Torn btwn MPC 1000 vs 500 - and bugs??

I have the 4k (and an old 2k collecting dust) and I'm interested in something portable. I don't really NEED the extra editing features in the 1000, since I'll prob. just do a lot of that in sound forge anyway.. So I guess I'm kinda already making my mind up to get the 500... BUT, I'm reading about a lot of bugs.. Especially with heads getting it on ebay.. Are these the norm? Can anyone on here stand up for the machine and attest to it's dependability... l'd buy it new..

Any advice? I'm a back to basic producer.. I have a fantom I'll midi with it to beef shit up when I bring it in the lab after using the 500 on the couch!

the 500 is fine man, its got a small screen, but it works great..

I've got both the 500 and 1k with JJOS 2XL on it.

If you want the portability of the 500 (batteries and all) then no doubt you can get stuff done on it. If you're going to sample/chop mostly on the PC and dump the work to your CF cards then you'll be in business and not need to deal with the difficulties of chopping by ear/math so much.

Just because the 500 is battery powered I've been getting a lot of use out of it. I've got a couple other battery powered pieces of gear, and hell, even an iPod and the 500 can keep you busy sampling for 4-6 hours at a stretch without a change of batteries. Bring spares and you could go for as long as you wanted.

1) Nintendo DS with the Korg DS10 software is a good sample source... lots of possibilities
2) Sony PSP with Beaterator isn't too bad for getting chops/cuts
3) Korg microKorg XL is f'ing awesome for crafting your own sounds on the run
4) Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad... my god there are a *lot* of music apps out for these devices
5) Roland SP404 - I hear these are nice compliments to an MPC... hadn't tried myself
6) Microphone... yeah not the best pre-amp, but at least can get you going
7) ... probably tons of other stuff I'm not even thinking of

I picked up mine through eBay... it had a few issues (wrong power supply and a little beat up), but honestly a little TLC went a long way in getting it into a perfectly useful state. Best part was it had the memory upgrade and a 32gb CF card. 32gb is nice, but was loaded up with a ton of crap samples. Wiped it and started clean... haven't looked back.

EDIT: So yeah... if you're going to run with mostly one shot samples and want to do it where ever you want... can't beat the .5k.

after one year with my mpc500 i can tell it's crashed 4 or 5 times, only when i've loaded a sequence over an existing one (better load a sequence into an empty one ).

best portable monster-sequencer of the planet, take it!

thanks for the replies.. Actually , I guess I didn't realize you can get them on ebay for damn near HALF the price.. That IS tempting lol... Hmmm, yeah, I think I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for a used one... I didn't realize they could be that cheap. They can't all be lemons can they?

Just be wary of what the seller says, and feel free to ask them if they accept returns if it shows up broken. If it says "all sales final" and "sold as is" probably something worth avoiding. eBay usually lets you take the out of "not as advertised" as well.

Most sellers are worried about their ++++ rating as well, and negative feedback can impact their business. Just be patient and buy smart.

For around $300 you should be able to get maxed out memory and a decent memory card... possibly with a good selection of samples. It looks like there are a lot of 500's for sale from people who buy them, can't get anywhere without hand holding and just decide to dump them.

Good luck looking, and don't forget to check the for sale forum or to post in the looking for forum.

JJOS is more stable then the Akai OS.(mpc 500 is not JJOS compatible)
2nd hands mpc1000's aren't that much more expenisve then a 500.

Thanks for the feedback... This is the kind of stuff I needed to help me decide.. If this was my main machine, and portability was not an issue, then yeah the 1000 would probably be more machine for the $$..

But I'm feenin for the portability of it.. If I have time to sit and work on something for any period of time, I can use my 4000. But I can't use it on the couch while the kids are in the back yard.. Or shit- on the deck! Unfortunately, (or really I should say fortunately), time is hard to come by when you have a wife and kids. I can't just disappear into the studio like I used to.

The only concern I really have is the buggy/unstable OS. I used to have an ASR10, And the ol error/reboot screen was no stranger to me.. I'll no doubt want to smash the thing a few times. And yea, the screen is shit, but I also used to have an MPC3000 and a 60II... Doing things by ear is fine with me... And I don't need all the auto-chop bullshit... I'll copy and chop, copy and chop.. I'm an old dude.

The MPC500 seems to be everything I need, and I'd venture to say, Everything I ever made on the 4000 can be made on the 500 with maybe a little extra chop work and a few extra button pushes...

Yeah, I love the 500 for that very reason... can chase the kid around the house and still be productive.

Just make sure that you save fairly often. Only time I've personally had the 500 crash (and with lots of abuse) I'm pretty sure that I just hit it in such a way that it temporarily knocked the batteries lose enough to lose power. Lost a damn fine beat... but ya know what, I can live without it.

It's not built like a tank, but mine has been abused plenty by my 2 year old and it is no worse for wear and tear. Beyond that she's put stickers all the hell over it. If it got lost or stolen (or more likely broken) I'd definitely pick up another one or figure out how to repair it. Plus for some rather short change for it (seems like most Craigslist/eBay posters just have no idea what they got and sell it for cheeeeeap) you can even just use it as a sample library.

Been thinking of spending a day digging through my samples, making programs of my absolute favorite kicks/hats/claps/snares/hitz or whatever, and just being able to run it as another sound module off of my 1k when I need that extra 32 notes of poly. I mean heck, 128mb of samples is a *lot* of ish when ya really stop and think about it, and might be cool to have on a spare card to autoload off of when I feel like it.