This is driving me CRAZY!

i've had the 500 about two weeks now (read the manual covr to cover twice before any 'go read the manual' jibes) and after getting the hang of loading, savin e.c.t i deleted all programs, sequences, samples from the RAM to start a fresh and got a pretty nice beat going, i started recording to play the first sequence and the metronome counted in as usual, then i hit the first pad - no sound. second pad - sound out of one speaker. third pad - sound out of both speakers and so on, it was different for each pad. My first thought was to check the settings for each sample assigned to the pads on trck a - the one with the samples on. each one was set to poly but was playing as mono, same story with mute - they were all set with mute off but were cutting eachother off as if mute was on, changing the settings didnt work either. Not only that but if i play the drums on track b - it cuts off the samples on track a, as if they're set to mono too but they're not. Even if i try to play a little drum loop live on track b the kick or snare sound doesnt come out if its hitting in the same place as the hat. Even when i change the settings for all pads on both tracks to poly with the mute off.

Am i doing something wrong? is this a bug? I was really careful to make sure i did everything the right way this time since ive made about 4 beats since getting the 500 and ended up losing them all due to messing up one of the settings and turning it off frustrated.


all help is appreciated. thank you

PLEEEASE! Someone out there must have an idea!?

i've done what i think i'll probably get told to do - (read the manual for one) but also been through countless threads on the forum to find out if the question has already been answered.

I've seen a few mentions of what it sounds like - especially in one thread where i gathered it could be because ive used all the polyphony voices up but that just confused me more - how can the mpc have a 48 track sampler and yet i 'run out of poly voices' after tapping out a 2 bar loop?

I recorded the initial sample in stereo and chopped it into 6 one beat samples and when i tried tapping out my loop as it was recording i was getting odd results as described in my initial post. So, my first thought was to check my output wires which weren't the issue as i then tried it with headphones and got the same result (it shouldn't be the wires anyway since they're brand new) so next i checked the settings for each pad -

mode > program > pad A1

i checked each pad in this way and although playback was as if each pad was set to Mono voice and Mute on 1, the settings reflected the complete opposite - all samples set to poly and mute off.

I decided to try tapping out the loop i wanted to anyway to see if it played back the same which it did, then thought i'll add some basic drums to see if there's any issues there.

Sequence 1 > Track A2 > Pad Bank B > Record

hat - hat - hat - hat - hat - hat - hat - hat
kick- - - - - - - - - - - kick - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - snare- - - - - - - - - - snare- - -

These recorded as normal, i.e - out of both speakers but where ever the kick or snare hits, it wont play the sound in full because it's like the hat sound is cutting it off, as if the hat, snare and kick are all set to mute eachother and are all on mono...but they're not.

This problem also seems to be crossing over to effect pad bank A too, which has the 6 chops i made - the drum sounds on pad bank B cut off the samples on Pad Bank A.

Hopefully i've elaborated enough to give a better impression of what the problem is, even though it still sounds complicated as f@ck! As i've said - i've looked through the manual and will do so again when i get home but i'm pretty sure it's a more complicated, or obscure issue than something i'm simply just missing in the manual.

Once again - any and all help is very much appreciated.

Thank you!

i didnt read ur whole post but are u sampling a mono or stereo source? and are u sampling accordingly?

bicedidit wrote:i didnt read ur whole post but are u sampling a mono or stereo source? and are u sampling accordingly?

Ummm, i'd need to check. Do you mean, am i recording in stereo or mono, or do you mean - am i recording from a record that's mono or stereo?

i'd need to check when i get home whether the actual record i sampled from was stereo or mono but i recorded it in stereo

thanks

if u record a stereo sample, make sure the mpc is set to record stereo. if its a stereo sample and there is some heavy panning, there may only be sound out of 1 speaker.

acutally, after reading some more of ur post, i dont think that is the issue.

Yea, it's really confusing me as the pads were behaving completely different to the way they were set up.

Any1 else got any ideas? I understand that none of u may know but if u have an idea at least that would be very helpful. Thanks to bicedidit for his 2 cents!

Try to update the OS. If u have the latest os try to reinstall it.

www.akaipro.com

Thanks, i may try that if the problem persists but i think i fixed it. - i deleted everything (again) and turned off autoload. Reloaded the samples and they were playing ok, recording was fine and i managed to get a beat done. Saved it as entire memory then turned the mpc off and back on so i could load the beat and check i'd done that right too. That went fine, except after letting the beat play through a couple of sequences the same old problem cut in - odd parts of random samples cutting off. I replayed the samples on one sequence and it played back fine after that. Although the problem is kind of fixed now, this is kind of more confusing. Does this sound like possibly a RAM issue? The ram not being big enough to play back all the data? It's still the standard ram till i get round to upgrading it so i guess that would make sense but sounds kind of lame too. Is it common for the os to need re installing? I mean - i've probably used it a total of 5 times since it came and i bought it new. Thanks again