heavy duty mpc500 questions

i posted this in the mpc500 forum but have yet to get any replies, hope its cool to throw it here too

1 - i know the mpc500 doesnt have the automatic loop chopping function (chop shop right?)
which really is a bummer, but does it have "patched phrase" or what i understand to be timestretching/pitchshifitng?

in the specs it says it doesnt, but it also says the mpc1000 doesnt either and in this video this dude says it does

as demonstrated in this video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=--GzodmsZtI

im sure i will most likely end up getting the 500 either way but this would be an amazing fuction to have.
it would really help get me way the fu(k away from the computer if i dont hafta goto recycle or even wavelab for anything ever.


also few questions about how it works with the usb interface...this is how im assuming it works..
2 - you have a project folder which contains both the project file that the mpc reads as well as the samples used in that program, the mpc is seen by the computer as a "mass storage device" and you can freely backup these project folders as well as easily drop new samples in the mpc from your computer (.wav?)

3 - how difficult and time consuming do you find it to manually chop your samples in such a symmetrical fashion where you can play the loop out in your own timing like pete rock does in the beginning of this vid (assuming doing this manually is the only way since theres no chopshop?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2aCAhb ... ed&search=

one last quest (for now)
4 - do any of you have experience with highend software compressors and eqs (eg. waves level stuff) so that you could give me a gauge of how useable the global eq and comressor are on the 500?

ive been lurking around on here for sometime getting myself all good and decided up on this dive into a hardware based setup and i think from what i can tell the mpc500 is gonna be a kickass place to start.
you all seem to be very informative and unusually groovy for a gear forum which usually have far too much ego to ever feel like a comfortable place, also i have noticed the strong sence of comradery, which has most definatly been a big push towards this machine for me.
thanks
-z

synthburn wrote:i posted this in the mpc500 forum but have yet to get any replies

Wow...interesting.

synthburn wrote:1 - i know the mpc500 doesnt have the automatic loop chopping function (chop shop right?)
which really is a bummer, but does it have "patched phrase" or what i understand to be timestretching/pitchshifitng?

It does have Timestretching. It does not have Patched Phrase. These are two different things. You might want to check p. 71 of the manual - it can load Patched Phrase files created with the 1000V2 and the 2500, but not create own ones...yet.

synthburn wrote:also few questions about how it works with the usb interface...this is how im assuming it works..
2 - you have a project folder which contains both the project file that the mpc reads as well as the samples used in that program, the mpc is seen by the computer as a "mass storage device" and you can freely backup these project folders as well as easily drop new samples in the mpc from your computer (.wav?)

Exactly.

synthburn wrote:3 - how difficult and time consuming do you find it to manually chop your samples in such a symmetrical fashion where you can play the loop out in your own timing like pete rock does in the beginning of this vid (assuming doing this manually is the only way since theres no chopshop?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2aCAhb ... ed&search=

Wow...that video is getting a lot of air time recently...

I personally think people should make a little less fuzz about all that automagic ChopShop-Recycle-whatever kind of stuff. It's basically just the fact that the MPC cuts the chops taking into account the transients between single hits. Doesn't work well with all samples, and I find you usually have to adjust the chops manually afterwards anyway to make it perfect. So why not do it manually in the first place.

And Patched Phrase basically is nothing more than what you do when putting the chops onto the pads, record them, and play the sequence back at different BPM. Just less flexible. Simple as that.

So don't interpret too much into those features. If the 500 doesn't have it, fine. You'll have a lot of fun with it anyway.

Hope that helped