MPC5000 Dilemma to get or not to get...

Alright so I own an MPC 2500 which I use together with my virus and kaoss pad 3 to doa live PA. I know my setup quite well and it works for me. I will be doing my techno live PA in NYC on the 26th of June. I have not even finished it yet but it's about 75% done.

Now I am on a waiting list to get the mpc 5000 and the dealer just called me today to tell me they have arrived!!! My question is? Is it completely stable, stable enough taht it won't glitch out during my live PA. And is it similar enough to the 2500 that it will not present a drastic learning curve and stop my drive in finishing my live PA. Also will I be able to load to the Mpc5000 my complete project created with the mpc 2500?

Ahh gear lust.....

thanks in advanced!

ritec wrote:I know my setup quite well and it works for me

Seems like you already have the answer

I'm feeling your dilema man! I'm in a totally different situation but I understand where you are coming from.

I only really signed up to this board to get the low-down on the 5K but i'm still not 100% convinced that it is the right move for me. I know it's a great looking machine with some cool features that will also benefit my sound, but as for being sold... not quite yet.

This next comment is not meant to be contencious or to lure you away from the MPC in the slightest, but in the past 3 or 4 years I have seen countless Techno acts move away from hardware sequencers and onto laptops and software (especially Ableton), and this seems to be the trend. Now that's probably the last thing you want to hear, especially as you're on the verge of parting with $2500, but it is starting to look like the more cost effective/professional live setup.

If you are 75% done with your current set, then that indicates you can easily finish things off with what you have. From this point on I think most stores will carry a stock of 5K's so maybe show some haste while you decide what is best.

Seeing as Akai chose to call the new 'flagship' the 5000, does that mean that it is twice as good as the 2500?? I suspect not...

Well....I ordered mine a few months back but chickened out just last week and changed my order to an Alesis A6 It's not that I don't want the 5k, but things aren't looking so good right now as there are still quite a few bugs to be sorted out. And right now with my hectic schedule, bugs are the last thing I need.

I'm gonna give it a few more months to see if the 5k is going to be what it's menat to be.

The Andromeda is a lovely synth but it's not the easiest piece of equipment to use. I sold mine 3 months back after owning one for 4 years, and I don't miss it that much.

I hope you have a productive time with it though.

Get...

ritec wrote:Alright so I own an MPC 2500 which I use together with my virus and kaoss pad 3 to doa live PA. I know my setup quite well and it works for me. I will be doing my techno live PA in NYC on the 26th of June. I have not even finished it yet but it's about 75% done.

Now I am on a waiting list to get the mpc 5000 and the dealer just called me today to tell me they have arrived!!! My question is? Is it completely stable, stable enough taht it won't glitch out during my live PA. And is it similar enough to the 2500 that it will not present a drastic learning curve and stop my drive in finishing my live PA. Also will I be able to load to the Mpc5000 my complete project created with the mpc 2500?

Ahh gear lust.....

thanks in advanced!

Well, i have used mine live this past weekend to play some tracks from and sequences from song mode that were recorded on the HD. I had no problem with it except for, when you load up song, with an HD recorded track, it slows down tremendously when going back and forth to certain screens while that HD song is loaded up.

But it did operate pretty good as far as playing those few songs live for me. Just do all your editing way ahead before the event, that way you can just load your whole project up and do the show.

Now if you will have to go back and forth to the load menu after you load up HD recorded songs, Your show will have a stop sign in it. But if you dont have any HD recorded songs and you need to load up other things off and on during the show, you will be fine.

Coz wrote:The Andromeda is a lovely synth but it's not the easiest piece of equipment to use. I sold mine 3 months back after owning one for 4 years, and I don't miss it that much.

I hope you have a productive time with it though.

Cheers, mate. Luckily I'm quite 'fluent' when it comes to synth programming. I was gonna get one any way. My original idea was to write on the 5k using the onboard VA (that would make writing so much faster) and then record the actual parts with the A6. But now it looks like I'm gonna wait for another while...

I don't recommend the 5000 unless you feel you can really mess with it. I bought mine after reading up on it and making sure it had at least what I needed, which was 8 outputs, a big screen and a few odds n ends.

I don't recommend you "switch" to the 5000 if what you already have is working for you, but if you want to try something new, by all means go ahead, the store should give you a return option anyway if you dont like it so you can at least try it out for a week or two.

don't do it man. it's a horrible p.o.s.

I just go mine it definitly rocks

Get it but don t use it for you live pa yet

Wait some bug fixes

Thank you everyone for your replies! I have decided to wait it out.. finish the live PA then try out the 5000 at guitar center and then decide if I will be switching or not. Seems like the way to go... I am pretty sure I'll end up getting it in less than a month though!

As far as the ableton thing... well I am definitely not against the idea but I try to stay away from the computer as much as I can. You see I am trying to bring something new and fresh to the table. These days everyone and their mother is making "live sets / live pas" with ableton while the little apple logo glows in front of the audience. This is exactly what I don't want, i want something where people can actually see me turn knobs and go crazy on stage, I want to perform live not only play live and I think the interactivity between the gear and myself is extremely important to achieve the performance effect.

that said I have thought about getting some loops done on ableton and trigger them live with the pads on the MPC. Definitely not against the idea but I am indeed trying to not go that route. Now, if I feel my sets sound stale and not up to par with today's audio trickeries I will definitely add a small laptop to the combination. but so far so good.

Interesting post!
First I have to say wait until after your done playing your set as you mentioned. If you know your gear than your ok for now. Than dump that 2500 right after your set
(Disclaimer: I am not a fan of the mpc2500 or the mpc1000.. so I am little biased. Today I checked out the MPC5000... and after using MPC3000's since they came out, I am definitely sold on buying a MPC5000 as it seemed well made and the OS seemed decent. I was able to get around pretty quickly although for some reason I had issues try to quantize).

As for Ableton think of it this way- everyone seems to be using it and everyone seems to sound like everyone else. I receive demos after demos for my label and they all sound the same. It has gotten to the point where I can instantly identify the patch they are using as people are getting lazy.
(Disclaimer- To avoid a hardware verse software thread I am a little biased since I have always used hardware sequencers. When I started making my crappy acid techno records in the late 80's, hardware sequencers is what was available to me.)

Good luck with your show.

ritec wrote:Thank you everyone for your replies! I have decided to wait it out.. finish the live PA then try out the 5000 at guitar center and then decide if I will be switching or not. Seems like the way to go... I am pretty sure I'll end up getting it in less than a month though!

As far as the ableton thing... well I am definitely not against the idea but I try to stay away from the computer as much as I can. You see I am trying to bring something new and fresh to the table. These days everyone and their mother is making "live sets / live pas" with ableton while the little apple logo glows in front of the audience. This is exactly what I don't want, i want something where people can actually see me turn knobs and go crazy on stage, I want to perform live not only play live and I think the interactivity between the gear and myself is extremely important to achieve the performance effect.

that said I have thought about getting some loops done on ableton and trigger them live with the pads on the MPC. Definitely not against the idea but I am indeed trying to not go that route. Now, if I feel my sets sound stale and not up to par with today's audio trickeries I will definitely add a small laptop to the combination. but so far so good.

That's funny and quite true, if the presets sound good people will use them cause they can't do better themselves, hence they all sound the same, that is why sampling from obscure sources and arranging those sounds is more inventive and adds the difference to stand out.

Lazy producing is the problem, not the software.