Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
By MPC-G Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:01 pm
First of all thanks if you can help :nod:

okay here they go:

1. How do You Back Up (not save) Your Files? [Anybody Do ISO backups?]
I have been drag and dropping everything via USB into my computer's hard drive... which was cool but I find that the files types make windows send me alerts and pop ups about skipping them... so I am not sure if I can trust that... then I burned an iso which was long but good... HOWEVER i can't remember what program I used and imgburn keeps running into errors....

2. Step by Step ...How do you track out? [What Programs/DAWs? What Outputs? Do you use midi Sync?]
I got protools... (ableton... and looking to getting cubase...) I synced up the midi pretty good thanks to this site, youtube and akai.com... but do I really have to track out each PAD? That's crazy I should be able to track out by each track right? or am I missing something? It's bad enough I got it hooked up by SPDIF and have to solo and track out that way... so I have to sometimes sit around for an hour tracking out or exporting my beat to protools just so I can add my VST sounds... That seems like a lot of lost time.... and iirc even if I got the 6 1/4 inch patches to my computer I'd still have to go through the beat and assign them pad by pad.. so I am not saving that much time

long post i kno... maybe this could help other and most of all thanks for any help you can provide

Peace 8)
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By djchucknorris Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:44 am
MPC-G wrote:First of all thanks if you can help :nod:

okay here they go:

1. How do You Back Up (not save) Your Files? [Anybody Do ISO backups?]
I have been drag and dropping everything via USB into my computer's hard drive... which was cool but I find that the files types make windows send me alerts and pop ups about skipping them... so I am not sure if I can trust that... then I burned an iso which was long but good... HOWEVER i can't remember what program I used and imgburn keeps running into errors....

2. Step by Step ...How do you track out? [What Programs/DAWs? What Outputs? Do you use midi Sync?]
I got protools... (ableton... and looking to getting cubase...) I synced up the midi pretty good thanks to this site, youtube and akai.com... but do I really have to track out each PAD? That's crazy I should be able to track out by each track right? or am I missing something? It's bad enough I got it hooked up by SPDIF and have to solo and track out that way... so I have to sometimes sit around for an hour tracking out or exporting my beat to protools just so I can add my VST sounds... That seems like a lot of lost time.... and iirc even if I got the 6 1/4 inch patches to my computer I'd still have to go through the beat and assign them pad by pad.. so I am not saving that much time

long post i kno... maybe this could help other and most of all thanks for any help you can provide

Peace 8)


1. F*ck Windows, just back your stuff up the drag/drop way you were doing it...

2. Use your assignable analog outputs. You don't have to track out each pad as one track, you can change the output of several pads. I track according to what sounds are going to need to be separated for mixdown in my DAW, sometimes it's one pad, sometimes it's 30 pads... as for time, don't be in such a hurry, an hour is nothing...
i route each sound through an analog channel strip (which is mono) so it's one mono track at a time. And it will take me about 20 minutes to dial in each sound just right. So let's say 18 track or so, multiplied by 3 minutes (length of song), multiplied 20 minutes to get it dialed in... Yeah... It's not uncommon for me to take upto 7 hours or so to track it into the DAW. The faster you go, the crappier it will sound, and the more time you'll spend fixing things in your DAW that are a result of rushing... Take your time, enjoy the tunes... If you're in a rush for beats, switch to software...
By MPC-G Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:05 am
djchucknorris wrote:
MPC-G wrote:First of all thanks if you can help :nod:

okay here they go:

1. How do You Back Up (not save) Your Files? [Anybody Do ISO backups?]
I have been drag and dropping everything via USB into my computer's hard drive... which was cool but I find that the files types make windows send me alerts and pop ups about skipping them... so I am not sure if I can trust that... then I burned an iso which was long but good... HOWEVER i can't remember what program I used and imgburn keeps running into errors....

2. Step by Step ...How do you track out? [What Programs/DAWs? What Outputs? Do you use midi Sync?]
I got protools... (ableton... and looking to getting cubase...) I synced up the midi pretty good thanks to this site, youtube and akai.com... but do I really have to track out each PAD? That's crazy I should be able to track out by each track right? or am I missing something? It's bad enough I got it hooked up by SPDIF and have to solo and track out that way... so I have to sometimes sit around for an hour tracking out or exporting my beat to protools just so I can add my VST sounds... That seems like a lot of lost time.... and iirc even if I got the 6 1/4 inch patches to my computer I'd still have to go through the beat and assign them pad by pad.. so I am not saving that much time

long post i kno... maybe this could help other and most of all thanks for any help you can provide

