Reviews and questions about the entry-level MPC500
By bANGbANG Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:38 pm
Wasup peeps!

Hope somebody can help me with this!

i want to play my mpc programs with an external midi keyboard. how to do this?

i already hook up my keyboard midi out to mpc midi in and
mpc midi out to pc midi in.
I dont use the usb keystation out but a power adaptor.

But it doesnt work!
Can somebody help me out with this?

thanks.

Setup:
keystation 49e
mpc500
terratec dmx 6fire 24/96

By Emilie Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:04 am
Do a search on the forum. It has been described a lot of times :-)

By bANGbANG Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:55 am
haha i know i already did that and i tried almost everything set diff settings bought new midi cables and still nothing!

but if i connect my keystation midi out to mpc midi in thats all i have to do to play my mpc drums right?

By ghostlywhitemachines Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:24 am
You need to go into the track/params menu and turn the program to the one where you have loaded your sounds and select the midi channel that you are sending from the midi keyboard. In the midi/sync menu make sure receive all is selected. I also turn pad to sampler to off.

Good luck!

By bANGbANG Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:31 pm
I already did that, i cant select a channel on my keystation and i tried every midi channel in my mpc 1-16 it didnt work. maybe somethings broken? i has to be the midi out of the keystation because i can sync my mpc with cubase (mpc midi in > pc midi out). so what do u think it is? Im gonna connect the keystation analog midi out > pc midi in without usb and try to find out if the midi out of the keystation still works. any other suggestions?

By Emilie Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:33 pm
Every pad is assignet to a key on your keyboard. Go into program mode and select the pad with the sound that you want to trigger. Scroll almost to the end of the directory to the Midi key assign part and set the correct midi note data.

By bANGbANG Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:31 am
thanks 4 da reply i already made it chromatic (i always use this prgm as template) and it still dont work. The problem has to be something simple or it is broken. i dont know what to do anymore. any other suggestions?

thanks

By bANGbANG Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:08 pm
wat een kankerzooi
User avatar
By noramoss Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:22 am
make sure you have the sounds cables going out of the mpc hooked up and the volume up.. lol.. sometimes we think the sound is coming out of the midi keyboard when in fact it's coming out of the sequencer itself..lmaooooo

Re:

By brazeca Sat May 10, 2008 2:10 pm
bANGbANG wrote:I already did that, i cant select a channel on my keystation

How come you can't select midi channels on your midi keyboard!? read the keystation manual, then. It should have an option for changing channels, cause that is keyboard controller is for, man. Then again, if you hook it up to your PC, you will be able to check if the DAW on the PC is receiving midi signal from the keyboard. Every DAW is able to do that. It is usually displayed somewhere on the transport panel. If you just want to play sounds from MPC using your keyboard, then just try connecting keyboard's midi-out port to MPC's midi-in (check if it is connected correctly, cause many people, including myself, made a common mistake of connecting midi-out to midi-out or midi-in to midi-in). Then make sure that midi-channel keyboard is transmitting is the same as midi-channel set up for the track in MPC to receive midi data. Drum programs by default receive/transmit midi signal on channel 10, so check this out first. Your keyboard could also have a default setting of root octave that is higher than the note range for your program. I mean, if the program's note range is, say, from C1 to C2 and your keyboard has a root octave of C3 (the very left white key is C3) then you won't hear anything from the MPC cause midi keyboard will send notes from C3 and higher into MPC. Just make sure you sort out everything mentioned above before saying that there's a defect in MPC or keyboard. Here's the list:

1. Hook up midi cables correctly
2. Make sure midi channels are matching
3. Choose the right octave on your midi-keyboard before playing
By bANGbANG Sun May 11, 2008 8:19 am
thanks brazeca!
i will try it all out! and regarding choosing a channel in my midi keyboard, i already know how to do it, but its **** because my keyboard doesnt have a display. btw i have to be able to play my programs by hooking up the keyboard directly with the mpc, right? So why doesnt it work?
i always have used the keyboard with cubase and reason without any problem. im goin to try out ur tips and will keep you updated.
thanks again!
By Emilie Mon May 12, 2008 8:09 pm
bANGbANG wrote:thanks brazeca!
i will try it all out! and regarding choosing a channel in my midi keyboard, i already know how to do it, but its **** because my keyboard doesnt have a display. btw i have to be able to play my programs by hooking up the keyboard directly with the mpc, right? So why doesnt it work?
i always have used the keyboard with cubase and reason without any problem. im goin to try out ur tips and will keep you updated.
thanks again!


Hmm, it sounds weird man. I think your machine is busted. When i follow the descriptions in here, it works fine for me.
By bANGbANG Tue May 13, 2008 6:37 pm
yeah its very weird.. it still doesnt work. i cant even play my programs with the keys. dammit man!
but my machine aint busted because i can sync it with my daw tru midi. so wtf is the problem? and my keyboard aint busted because i can use it with my daw. digital and analog! Anybody same problem? any help appreciated!
By bANGbANG Tue May 13, 2008 8:12 pm
i posted this in another topic but here is it again:

sup boys!

i still have this problem and i hope somebody can help me. i want to buy a new keyboard but i want to make sure i did everything possible to let my setup work.
this is my setup:

keystation 49e midi out --> mpc 500 midi in
keyboard power suply.
usb NOT connected.
mpc midi out in this case not used.

loaded up prgm with all the notes assigned correctly (padA1 c1 - padD12 b4)

track settings:
assigned prgm
mute track = off
midi channel = 1
track type = drum(and i tried midi, no pos result)

midi sync settings:
receive channel = all
soft thru = off
pad to sampler = on
sync = off
default note assign


keystation settings:

midi data out = channel 1
(advanced function + D1 for the keystation 49e users)

and i tried every channel 1 - 16 and each time i set the midi channel mpc to the same channel as the keystation.

cables are fine because when i hook up the mpc midi in - pc midi out i can sync it with my daw.

i also can play vsts, reason etc with my pads if i hook the mpc midi out - with pc midi in.

so my mpc also works fine.

keystation connected with my daw works also fine. (analog and digital)

so what can be the problem here? is m-audio not compatible with akai mpcs? i dont think so right?

please help!

thanks, bang.