Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
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By Ninety1 Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:39 pm
No matter what I do with my 500 it keeps dropping notes like crazy. To get acquainted with the machine I made a simple 2 bar test pattern containing 4 drum hit samples and one 2 bar melodic sample. The machine can't get to the end of the pattern without dropping at least one of these sounds.

All sounds were sampled in mono directly into the 500, and assigned to the same program. The drum samples are less than one second long each, set to mono overlap and I intentionally set them to mute group 1 so they cut each other off. I programmed a basic beat with those on track 1. So far so good. Then on track 2 I triggered the melodic loop, which is about 4 seconds long. The voice overlap for this sample was also set to mono. With both tracks unmuted the melodic sample plays for about a quarter to a half a bar and then just drops out randomly. Sometimes one or two of the drum samples will drop out as well while the melodic loop is trying to play. Turning off the mute group for the drum samples doesn't change this behavior either. However if I go to track mute and mute one of the tracks the other plays through without problems.

The machine is connected to AC power, on the latest OS (1.31), and I removed the external RAM to eliminate that variable from the equation while testing. I've had this thing for a few years and every time I tried to use it I would come up against this problem, assume I just didn't "get" the machine and missed something important, and give up and put it back in the closet. I've been using an MPC1000 as my main production machine for the past year though without issue, so this time I'm pretty confident in my understanding of the MPC workflow. And I can't understand how such a simple project is overloading the machine to the point of dropped notes. WTF?

I can upload a zipped version of my test project folder with the .ALL file and the samples and sequence data if someone would be kind enough to try it on their 500. Because at this point I'm seriously starting to think that there is something broken on my specific machine. Any advice guys?
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By Ill-Green Sun Jun 13, 2021 5:15 pm
Yeah, its a known glitch with the 500.

Even though you sampled in as Mono, you need to verify your Program and Sequencer settings. Program is where you command the samples how they play when triggered for your notes and one shots. Sequencer is where you setup how a sequence is played, like tails overlapping onto the next sequence or chopped off at the next sequence.

You may have samples lingering off the sequence causing a double trigger that silences them.

Its a glitch, but you gotta check the other factors like reusing a Program. Many newbs do this as a way for a quick template but all settings will remain the same from the last program and when you are playing something different for the new program, you will run into complications for the new sequencer because maybe Pad 1 isn't a snare sound like the last program but now a bassline and it plays halfway and cuts off. Things like that.

Troubleshoot those things first and see what happens. If persists, reinstall OS 1.31 with good connection especially when downloading because hiccups has happened and when installed, the 500 glitches further. So do get a clean 100% download before installing. 8)
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By Ninety1 Mon Jun 14, 2021 3:12 am
Thanks for the reply. I tried everything you said, in order, including reinstalling the OS, and I'm still getting the problem with dropped notes. Interestingly, after doing a clean install of the OS, rebooting with autoload off, and sampling/truncating the stuff all over again just to make sure the samples weren't corrupted by the old OS, I get the same drop-outs while playing the beat manually with my fingers while in program mode. Keep in mind that with all the drums in the same mute group there's only a hypothetical maximum of 2 sounds being played at the same time including the melodic sample. And the machine still can't keep up.

Another thing I noticed is that when I tried sequencing the 2 bar drum pattern, it would get totally mangled and the MPC would randomly hang for an extra beat sometimes when it was looping back what I had just input, while still in record mode with the click playing and all that. This happened in the beginning too. At first I thought I was somehow just really off beat with my inputs and that it was quantizing to the wrong step or whatever, so I kept redoing it until it played back okay. On my 1000 though I usually get it right on like the first try, so I think this is another symptom.

I'm really starting to think there's something wrong with this unit internally. I'm tempted to open it up and start looking for bulging capacitors/cold solder joints/etc., but I just wanna confirm that I'm not missing some quirk on the software side before I start down that road. Again, I have the project files all zipped up and ready to upload if someone wants to sanity-check me haha. I'm really hoping this is just something dumb that I'm missing
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By Ill-Green Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:16 pm
You might have pads in mute groups as well.

But if its a used 500, most likely you will have problems done by its old owners. Chalk one up for the lemon.

There are other low budget samplers and will not fail you like the 500. Even 2nd latest models go pretty good these days. Take advantage.

I know how it feels, its like unreleaseable frustration because the machine bogs you down to be secondary. You grab that little sucker and toss it on ebay. Sell it for a dollar if you really want it rid of. ;)
By ooZee Sat Aug 21, 2021 6:09 am
Faced exactly the same problem. But my 500 kicks out notes when fx is on. I have not figured out what it is connected with. Mute groups are disabled. And there should be no conflicts. But it still happens.

Very annoying. Perhaps you will have to part with the device
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By MeSoHordey Tue Sep 28, 2021 12:47 am
When I first got into making beats back in the day I bought a floor model from Guitar center. For years I thought I just didn’t “get” the machine because it would drop notes. I even sent it in for repair and it came back in the same shape. A few years later I tried another 500 and it was just totally different. Everything worked. I still have that old one for parts but never did figure it out.