I love this thing.

Just traded my Maschine for an MPC500 a couple days ago and so happy I did. Yes, the pad sensitivity sucked ass, until I got the fat pads just today. It's pretty much on par with my ex-Maschine hardware(full velocity is how I roll). Chose the MPC500 for portable finger drumming, and I feel it will deliver no doubt. I'm not planning on sequencing with it as I have better options. The menu diving though is really not that bad. Never used an MPC ever, and got the hang of it in a night's time without looking at the manual. Saving stuff is kind of a pain though.

Can't believe I didn't get one of these earlier. Great addition to my current battery-oped set-up *BatteryPowered4Life*

i just got my mpc today i used to have a mpc 2000 long ago it brings it all back rock solid timing and fat royle beats

Dope. Welcome to the forums guys.

Well shit on a house and **** 9 chickens, you got it!!

I've gotta say that the MPC500 is superb. Admittedly my first MPC but I'm well versed with loads of different pieces of equipment and software.

It takes me back to the simpler days when you really could know something inside out and the constraints of technology actually forced you into a disciplined way of working. Ultimately since getting the MPC500 I've spent more time producing music than ever before (and with any other bit of equipment).

I've started using the MPC to build beats and loops and then import these into Cubase, either as audio or PGM/midi files into groove agent one. The way you can do this in the palm of your hands and running on batteries is great and the menu surfing is pretty quick once you know where things are.

Live, i'm hoping to use the MPC with my covers band to add spice and bring in loops and beats etc. I think this will work well and certainly with less risk than running a laptop.

I'm not sure why the MPC500 gets such a bad press, yes the screen is limiting but its not the end of the world. I tend to edit samples on the computer but can equally do the basics of this on the MPC. Sequence editing is the main part it falls down on but again this drives you to get a "performance" down rather than sit and edit for hours - it feels more like a tape recorder in this respect.

I've had mine for a few weeks now and this is my view on what is an excellent piece of kit. YMMV of course!

Yeah man, the 3 things I was concerned about was the pad sensitivity, sound quality during battery use, and menu diving. All of which is fine imo. Fat pads totally cured the the lack of sensitivity. Noise shows up right about when the low battery signal shows on the screen, which I think is a good indicator to save and change batteries. I've used gear with worse OS's. Try sequencing with a QY10 or tweak patches with a Xiosynth. I'm sure coming from any of the other MPCs though, the 500 can be a pain.

I came across some videos the other day from a guy named David Felice. He basically performs araab style drumming on the 500. Just shows that the 500 can definitely be a performance piece.

Yes i used to own a ASQ10 then got an Mpc 2000 when they came out before that i was using and atari st with cubase it use to do my head in so i got the Akai Asq10 then the mpc 2000 i love the fact that its a all in one unit i think the mpc 500 is so cute and i am getting a flight case for it and the fact it is USB is great i used to have a big studio one time but now its getting smaller and smaller but still very powerful i used to have an TR 808 and 909 and 303 but give me an MPC over all of them and the rack samplers i sold the lot over the years so now my set up is small i dont like the other new MPC the studio and the other one as the mpc is ment to be a stande alone sampling beat machine

Love love love the 500. It is such a simple little box to use, but does everything I need extremely well (sequencing live playing from external synths, drums, samples). I didn't get along with the 1000--with all its extra features and busy display I felt it was actually quite distracting. The small display of the 500 on the other hand forces you to operate more by ear and feel which goes along much more naturally with music playing and production.

The only thing is that the pads are way too stiff (same problem on the 1000). I wish it had the pads from the XR20 drum machine instead, but I do most of my pad triggering from a MIDI keyboard so it doesn't bother me too much. I'll probably get the fat pad upgrade when I get more serious about finger drumming.

[quote="jiggity-j"]Just traded my Maschine for an MPC500 a couple days ago and so happy I did. Yes, the pad sensitivity sucked ass, until I got the fat pads just today. It's pretty much on par with my ex-Maschine hardware(full velocity is how I roll). Chose the MPC500 for portable finger drumming, and I feel it will deliver no doubt. I'm not planning on sequencing with it as I have better options. The menu diving though is really not that bad. Never used an MPC ever, and got the hang of it in a night's time without looking at the manual. Saving stuff is kind of a pain though.[quote]

I saw this post you left, it inspired me to get the fats pads. I've been hesitating, thinking it wouldn't make much difference. Now I'm damn glad I did, it's a whole nother world. If you have a 500, the fat pads are a must! Get em!