Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
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By THE ADVERSARY Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:26 pm
Kd wrote:Adversary you got issues, im sure im not the first brotha to tell ya that. Peace hater.


Nothing in your equation to hate on.
Get real. :roll:

Oooh, I hurt your little feeling because I disagreed and called you wrong, Oooh too bad.

But your post was very helpful and infomative.
Thank you for contributing
:roll:

Kd wrote:]Ive never had the problem that is, so often disscussed in this forum, ADVERSARY has a point though, chage is inevitable and it certainly is beneficial to know when to make it. But if a bug will send you home crawling, then let me tell you, an MPC may not be for you. AKAI does have this tendancy to be quite neglegent when it comes to OS upgrades. Our only hope is JJ and Im not sure he has been able to fix this problem. F.Y.I: Im alot like you, in i get lots of drums from records, I encourage you if you do get an MPC to get a HD reguardless, just so you can archive your hard efforts as a "program" and youll find yourself coming back to favorites alot more due to its efficient navagation of samples. I also trigger (via MIDI) all my other drum machines includeing my SP and a few other modules includeing plug ins and what not, useing the mpc's ez to use sequencer. Drums sampled, eq'd, and compressed using the MPC sound so like nothing else. Truely dope! Im not saying other pieces of gear and DAWs cant achieve this, because they most certainly can, but the MPC (like other types of "hard gear") extend themselves in different routes of manipulation, that whole hardwared v.s software argument. Im not trying to sale ya on it but merely let you in on reasons why I bought it and obvious ways to use in case if you haven't thought of some of these. Have you considered the MPD 24 as another option, since you already have an SP and do use a DAW. You know the pros and cons of the 2500 unit. I love my 2500 and wouldn't trade it for anything, well other than a 4000, due to the effects options and only for that reason. The HD feature is so nice to, just load up samples when you want them and layer four samples per pad at a time really begs a more efficient (faster) and creative element to drum layering (4 drums yields fatter/different sounding drums) which is far from impossible with a DAW but often requires more time, I find, than moving around samples in DAW trying to align them so they sound right or an SP for that matter (dont want that argument SP v.s MPC however I do own em both). Many luxuries exist owning an MPC, but it sounds like you should also entertain the notion of a controller as well, like the MPD 24. You can never have too many controllers if you ask me and well, it could save you alot of money and they feel pretty cool, that is pad wise and have some pretty cool features for a controller. Haha, LOL, so no, i have never had the "polyphonic" "ghost triggering" that folks speak of (knock on wood) and ive owned my MPC for close to 3 years. peace kd
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By Kd Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:05 pm
[Probably not even a MPC owner like most of the people who post here]

AD, bro, all im sayin is all to often this forums host to a slew of cats who, rather than offer advise or even critique, their all to often trying to marginalize someone or tryin to make someone look stupid. I responded to dudes ( Kun) question. I never said i know more than the next guy, I just posted some pretty basic stuff, trying to help when I can. You went through my whole post w/ a fine tooth, (which is cool if im off base) and hated. Im not trying make more problems for myself or anyone else. Kun was a newbie, relitively well imformed no doubt though, w/ legit ?'s. I felt my insight was worth the time, thats all bro and you made striaght up statements like the one above, could lead someone to think you have a reason other than this post to believe my advice is discrediable. AD i give you mad respect for your contributions to the forum, but not every cat on here needs your consencial approval to be crediblized. Its cool, bro I aint mad at cha, you just pissed me off w that "prolly not even an MPC owner sh**". LOL them is fight'n words. peace brother stay up.
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By THE ADVERSARY Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:25 pm
Hey kd it's kool.
There was no need to over react to the time frame correction.
The time frame for ownership was important simply because 18 months of ownership seems to be the most consistent point where the pads start to get a mind of their own.
Some did it earlier and some later.
Mine did it at about 6 months, 12 months and 18 months.
That's all the correction was, nothing more.
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By Kun Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:44 am
Thank you for all your help guys. I really apreciate it! (PS: Make beats, not war)

This pad issue is starting to think that I might be better of with a MPC2000XL instead, but the MPC2500 has some features I would really like.

If I buy a MCP2500, and I experience the pad problems (god forbid) is it

- Possible to repair
- How muh will it cost?
- Do you think it is possible to get it repaired in France, or do I have to take it to a technician in Japan?

I'm trying to calculate the risk of buying a MPC2500 here.
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By Kun Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:48 pm
Damn! The worst thing is that it is impossible to know if the people with the problems are the majority or the minority. Anybody with an idea of the % of MPC2500 owners with this problem? If its 2% then I can take the risk. If its 20% then hell no.

