Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By mbillings Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:39 am
Is it possible to trigger a sample and have it continuously loop until you hit the pad again? Basically, I don't want to put it in a sequence, I just want to hit the pad once and have a phrase loop until I hit the pad again.

I don't own the MPC 500 yet, but I can't find anything in the manual that suggests you can do this. I am going to be triggering pads with a MIDI foot controller and as far as I can tell, I can only trigger the pads and not sequences, thus needing the option to loop samples. So I guess my second question would be, is it possible to trigger sequences with midi notes?
By Emilie Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:29 pm
mbillings wrote:Is it possible to trigger a sample and have it continuously loop until you hit the pad again?


With some tricks yes. But if thats the main thing you want to do with it i can not recommend you to buy it.

mbillings wrote:is it possible to trigger sequences with midi notes?


Not sequences, but resampled sequences can be triggered with MIDI notes.



I don't think that you will be happy with the MPC line if it is this you want to do with it. I think that ableton live is more in your direction. It's up to you bro.
By mbillings Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:54 am
Thanks for the response. I don't have a laptop anymore, and have had problems with using them live in the past so I don't want to go the software route.

The main thing I want the MPC for over actual phrase samplers are the ability to have mute groups. That would be really useful for performing live.

What are the tricks you spoke of?
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By NearTao Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:26 pm
If you read the forums you can find quite a few tricks... the problem with describing any of them is that who knows if they will fit your workflow or not. It is definitely worth digging through the forums and seeing what people have had to say on this or similar topics in the past.
By mbillings Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:29 pm
Yeah I found the shift + pad technique. That definitely won't work since I'm trying to do this all with my feet. If I REALLY want an MPC (I REALLY WANT AN MPC!) than maybe I'll get a 500 and an SP 303 to trigger phrase samples.

I also discovered though that the Roland SP 606 does mute groups so maybe I'll look into that solution.