Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By Copilla Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:26 am
So i just got my MPC and so far im pleased. But theres a few things i havent figured out yet that would really help. Its about the memory. Im reading all these posts about upgrading memory and larger CF cards and i honestly have no idea what people are talking about

All i know so far is that i have the 128mb CF card the MPC 500 came with and i guess some extra thats already installed or something? I was under the impression that i could simply load as many sounds as i possibly could fit onto the MPC then just choose from whatever i wanted. but i realize now i cant because i need a larger CF card to hold more? i see 8gb CF cards on ebay for cheap but im sure i cant use that.

can someone post a link to a Cf card i should get please. like i said before i dont really know anything about RAM or memory i just wanna put as many sounds as i can on my MPC and be done with it. If theres any possibe way to do something like this please let me know. Thanks
By serge_a_storms Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:48 am
Hi Copilla

I've just had a similar problem finding the right ram. There is a dedicated sticky at the top of the page explaining a lot of stuff about different RAM and CF cards (although a lot of this is quite confusing).

Simply put, the CF card holds all your projects and samples. If the size of this card is 128 mb then you can hold that much data on the card. The MBC can read CF cards up to 2gb.

When you load a project into the MPC it loads it into RAM from the CF card. If you have the 16mb of RAM that the unit ships with then this is as much data as the unit can hold in any one sigle project (I believe). The more RAM you add the more sampling time you get along with allowing more samples to be loaded into a project. You can only have up to 128mb of RAM in the 500, however you have to buy a 256mb ram card to get this full 128mb of RAM

Ram and CF card - link to the sticky.

http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=26775

This is the thread I posted a few days back. I'm not sure if your based in the UK or abroad. There are direct links to sellers of RAM in the UK and beyond.

http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=107322

I hope this helps.

:-)
By Copilla Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:59 am
THat helps alot. i was actually reading that threat on RAM before i posted this. so being that it can only hold a 2gb CF card...and someone on that threat said that Sandisk makes a 2gb CF card that is compatable with the 500...i should just get that? they're on Ebay for like 10 bucks. i see that the RAM is a little more expensive. but with a much larger CF card i would be able to put much more samples on the card correct?
By serge_a_storms Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:15 am
Hi C

With a bigger CF card you can store more samples for you to use in your projects. The CF card holds ALL your samples. When you load a project (programe/seq/samples) you are limited as to what you can load into RAM by the size of the RAM installed. if you only have 16mb of RAM then that's all you can load. Expand the RAM and you can load more into your project.

If the CF card you've seen is compatible then get it. 10 bucks isn't really a big leap of faith is it? I had problem finding someone actually selling the RAM which I've finally ordered thanks to some helpful people on here.

I can't make it any clearer than that.
By Copilla Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:31 am
thanks so much. thats all i needed was for someone to clear everything up for me. i saw a link on another thread for 256MB of RAM that they were using that worked fine. its about $18. dont know what the best price is but ive seen much higher. thanks again for all your help