Recording Pad Mutes Issue

Hey everyone! Just had a question that I have been spending too much time with over here, so I figured I would reach out. I just received my MPC 5000 which I used to have the 2500. When recording pad mutes with the 2500, if you didnt like what you did, you simply pressed rec and play start, and it would over write the old pad mute data. It seems that when this is done with the 5000, it keeps performing over dubs, even though over dub is never selected, keeping the pre existing mute pad data there. What is going on? Is this a bug? Also, with the 2500 I used to be able to change the timing control, and then set it to come in a unit earlier or later and my play back would be no problem at all. When this is done on the 5k, and say I choose the notes to come in slightly early, I lose my first note. What the heck is up with these weird things?

jigzelmnt wrote:Hey everyone! Just had a question that I have been spending too much time with over here, so I figured I would reach out. I just received my MPC 5000 which I used to have the 2500. When recording pad mutes with the 2500, if you didnt like what you did, you simply pressed rec and play start, and it would over write the old pad mute data. It seems that when this is done with the 5000, it keeps performing over dubs, even though over dub is never selected, keeping the pre existing mute pad data there. What is going on? Is this a bug? Also, with the 2500 I used to be able to change the timing control, and then set it to come in a unit earlier or later and my play back would be no problem at all. When this is done on the 5k, and say I choose the notes to come in slightly early, I lose my first note. What the heck is up with these weird things?

Not sure about the pad mute, I have not tried that yet. As far as the shift timing, I also loose my firstb note. I been just going back and adding the first note on time. Kinda foolish but not sure what other option there is. Maybe step edit it in?

Hey Jayson, thanks for taking the time out to let me know, very much appreciated. If you get the chance when your making some music next time, try the pad mute thing out for me. I used to just be able to start recording again and it would just record right over it (rec and play start). And no matter what track I select, it records the track mutes on track 1. This could have been the same on the 2500, but I never had to go find the pad mute events themselves to erase them like it seems I have to on this 5k. I just cannot accept that the older, MUCH CHEAPER unit had a more convenient feature than one I spent 800 bucks more on. Everyone is telling me this was not a smart move to upgrade to the 5k. Whats your opinion on that?

I will check it out when I get on my 5k next. Weird that it records all mutes on track1.

I am in a difficult spot right now with regards to mpc choices. I have a lot of other gear but my ownership experience with MPC's started about a year or two ago. I got a 500 pretty much just for an sample trigger for my DJ setup. I them started to play around making beats on it when I traveled as it was so small and portable cause of batteries.

I wanted more so I got a 1000 and it has JJOS on it and I gotta admit I really like how it works and the OS makes my workflow smooth. I did want larger pads and bigger unit becasue I am basically a greedy person and was really just curious what the next step up in MPC world would offer.

I did not want a 2500 as I figured pretty similar to 1000 since JJOS. I heard that the 4000 was the true master although discontinued. I have other syths so figured I did not need the 5000. I found a pretty good deal on the 4000 but the seller and I could not get our schedule to match so I looked at a 5000 which was for a pretty decent price fully loaded.

I have been using it for the last month. There is a lot I like about it for sure but there are some things with I feel are missing. For instance my 1000 is easier to chop and manipulate sample with. Zoom is much better and there is a divide and combine option so manual chops can be done easier. I also find the unit to be a bit sluggish.

Have not gotten too deep into all the features yet but I will say this, I am almost sure I will buy the 4000 to compare and possibly switch. I was learning more about the 4000 sampler and it is much more advanced so I think I preffer a better sampler over a ok synth. I should have listened to to the reviews but I had to expereice myself. Gotta bang pads and pump out a few beats to actually get the feel and workflow.

If anyone knows some tips to better trim / edit samples please share. Q-Links are no good for fine triming and Zoom sucks and the rotory dial seems to be the only method but much constantly switch number with shift + <- / ->. Not fun, almost rather use my ASR-10.

Sorry for my little rant. If you were using the 2500 before then not sure if 5K is needed upgrade unless you wanted synth and hard disk tracks but give it a chance. Akai does need to provide updates for their "Flagship". Thats the only right thing to do for their company. Probably the last standalone MPC I think.

Nah, thats all good to know, thanks. The way I made my choice, was I went through the 5k manual, and any feature that was new, or more convenient I typed into a word document. When I was only 1/2 through the reference manual and had over 100 entries, I was pretty much convinced. But now that I am using, there are some little small things that just don't seem right. When you say its sluggish, you mean the mpc5K is sluggish or the 1k? Also, I wanted to ask you about the "cycle" zone mode. I got excited about this, but this morning am very UNexcited. I put some hi hats onto a pad, and just started doing a basic 1/8 note hi hat pattern. So hi hate 'a' plays on 1, 'b' plays on hit 2, and so on to the 4th sample layer. My issue is after I recorded it, each time I press 'play start' it will begin my progression with a NEW numbered sample, and not the way I recorded it. So first time it sounds right, second time it starts with 'b', next time begins with 'c', etc. How the heck is this useful if it has a mind of its own on playback? Have you ever tried this or gotten it to record and KEEP what you padded out?

I have not recorded or unsed the cycle for anthing productive yet. I could see if having some intresting uses though. I think you need to change the mode as it sounds like you are in Random cycle mode.

Slugish being the 5000, the 1000 seems to have a faster response when I press buttons, where 5000 sometimes takes a second to reflect the change, entry or location etc.

100 new features over the 2500 thats crazy, nice method. I would love to see this document, do you still have it? I would love to do the same type of comparison on 4000 / 5000. Take a lot of time I would imagine.

Lets just say I spent a lot of time in excitement waiting for this damn thing to get to my house lol. But yes I certainly do have this document and can can send it your way for sure. What is your email address? What I did is just read through the manual being I didn't have it yet, that was the next best thing to do lol. Its good also, because when I read down it lately, I forgot about some of the stuff and reminded me to address figuring out how to do it. In heinsight I should have put a page number by every entry, but then again, I didn't think it was going to become as useful as it actually did.

But in response to your other comment, I would definitely not make such a rookie mistake like telling you an issue with cycle mode when in fact it was in random mode. I performed a test after recording a cycle into the sequencer from a pad layered with 4 drums in cycle mode. After it was recorded, I stopped the sequencer, and pressed play start 4 times in a row, giving it a second to let me hear the first drum sound each time, and basically it cycled through all my sounds. The work around to this issue would be to press play start like 3 times before you record the song to a sample or whatnot. That's feature disappointed pretty hard. What good is the feature if it doesn't record as its played.

On another note, I was recording some pad mutes last night and recognized the slight latency you spoke about. For example, On the 2500 I would press 4 drum pads at once and quickly on the screen they all show to get muted simultaneously. Though, on this 5k, they all visually get disabled one at a time (in a quick process), but obvious latency is there. I just made them into a mute group to resolve the issue, but that's another thing that the 2500 did better. But shouldnt the "flagship" MPC be the fastest? I am praying that RAM which I spent 130 bucks on helps address that a bit. I have the memory still in the box that fit all the other mpcs, what a waste lol.