Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
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By jowdjo Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:04 pm
SamOwen wrote:My 500 got in today. After a few hours no problems yet,...knock on wood. Just wanted to say thanks to all those who take time to answer questions.Good to know you folks are here if needed.


Allways... :P :D
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By stefski Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:18 pm
rydan wrote:Well, tested to reproduce, and it didn't reproduce exactly...

This time, the project is not loadable at all...

One of the samples has just become "unknown file format". The kit is the 8 oh 8 kit from the akai library. And no, I did not replace any files, I saved to a new, empty folder...

This is pretty **** bad!



Sounds sucky. I would get my panties in a twist if this happened to me. Hmm try backing all your work up on your computer. Maybe reformatting the CF card. I kinda like doing those things but I never really get around to it. Calling Akai US support isn't really that much of advice. I did it once and it felt better afterwards (not that it helped my 1K from having only 96ppq but I'm past that. You really do get past things in life).
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By rydan Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:49 pm
Actually, this is the strange part...

After having waaaay to much trouble, getting corrupt files, broken folders, you name it, I decided to take out the 128MB CF card that came with the MPC, and do some tests with that...

So, I have made the same project, saved it in different folders, created folders from the mpc, and saved to that folder, like 20 times. No problem, none...

Tried to reformat my 1GB card from the MPC (have used a CF reader connected to my computer before), and the MPC just froze...

Looks like my 1GB Kingston CompactFlash card is a no go.

Is there any "official" comment about what card to use, I mean what type. My kingston is a "regular" one, but does the MPC need a faster one, like a Kingston Elite Pro for example?
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By rydan Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:41 pm
And that card works well? No probelms with corrupt files when saving? (except for when overwriting that is?)

Actually, now I can't format the Kingston card. The MPC says SYSTEM ERROR. Also, the transfer speed to the card from PC is seriously slow. I'm actually wondering if the card is broken...
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By SimonInAustralia Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:26 pm
rydan wrote:Is there any "official" comment about what card to use, I mean what type.
That is a good point, some other devices I have used that have CF cards, like the Edirol R-1 audio recorder, have a list of supported CF card brands/models...some work, some don't.

So, all CF cards are not equal, and there may be incompatibilites between the MPC500 and certain CF cards.

CF cards are so cheap these days, it wouldn't hurt to buy a couple of different types to see if it improves file saving problems.
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By Antonym Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:45 am
sorry to say that i doubt it's the saving medium, it's more than likely the coding that saves in the 3 most recent mpcs.

every single mpc akai has released in the last several years has had significant saving bugs, hard to reproduce but most definitely there. saving over a folder will cause the DIR ERROR message, even when saving over autoload. there's reason to believe this corrupts other data in other folders. similarly, the new folder bug seems to be linked, or if not linked, then at least equally of concern.

the issue is with "data allocation" and it's not your fault, just like when a woman gets sexually assaulted

even if you were wearing slutty clothes
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By rydan Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:26 pm
Well, returned my CF card today for a new one. Now things seem to work OK. (except for replacing samples, which corrupts them ever som often, but that seems to be a known bug, and easy to work around...)

Well see...

By oraziodelcore Sat Jan 13, 2007 9:56 am
I had some major saving problems!!!

hafter finishing my first song on the mpc 500 with all the sequences chained togheter in song mode

I saved my work(Save entire memory)..... And when I tried to load the song back... SYSTEM ERROR !!

bam! That's one of those things that makes me just wanna trow the **** piece of gear out of the window..

but I chilled, collected my self and since I couldn't load nor (FOLDER) or (PROJECT)

I loaded the program with the sounds and It worked!!

mmm.. I thought.. loading of an folder didn't work and loading of the project didn't work, but loading up the program did work..

Then I tried to load the all seq&songs file..... System Error !!
and the mpc made an awfull noise, an loud white noise about 10 or 20 Decibel strong in volume for about one second.

I just got scared and turned the device right off..

This only happend to me once before with my mpc2000xl when I unplugged the midicable while it was transmitting to my VS2400CD porta.

After a few moments of catching back my air I decided to go for another try..

put the power back on and tried to load the all seq&songs once again..
same result again... SYSTEM ERROR !!

FuKK... I tried for a third time.. but this time I tried to load a single seq
instead and it WORKED!!!

then I continued loading up all the seq one by one and eventually I had my complete song back!!!

but once again I couldn't save the song without having the same result as the last time... SYSTEM ERROR !! whenever trying to load it back

so I redid my procedure and converted the different sequnces in song mode to a long sequence instead.

Then I saved the song as:

program
all seq&songs

and it worked to load it back!