Think of upgrading from the MPC 3000 to 5000. Any Answers??

mjames4208 wrote:PS.. I picked up my 5 year old son that XR20, and he loves it!

Now THAT's a very lucky boy~!

4dahaterz wrote:

MastaMhyne wrote:I have the MPC 3000 Roger Linn Black ltd edition and thought i'd try upgrading to the MPC 5000. My approach was i bought the 5000 last Friday and got it today. My plan is to use it for a while and then write my experiences.

Well today i cracked the wrapper and propped the 5000 on the table to get started in my first experiences.

First off... everyone on the 5k forum here seems to point out how cheaply made the unit is. Well i want to clear up some of these misconceptions - and as a MPC 3000 owner (arguably the heaviest, most durable MPC ever made) I think i know the difference between built to last and cheap

Build Quality - MPC 5000 - I'd give it a 7 out of 10 stars. the entire face plate is metal despite some people saying its plastic. The side rails and front rails are made of what feels like heavy plastic - meaning its thick and formed well. But it is a little bit more hollow sounding when you knock on it versus knocking on the face plate. What i had to get used to right away as a 3000 owner is the cheap push buttons. All the push buttons are made of light hollow plastic versus the MPC 3000 which are made of more solid plastic. Also the Data Dial is very cheap feeling compared to the 3000. The data dial is also hollow plastic reminds me of the plastic body on a kids model kar kit. The dial itself feels light and airy and makes a light clickit sound when dialed as if the gearing mechanism underneath is all plastic (which means it will wear out or break eventually). The clicks on the data dial represent postive stops which is a good thing to have for setting data parameters. The rotary knobs feel solid and smooth and i've fairly impressed with these. The LCD is large and much more functional than the 3000 screen obviously. The LCD pivots nearly to a 90degree upgright angle which is a plus over the previous 60 degree angle of the mpc 3000. One thing about the LCD that has me wondering is the screen itself. When setting the contrast knob 12 o'clock (notch straight up) the screen is actually all blue and unreadable??? If i turn it to the left it gets more blue and even gets more darker blue. I have to turn the knotch all the way to the 2 oclock position to read the text. And when i do that it appears like theres screen burn on the lower right hand corner of the LCD. I'm thinking either i have recieved a defect screen unit maybe or Akai blew the LCD engineering. Seems when you turn the contrast knob either way the contrast slowly fades in from left and fades out from right.... never really hitting a point where the contrast is actually balanced evenly across the screen. Back the external build. With all the problems people have had with the MPC pop-out power button, I'm not sure why Akai stayed with that design. My 3000 actually has a power toggle switch which has proven to be a far more reliable design for power switches (used on every Computer CPU power supply for decades). Also the pop-in pwr supply buttons are far easier to accidentally pop-out and turn off the unit losing all your work.

I will continue to provide more reviews on Operating System, Workflow, Sound Quality and Sequencer functionality/performance. On the latter topic, i have made a few quick beats using the on-board sounds from loopmasters. And without having yet mastered the 5000 sequencer, I am of the opinion at this time that the sequencer feels a little loose and less forgiving of off played notes. In fact, i started a simple drum rhythm with simple hits and i had to replay it several times just to get it in the pocket - where on the MPC 3000 it perfects your unperfections on the 1st pass. So maybe theres a setting i'm not using yet... so far 3000 gets +1 on sequencer performance. I have to log off now, but i'll be back with more reviews. This review is only after i've had the MPC 5000 for 4hrs today.

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This is kinda off the subject, but, where did you order your MPC 5000 from on Friday to have it today.... i ordered mine 2 months ago, and from an online company and havent seen nonthing yet(might have to holla at your peeps if they can get some more). I know companies get them at different times, but im tryna be with the first group to make a "classic hit" on one

I got lucky and I just happened to go thru the akai side and search for local dealers using my zip code and they listed platinum-records.com as one of the closer shops to my Zip. I called right away cus their site said "in-stock" and they said they only had 2 and one had a down payment on it... so i bought one they had left over the phone just like that... I live in Seattle so UPS only takes 3 days. they said they got like 3 ahead of other stores because they said they are a huge akai dealer.

lucky me cause now their site says "backordered till July" http://www.platinum-records.com/akai-mpc-5000-drum-machine-sampler-music-production-center-prod9323.htm

lol... i googled MPC 5000 in stock, and came across them early Friday morning, their site still had in stock when i called, and he told me that had just sold out.... well, hopefully Sweetwater will hurry up and come thru with mine soon, im supposedly like the one of the top 5 orders...

4dahaterz wrote:lol... i googled MPC 5000 in stock, and came across them early Friday morning, their site still had in stock when i called, and he told me that had just sold out.... well, hopefully Sweetwater will hurry up and come thru with mine soon, im supposedly like the one of the top 5 orders...

