Questions about the mpc 5000: shoot

scd wrote:At work right now, so I can't check if that is possible, but I don't think so. Good idea though. I will probably add this as feature request to the bugtracker then.

God bless beta-testers!

Cheebatone wrote:In mixer mode, can you group/assign the q-link faders to the HD recorder outs? i.e. Fader One to channels 1+2, Fader Two to channels 3+4, etc?

Yes in the HD TRK mixer mode each Q-link fader can be assigned to a HD mono or stereo track channel. Also each rotary q-link encoder or button also controls a function on the HD TRK MIX page such as FX type, FX send level, Pan, and mute functions I've verified this myself.

kday wrote:

Cheebatone wrote:In mixer mode, can you group/assign the q-link faders to the HD recorder outs? i.e. Fader One to channels 1+2, Fader Two to channels 3+4, etc?

Yes in the HD TRK mixer mode each Q-link fader is automatically assigned to a HD stereo track channel. Also each rotary q-link encoder also controls a function on the HD TRK MIX page such as FX type, FX send level, Pan, and mute functions I've tried this myself.

Ah, another tester?

Ah, another tester?

Sure why not! LOL!!!!!

scd, just wondering if I could ask a huge favour? Is there any chance you could test the timing of this thing? I'd really like to know how 'sample accurate' it is. I'll tell you how.

Firstly find a really tiny click sample. Build one yourself if you have to. The shorter the better. Maybe as tiny 20 samples in length or less? It must peak at the very start. Normalise it.

Now assign this click to 16 pads. The same sample on every pad. Then trigger all 16 clicks simultaneously. All 16 pads triggered from the same time location, such as the first beat of a sequence, and all at full level. Maybe even on every beat of a sequence.

Hit play and record the result into a DAW.. Logic or whatever. Now when you play these 16 clicks simultaneously, do you just hear 'one' click as you should, or do you hear a small tone? Zoom right in on the waveform. Do you see just one click or more? If more than one, how many?

Essentially this will be the deciding factor for me as to whether or not the MPC5000 is worth buying. I did this test on the MPC4000 as it's timing always felt pretty sloppy to me. I triggered 16 tiny clicks as described above and recorded them into the computer. When triggering 16 of the same sample it should have just sounded the same as just one of that sample, but it didn't. It sounded more like a tone. When I checked the waveform on the computer I could see every one of those 16 clicks one after the other! Which proved to me that the MPC4000 really was a flawed machine, simply because it's unable to play back two samples in perfect sync. The delay between the first and last clicks a was a number of milliseconds. I later sold it partially because of this.

I also tried this test on the MPC500. Believe it or not it was better, but still not perfect. Instead being able to see all 16 clicks one after the other, I could only see 5 or 6. So the MPC500 can at least play back 3 samples in perfect sync.

With the MPC5000 being the new flagship machine, I would really like to know what it's timing is like. As far as I know nearly all software sequencers and apps such as Reason and Fruity are sample accurate. And you can hear it too, they sound tight. In this day and age, the MPC5000 should at least be able to match the timing of some cheap software apps like these.

Avene wrote:scd, just wondering if I could ask a huge favour? Is there any chance you could test the timing of this thing? I'd really like to know how 'sample accurate' it is. I'll tell you how.

I'll do that, but tomorrow. Tonight I have friends over for dinner. Pretty sure they are not interested in MPC tests

Could you send me such a sample maybe?

Cool, many thanks. Yeah, no rush, take as long as you want.

Yes, I'm trying to find the sample I tested on the MPC4000. It's on the computer here somewhere. I'll post it up as soon as I find it.

Ok, I found it. Really tiny sample, and there's zero crossing fade in at the start so the attack is more visible.

http://www.avene.org/files/click.wav

Many thanks for doing this. A screen grab zoomed in on the result would be nice too

Avene wrote:Ok, I found it. Really tiny sample, and there's zero crossing fade in at the start so the attack is more visible.

http://www.avene.org/files/click.wav

Many thanks for doing this. A screen grab zoomed in on the result would be nice too

I will. Jus to cover myself : I am betatesting. So I am not sure of doing this test at this very moment is valid. If the results are bad, then that doesn't mean it will still be like that in the final OS, keep that in mind. But this is a good way to find out AND say something about it to akai if improvement seems possible/needed.
The specs at least suggests that the 5k should be capable. More later.

