Personal review on MPC500 - first impression

Hi guys, I am new to MPC world, and yesterday I got the MPC500. I have to say that MPC is really really wonderful tool for music. Although I am a newbie, I want to put a review here so that all of you will have some idea on this new product.

But First of all, I haven't tried MPC1000, and still I am kind of struggling about if return 500 and get a 1000... But as following, I will just put some objective statements.

1, The MPC500 is really portable, not mentioning the size and weight, battery is the key point.

2, 12 pads are annoying... because all the program of 1000 can not be applied to 500... (yes I have tried, and it worked, but the samples of rest 4 pads went to next band)

3, RAM is tooo small. 16MB is obviously not enough. I could only load one set of samples to fill merely band A. I think a 128MB expansion is essential, and I am wondering why AKAI can not put more memory on MPC? Cost? but memory is really cheap now... Technology? Come on... It is 21 century now!

4, Small LCD is annoying, too. But it is ok, since the interface is designed friendly. Of course there is no wave graphic, but it' fine.

5, Why don't they design DATA wheel as a clickable style? 'rotate AND click' would be much easier.

6, There is no hard drive bay for MPC500, but it is fine by me. 1GB or 2GB is enough for me because of the small/tiny RAM. And you know that the HD is heavy and has to be protected carefully...


I haven't tried the sampling part, but generally, I wish MPC could have 16 pads... that's all.

This is personal, because originally I play acoustic/electric guitar and acoustic drums. I will not heavily depend on MPC anyway. Maybe in the future, I will make some sample from acoustic instruments, and produce some MPC songs...

---- UPDATE----

This is a hot topic: MPC500 sucks or not?

IMO,

1, MPC500 is good. Yes it is not as powerful as MPC1000, but you can see the difference between them, physically.

2, More importantly, MPC500 loses only a few functions compared with MPC1000, and it is quite lucky for MPC500 user. For example no Digital Audio ports, only 1 pair MIDI input and output, and so on, which are fine with most of the users. (have a look at the PDF table on their website)

3, The Portibility means different things to different users, but i don't think it means absolutely nothing. And it is portibility that decides the user will not user this box to connect lots of equipments, which is quite reasonable for No. 2.

Conclusion:

If you don't need such a professional MPC like MPC1000, MPC500 is good for you.

If you have already had a MPC1000+, but you travel a lot, you may buy a MPC500 as your tight tool all the time.

If you are a real professional user, and you will stay at home or studio all the time, don't buy MPC500.

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Any comment and advice is welcomed!


Leon

**** waveform... music is made by ears... not by eyes

have any of you come from using a 2000, 2000 xl(not the mcd one the pads are different) ?

because i used the 2500 , and the 2000 xl mcd yesterday and i hate how the pads feel all gummy and cheap.
i couldnt use the 500 cuz its in a case like some god or sumthin.

so are the pads gummy feeling like that?

will a dood with fat fingers like myself have trouble with that little q link?

can you do track mutes with the pads like the other mpcs?

thanks guys.

jowdjo wrote:**** waveform... music is made by ears... not by eyes

really, im sure that people with waveforms dont use thier ears

Contra wrote:have any of you come from using a 2000, 2000 xl(not the mcd one the pads are different) ?

because i used the 2500 , and the 2000 xl mcd yesterday and i hate how the pads feel all gummy and cheap.
i couldnt use the 500 cuz its in a case like some god or sumthin.

so are the pads gummy feeling like that?

will a dood with fat fingers like myself have trouble with that little q link?

can you do track mutes with the pads like the other mpcs?

thanks guys.

gummy - kinda not bad. "in a case like some god"? yeah it is. though my case just got a lil dented carrying it around in a bag.

fat fingers - not a problem.

track mutes - hell yeah. is it just me or did this just get a whole lot easier on the 500?


(I owned a 2000xl and a 1000 in the past)

props on the response/

well to put things in perspective, i owned a 500 for a couple of weeks, all i can say is that this machine is not for me.

from the 500, i spent the money i got from selling it to pick up a 2000xl and i gotta say nothing is better than the 2000xl, my new favorite machine, my 1000 isn't getting as much attention as the 2000xl, no matter the "jj" os, a lot of the producers i listen to dont spend time **** with new features, the use the features given and make it work.

as for the 500, it has too many menues to go through, i guess its workflow to me, i rather have 4 screens for 20 different parameters than going though 30 different menues one for each specific function.. take a look at how the parameters for the different menus are...
http://www.akaipro.com/documents/MPC500 ... terMap.pdf

the buttons feel really really cheap in comparison to the bigger machines, the pad design is improved from the 1000, but i didnt like the feeling, probably because they wernt broken in as were the 2000xl and 2500 at whatever store you tried the machines at... nothing feels better than 2 year old broken in pads. haha

track mutes are a pain on that machine, your looking at "m"'s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 compared to looking at a screen with the names of your tracks.....


