Should I be worried?

I've had my MPC 2500 for about a month now and on about 4 or 5 occasions I've noticed a sample play through only 1 channel.

This seems to occur very rarely and randomly, I can have a sequence play say with only about 5 voices playing at the maximum. The sequence will be playing fine and I'll leave it playing on loop and then on 1 play I'll hear one sample only come out of the left or right rather then both speakers, when the sequence loops round it will back to normal and won't happen for a few hours, days, weeks, who knows.

As it's random I can't definately reproduce it but I have cause it in one recording so I'm not imagining it. More over this has happened on both Akai OS 1.22 and JJ OS 5.0.1 so it would appear to be the unit rather than the OS

Anyone experienced anything similar, shall I ignore it and hope it doesn't get worse (because it's so intermittent it doesn't really cause any inconvenience) or should I kick up some fuss with Akai?

I have this once in a while too.
Doesn't really annoy me but i can imagine it could be a big problem to people who record songs in one go to the DAW/multitracker , you'd have to start all over.
Or leave it if you think the sudden panning on the sample sounds fresh .
Greetz...

I have this happening and it isn't good enough!
It's unprofessional.
It happened about five times last night (over a four hour period).

Hardware or software, anybody?

Hmm strange. I had the unit 2 months before one of my (left I think) channels blew. So I had to send it away to be fixed.

Dont know how relevant that is.


But I've never had it intermitantly cut out. It just went completely.

This Numark/Akai sh*t takes the p*ss!!!

I called Numark about my 2500 a few weeks back for a general warranty question, the so called tech guy tells me that warranty repairs in the UK are handled by them or the retailer (that you bought the unit from).

Check it out, i have always known a UK company called Cimple Solutions (suppose to be the official under warranty Akai repair centre) to be the handlers of Akai repairs under warranty.

I asked Numark UK about them, and they told me that Cimple Solutions are not for under warranty repairs, only for out of warranty repairs.

I then called up Cimple solutions, they tell me that they repair all under warranty items, and have no idea what Numark are talking about.

At the same time i had a chat with my retailer, and they told me that if anything goes wrong with my 2500, they cannot repair it themselves...i thought fine (not a problem), but i was then told that they can repair the unit if Numark give them the go ahead.

WTF !!!

Numark = POS IMHO

It's not that the sound cuts out on one side, it's that one of the samples swings to the right (or left... can't remember which) whilst all the other samples carry on in both channels. Hasn't happened tonight though!

Might need more memory (it keeps gettin kinda full up)... just ordered some Kingston 256.

I hope that's the problem

That left to right (or right to left) panning has been an issue on Akai MPC's since day one.

Some users won't admit it or have never noticed it. In less than 5 years i have gone through 16 mpcs (all newly purchased of which most of them have been store swap outs for faults, etc).

I now have a happy bunch of mpcs - XL, 2500 and 4000.

My previous white 4000 had the same channel left to right panning thing going on. It was caused when the sequencer started to freak out with lots of tracks, samples and different envelope settings on different samples, etc.

My first and second 2500 had the same issue, as well as many more (static pops, dodgy pads on top row, faulty data wheel). I never found this left to right issue on the 1000's i bought 4 years ago (also many swap outs and eventually called it a day due to the small pads and workflow issues)

My current (1st and last) XL, (3rd) 2500 and (3rd) blue 4000 BL do not suffer this problem

Akai

Sorry....as a long time MPC user...I have never experienced any of the things you guys are talking about. I am not saying that you don't have issues...I am only speaking from my own experiences.

Are you sure you don't have EFFECTS turned on? Is your cables bad? If your MPC is really having issues, simply take it back or send it in for repairs...which is what you would normally do if you purchased an electronic device that malfunctions.

Man, I hate to hear these horror stories. Like Jahrome, I have not experienced any of these issues. I hope I never do. I hope you all get your probs dealt with.

jahrome wrote:Are you sure you don't have EFFECTS turned on? Is your cables bad?

It's definately not effects and it's definately not cables, like said before the entire sound doesn't cut out from 1 channel, just the sound from 1 channel of one sample (e.g. everything it playing as normal but then just 1 hit from 1 kick only comes out of one speaker then everything is back to normal). This has happened about 4 times since I've own the MPC.

The beats were not very complex in the situations when I noticed it and was certainly no where near 32 voices (5 x stereo which uses 10 voices I believe).

Actually maybe stereo might be a clue I certainly know it has only occurred with stereo samples with me, but then again I tend you use them more that mono samples so maybe it also happens with mono samples.

x2k wrote:

jahrome wrote:Are you sure you don't have EFFECTS turned on? Is your cables bad?

It's definately not effects and it's definately not cables, like said before the entire sound doesn't cut out from 1 channel, just the sound from 1 channel of one sample (e.g. everything it playing as normal but then just 1 hit from 1 kick only comes out of one speaker then everything is back to normal). This has happened about 4 times since I've own the MPC.

The beats were not very complex in the situations when I noticed it and was certainly no where near 32 voices (5 x stereo which uses 10 voices I believe).

Actually maybe stereo might be a clue I certainly know it has only occurred with stereo samples with me, but then again I tend you use them more that mono samples so maybe it also happens with mono samples.

Don't worry, you're not going crazy

I know exactly what you mean.

You got a nice beat going, a kick, a clap and some shaker pattern. You have not panned anything, it's all centered. You play it back and all of a sudden you hear the kick or the clap or the damn shaker fling from one side of the channel to the other for a split second (if that). Right?

It's very intermittent, and that is the problem when describing such things to a company like Numark.

Groove66 wrote:You got a nice beat going, a kick, a clap and some shaker pattern. You have not panned anything, it's all centered. You play it back and all of a sudden you hear the kick or the clap or the damn shaker fling from one side of the channel to the other for a split second (if that). Right?

That's the one

Its seems you got a faulty MPC...maybe its a UK thing. My MPC doesn't have that issue/problem.

Again...simply return it. Its not going to go away by just talking about it.

Nah i've been having somewhat of the same problem, but it doesn't bother me that much. Like I played some notes on the piano and recorded it, but the notes didn't playback at full level, although I had full level set. I was like what the fvck? Yet when I had the sequence loop, most of the time the keys played back just as I played them, and sometimes they didn't. It was weird (I have my timing set to off). Although it doesn't really bother me that much. My MPC is still under warranty. If it becomes a problem I will go to that place in Jersey (I forget the name).

But I feel you guys, after spending 2 fvcking G's we shouldn't be having this type of problem. I called up numark akai and got the run around, I felt like I was talking to a baboon or something, horrible horrible customer service.

but I love my mpc 2500, even with the reg OS!

Well, you can accept that you both may have faulty MPCs or you may not know what you are doing.

1. Full levels is for the MPCs pads and not an external keyboard.
2. The MPC not recording certain notes was a bug in an earlier OS.
3. If you turned off timing correct, and recorded into the MPC and you don't get the results you like...its possibly your timing is off. The MPC is a MIDI sequencer that is limited to recording 96 parts per quarter note versus the MPC 4000 which can record 960 parts per quarter note for a more accurate/natural sounding MIDI recording.
4. If you suspect your MPC is faulty, simply return it if it is still under warranty. Simply write down what you think is wrong with your MPC and send it to Akai. Denying that it may have issues is sorta silly.
5. As far as tech support, there are members in this forum that could help you with your issues better than anyone that answers the phone at Akai.