Buying a used MPC500, what to look for...

Hi! New to this forum, no stranger to 100 others.
I'm meeting with a guy on Thursday to buy his MPC500. Seems legit. I asked if it had the 128 expansion. He said upon startup it reads 128 available.
I'm only buying it to be my "mobile Maschine". Load up my samples and roll out. iMaschine ain't cutting it for me. Not digging the 4X3 but half the time the kits I make are only 10 or 11 sounds. Worried about muscle memory a little but whatever.
Oh, and it's a birthday present for my birthday on Monday. I don't wanna get ripped off and don't really expect to, but buyer beware....
So if you guys and or girls don't mind sharing anything I should look for I'd greatly appreciate it. From what I can tell from doing my research they seem like tanks.
$325 ain't gunna make or break me but I'd rather buy dro if I'm gunna have nothing to show for it. Lol
Thanks in advance and hit me up on soundcloud!!

oOjtgOo

oOjtgOo wrote:I'm only buying it to be my "mobile Maschine". Load up my samples and roll out. iMaschine ain't cutting it for me.

I wouldn't spend that much money on a MPC500 these days. I wouldn't buy it without first trying out other apps like Beatmaker 2, Garageband (imports into Logic), and Nanostudio, or just buy a used iPad wit that money. Far more versatile.

I bought mine fresh out the box with no regrets.For that price, it should be with maxed out ram.Anyway pull the trigger and get it. Weed should be a prerequisite. LOL

Good luck I'm enjoying my 500 .Was frustrating at first but thanks to this site, I'm good.

the MPC 500 takes a bit more time to get used to compared to the other MPCs cause of the small screen. But once you're used its a nice machine. My only problem with it is that i cant pre-listen the sounds on the CF card, so first they needs to be loaded up in order to listen. Lets say when making a drumbeat i wanna try out different kicks so i would normally just scroll down till i have the right kick. Now i gotta load to a pad or RAM first.

Other than that the sound quality is pretty good for such a small machine, its a little softer than its bigger brothers but there are ways to pump up the sound with the master compressor. Lots of features on it to make a proper beat or even a song.

I bought mine 2 days ago so when ive finished my 1st beat i will upload it here first. The beat is pretty much done now but i want to record some scratches over it cause it will be a DJ track. Old school is the way i like it.

Enjoy..im sure the 500 will work for you and ps i bought the 128 RAM expansion from a 3rd party manufacturer wich only costs me $10..these are laptop rams and they work just as good as the expensive EXM128.

Yeah, thats the number one question I see here "How to boost the volume?". By default your Program volume of the pads are at 70, go to Program Mode and boost each pad volume to 100 to get it to sound like it does in Trim Mode. Also, going to Other Mode and boosting the Master Volume to 0dB.

My only problem with it is that i cant pre-listen the sounds on the CF card

yes you can ,press play

oOjtgOo wrote:So if you guys and or girls don't mind sharing anything I should look for I'd greatly appreciate it.
oOjtgOo

I don't have an MPC500 (yet!), but I used to have a 1000. First thing you need to check are the inputs and outputs, ALL of them--analog in/out, MIDI (bring an external module with you to test with), power, headphones, etc. Next check if it works OK on batteries of course. Then load up some sounds and test the pads and all the buttons and slider. Make sure there's no problem loading and saving to the compact flash.