How to use the MPC500 to trigger external gear?

Alright, seriously...wtf? I've worked with hardware for ten years now and am fairly competent when it comes to figuring out any piece of gear's functions, but this one has me at a complete loss. I have the manual, I've read the manual. The answer may even be in there, but the MPC probably functions in some way I'm not familiar with, so I'm not catching onto what part I need to reread and study...

I can't get my MPC500 to trigger external units. I bought the MPC to replace my MMT-8 sequencers. I've been trying to get my MPC to trigger samples off my E-mu sampler and this is what I don't get: I run a cable from my MIDI Out off of ANY of my synthesizers into the MIDI In on my E-mu and those synths trigger the E-mu no problem. The E-mu even has a little green light on it that shows when it's receiving MIDI. I run the MPC's MIDI Out to the the E-mu's MIDI In and I get nothing, the little green light doesn't even light up to indicate it's receiving MIDI. I also have a MIDI-thru box that is MIDI powered, the second I plug any of my synths into it, the red light on it starts blinking to indicate it detects MIDI, but if I plug the MPC's MIDI Out into the IN of the MIDI-thru box, it doesn't even register that it's receiving MIDI. I figured that after I plugged everything in, I could start banging away on the MPC pads to trigger samples, but that does not seem to be the case...

I think the problem is that my MPC has not been transmitting MIDI and I don't know why. I've adjusted things like making the MIDI out function as a Soft Thru, setting proper MIDI channels and anything else that might make sense in the manual, but I can't figure this one out. Simply put, I want the MPC to be used as my sequencer that will mainly trigger samples off my other sampler, but I can't get the damn thing to externally trigger anything by hitting the pads. I figured it would be as easy as plugging my MPC into my E-mu and then hitting pads on the MPC, but my MPC seems to be the one piece of gear I have that isn't "plug and play". I don't know if I have to set up sequences first, I am somewhat under the assumption that I correct my problem with how I set up tracks. Anyway, thanks in advance. This is like, the last piece of gear that I plan on buying for a while, so it's frustrating not being able to get it to work when I bought it to be the foundation of all my sequencing and composing.

Not sure if it will help, but this guy said the mpc notes are an octave off..

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=140387

I am aware that the notes are off, I went through settings on both pieces of gear to get samples to match up in regards to note assignment, but the issue is that my MPC doesn't even seem to be sending out MIDI messages. Now...all I've done so far...is hooked up my MPC to external gear, changed some things in "MIDI/SYNC" menu that seem like they make sense to change, and mashed the pads trying to externally trigger something to no avail. Maybe I'm supposed to set up a "song" first or adjust something in the "track" settings, as in, I can't just turn the thing on and start mashing pads because those pads haven't been assigned to something until I save them into a song?

Well, I have figured it out. I was thinking that maybe the MPC operated globally and I could just power up the unit and start banging away at pads to trigger my gear, but it does turn out that I have to load a sequence first and go into the track parameters and make adjustments to the track type (drum or MIDI) and then select my MIDI channels, I was thinking this was done on a global basis and under the MIDI/SYNC options, but I now see you must alter and save the settings into a project.