Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By atari_twins Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:46 am
Here is my setup for recording. I connect the main outs of the mpc500 to my behringer mixer and use audacity to record my songs. Since I reinstalled the os for an unrelated problem I have a very annoying problem that I can't figure out. I record a song that has vocal samples in it and audacity recognizes them as a lower volume and the drums as louder on the display. But on playback the vocal samples are louder and the drums are softer. I troubleshooted in various ways. I bypassed my mixer, different cables, and finally recorded from the mpc directly into a sony mini recorder. Always the same results, vocals are louder then when the drums come in they everything softer. It is like the sound is fading in and out according to the sample levels. A louder sample, lower volume and a softer sample, louder volume. I tried applying the master compression through the effects and same results. I sometimes record with the main volume on the mpc all the way up. So I turned the volume half way and same result. Has anybody ever had this problem or have any ideas of what I'm doing wrong? Do the ouptuts ever get weaker on the mpc 500. Also the very confusing part I didn't mention is when I just listen to sequences without recording through my monitor the sound is balanced. What is intended to be louder is and what is suppose to softer is. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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By BLiTzZD Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:30 pm
My guess would be you maxed out your polyphony. Polyphony is the number of sounds/voices you can play at the same time.

You have 32 to work with, each sound you add to the layer of your track removes 1. If you have a sample with multiple sounds in it, each of those sounds take away from the polyphony.

Same goes for effects, each effect you add eats up polyphony. So does layering and stereo-recorded samples.

A quick thing you can do is change your drum samples from playing Poly to Mono. This will free up some polyphony for you to play with.
By Adzix Fri Jul 23, 2010 3:12 pm
aloha everyone.
i second what BLiTzZD says, tho i disagree on one thing:
if you have a sample with multiple sounds in it, it will not take away from the polyphony.
a sample is just that, a sample, even if i record me playing a whole drumset and use it in one stereo sample, it's 2 voices from the polyphony.
By atari_twins Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:40 pm
Thanks guys. I will change my samples from poly to mono and see what happens. I did have them mostly set to poly and I had effects on some of the samples. I will try that tonight and let you all know what happens. Thanks again!!