MPC 500 as sound module

Great forum !

As a potential purchaser of a MPC 500 I have lurked around the newbie posts but still have one concern.

I understand (i think) that you can load a chromatic range of samples into the MPC which can then be triggered from a midi controller.

My question; given 128 mb of ram is it possible to have a song sequence made up of kit and bass line playing while also triggering say organ/piano/synth sounds from a keyboard and grooving along !

So in essence can the MPC be a rhythm machine and a sound module without dropping samples etc etc

Thanks for any input

Mick

Is 128mb of RAM enough?

- depends on size of your samples! Do your research, how many different instruments, key range, sample size, etc.

Will samples be "dropped"? (i.e. decreased polyphony?)

- depends on how many samples you want playing at any one time! Read up on the polyphony expected from the machine, but note that users have experienced reduction in polyphony when using effects - try searching the forum for details on this.

Thanks for the reply, however, being slow I'm still confused.

I have spent several hours of research on site and it appears that most people don't wish to trigger sounds from the mpc using a midi keyboard.

There seems to be conflict over chromatic mapping-it does,it doesn't


My original question still stands, given obvious memory constraints-

Can I play a drums and bass sequence while jamming along using a piano/organ/synth sound bank loaded into the MPC 500 and triggered by a midi controller playing chords and melody ?

Appreciate this nugget of info may have already been discussed but I can't locate it !

Mick

If you have a number of chromatic samples for the same instrument, these can be assigned to the relevant midi notes and triggered by a separate controller - bread and butter to the MPC. The sequence you play these notes in can be recorded and played back as you jam along.

What you can't do is assign a single sample to a pad (say a middle C piano sound) and using "12 Levels" function ("16 Levels" on all other MPCs except the 500) play it chromatically on a controller, this can only be done using your pads.

Hope that helps.

One other thing - when others have said it doesn't chromatically map - what they mean is that it doesn't do it automatically. You can do this using your pc (bluebox software - you can download it (PC only) and try it out first without an MPC) or you can reassign samples to midi notes on the MPC after.