The Conclusion of the Disaster

For all you guys that were helping me through this long painful process, well, what seemed like a never ending disaster, the last I posted was my 3rd MPC 5k from Guitar Center had a dent on the screen rim and I was awaiting the arrival of now my 4th MPC. I was told again that he made sure that when he found another GC that had a new MPC5k, that it was factory sealed and never been opened. So once again I go for the 25 minute ride, take a look at the box, seems to be ok, and as I am walking out with the unit I realize that the top of the box is not double tapped like the last one I got, but the BOTTOM of the box WAS. RED FLAG goes up. Open up the box right in front of the store exit, realize that the screen's sticky plastic looks like it has some scratches on it (normal, usually when you peal it off, the screen is still perfect). I pulled up the corner that had the most significant scratch and see that it did in fact go through to the screen. WOW, how the hell could this happen AGAIN!! I was very angry and told them just to give me back the one with the dent and I would just be fine with it at this point ($150 later in gas from these back and fourth trips every week). I get home, take it out of the box, and there is a slider and two knobs loose in the box. Hmmm, ok, I look at the end slider and it is bent over, and obviously missing the slider cap. OOOK, i bend it straight, put it back on, put the left most top knob back on, but its now very loose. Took a better look at the inside of the knob, and its kinda broken. I scotch tape the post, and it magically fits perfect, ok, one more knob to put on (the master volume knob). This one goes on without a problem. I turn on the unit (not expecting any other issues, just going to get into some music), make some drums, goto turn the volume a bit louder, and realize that every time I turn the volume knob, the left headphone pops in and out. WTF!! Ok, maybe its my phones? Tried 3 diff pairs and same thing. Then i realized that when you push the volume knob in toward the body of the MPC and hold it in, then it works perfectly. Let go and turn it up or down, and in and out the left headphone side goes (and or speaker). Wow, I was just ready to keep the dented unit, and these guys must have thrown it down in the back because it was having some weird OS issues also that I never seen.

Anyhow, I get in touch with my GC guy, and he offers a solution. His friend in Yonkers GC who is also a manager turns out to had just sold his used 5k to his GC the day before. He said he just put on a brand new screen with the plastic still on it, and new pads, and theres not one scratch on it. It had the pete rock add on pack, and he would give me a cf card drive for the computer as well. All for 950 bucks. Took the hike up to Yonkers, came back with this thing, and sad to say that it works better than any new 5k that I got. If anyone remembers all the trouble I had with the window setting and missing midi data (this happened on all my new units I went through and thought it was just the 5k), but this used one did not do any of those things. I could not believe that this thing was hands down the best unit I got my hands on. I couldn't be more happy and saved almost 700 bucks.

My conclusion to this is both managers told me that Akai has not been sending any new 5ks out to GCs for a very long time now and once the Ren comes out, it will be officially labeled discontinued like every other MPC. What I am thinking is that since this has been the case for a while, the ones left at all these stores have been sitting there for at least 2 years. Hence the reason they have been opened and looked at or returned. And if they are not new, they are just factory referbs. I got a used one, yes, but guarantee that it was a factory sealed brand new unit at the time of purchase. How rediculous was all this!!?? Just figured all the good guys who helped me through this painful process would get a kick out of this unexpected ending.

Thanks again everyone!

Interesting story.True that you should always try and give your 5k a good testing before its too late.Lot of bad units out there.Bad akai.And not even a update os on the cards " [ Great machine when it works tho.Ive had two and no real problems apart from the weak slider stems bending and slow screen.

That just sucks man. But yes it's been noticed for a while now that Akai mostly has dead stock refurbs on the 5000. But that is just appalling that they pass it off as new. GC with their own stock gets you like that all the time. They have tried to sell me open box returns as new over a dozen times. When they tried to sell an APC40 with 4 bent faders, scratches all over it, no wrapping just the styrofoam and no manual or disc I decided I would never give that store a cent again.

They also offered me their display 5000 with 3 missing knobs 2 broken q-links and a completely unusable fried screen for...$1999. Match made in hell those two firms.

What I can't believe is after all this you've stuck with the 5000, I would have given up long ago and just got something else.

MPC-Tutor wrote:What I can't believe is after all this you've stuck with the 5000

That and the fact the whole deal hinged on a bunch of Pete Rock samples that EVERYBODY has and NOBODY uses!!!

All's well that ends well though.

