500 to 2000xl? Akai says "no".

Other than MID files and WAV's, which are universal formats regardless of hardware, you can't transfer ANY pgm info from an MPC 500 to a 2000xl.

The 500 manual and AKAI website says there is compatibilty between the two, but some PGM parameters may be lost, there is only backward compatibilty (2000xl to 500) at best.

I don't see how someone can create on the 500 and make a professional mix if they have a 2000xl.

And the people at AKAI, after assuiming I made a mistake, arrived at the point where they were basically saying "Gee, you're right, that sucks."

Would have been a lot better for them to have found this out before I spent $700.00 on a MPC500 and $130.00 for a CF for my 200xl. And yes, I called them before I bought this and they told me they would be compatible, backward and forward, but that some PGM parameters might be lost.

But today I get condescending treatment and an admission that the compatibility list should be "clarified."

I was very excited to start using these two together and did my homework, and am now very disappointed. Do not buy the 500 if you think you're going to create pgm's and seq's from scratch and bring them to your 2000xl for tweaking and mixdown.

The treatment I got today was utter bullshit. I've given thousands to this company over the years. They don't seem to give much thought regarding compatibilty of their devices. Mistakes may happen, but you should take care of your customers when they do.

I am posting this only to make sure someone doesn't get screwed like I just did. If anyone has ANY ideas of how to work around these bugs, external software, etc. I'd love to hear them.

the akai site doesn't say anything about the 2000 being compatible with the 500. it says that the 500 is compatible with the 2000.

charlie hustle wrote:Other than MID files and WAV's, which are universal formats regardless of hardware, you can't transfer ANY pgm info from an MPC 500 to a 2000xl.

The 500 manual and AKAI website says there is compatibilty between the two, but some PGM parameters may be lost, there is only backward compatibilty (2000xl to 500) at best.

I don't see how someone can create on the 500 and make a professional mix if they have a 2000xl.

And the people at AKAI, after assuiming I made a mistake, arrived at the point where they were basically saying "Gee, you're right, that sucks."

Would have been a lot better for them to have found this out before I spent $700.00 on a MPC500 and $130.00 for a CF for my 200xl. And yes, I called them before I bought this and they told me they would be compatible, backward and forward, but that some PGM parameters might be lost.

But today I get condescending treatment and an admission that the compatibility list should be "clarified."

I was very excited to start using these two together and did my homework, and am now very disappointed. Do not buy the 500 if you think you're going to create pgm's and seq's from scratch and bring them to your 2000xl for tweaking and mixdown.

The treatment I got today was utter ****. I've given thousands to this company over the years. They don't seem to give much thought regarding compatibilty of their devices. Mistakes may happen, but you should take care of your customers when they do.

I am posting this only to make sure someone doesn't get screwed like I just did. If anyone has ANY ideas of how to work around these bugs, external software, etc. I'd love to hear them.

Man, feels good that there is someone out there that hade experienced the same problem as I. I got the 500 as well, even doe if i allready had the 2000xl I decided to get the 500 the use it as an portable alternative to the bigger mpc I allready had...

I've posted and searched before about the 500/2000xl compatability but didn't get any help regarding it.

I have both, and even though the CF cards don't work from one machine to the other.
I use my 2kxl to make the PGM, then I do a 500 pad layout version.
Then I tranfer through the computer to the 500.
Yeah some of the Params don't tranfer, all I do then is fix it in the 500 and save the updated PGM.
I haven't tried SEQ or anything else.

Thanks for the last three replies.

The problem with mpc editor, is I don't see how I can mix something down from the 500. Once you get them into your 500 fixed, how do you get tthem back into the xl to mix?

I need to get the pgm and seq into my 2000xl eventually. I am going to consider your tips, but my gut tells me it will disrupt the flow alot. I bought this thing to save time.

I'm actually dying for someone to tell me I missed an obvious trick so all commments and ideas are welcome.

As for the person who seems to think it was obvious the 500 couldn't load into the 2000xl, it a shame you don't work for Akai, because they didn't realize it either. I don't see where Akai specifies only backward compatibility. A quote from their website:

Data Compatibility MPC1000: SEQ, WAV, PGM
MPC2000/2000XL: SEQ, WAV, SND, PGM (Most parameters of PGM file can be loaded.)
MPC2500: SEQ, WAV, PGM
MPC4000: SEQ, WAV, PGM (DRUM program only. Only note assign and tune are loaded.)

Also they pitch it as "Fully compatible with the legendary MPC line". If something doesn't work backward and forward it is then only backward or forward compatible in genreral computer terminology, henc the reason for the terma "backward compatible and forward compatible." "Fully compatible" usually means both.

When they mention data compatibility specs for the MPC500, I take that as meaning they are the file formats that the MPC500 will work with. I don't think that says that the MPC2000/2000xl will load MPC500 files, at least that's what it seems to mean to me.

I can see how 'fully compatible' might make you think it would work both ways.

I've only gone from 2kxl->500 with the stuff, I haven't brought it back from 500->2kxl yet.
You could track out of the 500, it would be a time consuming pain in the @$$, but it could be done.

enotide wrote:I've only gone from 2kxl->500 with the stuff, I haven't brought it back from 500->2kxl yet.
You could track out of the 500, it would be a time consuming pain in the @$$, but it could be done.

how exactly do you do it?
Do you transfer your mpc2000xl prgs and sound to your computer via flash and then into the 500?

I've tried to load up the mpc2000xl flash card in the 500 but it won't work,
and same thing vice versa.

Does the mpc 500 read the decay setting from the mpc2kxl?

peace

by the way I'm running the 1.20 OS on my mpc2kxl and version 1.11 on my mpc 500.

I just make a 2KXL PGM, then make another to work in the 500 (changing the pads from 16 to 12 layout).
I take and save that to a 128 Mb transfer card, then with a little CF card drive put it on the Mac.
I make a Folder and put everything in it, name it whatever the PGM was called with a 500 at the end.
Then drag that to the 500, and most of the time it's good.
Sometimes if the .SND file is not capitals it doesn't recognize the .snd, and I get a ? in front of the sample name.

I have 1.14 os in the 2KXL, and 1.11 in the 500.

The cards don't read interchangably, must be the way they format.

I usually check all the transfered settings and adjust if needed, but I'm not sure if they have the same decay or not.

enotide!! thanks so much for guiding me thru the process!!

yeah, cause the decay setting on the mpc2kxl makes the complete sound beingcut off on:0 but on the 500 its the oposite: 100 instead when the complete sound is being cut..

are you using the MPC editor V3 whenever makeing changes to the .pgm?

I forgot to say that I format the 128Mb card in the 2KXL, with no partitions.
I use MpcPgmMaker, but not all the time.

do you use the same card into both machines and transfer it thru the pc?

or do you transfer one 2kxl formatted card to the pc,
and then to a mpc500 formatted card?

I don't use the same card, I use 3 cards.
1 or the 2kxl, 1 for transfer to pc, and 1 for 500.
It would be nice to be able to use just one card between the 2, I guess the 2500 can do that.