noise

Any of you hear noise when batteries are near empty?
I hear it via headphomes and main outs.

Yeah I noticed that too, and when they get down to about 5 Volts the MPC goes to the first screen (the one that you see when you first power up) and you can do nothing else.
Just set your Low Battery warning to 6 Volts, then when you see that look for AC to finish what you're doing.

actually i hear it even when the batteries are new.

its probably a problem with the battery wires being to close some sort of audio wire, and its feeding interference into the line. Its a lot harder to regulate battery voltage than a steady wall current.

But yea, last night my batteries were going and the wine was very present.

Other times its just a high pitched noise that isn't audible when playing the pads.

Ive had this experience on plenty of battery operated devices so I'm not surprised this one has issues with that too..

it's not a problem when it's not running on batteries though, correct?

well, dunno yet, since I bought my .5 in US and I live in Europe. Then I cannot use ac adapter.
I'll try it soon

I just got my 500 yesterday. I get noise when running it with the ac adapter (haven't tried batteries yet). It's sort of a low buzz that starts whenever i play a sample or do some other stuff, and hangs around a bit after the sample(s) have stopped. Not loud, but it sticks out like a gigantic sore thumb (at least to a sound guy with trained ears and all..) It's comes out of both phones and line, and it's a royal pissoff.

Am I just one of the unfortunate few, or is this a "feature" on all 500's? If it's the former I'm sending it back for service or exchange, if it's the latter I'm going for a full refund, because this is totally unaxeptable to anyone half-serious about their music

I have that whining noice thru AC coming out of the phone output. That is why i am returning the 500 for another one. Actually this is the second one i am returning. the first one kept freezing on me. I think some of the mpc500's might have left the factory with some problems. The one i have now has that high buzz whine sound constantly coming out of the headphone out. The first 500 i had did not have this problem - it had a different problem.

The high pitched noise is on my 500 too. Both when running on AC and batteries. It's not that loud, you only hear it when the MPC is not playing samples. When I turn the level knob down a little from max it almost goes away. Funny thing is the noise becomes louder again when the level knob is at a real low setting.

I'm thinking of asking the shop for a new one. But I'm worried the new one will also have this problem.

Never heard that "noise" until I used it with batteries this past weekend. On AC power no noise.Hmmm.I tried diffrent headphones same problem.Diffrent files,same problem. The batteries where new.Came back home today and tried it again. No "noise" on battery power. Dunno folks. This was the first lil issue with my 500. Nothin' major yet.Knock on wood.

I wonder if every 500 has this noise (because it can be battery operated?) and one has to live with it? But you said you did not get it on AC power SamOwen? As I said I get it with both AC and batteries. Main outs as well as the phones jack.

airikr wrote:I wonder if every 500 has this noise (because it can be battery operated?) and one has to live with it? But you said you did not get it on AC power SamOwen? As I said I get it with both AC and batteries. Main outs as well as the phones jack.

man akai should replace that shit free

I'm gettin' kind of annoyed now. I wasn't hearin' the noise all day then it came in on AC power.Loaded the same pgm into the 2kxl no noise,back into the 500 ,noise !. Unplugged the AC adaptor from the Monster Power Pro condtioner and plugged it into a regular surge protector and the noise went away. Tried it on battery power and no damn noise. WTF ? Callin' vst first thing in the morning. Almost a month and no problems,and now my 500 has a mind of its own.I still love the damn thing though.airikr-Yes no noise on AC power. Now noise. [/b]

I hear the noise on both AC and battery power. The 1st time I heard it I thought it was because of the batteries (see my rant on batteries in my other posts) but then I tried it on on AC power because I had only used AC power once for like 5 minutes when I first got it and I hear it on AC power too.

But I only hear it in Record mode when it is set to record from "RECORD IN" I belive..., when I go to other modes it is not there, maybe cheap preamps?

maybe these guys at black lion audio will come up with an upgrade for these preamps, Im sure Akai isnt going to do it and certainly not for free.

http://www.blacklionaudio.com/home.html

I went thru 3 mpc500's that had problems before getting one that so far works flawless. @ of them had this noise problem. If you buy an mpc500 and you here noise at the headphone outs then u should return it for another one. The one i have now has no noise at all.
knock on wood...lol

hell yeah i heard that noise! was a big problem n turn off for me. ....but here's what i learned from experimenting;

the noise happened for two reasons for me. the first is low battery. seems wen it gets below 6volts it starts making that noise. -solution>> either plug it in the ac adapter, or new/charged batteries.

!!another thing that definitely helps reduce the noise at any time is shutting off the backlight! always remember that!!

the second reason mine was making noise besides the battery, was the "audio ins". after a month of having it, i had it plugged into my main mixer and all my equipment and heard the mpc giving a loud buzz that turned me off so much. i was so close to returning it but it was past the refund date. so i was checking the wires... n wen i pulled out the audio ins, the buzz instantly went away. i dont know if its the mpc, the cables, or my mixer, but all i know now is if i record audio from the mpc to my computer (cubase) to not have the audio ins plugged into the mpc. and probably have the backlight turned off also. and either the batteries new/charged or ac adapter plugged in. i hope that helps anybody