Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By ericmire Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:21 am
anyone ever set up a piano program with the mpc? i am trying build a sampled piano that i can play from my midi keyboard. all is fine except for the sustain pedal. i can get the pedal to work, but it hold the note for the entire duration of the sample and not the duration the pedal is held. if anyone know how to fix this...
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By Metatron72 Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:31 am
1.
Press the [MODE] button and then [PAD 8] (OTHER).
This switches the MPC500 to OTHER mode.
2.
Use the [DATA] wheel to select one of the following choices for how the MPC500 will interpret sustain pedal MIDI
data, depending on the desired behavior.
As duration -
the MPC500 is set to convert the sustain pedal data to note
duration.
As sus.pedal -
The MPC500 records sustain pedal data as it is.

This may help. Page 30 in the manual is where this is from.
By ericmire Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:52 am
Thanks. I did set the sustain pedal for the duration setting. This activated the sustain pedal, but the sound turns off at the end of the sample and not when I release the pedal. . .I'm not sure the mpc will do what I really want.
By Machine Life Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:14 pm
The sustain pedal will not time-stretch your sample; all it does is send a MIDI note-on or note-off signal. Your sample still has to be long enough to continue to make sound if you keep the note "on" (ie pedal down). Thus you will have to create a sample that includes the entire duration of sound from a piano key press--it's something like 7-10 seconds.
By Machine Life Sat Dec 08, 2012 12:12 am
I wonder if it is due to the sample being set to "one-shot" which plays the sample in its entirety whenever the pad is triggered and ignores note-off data ( eg, from the pedal).

This is from the manual:
--------------------------------
When you play a sample by hitting the pad, the sample will be played until the end regardless of the length you hit the pad for. This is
useful when you play short drum sounds. However, when you play a long sample such as a phrase sample, it is better to set the MPC500 to
play the sample only when you hold the pad. In this section, you will learn how to play the sample when you hit the pad.
1. In PROGRAM mode, hit the pad you wish to change.
The pad number displayed in the 'Pad number' field will change according to the pad that you hit.
2. In the 'Edit select' field, scroll to choose the Play mode selection.
3. Make sure that the correct layer is selected in the 'Layer' field (displayed above as L1) and select one of the following
options:
ONE SHOT - The MPC500 plays the sample until the end regardless of how long you hold the pad.
NOTE ON - The MPC500 plays the sample only while you hold the pad.
By ericmire Sat Dec 08, 2012 12:40 am
it is not the one shot mode. the samples are set to note on. when i trigger solely with the mpc pads the note holds and then releases with the pad, but when i engage the sustain pedal they do not release with the sustain pedal...
By Machine Life Mon Dec 10, 2012 8:56 pm
I'm sad to say I was able to duplicate your problem on my setup as well.

I did a little digging and it's a problem that comes up a lot--and not just on the 500. In this thread, someone emailed Akai tech support regarding an MPC1000 and was told that it was designed to be that way.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=68309

But it seems that an MPC1000 with JJOS can add the ability to recognize pedal note-off:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=107762

Of course that doesn't help those of us with an MPC500 instead of the 1000.
By zrnest Wed Aug 28, 2019 11:46 am
Is this solved as of 2019?

Can the MPC500 handle the sustain pedal correctly, for example for a piano sample set?

Maybe there was a firmware update between the last post - 2012 - and today?

(PS: I have the same issue than the one that people mentioned in this thread)