Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
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By JUKE 179r Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:31 am
BUMP!
Thanks for the tips Ill!!!
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By Ill-Green Sun Sep 30, 2018 4:16 am
Whaddap Juke! I wish I could update the first page but can't, so you'll have to read both pages of my findings like normalizing sections within a sample.
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By Menco Thu May 07, 2020 5:56 pm
Ok, so I bought an MPC500 again for mobility and to train my creativity by getting the most out of this little monster like McGyver with his Swiss army knife and a roll of duct tape. And these are some things I found out:

The two things that I believe are very important to get the most out of the 500 is using templates and resampling.

In my autoload folder I have an 'All sequences and songs' file as a template with template programs already assigned to it. It holds my template sequence with my default BPM and track names. I have also setup my FX that I use the most. Compressor, Eq, and Reverb. In the 500 you can have 20 preprogrammed Effects Sets, and all of these and it's settings and params can be saved as part of an 'All sequences and songs' file. I have compressor and EQ in my first Effects Set. These are my most used FX for resampling. Reverb is set to Effect Set 2, FX slot 2 acting as a send FX. This set I use for applying FX to the beat. While working it's easy to jump back and forth between Effect Sets if you want to resample something later on. I resample all my drumbreaks with compression. Samples on which I want a low and a high pass filter I run through the EQ since the 500 only has one filter.

The programs I have assigned to my template sequence are a 'Poly' program and a 'Mono' program. They mostly hold Mute Group settings and Poly settings. Poly program is for drums, Mono is for samples I want in the same mute group, with all the pads assigned to the same Mute Group and Voice set to Mono. I have a Low Pass filter assigned to all the pads in both programs, cutoff set at 80. Once you have sampled something you can assign to a program of choice and work from there. From both programs I also have a copy in my root folder in case I need another one later on.

Realtime Timing Correct/ quantisation and swing:
With most of the MPC's (except for the newer ones) you have limited acces to the TC menu and settings in playback and record mode. But on the 500 you have full acces to the TC params in playback and record mode, including the Swing setting. I found this very useful when writing a shaker / 16th note hihats with Note Repeat. By holding the Note Repeat button (or put it on Latch by holding the Shift and Timing Correction button) while pressing a desired pad and Note Repeat button you can scroll through the swing setting allowing you to find the right swing percentage for your pattern easily.

Chopping:
For me this is the fastest way to chop, especially if you are chopping the sample in equal parts. Place the sample you want to chop on pad A1 (or wherever you want). Trim the start and end points precisely. Then copy the sample X number of times and assign them to the pads. Copying is a fairly easy scroll movement, so once you get the hang of it this proces can be done quite quickly. When you are done copying and assigning the samples you can chop the samples as follow:
Adjust the end point of the first sample. Use the Play From pad, and threat the sample as if you're setting the start point for your next sample. Let's say you find the perfect point at 50000 samples. Remember this number. Truncate the sample with the Discard function. Head over to the next sample, and punch in 5000 with the Numeric function as Start Point. Remember, the first sample was 5000 samples long, so as End Point you punch in 10000. Finetune the endpoint by using the Play From pad and the method described above. When you have found the right End Point (and also the startpoint of your next sample) truncate with the Discard function and so on.
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By inflict3 Mon May 11, 2020 12:31 am
Dope tips bro,. I’ve been using the calculator to chop a lot lately on the 500, so dope.. I love the swing note repeat tip you posted! :worthy:
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By inflict3 Mon May 11, 2020 4:03 pm
Lampdog wrote:
inflict3 wrote:I’ve been using the calculator to chop a lot lately on the 500...


Using this?

http://mp3.deepsound.net/eng/samples_calculs.php


Hey, that’s a cool little too!! I didn’t know about that....

What I do is I get my sample looping perfectly ,then I copy it to the rest of the pads, then I divide my end point of my first sample by how many chops I want, let’s say 8. After I divide and get the End point for my first chop I go to the second sample start point, hold the numeric button and punch in the first sample’s end point as sample 2’s start point and then add the number from the first chop, just keep adding the number from the first chop end point to the start point of the next sample, use the numeric button and key it in.
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By inflict3 Mon May 11, 2020 4:28 pm
Yo, one feature I don’t see mentioned much is the nudging of notes. It’s called “shift timing” say you have a drum pattern going and it sounds all robotic being quantized and all but you want a Dilla sounding beat where the drums are slightly off, say you want the snares hitting a few ticks earlier... press mode/seq edit(pad10), turn the data wheel 3 notches till you get to shift timing, arrow key down to edit and turn the data week one notch till it says pads:all. Now hit the pad your snares are on, let’s say pad 2 now that A2 is selected turn the data wheel a notch till it says in:001.01.00, now turn it another notch till it says out: select the out numbers and turn the data wheel all the way till it showed how long your sequence is, left button over to out and turn the data wheel a notch to the right, now it says earlier turn the wheel to the right again and you get an amount set this to say 5, arrow key back to amount and data wheel one notch to do it:press bttn and press do it. If you don’t like it after you do it you can always undo and set your amount number different.. try later instead of earlier, nudge you hi hats like 4 ticks later.. when I first discovered this I was beyond happy, sometimes nudging your hits off by a few ticks makes all the difference.. hope I explained this well
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By Lampdog Tue May 12, 2020 3:15 pm
Grid view of what nudging looks like on X, Live, One, Software.
The blocks are note events.
Some are not perfectly on grid lines.
That is because they are “nudged” forward or backward. It’s what inflict mentions above for MPC 500..
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By Lampdog Tue May 12, 2020 3:18 pm
inflict3 wrote:Hey, that’s a cool little too!! I didn’t know about that.....

It’s been in my signature for over a decade.

The picture in my sig is actually a link :!: :?:
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By Menco Tue May 12, 2020 4:38 pm
inflict3 wrote:Dope tips bro,. I’ve been using the calculator to chop a lot lately on the 500, so dope.. I love the swing note repeat tip you posted! :worthy:


Back in 2007 Ill Green also came with that tip. I laughed at him for using a calculator. But in retrospect this was one of the best tips for the 500.

inflict3 wrote:What I do is I get my sample looping perfectly ,then I copy it to the rest of the pads, then I divide my end point of my first sample by how many chops I want, let’s say 8. After I divide and get the End point for my first chop I go to the second sample start point, hold the numeric button and punch in the first sample’s end point as sample 2’s start point and then add the number from the first chop, just keep adding the number from the first chop end point to the start point of the next sample, use the numeric button and key it in.


Quite similar workflow, using that numeric button is quite a timesaver!

Like your 500 tape btw, nice thick sound. :nod:
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By inflict3 Thu May 21, 2020 6:11 am
^^^thank you