newbie mpc 500

I know of the questions below might be obvious , but i would be grateful of advice
Im thinking about buying mpc 500 , I have read information that it runs on batteries and it is the crappiest mpc. How do you rate it
can I sample a a song of my computer or cd player ( James Brown , coldplay any pop song ) on to mpc 500
final question about mpc 500 can you record your words / lyrics over the sample, how is this done , can it be done with mpc or do you need other equipment
I really appreciate the advice thanx again

The infamous MPC500 is a good machine. People hate it for the small screen and thats because its easy to get lost in its many menus. But once you familiarize yourself with it, the operations become easy to navigate. With ingenuity you can work it like its a 5000, but that comes with practice and knowing the manual.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it would get a 7 but this thing is really powerful, you could play multiple programs for one song, layer samples on a single pad, and can link different sequences with different time signatures to create an epic song. So I give it an 8.

And its a sampler, not a multitrack recorder, so you'll have to record your lyrics on ProTools or an 8-Trk recorder. Think of your MPC as the band.

I agree with green there but you could sample your lyrics in to the mpc 500, with the memory upgrade you have around 9 minutes of sample time. IMO nothing beats his portability, just spend 14 hours on an airport with the little beast, got 3 new ideas while waiting

i love my mpc500.

if i were you, i'd go to a store and play with one that's set up. if you have a musical background (meaning you play an instrument or sing) then you'll either love or hate the idea of hitting pads to "make music". the mpc is great for sampling (duh!) and allows you to construct beats piece, layer by layer and then export it as a .wav to your computer to burn. you can create complete songs on the mpc using ONLY the mpc features and the samples you put into it, but lots of people end up using their mpc with a DAW (like ProTools or Logic or Cubase or whatever) so they can play around with the waveforms and "see"what they're doing. That's one thing about the mpc - you'll find yourself listening to music/beats/sounds more rather than staring at a waveform passing in front of your eyes like you do with computer based DAW programs - that's a good thing!

Just to add my 2 pennies...

I've got both the 1k and the 500, while either are relatively portable the MPC 500 is truly portable since you can operate it off of batteries. If this is important to you then the choice is pretty clear just from that.

The MPC 1k is a beast of a machine once you load up JJOS (any version) onto it. However, the 500 being the little brother means that often you focus more on being creative within the limits of the box instead of playing around with more settings.

As for chopping beats, it is definitely something you can do on any MPC, but the 500 limits you to doing this by ear. For pulling out a specific sample this is easy enough to do by ear, but I'd hate to have to chop 64 beats out of a single sample on the 500. Still, chopping at all on the 500 will get you much more familiar with the sample and you'll end up making it a bit more yours through your ears than your eyes. The graphical chopping can be seen as much of a crutch since it allows you to chop what you see and not have to hear the sounds. To each his own though.

Something to keep in mind too, the MPC 500 does have a mic level input, which does allow you to sample instruments/vocals very simply and quickly and get them assigned to pads, even when on the move. You cannot do this with any other MPC.

Personally I think any MPC has it's strengths/weaknesses. The MPC 500 however happens to be in a unique position as the first truly portable MPC. Although it is a fair bit cramped and requires a bit more use of the scroll wheel it really is a trooper of a system.

i love my 500, quite honestly i like it more then my 2kxl. Its pretty easy to use once you get used to it.