120bpm @ 4/4 = 2 seconds per bar

If you are using note repeat at 1/32 timing, that is 32 retriggers in that 2 second per bar

or 16 retriggers in 1 second

so, the first 1 second snare sample is still playing while the other 14 or 15 retriggers of the same snare sample in that 1 second are also playing

if the 1 second stereo sample is counted as 2 voices, since it is stereo

and if using the qlink slider to change the tune is making the sample play longer than the 1 second

then it is no wonder that you are using up 32 voices like this

how come the 2000 xl is said to be 32 voice polyphony, and when i make a basic beat i notice cut off and distortion (in lower frequencies). but when i do similar on 2000 xl this doesnt happen (until i get more complex) so what is it? the OS??

Contra wrote:how come the 2000 xl is said to be 32 voice polyphony, and when i make a basic beat i notice cut off and distortion (in lower frequencies). but when i do similar on 2000 xl this doesnt happen (until i get more complex) so what is it? the OS??

Are you using the same setting on both MPC's, same settings for each sample, etc.?

I was just commenting on the method listed above to show the polyphony 'problems', and that the particular method given is probably not showing any problem, but possibly simply using up all the available 32 voices.

i have an mpc 500 with version 1.11

i have a long sample (2 bars)
and i can rock a lot of polyphony when i turn TC to 1/32(3)and note repeat the sample on poly, no mute group.

all while my beat plays.

no problems whatsoever

SimonInAustralia wrote:

Contra wrote:how come the 2000 xl is said to be 32 voice polyphony, and when i make a basic beat i notice cut off and distortion (in lower frequencies). but when i do similar on 2000 xl this doesnt happen (until i get more complex) so what is it? the OS??

Are you using the same setting on both MPC's, same settings for each sample, etc.?

I was just commenting on the method listed above to show the polyphony 'problems', and that the particular method given is probably not showing any problem, but possibly simply using up all the available 32 voices.

yea broski my bad, problem was an eq thang not polyphony, sorry for talkin about whut i dont know.i got sonned.

It's still a problem. If I play string chords from the pads that are all set to mono, no long release time or anything and then layer a few other mono sounds over the top such as drums, bass, etc, I lose those chords. Usually I'll just end up with mono notes being chopped off. It sucks.

I really dig this little machine, but the polyphony.. Drives me nuts. Seems like there's only so much you can do before the notes disappear. Very limiting! Even the 8 voice Casio FZ1 sampler from 1986 that I owned many years ago had better polyphony than this thing!

But at the same time, I guess limitations force you to be more creative.

This is driving me crazy. This unit my third mpc 500 and the first one to have the polyphony problem. I have no ram installed, a very simple beat loaded. It plays just fine for 5-10 mins but every time, after that time period, suddenly just ****s up. In this case only the snare is layered and when I hit it only the L2 will play. No two sounds will play on top of each other. After I painstakingly reboot and reload it works again normally for some time. Occasionally it might have the polyphony problem right away. Is it a hardware failure? I wonder if installing a working ram card would make the polyphony issue go away?

this is a very old zombie thread. you should probably start a new thread in situations like this, possibly none of the original commenters are still around.

things to try:

update the os to the latest (1.11 iirc)

do a factory reset.(i can't remember the sequence)

set your sounds to mono, not poly.

i've never had problems like this. and it sounds like its not a hardware problem. so it's quite likely to be user error.

I'm a huge n00b when it comes to producing and technical terms, but I've had this happen to me multiple times and always thought it was a RAM issue or something f'd up with my machine. Can someone explain what polyphony is?