earwolf wrote:ok its been a minute - how you feeling this? thanks to anyone that takes a sec to answer, if thisbad boy drops to $500 in the jan sales i'm all over it
1. has it changed the way you write beats etc or is the portability a gimmick to you?
2. aside from some pad layout and vol issues is it easy to move projects around to the 1k and 2500?
3. hows the build quality and battery life? any pad issues yet?
4. overall do you find it limiting or inspiring?
cheers
I've had mine powered on for two hours now! Damn it feels good to be back on an MPC. It is my only MPC right now. I've been on the XL, then the 1K which I sold right before the (official) OS development took off. Getting the 0.5K wasn't really planned but I'm quickly learning to love this baby. Some first round impressions:
1. I just realized that a lot of my other equipment is gonna get sampled and stand untouched for a moment. .. No way that the portability factor is anywhere near gimmicky. I'm wholeheartedly set on bringing this baby over to my friend's place. My friends and I used to just do dinner, now I'm gonna sample their records
and finally get around to lay that track down together.
2. Well, the only exchange I've had so far was with my Macbook Pro which was jsut as instant and hassle free as expected. I can't see how the 'missing' row of pads could become an issue compability-wise, there are editors out there to get your programs sorted. As far as something as PP goes (not that I ever used it, or a 2500 for that matter) there's some rudimentary import functions for it on the 500 (I mean it gets mentioned in the manual and it apparently does the trick of importing said format...) You'll get around to aall that stuff pretty easy especially when starting things off on the 500 I guess. Navigating feels just like on the 1000 which convinced me that I'm gonna use my 500 to finalize a lot of projects.
3. I was expecting a lot more plasticy feel but this thing is seriously solid. I mean to the point were you can't tell a difference in quality between the Macbook Pro I'm typing on and my little sampler friend next to me. Screen not an issue - bright, ultra sleek with a great distinct blue shine. I love how they crammed certain double digit numbers into one LCD slot. This baby has nice attention to detail. I was a littlce concerned initially when I was just jamming along to the demo songs (yeah I did enjoy that
) and caught the transport buttons in action. I've got huge hands but after figuring out how to play a little more precise that's honestly not gonna be an issue. Remember now I've only been back in the MPC mix for a couple of hours...
4. I feel it to be a very inspiring to work with MPCs but I've never really considered them great live tools. I mean somehow it mostly comes down to a lot of track muting (ok that's harsh but it's real if you listen to some people who bring their's live). That said this might just become an exception: it's ultra-portable and packs a lot of juice compared to its siblings (and their respective size). I'm definately gonna bring it commuting - even for short trips it makes sense. And then again just have it to kick back in the sofa. I was really glad not having to worry about the 500 sporting batteries at the same time as the AC adaptor is plugged in.
Lemme say this on the navigation: the slimmed down controls haven't bothered me the least. Editing samples I know I'm not gonna have a problem with - the down-tuning-for-editing-idea was a great piece of advice that I believe everyone on a 500 need to take to their hearts.
Filters are still a great disappointment though.. damn I didn't feel a thing tweaking it. I remember seeing my man doing that thing on the 3000 and I just ran home tryin to do the same thing on my 1000 and it just sucked to hear how weak sauce it was. I suppose a lot of added EQ:ing willt have to do the trick on the 500 as well. I don't mind, I've honestly come to find the cheesy aspect of a lot of the effects to be pretty cool. Hah like I said I even dug some of the demo songs ("Sunny" is my jam and also the victim of an instant remix). If I need effects paradise for my samples I'll just go to my Machinedrum UW, Suppercollider or Ableton.
Another thing I noticed despite not having any navigational issues is I did kind of start to look around for the mixer. Hey you know this already - you can easily just build songs using proper velocity and keeping in mind to undo that poor performance so you have every track feelin good level-wise from the get go. Step edit kind of hurts initially working it from the mini screen. Shouldn't be long before that gets easy as well. I can't remembed ever using buttons to navigate to the next event
, now I just found it by chance sort of and that was fun. It's gonna make things a lot easier. Generally speaking I have yet to miss the bigger screen. I specifically considered this when switching between the main sequence window and the track window. To begin with the blue LCD is a lot more distinct than the green of the 1000. Second, and I'm sure you'll get around to feeling the same way, the second you start looking for something your fingers are gonna feel their way to the proper button. You'll get there, literally, in the wink of an eye. Which sort of eliminates the need to have any more information cluttered into the same screen. You'll make the info pop onto the screen when you need it.
I need to say this on the manual too: you wouldn't see a manual this well written say when the XL dropped. Overall product support and web support has gotten a lot better. This is getting very general but I can't see why anyone is complaining about Numark getting in the mix. I feel it saved the MPC line's sorry ass
This will be kick ass to bring to the club just for stupid bomb drops DJing, and it will be perfect for the Maldives, Paris and for looking like an idiot on the subway.
This is not a toy. Those who do call it that make really vague assumptions of what can be done with this piece of equipment. I mean similarily, I wouldn't call Bhaji Loops gimmicky just because it's portable and I wouldn't call Garageband gimmicky because it isn't Logic Pro. Make up your own mind.
It's not all black and white.
Actually, it's all black with a clear blue screen and grey, perfectly triggering little pads. Cop one.
