Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
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By detonating Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:00 am
Original Post:
All right so I came up with a nice 4 Sequence loop...
I want to record it and assign trimmings/chops on the 12 pads.
I want to achieve this without using any wires or my computer; just the MPC...
You guys understand what I'm saying?
Making the MPCing record itself then chopping it up in trim mode.
If you know how to do this help me out please! I try to be as helpful as I can, would appreciate some feedback.

New Post:
Okay, so I realized that this basically impossible. I attempted to record input Main, it worked.
I later proceeded to adding Sample01 to all the pads to alter the trims on each of the 12 pads.
Yeah, you can't unless you make 12 copies of Sample01.
It seems a lot simpler to just record into the computer and start a whole new project.

MPC Options:
MODE+RECORD[PAD 4] & Scroll the wheel to the right until you see Record:, should be the four steps away;
after this hit the >(right arrow) once and scroll your wheel once more to record Main. This option allows the machine to record what you play (As some of you may already know).
Last edited by detonating on Sat Oct 16, 2010 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Ill-Green Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:06 am
It is possible. The 500 can do what any MPC can do but you gotta be slick.

Resampling on the 500 is called Recording the Main Outs which is on p.61 of the manual.

To chop, just sample a chunk of what you want. Go to Trim Mode and set your Start and End points. Then use the Extract feature which is in Trim Mode as well, and extract it as a new sample. Set up another Start and End points and repeat until you're satisfied with the chops.

Simple as pie.
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By detonating Sat Oct 16, 2010 7:32 am
Ill-Green wrote:It is possible. The 500 can do what any MPC can do but you gotta be slick.

Resampling on the 500 is called Recording the Main Outs which is on p.61 of the manual.

To chop, just sample a chunk of what you want. Go to Trim Mode and set your Start and End points. Then use the Extract feature which is in Trim Mode as well, and extract it as a new sample. Set up another Start and End points and repeat until you're satisfied with the chops.

Simple as pie.


Oh damn, thanks bro you're a genius! It's getting late but I'll definitely be doing this tomorrow. Mad props son.
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By NearTao Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:26 pm
A lot of people do chop on the 500... Search posts here or on youtube for it... you can get into the math/science of it... or on the other hand you can also do it by ear.

Sure a graphical display can make some parts easier... but don't be afraid to practice... with enough practice your ear and a calculator of some kind (even just on your cell) is more than enough.
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By detonating Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:34 am
NearTao wrote:A lot of people do chop on the 500... Search posts here or on youtube for it... you can get into the math/science of it... or on the other hand you can also do it by ear.

Sure a graphical display can make some parts easier... but don't be afraid to practice... with enough practice your ear and a calculator of some kind (even just on your cell) is more than enough.


Thanks dude! I could do this by ear!
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By Zxain Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:24 pm
NearTao wrote:A lot of people do chop on the 500... Search posts here or on youtube for it... you can get into the math/science of it... or on the other hand you can also do it by ear.

Sure a graphical display can make some parts easier... but don't be afraid to practice... with enough practice your ear and a calculator of some kind (even just on your cell) is more than enough.


I'm a scrub when it comes to chopping on the 500, what do you mean the "math" part of it? Are the chops supposed to be correlated to each other in some way (sample time)?
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By detonating Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:42 pm
Zxain wrote:
NearTao wrote:A lot of people do chop on the 500... Search posts here or on youtube for it... you can get into the math/science of it... or on the other hand you can also do it by ear.

Sure a graphical display can make some parts easier... but don't be afraid to practice... with enough practice your ear and a calculator of some kind (even just on your cell) is more than enough.


I'm a scrub when it comes to chopping on the 500, what do you mean the "math" part of it? Are the chops supposed to be correlated to each other in some way (sample time)?


Say you have a sample that's 2125890 (For example), you'd want to chop that up either by ear *I personally feel it would be better to do it by ear instead of numbers because you'd know what you're extracting*; if doing it by numbers you'd divide 2125890 by 12 (16 if you're using a MPC1000+ of course). You'd want each sample to be 177157, even though you'd see 177157.5 on your calculator.

I think this is what he was getting at? Lol.
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By Zxain Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:31 am
detonating wrote:
Zxain wrote:
NearTao wrote:A lot of people do chop on the 500... Search posts here or on youtube for it... you can get into the math/science of it... or on the other hand you can also do it by ear.

Sure a graphical display can make some parts easier... but don't be afraid to practice... with enough practice your ear and a calculator of some kind (even just on your cell) is more than enough.


I'm a scrub when it comes to chopping on the 500, what do you mean the "math" part of it? Are the chops supposed to be correlated to each other in some way (sample time)?


Say you have a sample that's 2125890 (For example), you'd want to chop that up either by ear *I personally feel it would be better to do it by ear instead of numbers because you'd know what you're extracting*; if doing it by numbers you'd divide 2125890 by 12 (16 if you're using a MPC1000+ of course). You'd want each sample to be 177157, even though you'd see 177157.5 on your calculator.

I think this is what he was getting at? Lol.

Yeah I understand that part, that's just common sense IF you wanted to make all your pads the same length which doesn't exactly work with all samples. I guess I'll stick to practicing chopping by ear.

Thanks for the help.
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By Esquilo Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:55 pm
When you move the trim points around you can scroll to the bottom of trim mode and change the EDIT function to extract. When you extract it just copies and cuts what you have then assigns it to a new pad. You can do this as many times as you want with one sample without having to record anything.
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By NearTao Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:25 pm
Yeah... by math I just meant that if you have a sample that's 100000 samples long and you want to break it into four parts just divide by four... or sixteen parts divide by sixteen.

I didn't mean anything terribly fancy, just that you can do it that way and still get completely usable results. Doing it by ear can also get good results but the jog wheel isn't always the fastest way to get around. I do both, just depends on what I'm trying to get at. Even if you do the math you usually end up having to use your ear just to tighten it up a bit anyways... but whichever way knocks your socks off right? :)
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By Ill-Green Wed Oct 27, 2010 1:36 am
Esquilo wrote:When you move the trim points around you can scroll to the bottom of trim mode and change the EDIT function to extract. When you extract it just copies and cuts what you have then assigns it to a new pad. You can do this as many times as you want with one sample without having to record anything.

Yeah man, I prefer extracting over resampling.