Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By pjbridger Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:40 pm
i just bought an mpc 500 and i wan to use it as a midi controller in logic what steps do i take??
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By damien907 Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:25 pm
i just figured out how to do this.

first plug your mpc into a midi interface such as a motu fastlane usb,thats what im using.

the out>mpc to in port A in your fastlane

the out in the fastlane to the in in your mpc.

then you need to set up some stuff in your mpc itself

so make sure that your program is loaded up. then go to the midi/sync menu. pushh mode pad six. make sure soft thru is off, and its reciving on channel 1. sync the mpc as a master, or this cuold be off also but by defult its set to master. then make sure your pad to sampler is set to off. this allows the device to send midi messages.


then you go to your track parameters page. so push sequence,then track and go to "track type" and make sure it says midi.

that makes it so you can send midi data from your pads.

now set up your logic enviroment and its should work.

if you want to record your sequences as midi from the mpc, you have to go to the sync page in logic, (its the clock in the transport) and make sure internal sync is on. and turn auto sync off. then go to the sync menu, (option+X) its also in that tab page. click the midi tab, and make sure the "transmit midi clock is set.
select the port which your mpc is hooked up to.

then you have to go back in your mpc menus and go to the midi/sync mode. and set your mpc to slave.

and double check your track parameters are set to midi.

now all you have to do is push play on logic and set the bpm to your song, and it should work. :D

By pjbridger Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:47 pm
cheers man but im still having problems
i cant find "track type" under sequence
and im using logic 5.5 on the pc so i dont kno wat option x is

By pjbridger Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:39 pm
sorted it!!!!
thanks alot man i really appreciate it
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By damien907 Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:04 pm
yeah man no problem, i was dying to tell someone how to do that becuase i was struggling with it for weeks, lol.
By treblone Wed May 14, 2008 1:56 pm
ok, i was told by the person who sold me my mpc500 "you cannot use it as a midi trigger" i read the previous posts and dont have the programs they were talking about but i thought "there has to be a way of doing it" so i connected my mpc with midi cables to my native instruments audio 8 interface & went into midi options and selected audio 8 as the midi controller, then i pressed "params" scrolled through and found "MIDI channel" i scrolled to track 1, then in fl studio i put the "fruity FPC plugin" in fl studios track one and it straight away worked as a controller, i then opened reason and did the same idea with the redrum drum computer and it worked.... sounded like a neat idea only u wil find that the latency is terrible, u could almost hit a pad, finish a game of chess and come back before you hear the sample (that is slightly exagerated haha) but yeah latency is shithouse. ur better off takin those sampls putn them on the memory card, doin ur thing then wen ur happy with it use the usb cable to save wat u have done on ur computer. then u can use it as u please. ive only had the MPC for a little while now and i dont know much about it at all really but to other people out there like me the best way is to jump straight into it, it wont explode in ur face if u press the wrong buttons haha just turn the bugger off and if u havent saved ur back where u started.

if anyone out there is into australian hip hop check out www.myspace.com/mindfuldeception u will be able to hear some of the beats i have recently produced on there. im also the creator and mc on that space.
By brazeca Thu May 15, 2008 10:22 am
2 treblone:

It's easy to sort out latency problems in Reason. You actually have a high Buffer Size setting for your audio driver (Reason -> Preferences -> Audio). In my PowerBook it is by default at 512 samples, and Output Latency is 12 ms, which is not bad at all. Well, you obviously have an ASIO compatible audio interface or sound card, don't you? If so, select an ASIO driver as Audio Output first. Anyway, if it is only the built-in sound card that you have, just try to set Buffer Size to it's lowest possible setting and you'll see the Output Latency value diminish to some 2-3 milliseconds. At this point, when you hit a pad on your MPC, the sound coming from ReDrum will have clicks or be distorted, which means that the CPU have difficulty in processing the sound on time. Now, gradually increase the buffer setting until the sound is clean. Usually, when it is around 256 samples (latency 6 ms) Reason sounds just all right and you will barely notice the latency.
By RuffDraft Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:14 am
im wanting to use my mpc 500 as a cue point trigger for traktor scratch. I've hooked it up to the audio 8 and done all the settings on the mpc but just wondering how I do the settings on traktor. i cant get it to register the midi signals..... any ideas?
By SNMTK Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:35 pm
the usb's main and only function is to serve as a way of transferring files from the computer to the cd card
By sucram Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:56 pm
im using an mpc 2000 and fl studio. when i set everything up, and open fl studio, every time i hit an mpc pad, the midi light lights up with each pad hit (on the top left screen of fl studio).
but...i get no sound.

can someone help?