In one of the threads someone mentioned that you could fix this problem by doing something yourself. Is it confirmed that you can do that? Didn't find anything more in the threads.

I also wonder if anybody knows if this is something Akai know of, and if this happens just to the 1-2 Year old MPC2500, and that the new ones have a better build?

You sold your MPC2500 because of this problem THE ADVERSARY. That speaks for itself. I might buy a 2000XL now.
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By THE ADVERSARY Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:11 pm
It's a band-aid fix it doesn't get rid of the problem just corrects it for a while.
In all fairness it was far from the main reason for selling my 2500.
That was driven more by the fact that Akai seems to have little planned for the 2500 based on what they have done since it's release so JJ OS became mandatory just to get certaion XL or older MPC functions back.
However JJ is just as confused it just seems he has no end road or real path.
He responds to feature request instead of shooting for a bug free OS.
That may seem appealing but every new update breaks something else and there is no JJ version that is bug free so with the current method something will always be improperly functioning.
Throw in the fact that the overall oganization aspect of the OS is not as smooth as what you have come to expect from past MPC (JJ Global page really helped a lot with the organizing of functions).
So basically it made no sense for me based on workflow and needs to to stay the course with the 4k.
For some others it seems to be more to their liking to use the 2500 with or without JJ OS.
Re-aligning my pads every 6 or so months was to bad, just somethoing potential buyers need to be aware of.

By _Stilo_ Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:15 pm
Kun wrote:Damn! The worst thing is that it is impossible to know if the people with the problems are the majority or the minority. Anybody with an idea of the % of MPC2500 owners with this problem? If its 2% then I can take the risk. If its 20% then hell no.

Bear in mind that only people with problems will report them here. People who don't have a problem have no need to post it here. I assume that will be the vast majority.

Still it's an unnecessary problem as they should have the experience from nearly half a dozen models before.
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By Kun Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:36 pm
Lets hope so. I have a real dilemma here. Some of the MPC2500 features is really tempting, but shall I gamble on buying one when I surly can get one with pad problems? Can EVERY MPC2500 owner expect to get the pad problem because of the build, or does just some get this problem? If just some gets this problem, then some MPC2500 must be build wrong or maybe the users are hitting the pads too hard?

Re-aligning my pads every 6 or so months was to bad, just somethoing potential buyers need to be aware of.


So this is something I can do fairly easily? And it will allow me to use the MPC2500 without any pad problems for about 6 months before I have to do the same procedure again? Does this apply for all MPC2500 with the reported pad problem?

So basically it made no sense for me based on workflow and needs to to stay the course with the 4k.


I really wish the MPC2000XL could sample while the sequencer is running. Then I would have chosen it no doubt. Do you reckon that all the cons with the 2500 does not make it worth buying? If you could give me a short answer or a link to where you've replied to this before, it would help me a lot.
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By THE ADVERSARY Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:21 pm
I know it's may sound strange but I am PRO 2500 not CON.
Again it's just awareness of potential problems.
I still have a suspicious feeling that somewhere in a production run they stamped the metal too thin and those are the ones with the problem.
Who knows maybe a bad run on the Gray pads and they are allowing the movement?
I also suspect people have the problem and don't realize it since it can be intermittent and you might not really notice when tapping the pads unless you monitor the pads.
The thing that makes it jump out at you is when you are using the pads for their shift functions since it will go bananas when trying to carry out a function.
I also believe that when you open the unit to install any options you should check the alignment of your pads before you open it as well as when you re-assemble the unit by monitoring the pads while tapping through them continually.
No doubt the 2500 will run circles around the XL and give you features you didn't even realize you wanted or needed.
It might be best to just go with the 2500 (new or used) and just sell it if need be later and pick up an XL then.
The 2500 wouldn't be hard to sell and XL's are easy to find.
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By rokuez Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:11 am
never had any problems with my pads but i don't hit them that hard
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By Kun Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:24 pm
I still have a suspicious feeling that somewhere in a production run they stamped the metal too thin and those are the ones with the problem.


After reading all these threads with this problem it looks like most of those who have gotten it has a 1.5 year old MPC2500. Maybe I should try to buy a second hand one who is at most 6 months old? This will give me a better chance of avoiding this problem. Do you agree?

Who knows maybe a bad run on the Gray pads and they are allowing the movement?


Can you get the MPC2500 with different pad colors? I've heard about some black ones. Could this affect the pads, so a 2500 with black pads have a lower risk of getting this problem than a 2500 with grey pads?

never had any problems with my pads but i don't hit them that hard


How old are your MPC2500 rokuez?

All my questions might seem stupid and pointless, but I'm just trying to know which MPC2500 will have the lowest risk of getting a pad problem. Maybe all the MPC2500 have a equal chance of getting this problem, or maybe not.