Boele

kday wrote:In the HD TRK mixer mode each Q-link fader can be assigned to a HD mono or stereo track channel. Also each rotary q-link encoder or button also controls a function on the HD TRK MIX page such as FX type, FX send level, Pan, and mute functions I've verified this myself.

This is excellent news! Now, tell me the FX are post-fade (or, at least, can be configured that way) and I'll be a happy man...

Click test:

Hey Avene, good news, the 5k does a pretty good job

First I assigned your sample to every of the 16 pads. Then I recorded a 1 bar sequence on 120 bpm with a click on the first and third beat.

I first recorded a single pad in Logic, it looks like this (maximum zoom factors):
http://www.synthmusic.info/mp3s/single.jpg

Then I recorded the sequence with the simultanious hit of all 16 pads with same duration and velocity:
http://www.synthmusic.info/mp3s/16click.jpg

As you can see there are three samples visible (again with maximum zoom factors in Logic). Every "hit" looks the same in Logic as well.

Proof that the 5000 has indeed a very tight timing.

Cheebatone wrote:

kday wrote:In the HD TRK mixer mode each Q-link fader can be assigned to a HD mono or stereo track channel. Also each rotary q-link encoder or button also controls a function on the HD TRK MIX page such as FX type, FX send level, Pan, and mute functions I've verified this myself.

This is excellent news! Now, tell me the FX are post-fade (or, at least, can be configured that way) and I'll be a happy man...

Hi Cheetabone. I don't know where kday got his info from but he is not completely right. Every channel in HD MODE is assigned to its own slider, i.e. you can not control two channels with 1 slider (but I am going to add that as feature request on the bugtracker).
Kday is right on the rest of his remarks: all channel parameters: level, mute, panning, FX-set, FX-send and output are controlled with the corresponding "Q-link-channel" (so to speak).

The FX is postfade indeed. Clever Akai also added a wet/dry parameter at the start of every FX.
This makes sense if you have two effects in series, cause you can do neat tricks.

Example: let assume you have a delay as first effect and a distortion as second effect.

Put the send fully open. There will only be signal going to the effects if the level of the track is opened (postfade).
With a wet/dry setting of 0% the signal will skip the delay and will be fed completely into the distortion. Wit a wetdry setting of 100, only the WET delay output wil go into the distortion, that way only the delayed signal will be distorted, while the original tone will stay clean. Well, you get the idea

You can phase your reverbtail, or distort it, or reverb it again. You can compress your delaysignal or bitcrush it etc. etc.

scd wrote:Hi Cheetabone. I don't know where kday got his info from but he is not completely right. Every channel in HD MODE is assigned to its own slider, i.e. you can not control two channels with 1 slider (but I am going to add that as feature request on the bugtracker).
Kday is right on the rest of his remarks: all channel parameters: level, mute, panning, FX-set, FX-send and output are controlled with the corresponding "Q-link-channel" (so to speak).

Actually upon Trk mixing didn't see that one of the stereo channels has been changed and was muted out and the fader was controlling the sound totally from a mono configuration on a stereo sample. Just thought i help but will leave it up to scd from here on out fellas!

scd wrote:

OJ Reem wrote:Probably not, but it would make is seem more real and life-like. The pics we have seen on the net so far is like seeing a magazine picture of beautiful swim suit model that has been touched up. But in reality, she has bad acne and stretch marks on her thighs and stomach.

Could even use a real camera.
http://www.synthmusic.info/mp3s/pics.zip

Boele

Thanks for taking the time to answer all our questions and put what's printed into action but can you give us pics of the back of the unit

kday,

Will you post pics of your MPC 5000 in your existing set-up? Without that pic, it is like dating on the internet

Also, how is the LCD contrast knob? Can you turn off the LCD? Can you push it in like the MPC 3000 to dim it?