MPC5000 reviews, bug reports and fellow user support on the most recent standalone, hardware MPC from Akai
By felprez Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:53 pm
I used to chop on recycle when I had a MPC 500 before, very efficient !
But the reason I bought an MPC, is to get things done all on that machine and external hardware.

Im a certified recording engineer and sound designer, I started making music on computer a long time ago, realized it was too easy to get lost with all the option and plugins thats on my computer and lose the essence of the music I make.
So I kept it simple, Dig, Sample, Chop, Beat.

I love the way the MPC is limited, it force you to be creative to achieve what you have in mind !

When im done with my beat, I track it direct to DAW through an analog path in stereo, not multi-tracks, then I do a mastering in the box. All the mixing, balance and effects are done on the MPC.
By jigzelmnt Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:37 pm
Fel, you can get the best of both worlds. Download a program called "MPC Editor V3".

What you do is, after you are done chopping in recycle, you export the files to .wav. You open the MPC Editor software and select all your chops, and there is a virtual MPC pad setup that pops up and it will sequentially assign all your .wav files to pads in sequential order. You could drag and drop specific samples to specific pads, but I always just let it take all 64 chops and automatically map them sequentially through the 4 pad banks. Then, you can make a quick global change to all the samples and make the monophonic in one simple click, then this MPC editor allows you to export this to a program (you can set MANY different parameters for the program aside from just phonic voice, tune, and level). It then creates the .prg file that you open right up onto your MPC5000. This piece of software is like a godsend, because I would much rather chop more quickly and efficiently and get right down to business as compared to a much longer, drawn out chopping process on the 5000 which the terrible zoom feature on the unit forces you to make alot of chop boundaries being set by ear. If you have any questions let me know, but this really speeds up my work flow and is much more efficient.
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By Riggs Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:47 pm
felprez wrote: I was using an MPC 1000 with JJOS and the switch was easy.


I'm curious.... now that your getting the feel for the 5000... If you had to choose only one, would you choose the 1000 or the 5000?

I ask because I'm thinking of going the 5000 route because of the disk recording but I wonder how sampling and production on the 5000 fair against the JJOS?
By felprez Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:21 am
Riggs wrote:
felprez wrote: I was using an MPC 1000 with JJOS and the switch was easy.


I'm curious.... now that your getting the feel for the 5000... If you had to choose only one, would you choose the 1000 or the 5000?

I ask because I'm thinking of going the 5000 route because of the disk recording but I wonder how sampling and production on the 5000 fair against the JJOS?



My 1000 is getting dusty...
Sampling is the same on the 5000, sequencing is the same, chopping is different is your are familiar with JJOS, its the AKAI way. I prefer JJOS on that for sure !
I wouldnt say they sound the same also... my beat on the 5000 are louder and beefier straight out of the machine, using the same master comp and eq settings. I like that !
By reampcc Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:54 pm
felprez wrote:I used to chop on recycle when I had a MPC 500 before, very efficient !
But the reason I bought an MPC, is to get things done all on that machine and external hardware.

Im a certified recording engineer and sound designer, I started making music on computer a long time ago, realized it was too easy to get lost with all the option and plugins thats on my computer and lose the essence of the music I make.
So I kept it simple, Dig, Sample, Chop, Beat.

I love the way the MPC is limited, it force you to be creative to achieve what you have in mind !

When im done with my beat, I track it direct to DAW through an analog path in stereo, not multi-tracks, then I do a mastering in the box. All the mixing, balance and effects are done on the MPC.




I just bought a 5k a week ago & I love it. But Im trying to figure out how to mix properly on this thing. Do you have any tips or suggestions as far as mixing on the 5k??
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By MeSoHordey Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:52 am
jigzelmnt wrote:Fel, how come you don't just use Recycle to chop? That would be much faster than any of those processes. Then just throw them in a folder in the 5000, and theres a feature on the 5k that automatically creates the program file for all the samples within the folder.


I don't know about Fel's reason but the sound is just really nice when I sample directly from my turntable into the 5K. I could then export the samples to my computer, chop in recycle and re-import back to the 5K, but by that time I could have had the chop done.
By felprez Tue Aug 07, 2012 4:09 pm
reampcc wrote:
felprez wrote:I used to chop on recycle when I had a MPC 500 before, very efficient !
But the reason I bought an MPC, is to get things done all on that machine and external hardware.

Im a certified recording engineer and sound designer, I started making music on computer a long time ago, realized it was too easy to get lost with all the option and plugins thats on my computer and lose the essence of the music I make.
So I kept it simple, Dig, Sample, Chop, Beat.

I love the way the MPC is limited, it force you to be creative to achieve what you have in mind !

When im done with my beat, I track it direct to DAW through an analog path in stereo, not multi-tracks, then I do a mastering in the box. All the mixing, balance and effects are done on the MPC.




I just bought a 5k a week ago & I love it. But Im trying to figure out how to mix properly on this thing. Do you have any tips or suggestions as far as mixing on the 5k??


As far as mixing goes with the 5000, its pretty much standard. Levels, pans, fx, like any DAW. EQs in the FX sections are Ok but filters in the program section are not too musical, but they do the job. Theres a old saying in recording, sh*t in sh*t out, so if you want banging beats, start with some good sounding quality material, if not your gonna fight against your song with eqs and fxs and you might loose. So clean your records if you sample from them, take care of your needle, check your signal path and listen !
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By Jauly Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:53 pm
I use the filters in program mode to mix the sounds per pad (for example, adjusting hipass for hihats, lowpass to kill hi frequencies for percussions etc.). Works perfect to mix all the sounds independently in a very fast way.
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By RodmanSan Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:20 am
Last week i finally dared to go for the 5000 so i bought my 4th MPC for a very reasonable price (about $600 for a almost brand new version).

Came with the memory expansion and a 2.00 Manual....so i guess that this version is a later release.

I am quite happy after one week of playing around with it....only find the Trimming UI sometimes sluggish.

My plan is to find a cheap compatible DVD drive and besides of this ordered a SATA drive with converter (5000 came with a 80GB Seagate Barracuda drive with 2MB cache...slow as hell).

Very curious if this will help to speed things up a bit.
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By konc3pt Wed Aug 08, 2012 3:31 pm
RodmanSan wrote:Last week i finally dared to go for the 5000 so i bought my 4th MPC for a very reasonable price (about $600 for a almost brand new version).

Came with the memory expansion and a 2.00 Manual....so i guess that this version is a later release.

I am quite happy after one week of playing around with it....only find the Trimming UI sometimes sluggish.

My plan is to find a cheap compatible DVD drive and besides of this ordered a SATA drive with converter (5000 came with a 80GB Seagate Barracuda drive with 2MB cache...slow as hell).

Very curious if this will help to speed things up a bit.


where u find it for that price :shock: ...uncles music shop ?
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By RodmanSan Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:27 am
konc3pt wrote:where u find it for that price :shock: ...uncles music shop ?


No...it was his nephews triangle store..... :wink:

Just got lucky finding one on a craigslist kind of site.