HELP WANTED AKAI MPC Mentor

Hey everybody. I'm a wannabe solo artist that just got a MPC500 to create beats for my music (got the guitars and pianos in check) I'm also very interested in producing for local artists. I thought I knew a bit about music, but I see that the people on this site are tremendously knowledgeable in the field of MPC. Learning guitar and piano on your own is one thing, but this machine is some superior technology. I know absolutlely no one else that does music and as of right now I'm just taking my basics at the college so I don't have the opportunity of meeting anyone that could help me learn MPC. I know it seems like I'm asking for a hand-out, but you all seem very passionate and nice, so it makes me think that maybe someone would be interested in teaching me the MPC500 and other things related to music production. I know music, but unfortunately I'm horrible with technology and I'm really eager to end that problem.
So if anyone is interested in having a student or apprentice in music production I could do it through online correspondence or in person (I'm in El Paso, TX). I just really wanna master the mpc because I love making music, but I'm currently limited to just strings and vocals.
Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED. and like i said, i've never met anyone who does music or even knows what an MPC is so please let me know if i'm being unrealistic, or breaking a music rule by asking for help.

first of all, make sure you read that manual and get familiar with the machine and what it does.. secondly, watch youtube beat making videos.. or look around the forums for a thread called "mpc tv home of the beat making videos" (or a title close to that anyways) and watch the videos in there... see what people are doing with the mpc and take notes... then review those notes to see if any of those things reflect what you want to do.

I suggest to start out, load up any old drum kit in the mpc.. play a song on your computer (a rap song for example) and try to drum along with it... start off simple with just the kick and snare.. try to follow the rhythm. Add your own bits here and there.. that will get your timing up just like how you gotta always play piano to be consistent.


you can be shown how features work, but that is something easy to do on your own... the hard part (or the part that takes the most dedication) is the creative part.. being original, getting your beats to reflect your style... that is something nobody can teach you.

@mr_debauch thanks a lot man i appreciate the game plan. and i feel like it's the opposite (i've made music before with strings, vocals, and a regular drum kit) when it comes to the beats i feel like i have all these paintings in my head, but i don't know how to hold the brush haha. well im definitely doing everything you just told me to and if you don't mind if i have any additional questions I'll probably hit you up i saw that expert tag so

BigWillyStyle9 wrote:@mr_debauch thanks a lot man i appreciate the game plan. and i feel like it's the opposite (i've made music before with strings, vocals, and a regular drum kit) when it comes to the beats i feel like i have all these paintings in my head, but i don't know how to hold the brush haha. well im definitely doing everything you just told me to and if you don't mind if i have any additional questions I'll probably hit you up i saw that expert tag so

the expert tag is not actually representative of anything besides the fact that I have a high post count.... it's actually automatically given once you reach a certain amount..

also, I think you can not send personal messages until you have a certain amount of posts because of spam bots sending spam PMs..

if you have soundcloud you can reach me on there...

i know how it feels to not have anyone around you making music. when i was in alaska it was like that.

my suggestion would be to buy the beat making on the mpc 500 ebook from this sites sister website.
the guy that runs this site wrote it, its 40 dollars, and it comes with audio examples.

when i was first starting out on my 500 this book was golden. it walked me through everything step by step and it also comes with sounds/pgms to use as examples in the tutorials.

i didnt really use the tutorials step by step, but applied the principals it was explaing to my own beats and it worked out perfect.
let me be clear though, it doesnt just give you basic principals, it explicitly explains everything the machine does in step by step tutorials, but if you didnt wnat to use the actual audio that came with the ebook to learn the tutorials, you can apply them to whatever your working on.
it was the best 40 bucks i spent to learn my mpc 500.

Thats cool man, I'm the opposite. I know the machines but I'm learning electric guitar, hopefully I can up my game to play like Jimi.

The MPC just takes time to wrap your head around before it becomes second nature. Look at it this way, the samples are your sounds. Programs are your kits where you put the sounds. And the Sequencer is your recorder where the kits come to life.

You can create a Program to contain a whole drum kit like Pad 1 containing a kick drum note, Pad 2 with a snare, Pad 3 with Hi hat, Pad 4 etc. Or you can create several Programs dedicated to a specific sound, for example, Program 1 can contain a bunch of Kick drums, Program 2 can have a variety of Snares and Program 3 can have a bunch of hi hats. Then you can layer those Programs with the use of Tracks, the 500 can layer up to 24 Programs.

But it doesn't have to be drums you can sample whatever you want. If you want to jam out to cat farts, you can do that.

Keep practicing, your knowledge with music will guide you.

cat farts are usually silent...
well my cats farts are

damien907 wrote:cat farts are usually silent...
well my cats farts are

I guess he'll need to dig deep for that special gem.

I don't have anything to add but...


cat fart!