MPC500 is freedom

Its on his sig too. Thats how I saw it.

Fatt Laced wrote:i mean your in the woods/park/stalking you neighbor and that creativity hits you, it's not like you can sample something, you must have some preloaded synths or samples or something.. otherwise i don't get it, got me?

Mic + 500 you can sample sounds around you. You can make your own sounds with the environment get it?

Dodgedriver82 wrote:i seen this and thought it was cool, nothing special, but the simplicity of it is what got me .

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=45314388

i enjoyed that, thanks!
dude is alright!

edit: dude is sick! 'jk-47' mad on the decks too, check his vids!
on decks
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=62337306
alesis micron + mp 500...
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=61564797

Fatt Laced wrote:

Dodgedriver82 wrote:i seen this and thought it was cool, nothing special, but the simplicity of it is what got me .

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=45314388

i enjoyed that, thanks!
dude is alright!

edit: dude is sick! 'jk-47' mad on the decks too, check his vids!
on decks
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=62337306
alesis micron + mp 500...
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=61564797

agreed. Guy is my new hero.

ssnedden wrote:iPod + MPC 500 + batteries + headphones + weed = win

yea, ive done the ipod sampling when im on the bus, i forgot all about that!!

Damn. Howd u sample from ur ipod? Im not too good with these cords and plugs yet haha. But sampling from ur ipod would be tight.

Big ends go to the record in on the MPC , Little Jack goes into the ipod .

1/8 inch stereo to Dual mono 1/4 inch

One thing that keeps the 500 from being entirely portable IMO is the screen and buttons.
i really have to have my 500 settled into a sturdy position so that I can strike the pads hard enough to get a response. I think I'm going to eventually try one of the fixes that have been described on here for that. And also the position has to be propped at an angle for navigating the numerous screens that it takes to get something simple done.
I wish someone could make some folding feet that could be attached to the bottem like at the rear of a PC keyboard.
IMO its portable as far as sitting on the couch or bed and moving it from room to room, but its just akward enough that I havent bothered and cant imaging using it on the greyhound or at the park or things like that that I had assumed it would be perfect for.
Although let me add that I have taken it outside for playing back stuff that I've already made. Spinning through the loops isn't hard at all, but I cant imaging trying to do any hardcore programming in the field.

You can adjust the screen contrast so it looks good at your preferred angle.

The pads make it unusable to me. You have to hold your hand firm behind it so you can punch hard. You can use full levels and push them like buttons with your thumbs, but removing the pads is what made it usable for me.

I tend to not set it on anything if I'm outside. It can be held up in the air, like a handheld video game. You can hold it with your left hand, while accessing the controls with the right, and keeping it up near your eyes to see.

But once you've memorized the software, there's not much you need to see, just keep it in sight while focussing more with ears. Then you can switch up positions based on what you're doing, but still holding it up in the air.

bobdobolina15 wrote:

ssnedden wrote:iPod + MPC 500 + batteries + headphones + weed = win

yea, ive done the ipod sampling when im on the bus, i forgot all about that!!

Damn. Howd u sample from ur ipod? Im not too good with these cords and plugs yet haha. But sampling from ur ipod would be tight.

And dont have Beatmaker on the Iphone with its waveform editing.

Off da Hoook. I even use this method with my 60 sometimes.

so i been weighing the pros and cons.....and im goin for it ! soon as i get some extra cash flow, im gettin a 500 ! used either off ebay or CL though.

Jamon wrote:....

But once you've memorized the software, there's not much you need to see, just keep it in sight while focussing more with ears. Then you can switch up positions based on what you're doing, but still holding it up in the air.

I know what you mean, I used to be able to fly through the sp1200 without glancing at the screen. But the number pad helped immensily with that.
I'm getting a lot better at naturally flowing through the menu's on this 500, but one thing that seems to prevent me from getting any smoother is the "rocking" scrollwheel. I have to constantly moniter the screen while spinning the wheel to make sure the values are not rocking back and forth and spinning in place, or going too far, or something else screwy. Just the almost uniform insensisitivity and impreciseness of every imput on the little booger makes it counter intuitive and a special pain not really suited to freewheeling on the road for me.
But dont get me wrong, it's been doing pretty much everything I need with a little extra TLC and finnese, so I'm pleased.
I sure with they'd make that useless Q-Link into a scrollwheel alternative though!

BTW: I was thinking the other day that they missed the mark by not mounting the LCD at an angle behind the glass like a newscasters desk moniter.

I awlays read these posts about pads and bugs but seriously I have no problem with the pads and never experienced a bug while using it. Look the pads on my 60 are way better ofcourse but would hate to see what rain or anything liquid would do to them... the 500 pads seem to be more designed to be retardproof.

Yes, the wheel slows flow, because some turns slip and do nothing. Also, some of my buttons miss too, especially Track, I have to push it hard to be sure it worked. There's lots they could do to the firmware to make the 500 faster to work with. If you could move the slider in Trim mode, so it moved in %, where half position is half the length of the sound, then trimming would be faster.

It misses the mark for me. It's close, but the little things add up. If they could've done things a little different I would've preferred the 500 even over the 5000. It's okay for some things, but not really great as a primary machine. It doesn't even have a track mixer. If you sequence a 48-note instrumental program, to pan you have to set the number for every note you played.

Jamon wrote:... If you could move the slider in Trim mode, so it moved in %, where half position is half the length of the sound, then trimming would be faster. ...

+ a Mil!

Thats how the SP1200 worked. It took about 10 seconds to set the start and end points on samples on that machine because of the sliders.

If you could use the Q-link for all actions that the scroll wheel does like tweaking your filters between 1-99 for example (that takes way longer than it should) it would speed up the workflow 10 fold!

And I know exactly how what you mean about the track button. I dont use the tracks myself very often, but my directional (L,R,UP,DN) is terribly unresponsive. Thats another major reason I have to constantly crane my neck to moniter the screen when programing. I have to entend my finger stiff and jab the little sucker hard and just right then check the screen to see if the cursor moved almost everytime I want to do anything. And thanks for verifying that its not just my scroll wheel that spins in place if you spin it fast forcing you to S L O W W A Y D O W N to get the cursor to move.

But still a great little toy IMO. I wish I had something like this ten years ago. It does almost everything that I wished a sampler could do back when I used SP1200's and 440's. I plan to get a bigger brother eventually, but I'm satisfied with this one for demos.

ssnedden wrote:iPod + MPC 500 + batteries + headphones + weed = win

this is what i'm on dude, i got a 4gb ipod nano full to the brim of ripped vinyl, take it and my 500 everywhere... im going to run out of samples eventually im sure ahhaha