all this is personal opinion, it would be my recomendation to get one of the bigger models and if you have the cash later on, get the 500... you'll be happier, but if the 500 is the one you want cause you want to take it on the bus or to work or on the toilet or use batteries, then by all means get it, you wont be happy with the 2000xl or 2500 or 1000 if you really want the 500, i dont see any real advantages over any of the bigger machines other than the fact that its portable.....

djobserv wrote:i dont see any real advantages over any of the bigger machines other than the fact that its portable.....

which is precisely the point

I have discovered some disadvantages:

no other tracks you can hear in step mode other the one you are working in.
this is very annoing because you have to listen each track solo if you don't have a clue where you have put that one sample.

you can't let a track play solo when you want to change a sequence.
Let it put it this way: if you mute a track it will stay muted, but when you solo a track you have to stay in solo mode, because otherwise it will be switched off.

earwolf wrote:

djobserv wrote:i dont see any real advantages over any of the bigger machines other than the fact that its portable.....

which is precisely the point

whats the big deal with portability.... your sacrificing precious time and features in order to use something portable?? doesnt make sense..... forget it.

Dj Proces wrote:I have discovered some disadvantages:

no other tracks you can hear in step mode other the one you are working in.
this is very annoing because you have to listen each track solo if you don't have a clue where you have put that one sample.

you can't let a track play solo when you want to change a sequence.
Let it put it this way: if you mute a track it will stay muted, but when you solo a track you have to stay in solo mode, because otherwise it will be switched off.

i may sound like a retard but can you give me an example like with "snare is on trk 1 nd i wanna do this,etc"

before i purchase it.
my boy bought my mpc2000xl a while back
so its either this or buying a used 2000(not xl)

let me rephrase what is step mode?

I found something interesting, on wiki page, here is something:

MPC 60 1988 40 kHz non-linear 12 bit mono 1.5 MB 16 96 ppq 60,000
MPC 3000 1994 44.1 kHz 16 bit linear PCM stereo 16 MB (32 MB unoff.) 32 96 ppq 75,000
MPC 2000 1997 44.1 kHz 16 bit linear PCM stereo 32 MB 32 96 ppq 300,000
MPC 4000 2002 96/48/44.1 kHz, 24/16 bit linear PCM stereo 512 MB 32 (64 for 44.1 kHz) 960 ppq 300,000
MPC 1000 2004 44.1 kHz 16 bit linear PCM stereo 128 MB 32 96 ppq 100,000
MPC 2500 2005 44.1 kHz 16 bit linear PCM stereo 128 MB 32 96 ppq 100,000
MPC 500 2006 44.1 kHz 16 bit linear PCM stereo 128 MB 16-32

MPC 500 is the latest product from Akaipro, I really want to know during two years, what did they do with the MPC? only portibility or other improvements based on MPC1000?

Well I am not a professional MPC user, as for the goal for fun, any MPC will do.

djobserv wrote:whats the big deal with portability.... your sacrificing precious time and features in order to use something portable?? doesnt make sense..... forget it.

Doesn't make sense to you, so you sold it, so why worry about what other people do with their equipment?

Makes sense to other people, so they keep it.

You can have both a 500 and a larger MPC, you don't have to have only one or the other.

I'll be on a snowboarding holiday in a campervan without AC power for 6 weeks later in the year, a holiday that I go on every year, how am I going to use a larger MPC there?

How about if I want to go jam at a friends house, and not unplug and cart around a larger MPC, just chuck the 500 in my backback and go.

SimonInAustralia wrote:

djobserv wrote:whats the big deal with portability.... your sacrificing precious time and features in order to use something portable?? doesnt make sense..... forget it.

Doesn't make sense to you, so you sold it, so why worry about what other people do with their equipment?

Makes sense to other people, so they keep it.

You can have both a 500 and a larger MPC, you don't have to have only one or the other.

I'll be on a snowboarding holiday in a campervan without AC power for 6 weeks later in the year, a holiday that I go on every year, how am I going to use a larger MPC there?

How about if I want to go jam at a friends house, and not unplug and cart around a larger MPC, just chuck the 500 in my backback and go.

exactly...i have a 1000 and would get a 500 in a minute - i'm travelling the world and weight and size count, when i started out the 500 hadn't dropped, now i would prefer the 500 over my 1000, to go with my laptop and later down the line pick up a 2500 with jj os for the lab - that will seem like luxury with the tilt screen and full size pads

looking at the 500 as your only mpc or piece of gear is odd to me - i see it as a way of taking the essentials of modern mpcs out onto the road, and
then being able to integrate/communicate with a larger studio model

if you only want to buy one mpc, or it is your first mpc, then imo a 1000 would be a much more sensible option than a 500