By Jamon
Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:21 pm
Let me tell you why, despite all the neglect from Akai, and trauma from losing work due to bugs, I still try to like my MPC500... freedom.
Needed to get away from the chair, grabbed my fully charged 500, Ultrasone 2500 open-back headphones, and left. My MPC is practically empty because the bugs have kept me from wanting to dive-in and commit. But I had some 1-second tone loops, sine, saw, tri, square. Load them up, build a synth-sounding instrument using multiple layers, filters, envelopes, FX, and 12-layer it across an octave. Get up off the grass, record, making melodies while walking aimlessly. Tap tempo in sync with my feet, play. Sing freestyle on top, the melody merges with the environment, birds, cars, people, synth, vocals, all become one.
Walk around, doesn't matter what time it is, look up at the sun, play the MPC while feeling the warmth on face. Look down, display is still visible, backlight is off, everything I need right there in my hands. Change position, hold it in one hand, play with the other, shift up again, hold it in both hands, play pads with thumbs. This thing is small, light, freedom. The MPC500 is freedom. It can't autochop, it can't display pretty pictures. It's a tiny functional portable studio, and it's in my hands. On the way back, look down see glass, can't leave it there in the dirt, MPC still plays as on my knees I lay, cleaning up the Earth.
I could buy a 5000, 2500 + JJ OS, Beat Thang, whatever. But nothing I've found can let me do this, feel free while still being able to create. There are some pocket synths, sequencers, tiny palmtop computers, but nothing seems to be as powerful as the 500. You can't really make a full production with a small synth alone, you can't plug a keyboard into your tiny sequencer and walk around at the same time, a palmtop PC doesn't have the controls you need to play things live. The higher models need AC power, the Beat Thang is too big and the screen washes out in sunlight.
It'd be nice if Akai allowed 3rd party firmware development, and modernized the specs a little. But right now, in this imperfect world, the MPC500 is the only tool that can do this. When I see people telling others not to get the 500 because it's not as powerful as the 1000/2500 I think they miss the point. Maybe if they read this they'll start to understand. The power is not in what the MPC500 has, but what it doesn't have. Some say a motorbike is not as powerful as a car, but the power of the bike is the freedom. A bike lets you go where a car can't.
Freedom, flexibility, simplicity, efficiency. That is why I chose the 500.
I hope manufacturers continue to develop portable products that work around us, instead of anchoring us down to work around them.
Needed to get away from the chair, grabbed my fully charged 500, Ultrasone 2500 open-back headphones, and left. My MPC is practically empty because the bugs have kept me from wanting to dive-in and commit. But I had some 1-second tone loops, sine, saw, tri, square. Load them up, build a synth-sounding instrument using multiple layers, filters, envelopes, FX, and 12-layer it across an octave. Get up off the grass, record, making melodies while walking aimlessly. Tap tempo in sync with my feet, play. Sing freestyle on top, the melody merges with the environment, birds, cars, people, synth, vocals, all become one.
Walk around, doesn't matter what time it is, look up at the sun, play the MPC while feeling the warmth on face. Look down, display is still visible, backlight is off, everything I need right there in my hands. Change position, hold it in one hand, play with the other, shift up again, hold it in both hands, play pads with thumbs. This thing is small, light, freedom. The MPC500 is freedom. It can't autochop, it can't display pretty pictures. It's a tiny functional portable studio, and it's in my hands. On the way back, look down see glass, can't leave it there in the dirt, MPC still plays as on my knees I lay, cleaning up the Earth.
I could buy a 5000, 2500 + JJ OS, Beat Thang, whatever. But nothing I've found can let me do this, feel free while still being able to create. There are some pocket synths, sequencers, tiny palmtop computers, but nothing seems to be as powerful as the 500. You can't really make a full production with a small synth alone, you can't plug a keyboard into your tiny sequencer and walk around at the same time, a palmtop PC doesn't have the controls you need to play things live. The higher models need AC power, the Beat Thang is too big and the screen washes out in sunlight.
It'd be nice if Akai allowed 3rd party firmware development, and modernized the specs a little. But right now, in this imperfect world, the MPC500 is the only tool that can do this. When I see people telling others not to get the 500 because it's not as powerful as the 1000/2500 I think they miss the point. Maybe if they read this they'll start to understand. The power is not in what the MPC500 has, but what it doesn't have. Some say a motorbike is not as powerful as a car, but the power of the bike is the freedom. A bike lets you go where a car can't.
Freedom, flexibility, simplicity, efficiency. That is why I chose the 500.
I hope manufacturers continue to develop portable products that work around us, instead of anchoring us down to work around them.
Thanks a lot man, keep on keepin on! 
