Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
By SincereSupreme Fri May 27, 2022 4:38 am
recently I've been trying to get more serious with the music and actually try to record either a beat tape or at minimum record a few beats and learn to clean them up to play in the car or for friends. I haven't seen many videos that go into enough detail to help. So for the most part my setups is fine and I finally figured out how to record from the mpc into ableton. I have a mixer as well (8 outs) so im running a cable snake from the 8 outs on the 2500 to the mixer. I never used a daw before so im still figuring things out as I go (really just got it to track the beats out and clean them up). I do all my chops in the 2500 and use the SP404 to apply the effects to the mpc. However some of it seems like arabic to me. Someone mentioned using a midi cable from mpc to ableton and im not sure why or what it's used for.

Any help would be much appreciated.

p.s. - for some reason (maybe it's normal/maybe not) but i do get a hiss noise when the volume is at a certain level. I got balanced cables from the monitors (Yamaha HS5's), im not sure what else I need to do. My monitors are a few months old at most, I can't seem to find the fix for it. thanks in advance.
User avatar
By NearTao Fri May 27, 2022 4:42 pm
I get your description to some extent, but I think the best advice I can give you is to start small. You're probably not going to get much of a response because you're going for a moonshot. You're trying to build a rocket ship and you don't even know the physics to get off the ground.

Just break it down, one thing at a time, that you want to do. Trust me, it will help you learn more and it'll work out better in the end.
By DokBrown Fri May 27, 2022 11:02 pm
I believe the MPC bible covers this in depth but I haven’t used my JJOSMPC in years . . . . . .
By SincereSupreme Fri May 27, 2022 11:25 pm
NearTao wrote:I get your description to some extent, but I think the best advice I can give you is to start small. You're probably not going to get much of a response because you're going for a moonshot. You're trying to build a rocket ship and you don't even know the physics to get off the ground.

Just break it down, one thing at a time, that you want to do. Trust me, it will help you learn more and it'll work out better in the end.



word up i appreciate the reply and you're 100% right, i aint gonna front, looking at all the settings/things in ableton that shit look like arabic to me haha. I have a very good understanding of the 2500 and people that have heard my beats have said they're good, it's just learning how to fine tune the levels to get them to sound crisp is the difficult part.

also do you know the rule of thumb of where levels should be? for example, it's all boombap but levels of bass/kicks/hats i always heard have to sit in a certain range not to be too muddy/distorted. I'll look into getting that book as well
User avatar
By Menco Sat May 28, 2022 10:32 am
With the midi cable you can time sync the MPC2500 with Ableton. Most common thing to do is to set it up in a way that when you hit record in Ableton, the MPC simultaneously starts playing in sync with Ableton. Research or look for how to sync the MPC2500 with the Ableton Live with Ableton as Master, and the MPC as Slave. Think Tutor has an article covering this on his site.

You can use the 404 in combination with the MPC in multiple ways. You can sample into the 404 first, apply fx and then sample into the MPC. You can use the SP404 on the master outs. You can also send one track through the assignable outs through the MPC before going into your mixer or daw.

In this vid I demo a little bit how I use the 404 in combination with the MPC.

By SincereSupreme Tue May 31, 2022 1:48 am
Menco wrote:With the midi cable you can time sync the MPC2500 with Ableton. Most common thing to do is to set it up in a way that when you hit record in Ableton, the MPC simultaneously starts playing in sync with Ableton. Research or look for how to sync the MPC2500 with the Ableton Live with Ableton as Master, and the MPC as Slave. Think Tutor has an article covering this on his site.

You can use the 404 in combination with the MPC in multiple ways. You can sample into the 404 first, apply fx and then sample into the MPC. You can use the SP404 on the master outs. You can also send one track through the assignable outs through the MPC before going into your mixer or daw.

In this vid I demo a little bit how I use the 404 in combination with the MPC.



dope appreciate the help man, yea usually what I been doing is taking my sample, putting it on the card and running it thru the 404 first, re-sample with the fx I want then taking that card and dragging the file back to my computer and putting it back on my MPC. One thing i did notice a while back is when i went with JJOS the workrate was solid but it actually took away a lot of that factory mpc 2500 sound quality. That was the trade off, so it's just getting it to sound better thru ableton. I watched a video last night on how to get the midi sync setup, i got new cables and got all of that setup now.

Now im trying to just find a new sample, chop a quick beat and really figure out this ableton stuff and once I get the hang of it then apply that knowledge to my other beats and go from there.

Had another question, lets say for example I track out my sample track, kicks, snare, hats, bass from the mpc into ableton. How can i apply the dj fx looper on the whole beat in ableton is that possible?
User avatar
By Menco Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:25 pm
Why don't you sample from the 404 straight into the MPC?


Here a vid how to use the 404 as FX unit with Ableton. Just run Ableton's master through the 404 and record that again.

By SincereSupreme Fri Jun 10, 2022 12:50 am
Menco wrote:Why don't you sample from the 404 straight into the MPC?


Here a vid how to use the 404 as FX unit with Ableton. Just run Ableton's master through the 404 and record that again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpqfmpre9uY


thanks for the info and link i guess i can try to do that. Do you use a 404 as well? im having another issue maybe it's how the sp404sx is but it's noisy as hell when i have the fx button on (usually using compression)