NEWBIE on the 500

Just got the mpc 500 the other week. am lovin it but am not getting it as free flowing as I would like. I watch vids of people using the mpc and it seems they just press record, tap a couple times and what they’ve just done is played straight back, however long it is. Whereas with me whatever I play has to be very well timed within the sequence length, if params is set to 4 bars and I tap a short beat it wont play back until its right back to that part. Does this make any sense?? Might be a stupid question but please explain if you know what Im talking about!!

if you post links to the videos you're talking about someone might be able to explain what they're doing

my first guess would be that they're not using sequences that are 4 bars long

I guess what I really wanna know is how to make a full length track with a beginning middle and end, with build up, rather than my never ending beat on loop. I suppose you cant really explain this in a small paragraph but can you give me an idea?? Thanks

you have to link together a bunch of 4 bar loops to build a song and make little changes in them at certain points, but first and foremost... you need to know about song structure.

keep in mind the average rap song has an 8 bar intro, a 16 bar verse, and a 8 bar chorus,

theres usually 3 verses and the last chorus is followed by an 8 bar outro. (sometimes an intsrumental version of the chorus)

you can mix and match the order of verses and chorus's, and alot of songs dont follow that song structure. its not set in stone.

next time you listen to your favorite song or album, try and count out the bars in each one. while your doing this, identify the different sections, and after awhile you will start anticipating things (becuase most songs are pretty strait forward.)
(this will probalby help your mpc game the most if you listen to the genre that your trying to recreate in your music)
youll learn about breakdowns and all that stuff too. its usually a verse with a different begenning building up/or breaking down to a new part ( so your verses dont sound so similar)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_struc ... r_music%29

check out the wiki link!

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. But am still a bit stuck on what you said about linking a bunch of 4 bar loops together. How do I do that on the 500? Thanks

you could create Sequences that are 4 bars long, then combine those sequences into a Song

that's explained in the QuickStart guide if you don't want to read the full manual

You can get the most out of your 500 by watching you tube, I had a 500 because it was what I could afford at the time I bought the "beat making on the MPC 500"- I am not adding a shameless plug, it worked for me. When you're on you tube, type in RIOSBEATZ1 -he has alot of knowledge of the 500.

D_Arteest wrote:You can get the most out of your 500 by watching you tube, I had a 500 because it was what I could afford at the time I bought the "beat making on the MPC 500"- I am not adding a shameless plug, it worked for me. When you're on you tube, type in RIOSBEATZ1 -he has alot of knowledge of the 500.

This is what you signed up for? To just talk about someone elses knowledge on the 500?!! The 500 is a beast, if you don't know, now you know ******!

D_Arteest wrote:You can get the most out of your 500 by watching you tube, I had a 500 because it was what I could afford at the time I bought the "beat making on the MPC 500"- I am not adding a shameless plug, it worked for me. When you're on you tube, type in RIOSBEATZ1 -he has alot of knowledge of the 500.

I am not feeling "rios". Apparently, an annoying personality makes for annoying-sounding beats. Makes sense.

your manual will explain it better than i do - but this hopefully will point you in the right direction.

compose a few different 2, 4, 8, and/or 12 bar sequences. say, intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro. go to song mode and you can chain them together.

one useful feature of song mode is 'convert to sequence'. once you've chained a few sequences together in song mode, you can convert into a new sequence.