I'm a noob to the MPC500 and can really use some guidance

After reading many reviews, I decided to buy an MPC500. I also have a bit of PC music software (Reason 3, Acid 6, Sound Forge 8, Nuendo, Wave, to name a few) but I haven't really familiarized myself that much with the software as career and family life have always been paramount.

I've been a DJ for 20+ years (primarily house music, then hip hop, r&b and classic) and have a respectable knowledge of DJ'ing, records and music, and I have what I feel are great ideas to do productions and remixes. I never wanted to make music just for the sake of making it (which is what a lot of people want to do nowadays, just like now everyone wants to be a DJ); I wanted to because I felt I have something to contribute, and after all these years I finally feel I do.

I now want to utilize what spare time I do have and get creative with making music but I readily admit that I'm a bit lost with trying to find a starting point, so any good advice I can get is defintely appreciated. I have just a few questions and hope that the good people of this message board will point me in the right direction.

1. I've perused the Akai MPC500 manuals that came with the MPC500, and as technically detailed as they are, I'm wondering if the "Beat Making for the Akai MPC500" manual being touted for $39.99 on the Internet would be worth the investment, and would it help facilitate the learning curve? Are the tutorials that good? Do they really provide step-by-step instructions that can help me?

2. What are the good and trustworthy websites for purchasing and downloading various types of beats and samples?

3. Is (any of) the software that I already have the right software to accompany the creative / beatmaking process with the MPC500? Are there any other ESSENTIAL software or other peripherals that I should have?

I can't answer all of your questions, I don't use software, and haven't used that eBook - but I do use the 500, so I'll try.

As far as where to "buy beats and samples" use the records you already have, DJ. That's the best place to get sounds, even if you're just looking for drum hits, use open ones from rap/electronic/etc... songs, and eq/adjust them however you want. Just plug the output of your DJ mixer into the input of your 500.

As far as where to start beatmaking-wise, just be sure to get clean with your chops. Make sure to get as close to the starting point as possible on all of your samples, drum hits, etc... and things will be a lot easier. I use my ear, but you can get software involved and look at the waveforms. Once you have some clean cuts, play around with them, add whatever you think it's missing sample-wise and then try and sequence it. The best way to learn is to do. Play with the timing correct feature to get the sequences you want, and be sure to use "One Shot" or "Note On" when appropriate. That controls how long the sample plays for.

There's a lot of things that you'll learn just by diving right in. To get the sounds you want, you can resample on the 500. It can sample it's output - meaning you can adjust a sound in the MPC, using the filter, eq, attack/decay, effects, and then sample that. That will allow you to eq and add effects to all of your sounds even though the 500 has only one filter and 2 effects. Also, learn how to chop a sample - take a 4/4 riff from a piece of music and turn it into 8 pieces, then rearrange it on the 500. If you use "discard" while you trim, it'll save a lot of sample space, which is important on the 500. And be sure to keep those chops clean. You can also chop a drum break, to get realistic sounding drums...Filter the highs and mids out of a sample to just have the bassline left "the low-end theory"...put your samples in reverse (in trim mode) add reverb, resample it, then reverse it back to get reverse reverb...just play around with it and you'll be surprised how quickly you can learn, at first it might be hard, but after a few months you'll forget the time when it seemed unnatural.

i agree with ssneden. and i i want to add that you did learn to dj by reading any tutorials i wouldnt think. and even if you did, you had to practice until you mastered the craft. so my advice on getting started is just start by making crappy beats, realize that they are and progress. if you need specific answers on techinque, the forums are great for that. if you need specific help with the hardware itself, read the manual, and then ask about it.

as far as sounds go, if you got records, your halfway there. if you want oneshot drums, google "free drum samples" or "free audio samples" or any other varience of those phrases. you will find all kinds of sounds. some will be crap, others will be great. then its up to you to make them your own.

i hope that helped. good luck...

Thanks for the tidbits; it's much appreciated.

I have the 'Beat Making on the MPC500' manual and would highly recommend it. If you're new to the 500 (or MPCs in general) it has a lot of very useful information in a step by step format and comes with sound files for the tutorials.
As for the software, you can hook up the MP to Reason and use Reason's soundbanks (there's numerous posts/videos on how to do this here) and Soundforge will save you a hell of a lot of time chopping samples as the 500 has no wave display (although you can still chop fairly quickly using your ears). I'd also highly recommend Bluebox (freeware which creats MPC programs on your PC for easy transfer to the MP).

Peace

I decided to plunk down the $39.99 for the manual and I am glad I did; it's definitely more user-friendly for a noob like me than the dorky didactics in Akai's manual.

The ebook is def worth the investment. even people who know there mpc in and out learn stuff from those books. As for the samples, I agree that most should come from your music collection. I dj as well ( hiphop, r&b, disco,funk, etc.) and get plenty of ideas for sounds or remixing ideas. The mpc samples site that sells the ebook also has very well put together drum and break samples. They also have multisample packs (keys,strings,guitar,bass) which turn your mpc into a full production center. i do plan on purchasing these. although i would purchase the ram upgrade so you can use most of these samples without maxing out memory. I use reason as a sound mod. You will definitely love using reason like this once you learn how to fully do it. I haven't used the other programs you mentioned, but you should be able to control them as well. As of the moment, once you learn all you need to, you have a very powerful setup.