MPC5000 reviews, bug reports and fellow user support on the most recent standalone, hardware MPC from Akai
By kvmoore Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:42 am
Hi to all. I am very interested in the MPC5000. As of right now, I don't own one. However, it's features look very tempting, especially it's sequencer. I have experience in previous MPC models (1000, 2000xl, 4000) and I would one day like to eventually own a MPC5000 because of it's features, specifically in it's sequencer.

Anyhow, here's my question. I've been looking through the MPC5000 manual of the latest version of the OS (2.0) and I was looking for a feature in the program edit parameters I currently have on my 1000 w/JJ OS2xl and 4000, a pitch envelope or auxiliary envelope that can modulate the pitch. I was surprised not to find it on the LCD screenshots of the program page in the manual, nor did I see any mention of it in the manual. Since I didn't see a pitch envelope or auxiliary envelope, I started looking at the LFO in the manual and hoping it would have a "one-shot" mode allowing the LFO to work as a envelope for pitch but NO!!! So basically what I'm asking is:

Does the MPC5000 have a pitch envelope in its sample program engine like the 1000 w/JJ OS2xl or an auxiliary envelope that can be modulated to pitch or anything else like in the MPC4000?

I would assume the answer my question is NO based on what I saw in the manual but I could be making a wrong assumption. Therefore, any confirmation from actual users/owners of the MPC5000 would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks.
By Cat3 Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:59 am
there's no pitch envelope on the mpc 5000.

the lfo can modulate the pitch but has no one shot (single cycle) trig.

:(
By kvmoore Fri Dec 31, 2010 1:43 am
Thanks, Cat3. That's just what I figured. I think the only workaround to that would be to manually use the pitch wheel and record the pitch wheel events into the sequencer as MIDI data. Anyhow, that is definitely a workable solution that would still allow me to accomplish what I want to accomplish.

Hopefully, Akai does eventually add the pitch envelope or aux envelope to the sampling engine in a future OS update, but I wouldn't cry if they didn't, since there is a workaround.
By seiko Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:08 am
not 100% sure but instead of using a modulation wheel, you could use one of the Q-links configured to the pitch, and record the automation.
By kvmoore Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:36 pm
Ya know,

I just reread this thread that I've created over a year ago and I'm still debating between the MPC2500 and MPC5000, although I'm leaning toward the 5k because of the higher resoluting sequencer and other hardware related features (more sliders, adat outs, better screen, more ram, etc...) I have played with using the pitch wheel to simulate the pitch envelope of an 808 kick drum on my current gear just to see how I like the idea. Although it is a workable workaround, I would still prefer a real pitch envelope that way the pitch would bend automatically when the sample is triggered instead of having to record pitchbend events. I think this would be a great feature request to add to the MPC5000 for the next OS update---that and maybe non-destructive chopping like what's in the JJ OS. However, I can't post it in the feature request thread for the 5000 since I don't own a 5000 yet.

To me these are really is the only things missing that I would like to see added in the MPC5000. Wait-a-minute....I just read in a few other threads that the 5k doesn't sync well with DAWs!!!!! That would be a huge show stopper for me. I sync my 4000 with a DAW (Nuendo 3 under Win XP Pro) via MTC and it syncs perfectly. If I were to get a 5000 as a backup in case the 4000 broke down and the 5000 couldn't sync well with a DAW and the timing would drift, I would be VERY, VERY disappointed. IF this is in fact true, PLEASE FIX IT in a future update!!!!! Otherwise, the MPC5000 seems like a wonderful machine spec-wise.