Thats what you got out of that whole post is that because of the pete rock samples I stayed with the unit? LMAO, thats def called a forced interpretation for sure lol. I was merely giving some details on the used unit, I never mentioned if I liked the samples, or cared about samples Actually I liked the 49 effects, 8 cominable fx buses that can be applied directly or applied as sends, 64 continuous sample tracks, mic and turntable built in preamps, hard disk recorder that uses no ram and streams, you can do live remixes right on the MPC. I could go on forever really. Basically, I don't ever turn my damn computer on anymore, and its a pleasure. I LOVE THIS THING. Its a beast. Ive already owned a few other MPCs and I seen the potential when using a few of the past GC 5ks. So that would be the obvious reason for keeping such a machine. Not to mention the dope resolution that blows away most other units. Its funny how the people that usually talk trash about the 5k never even owned one. All the issues I had were mostly cosmetic.

jigzelmnt wrote:I LOVE THIS THING.

That's what it's all about! And no, the Pete Rock part just made me smile...

If you ever feel the need to step up past 16 bit then the 4K will be waiting for you.

5000 Uses 24bit samples and bounces to 24bit. Anyways 24 bit or 16 bit doesn't matter. You won't hear it. Can't believe people still use that as a sellingpoint for the 4000.

Glad it worked out for you Jig. Now that's determination!

The black beast..........

CoinOP! wrote:5000 Uses 24bit and bounces in 24bit. Anyways 24 bit or 16 bit doesn't matter. You won't hear it. Can't believe people still use that as a sellingpoint for the 4000.

Glad it worked out for you Jig. Now that's determination!

Yes you can hear it. Most anyone can hear the difference between 16/44 and 24/96. That and being a full keygroup sampler with 512MB RAM installable ARE the selling points of a 4000.

If your point is regarding the end product being dithered down to 16/44 from 24/96 it still will come out sounding better with better dynamic range for having started as a higher res sound file.

guitar center got tendency of pushing of refurbs as new...I had similar happen with mpd32 when they first came out...they sold me something as new, but there was very obvious signs it wasnt as soon as I took it home...then when I tried to reutrn it they was giving me shit that I had opnened to the software and didnt want to grant my return...I asked for manager and got my money back...this was 3-4 yrs ago and it was last time I shopped at GC...before they got stingy with discounts I probably dropped close to 7-8k in that damn store

Metatron72 wrote:

CoinOP! wrote:5000 Uses 24bit and bounces in 24bit. Anyways 24 bit or 16 bit doesn't matter. You won't hear it. Can't believe people still use that as a sellingpoint for the 4000.

Glad it worked out for you Jig. Now that's determination!

Yes you can hear it. Most anyone can hear the difference between 16/44 and 24/96. That and being a full keygroup sampler with 512MB RAM installable ARE the selling points of a 4000.

If your point is regarding the end product being dithered down to 16/44 from 24/96 it still will come out sounding better with better dynamic range for having started as a higher res sound file.

Umm, I was a bit late, but;

MPC-5000 is a 16 bit sampling machine, it does not use 24 bit sampling rate natively (means that it does not have 24 bit DA/AD converter.)
It can convert 24 bit WAV files from 16 bit audio files (although I heard that this function doesn't work well), which is a process that doesn't need DA/AD converter.

MPC-4000 in the other hands, can record and play 24 bit samples.

As far as 16 bit rate and 24 bit rate comparison goes, there IS a difference, especially when you are recording acoustic sound (i.e. vocal, piano, or even electric guitar.) If you have decent USB / Firewire audio interface with 24 bitrate sampling ability and a headphone, compare recording in 16 bit and 24 bit. You should hear the difference, and I don't consider myself that I have particularly good ears, like Quincy Jones.
I used to rip my vinyls (songs that are not available in digital format) in 16bit, but one day, I tested 16 bit and 24 bitrate with the same USB audio interface. The difference was clear, I wouldn't go back to 16 bit when there's choice.
So, yes, 24 bit rate (and 96kHz!) converter on MPC-4000 is a good selling point.

Anyways 24 bit or 16 bit doesn't matter. You won't hear it.
This is false.

Can't believe people still use that as a sellingpoint for the 4000.
Because there is a noticeable difference.

If any 4000 owners have any UVI libraries or MOTU BPM you can drag the sounds right to your desktop from the BPM and UVI Workstation browser. The majority of them are 24bit/96khz and sound incredible coming out of the 4000. A little odd looking at the trouble they went to encrypting the libraries in one large file. I will admit the BPM took like 3 hours to drag out, but it was worth it.

To stay somewhat on topic, jigzelmnt should get a 4000 as suggested earlier.