inexperienced...bought a 5000

Hey Everyone,

I'm new to MPC's as a whole. Being a guitar player I had until recently written them off as a way for non-musicians to "fake" music. After doing a bit of research I now see the potential and power of these machines and have developed a profound respect and appreciation for the devices themselves as well as their users. After doing a bit of research I decided on purchasing the 5000. I like the idea of having on board HD recording as well as a synth along with the general capabilities of a MPC. After delving into forums and discussions i've become a bit apprehensive. I guess my main concern is this... Is the 5000 a reliable, expressive machine. I've read quite a bit about buggy OS's and what not. I know the 5000 came out about 4 years ago but I still prefer this to something like the renaissance. I should also mention I know this may be excessive for a first time user but i'm a capable musician working at a music store and I got a superb discount Thoughts?

well have fun, read that manual... and check out the "mpc tutorials" button at the top of the page because you might find a good tutorial there that beats the hell out of other potential reading material you can get on the subject..

learning that piece of gear.. knowing the limitations and what not to do (or even work arounds for bugs) is your priority to getting the most out of the machine.

Firstthing would be is to check the os on it..(operating system) I use os 2 . I've whinged a bit about the 5000 but have now come to love it..as i avoid the bugs and It works great for me because i've got it at my house instead of my studio... (studio is mainly to track final stuff and engineer) My lounge has the mpc5000 a bass guitar a guitar mpc1000 and lots of records.. So i sample and cut up records and then use the hd recorder with bass guitar and guitar... .

I auto load(a default project which loads on start up) a base drum kit and various other keyboard layer sounds... so that i get into making something straight away with in the first 30 mins.. and jam on top of it with bass and guitar... Also note that playing chords on yr guitar and multilayering them on one pad is fun to...(so you treat your guitar as a record sample to cut up and slice/rephrase... )

I found that you get quicker results in finding out bugs and avoiding them rather than come online and complain to see if somebody will fix them to the way you want it to work...
Are you making pgms yet? i.e. Able to record a samples... then create a pgm and then assign those samples to pads in that pgm.

dazastah wrote:Firstthing would be is to check the os on it..(operating system) I use os 2 . I've whinged a bit about the 5000 but have now come to love it..as i avoid the bugs and It works great for me because i've got it at my house instead of my studio... (studio is mainly to track final stuff and engineer) My lounge has the mpc5000 a bass guitar a guitar mpc1000 and lots of records.. So i sample and cut up records and then use the hd recorder with bass guitar and guitar... .

I auto load(a default project which loads on start up) a base drum kit and various other keyboard layer sounds... so that i get into making something straight away with in the first 30 mins.. and jam on top of it with bass and guitar... Also note that playing chords on yr guitar and multilayering them on one pad is fun to...(so you treat your guitar as a record sample to cut up and slice/rephrase... )

I found that you get quicker results in finding out bugs and avoiding them rather than come online and complain to see if somebody will fix them to the way you want it to work...
Are you making pgms yet? i.e. Able to record a samples... then create a pgm and then assign those samples to pads in that pgm.

Thank you. Truly comforting to hear. Your set up sounds great. I will probably set up an auto load as well for when the inspiration hits.
I'm anxious to utilize the MPC as more of a musical instrument rather than strictly beat making. While I love Hip-Hop and will most certainly plan to construct beats I want to sample some of my own song ideas ie. guitar, bass, banjo licks etc. and see what kind of creations are possible
I actually don't have the MPC yet. I had to order direct from Akai to receive the biggest discount. It's scheduled to arrive Tuesday. So for now im spending most of my time researching and trying not to stress out about a buggy OS that I've read so much about. I also purchased an e-book tutorial which is helping quite a bit. Thanks for the input I really appreciate it!

I have to say there are bugs i guess but so does almost anything. most of the bugs you may read about are not OS 2.0. Majority of the things it sounds like you want to do will work out just fine. Using it as a musical instrument is a piece of cake with the synth and sequencer and hd recording. It's a sick machine. good choice. if you've never used an mpc you'd experience the same learning curve with any mpc but just know this is the most feature rich and/or advanced of the lot right now so the curve can be steep for some on some things. Just remember not understanding a feature is not the same thing as a bug. Some confuse the two.

Just remember not understanding a feature is not the same thing as a bug. Some confuse the two.

Thanks. Should arrive tomorrow! Love the Bumblebee by the way. Looks real sharp.

Gramps wrote:

Just remember not understanding a feature is not the same thing as a bug. Some confuse the two.

Thanks. Should arrive tomorrow! Love the Bumblebee by the way. Looks real sharp.

Thanks man. Enjoy your new 5k.