Peace 8)


1. F*ck Windows, just back your stuff up the drag/drop way you were doing it...

2. Use your assignable analog outputs. You don't have to track out each pad as one track, you can change the output of several pads. I track according to what sounds are going to need to be separated for mixdown in my DAW, sometimes it's one pad, sometimes it's 30 pads... as for time, don't be in such a hurry, an hour is nothing...
i route each sound through an analog channel strip (which is mono) so it's one mono track at a time. And it will take me about 20 minutes to dial in each sound just right. So let's say 18 track or so, multiplied by 3 minutes (length of song), multiplied 20 minutes to get it dialed in... Yeah... It's not uncommon for me to take upto 7 hours or so to track it into the DAW. The faster you go, the crappier it will sound, and the more time you'll spend fixing things in your DAW that are a result of rushing... Take your time, enjoy the tunes... If you're in a rush for beats, switch to software...


thanks for the advice... I have just been using the SPDIF and tracking out in solo mode... so I have been careful during making the sequences to keep them tracked according to how I think they should mix... also I have been doing strings in ProTools with Kontakt so it hasn't been too bad... only thing is now protools doesn't let (or idk how) you monitor inputs (SPDIF/MPC) during playback so once it is imported it is kind of tough to slap an extra sound in over the beat using the MPC... still learning and got a lot to learn

And I agree drag and drop is good enough... I am still working on getting the right system for saving sequences and building my programs while saving space... Right now I am paranoid so I just save the entire memory after every 'beat' ... I am going to give the ren a look... but funny you mentioned making beats on software cause I was just thinking some programs are so boss it's really just as good to get an MPD (I know blasphemy)
By Thousand Pound Sumo Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:31 pm
MPC-G wrote:First of all thanks if you can help :nod:

okay here they go:

1. How do You Back Up (not save) Your Files? [Anybody Do ISO backups?]
I have been drag and dropping everything via USB into my computer's hard drive... which was cool but I find that the files types make windows send me alerts and pop ups about skipping them... so I am not sure if I can trust that... then I burned an iso which was long but good... HOWEVER i can't remember what program I used and imgburn keeps running into errors....

2. Step by Step ...How do you track out? [What Programs/DAWs? What Outputs? Do you use midi Sync?]
I got protools... (ableton... and looking to getting cubase...) I synced up the midi pretty good thanks to this site, youtube and akai.com... but do I really have to track out each PAD? That's crazy I should be able to track out by each track right? or am I missing something? It's bad enough I got it hooked up by SPDIF and have to solo and track out that way... so I have to sometimes sit around for an hour tracking out or exporting my beat to protools just so I can add my VST sounds... That seems like a lot of lost time.... and iirc even if I got the 6 1/4 inch patches to my computer I'd still have to go through the beat and assign them pad by pad.. so I am not saving that much time

long post i kno... maybe this could help other and most of all thanks for any help you can provide

Peace 8)



1. When backing up, I drag and drop everything onto the computer via usb as you mentioned. I never experienced any warnings you mentioned. Try looking into NERO for burning ISOs. That software never gave me any issues.

2. For tracking out I mute/solo all tracks and track out individually. Takes time, but gets the job done.
By MPC-G Tue Sep 04, 2012 6:42 am
Thousand Pound Sumo wrote:
MPC-G wrote:First of all thanks if you can help :nod:

okay here they go:

1. How do You Back Up (not save) Your Files? [Anybody Do ISO backups?]
I have been drag and dropping everything via USB into my computer's hard drive... which was cool but I find that the files types make windows send me alerts and pop ups about skipping them... so I am not sure if I can trust that... then I burned an iso which was long but good... HOWEVER i can't remember what program I used and imgburn keeps running into errors....

2. Step by Step ...How do you track out? [What Programs/DAWs? What Outputs? Do you use midi Sync?]
I got protools... (ableton... and looking to getting cubase...) I synced up the midi pretty good thanks to this site, youtube and akai.com... but do I really have to track out each PAD? That's crazy I should be able to track out by each track right? or am I missing something? It's bad enough I got it hooked up by SPDIF and have to solo and track out that way... so I have to sometimes sit around for an hour tracking out or exporting my beat to protools just so I can add my VST sounds... That seems like a lot of lost time.... and iirc even if I got the 6 1/4 inch patches to my computer I'd still have to go through the beat and assign them pad by pad.. so I am not saving that much time

long post i kno... maybe this could help other and most of all thanks for any help you can provide

Peace 8)



1. When backing up, I drag and drop everything onto the computer via usb as you mentioned. I never experienced any warnings you mentioned. Try looking into NERO for burning ISOs. That software never gave me any issues.

