Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By per Sat May 01, 2010 3:26 pm
Hi all!

I just got an MPC 500 a few days ago and everything seemed to be fine, but unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the stereo playback of a sample. When I hit a pad, sometimes the sample is played back only on the right headphone and on the left side I just hear a click and that's it. Sometimes it gets played back normally on both sides of the headphone. To clarify the problem: While looping a sequence, sample 1 gets played back normally, while sample 2 isn't. The next time the sequence starts, sample 1 gets played back on only the ride headphone side, while sample 2 is played back normally. It's completely arbitrary. My headphones and all cables are fully functional. That's why I suppose that the problem somehow lies within the MPC. I already got the newest OS Update (1.31), but the problem still exists.

Has anyone had problems like this before and knows how to deal with it? I would be so grateful, if someone could help me. You probably know, how frustrating things like these can be. Greetings, Malte.
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By BLiTzZD Mon May 03, 2010 1:22 pm
Check the PAN settings for each sample, ensure they are in the middle and not left or right.

Also, if you arent using "Full Volume" you may not be hitting the pads hard enough to trigger the sound. I have had instances where I didn't hit the pad hard enough and the sound came through the right only.
By per Mon May 03, 2010 5:50 pm
thanks for your reply. unfortunately i use 'full level' almost every time and checked the pan settings for each sample. in the meanwhile i sent the mpc to repair. hopefully i will be smarter about the defect by the time i get it back.
By soundsdefygravity Sun Jun 20, 2010 11:46 pm
MAN! I can't believe I just came across this thread. I picked up my MPC second hand and have had the SAME EXACT problem! And I was really upset for a few days, considered selling it... but after a lot of investigating I found a strange quirk that seemed to fix the problem.

1. In the EFFECTS section my MPC500 was set to effects set 11. I changed this to set 1.

2. Also by default my MPC had an effects send of 33.. I turned this down to zero.

After a LOT of tinkering around I figured out that it's the auto pan feature that was cutting out my stereo sounds.. and this seemed to fix it. I uploaded this set (and settings) to the ram and when I restarted it worked perfectly.

Hope this helps!

- m
By soundsdefygravity Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:43 pm
I thought I had restored factory settings.. but then again (as i mentioned in another thread we were chatting on) I'm using MPC-Maid to build programs.. and found it had a few default settings that might have caused the issue too (FX send was automatically set to 33 for instance, i set to 0 and it fixed the problem.) And the effects set 11 on my MPC500 seems to be glitchy.. or I haven't figured it all out yet anyway. So in my troubleshooting I'm finding this issues to be an Autopan issue that has something to do with Effects set 11 on my machine and/or the effect send on the master.. (hope this rambling helps someone troubleshoot.. sorry for the bandwidth.)