Very Funny, cus the guy on the phone at platinum-records told me if I hang up and don't buy their last one... it'd be gone instantly... So i rubbed my cystal ball and asked it "should i..." then whipped out my visa... Crystal Ball was right... it would've been gone.. it shipped last friday and got here monday... i didn't get any sleep on the weekend thinking about it... now it's here... and so far i'm lovin it. You have to take the time to learn it tho... cause what might appear to be a bug or issue with the OS might be a new 'feature'...

I've also committed myself to documenting all bugs i find as well as feature requests... that i plan to send to AKAI for future OS updates as I expect us MPC 5000 owners will have Akai's attention for maybe another year or so...

I think they've been runaway alreay

I have a question though:
I've noticed that their are a lot
of programs titled SCD. I thought
he didn't work for AKAI?

mjames4208 wrote:I think they've been runaway alreay

I have a question though:
I've noticed that their are a lot
of programs titled SCD. I thought
he didn't work for AKAI?

SASHA and other house producers write programs/presets for Virus TI, too. But I don't think they work for Access...I'm guessing it's the same thing.

mjames4208 wrote:I think they've been runaway alreay

I have a question though:
I've noticed that their are a lot
of programs titled SCD. I thought
he didn't work for AKAI?

No he doesn't work for Akai. He is an external Beta tester (there are internal ones also..) who also submitted samples/sequences to be considered for inclusion in the unit. It was approved and his sounds were put in the unit.

MUSIII wrote:

mjames4208 wrote:I think they've been runaway alreay

I have a question though:
I've noticed that their are a lot
of programs titled SCD. I thought
he didn't work for AKAI?

No he doesn't work for Akai. He is an external Beta tester (there are internal ones also..) who also submitted samples/sequences to be considered for inclusion in the unit. It was approved and his sounds were put in the unit.

How do you know all of this??? Are you part of Akai`s staff???

Yes.

Me too.

Askia Shaheed wrote:Me too.

Then why aren't you reporting these bugs internally as well? Plus you paid $2,700 as an employee?

PM me your company email address and I will give you mine!

You are sooo cool MUSIII!
Jahrome bought an expensive drummachine and now you got to work for him
Crazy, isn´t it?

toxictobi wrote:You are sooo cool MUSIII!
Jahrome bought an expensive drummachine and now you got to work for him
Crazy, isn´t it?
What a blowhard!

That doesn't make a bit of sense! haha. I work for Akai, not anyone else. I am here to talk about the 5000, but I guess people can't not be hostile on this board, It's reputation precedes it.

Guys. I came in peace to be of help to the people using the machine. I simply replied to 5000 issues, and got an attitude back with people demanding who I am, tell me off, becuase they didn't like the answers. Why can't things ever just stay on topic? This truly is a hostile place. You guys ran another Akai employee off.....good job.

Outa Here.

I guess my joke just went over people's head. I don't work for Akai but all the support I have given Akai in the forums, you would think I was getting paid for it

But truth be told, this site is very much anti-Akai. It is unlike anything I've seen on the internet. Even the casual forum browser should be able to predict people's responses to anyone revealing that they work for Akai around here.

For the record, I didn't know MUSIII worked for Akai and thought he was joking. This is based on his responses in these threads. You came out of nowhere and honestly, you haven't really helped anyone use their MPC or understand their MPC. By the way, if you do actually work for Akai, tell someone to make changes to the manual. It states that a compact flash card ships with the MPC 5000 when it actually doesn't. If you really want forum members to buy new MPCs, the company really needs to work on improving customer service. Customers do not really have to be nice. Employees have to make nice with the customers and take the negative feedback, regardless of how badly it may be presented to them. At least that is what I would do if I worked for Akai. Akai already has me as a customer because I like the way the MPCs operate. However, I am just one person. And the $3000 I paid to be the first in my neck of the woods for an MPC 5000 will not sustain Akai's daily operations.

So MUSIII, if you are still around (and actually use an MPC 5000), let's chat it up.

MUSIII wrote:

toxictobi wrote:You are sooo cool MUSIII!
Jahrome bought an expensive drummachine and now you got to work for him
Crazy, isn´t it?
What a blowhard!

That doesn't make a bit of sense! haha. I work for Akai, not anyone else. I am here to talk about the 5000, but I guess people can't not be hostile on this board, It's reputation precedes it.

Guys. I came in peace to be of help to the people using the machine. I simply replied to 5000 issues, and got an attitude back with people demanding who I am, tell me off, becuase they didn't like the answers. Why can't things ever just stay on topic? This truly is a hostile place. You guys ran another Akai employee off.....good job.

Outa Here.

Yeah, unfortunately most people dont make music, they just worry about specs.... it use to be a time when u didnt have all this extra stuff, and cats was making crazy hits.... now, people make enough money just to use these things as toys....

but personally i do apperciate the positive stuff that people like the Akai peeps(such as MUSIII) and users (such as Askia) have to tell us about these machines....