new to the 500

well my house got robbed by sum chump an he took my precious mpc 2kxl so cash restraints have lead me to purchase a 2nd hand 500 due to it being cheap as hell so am awaiting its arrival next week. now i have a few questions that i cant answer due to my lack of brain power:

1.is the os updateable ? and is the original os ok to work with ?
2.whats a good cf card to get for it and sample charachter length?
3.does it loop samples automatically when pad held down in trim mode like the 1000 etc ?
4.can i preview drum / sample sounds before i load them up and assign to pads?
5.does it have a 16 level well 12 level button on it ?

sorry if these are stupid questions but thanks for anyone who answers them ur input is appreciated .

1.Yes http://www.akaipro.com/company/media2.php?download_id=CmFVMlc9D2g%3D works just fine, no jjos though.
2.http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=26775
3.Yes, in pad 10 I believe.
4.Yes
5.Yes

props man thanks for that but is the os download worth it ? will it even make any difference?

Its free. More than worth the price I reckon.

mr methodical wrote:props man thanks for that but is the os download worth it ? will it even make any difference?

It fixes at least some of the issues with the Akai OS just magically deleting/corrupting your card. Definitely upgrade to 1.31.

cool i just downloaded seems a good idea lol and also with cf cards whats the limit like 2 gig ? and should i get a kingston one seems everyone uses those im a little limited here in new zealand an thats the only brand i recognise yall talkin bout . ive got some random cheap brand 1 gig one but i dont want to use it if itl ruin my mp namean.


thanks all

I've got a 64mb, 2gb, 8gb and 32gb and they all work fine. Haven't tried a 64gb yet, but am thinking of getting a 400x 32gb once they come down a bit more. My 32gb is unlabeled, but I'm guessing it's no more than 50x.

When purchasing just try and get something that has a faster speed, if you go for something slower then loading (and especially saving) can take quite a bit longer.

thanks heaps yall mad props from nz


1

A crapped out CF cant ruin your MPC.


The worst scenario will be you losing your work because it corrupts your save files.

if you have any money left over, i'd consider getting some of the coloured mpc500 pads to replace the stock grey ones. the stock pads on the mpc are good but hard. they do eventually soften up with use but having recently swapped over to the coloured ones, I can tell you there is a big difference and you can actually turn off "full level" to make your drums sound more real.

the coloured pads are just mpc1000 pad sets cut down one size (it says 500 on the internet, but when you get them you can see where they have just used a knife to neatly cut off one row pads.

the only site i've seen them on is mpcstuff - if you do a search here in the 500 forum people have posted what the look like. I got the black ones and love them.

i should also say that this idea of a pad upgrade is certainly not essential. i've used the stock pads on my 500 for a couple of years and they work great. they just don't have the same velocity sensitivity that aftermarket pads have.

cool man il look into that and see how much it costs with shipping etc ( hafta get em all the way out here to new zealand ) some black pads would be nice coz the ol 500 aint anything special to look at i might even repaint the casing and post up a pic gota learn all the functions first tho

I hear you on the shipping thing - I'm in Australia but at least our dollar is doing OK at the moment against $US.