2. For tracking out I mute/solo all tracks and track out individually. Takes time, but gets the job done.


Thanks TPS I'll check into Nero ... now you mention it that might have been it (obv choice...but my comp crashed like 3 times back then)

:nod:
By kvmoore Wed Sep 05, 2012 3:12 am
1. For backing up, I'd say go the USB method and copy files and folders to the computer. I do it all of the time with no problems. No Windows errors either.

2. For tracking out, there's two ways you can do it:

A. The long drawn out and time consuming process of muting/soloing each track or pad and recording them one at a time as mentioned earlier. I have sympathy for you because I've done the tracking out one-by-one process myself and it is indeed very time consuming.

Or

B. The quick (however more expensive) way of purchasing a multichannel audio interface that can record at least 8 simultaneous channels or more. Than, you can assign each pad or pads to their own dedicated output depending on how you want to mix it down in your DAW. Then connect each of the outputs directly into the interface and record everything into the DAW in one single pass. Much quicker!!!! Of course, if you have other outboard gear such as high-end preamps, compressors, etc.... use them to your advantage during this process as well.
By MPC-G Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:22 am
kvmoore wrote:1. For backing up, I'd say go the USB method and copy files and folders to the computer. I do it all of the time with no problems. No Windows errors either.

2. For tracking out, there's two ways you can do it:

A. The long drawn out and time consuming process of muting/soloing each track or pad and recording them one at a time as mentioned earlier. I have sympathy for you because I've done the tracking out one-by-one process myself and it is indeed very time consuming.

Or

B. The quick (however more expensive) way of purchasing a multichannel audio interface that can record at least 8 simultaneous channels or more. Than, you can assign each pad or pads to their own dedicated output depending on how you want to mix it down in your DAW. Then connect each of the outputs directly into the interface and record everything into the DAW in one single pass. Much quicker!!!! Of course, if you have other outboard gear such as high-end preamps, compressors, etc.... use them to your advantage during this process as well.



hmm dunno why I get errors.. I got Vista SP2 and they keep getting me for the ALLSEQANDSONG.ALL or .PGM files... might be my MPC :hmmm:

The multi analog out thing is cool.... but idk whats more a pain ...mapping out all of the pads or just doing it track by track lol ...cause I keep all my kicks on one prog and all of my snares on the other etc... and then record them on separate tracks... so I would have to go to the step edit and find all the pads then go to the mixer and set it... every time... now I am just using the digital out and solo mode each track... which is repetitive but I cut it down to the 4 bar loops and just duplicate in my DAW... not as pretty to watch but somewhat fast

thanks for your help :nod:
By kvmoore Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:38 am
Hmmmm That's strange. I've never tried file transfer with the MPC on a Windows Vista machine. I've been using Windows XP with no problems. By the way, I currently have the 1000, not the 2500. However, I do have a 2500 on the way from a purchase I just made on ebay so I'll see how that goes when I transfer my MPC1000 files to the 2500. I'll keep you posted and let you know how it goes once I receive it.

Oh yeah, I don't know what OS your MPC is running but both of my MPCs have the JJOS2XL if that makes a difference.

MPC-G wrote:thanks for your help :nod:


You're welcome. I'm glad to help on this forum any way I can.
By kvmoore Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:04 pm
Ok. I finally received my 2500 a week ago and I had absolutely no problems transferring files via USB between the MPC and a Windows 7 laptop. Also tried it on a Windows XP laptop as well with flawless results.

Oh yeah, the MPC2500 is also running JJOS-XL just like my 1000.
By MPC-G Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:57 pm
kvmoore wrote:Ok. I finally received my 2500 a week ago and I had absolutely no problems transferring files via USB between the MPC and a Windows 7 laptop. Also tried it on a Windows XP laptop as well with flawless results.

Oh yeah, the MPC2500 is also running JJOS-XL just like my 1000.

akai os & vista?
By kvmoore Wed Sep 26, 2012 4:13 pm
MPC-G wrote:
kvmoore wrote:Ok. I finally received my 2500 a week ago and I had absolutely no problems transferring files via USB between the MPC and a Windows 7 laptop. Also tried it on a Windows XP laptop as well with flawless results.

Oh yeah, the MPC2500 is also running JJOS-XL just like my 1000.

akai os & vista?


I haven't tried it with Akai OS and Vista.