Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By SomeOddCosmic Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:01 pm
I'm here to drudge up this old gear, because I recently got (what I thought was) a great deal on an MPC 500. Cleaned off the grime, started to learn the thing, and then ran into some problems with long samples cutting short. Checked the forums. No, it's not mute groups; no, it isn't (shouldn't be?) polyphony -- only 4 samples max playing together -- should be fine even if they're all stereo samples. Tried recording the sequence. Still cuts short during the recording. Downgraded to a different OS. Same issue. Reinstalled the latest OS and initialized the unit. No dice. Checked the forums again. Could be an issue with expanded RAM. Removed the expanded RAM. Same problem. Reinstalled the expanded RAM. Now the unit is stuck in a boot cycle and will not actually boot into the OS.

Is there a way to break this cycle? Is my entrance to the world of MPCs doomed with this 500? Can this unit be restored to an operable state?
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By NearTao Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:03 pm
Not sure if you've been using decent anti-static procedures or not.. so hopefully you didn't accidentally zap something... my first step advice would be to try some rubbing alcohol and see if you can clean the memory pin on the chip and on the board. It might be as simple as just old/dirty connectors.

The MPC 500 is getting up in age, and if you already had a dirty device, it's possible other stuff needs to be cleaned internally.
By SomeOddCosmic Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:46 am
Not sure what worked, but I removed the RAM again and reseated it, which seems to have broken the boot cycle problem, though the samples do still stop short occasionally, though. Strange problem. Seems to get worse when effects are added, which definitely doesn't feel like a good sign.
By mike-brooke0 Sat Sep 03, 2022 1:26 pm
SomeOddCosmic wrote:Not sure what worked, but I removed the RAM again and reseated it, which seems to have broken the boot cycle problem, though the samples do still stop short occasionally, though. Strange problem. Seems to get worse when effects are added, which definitely doesn't feel like a good sign.


my mpc 500's screen says that there's no samples in memory when i actually loaded them in the cf card... and it doesn't play any sound, not even the autoload sounds...
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By Menco Sun Sep 04, 2022 4:27 am
SomeOddCosmic wrote:Not sure what worked, but I removed the RAM again and reseated it, which seems to have broken the boot cycle problem, though the samples do still stop short occasionally, though. Strange problem. Seems to get worse when effects are added, which definitely doesn't feel like a good sign.


I experienced similar behavior. In my case loading in and editing sequences as part of an “All Sequences & Songs” file triggered this. My workaround for this is saving and loading an “All Sequences & Songs” file for just the FX settings, saving and loading the sequences separately and work with those. Hope this might be helpful to you.
By SomeOddCosmic Tue Sep 06, 2022 1:31 pm
Menco wrote:
SomeOddCosmic wrote:Not sure what worked, but I removed the RAM again and reseated it, which seems to have broken the boot cycle problem, though the samples do still stop short occasionally, though. Strange problem. Seems to get worse when effects are added, which definitely doesn't feel like a good sign.


I experienced similar behavior. In my case loading in and editing sequences as part of an “All Sequences & Songs” file triggered this. My workaround for this is saving and loading an “All Sequences & Songs” file for just the FX settings, saving and loading the sequences separately and work with those. Hope this might be helpful to you.


Hey, thanks for the reply, Menco.

Since the last post, I have downgraded to OS 1.13, which seems to have fixed my issues for the time being.

I'm really missing the Shift + Note Repeat latch, though.
By deranger Mon Dec 19, 2022 5:42 pm
Hi SomeOddCosmic! I see you have downgraded the OS to 1.13 . I'm also trying to do that, but can't find the OS 1.13 on the net. Can you please send me a link to it? Many thanks!