MPC 5k - Factory refurbished

Did so many people return their MPC so that it's worth it offering "used" as "new" [1]? I'm only asking because I'm quite puzzled about release date of next OS (>1.02) fixing all those neat issues listed here (in this forum). Between 1.01 and 1.02 wasn't that much time... (Support said something like: "...the programmers are aware of post 1.02 issues...")

[1] http://www.akaipro.com/mpc5000 (says: "Save Big!!! Buy Refurbished MPC5000 [...] $1999.99")

If someone buys any electronic product, use it, and then return it to the place of purchase, they store can't resale it as new. It will be sold as scratch and dent, non-factory sealed, or refurbished.

Akai is aware of the bugs that were reported in the forum. No company posts release dates for their next OS release.

Why would anyone return their MPC 5000...?!?

I don't think I could live without my 5K now that I've got to know her properly....

...but, my wife, if only I had a returns policy on her

Onkobu wrote:Did so many people return their MPC so that it's worth it offering "used" as "new" [1]? I'm only asking because I'm quite puzzled about release date of next OS (>1.02) fixing all those neat issues listed here (in this forum). Between 1.01 and 1.02 wasn't that much time... (Support said something like: "...the programmers are aware of post 1.02 issues...")

It's never a good sign when a maker is selling B-stock direct. This especially true when factory is undercutting it's retailers by on B-stock approx $400. Like with digital cameras, it's a good barometer as to how many of them are being sent back or returned by customers. If Akai is making a direct offer it's not a small number of units and retailers obviously don't want them interfering with new sales or their own B-stock.

Akai need to start throwing out os bug fixes and upgrade for the 5000 at a faster pace. Not a lot of consumers are going to put up with the same os support on the 5000 that was on the 4000. Just think about it, you have 2 cheaper models with a third party os developer who can included more features without bugs on those models than your flagship model. Some people is not going to put up with the 5000 like a diehard mpc fan. Akai needs to focus on a new os upgrade instead of trying sell there returned units.

The 5000 is my 3rd mpc, so I know what to expect from akai.

Heavie wrote:Akai need to start throwing out os bug fixes and upgrade for the 5000 at a faster pace.

The last OS came out not so long ago. What problems are you having? I ask because I haven't seen anything specific from you in this forum. Have you found some problems not identified in the OS 1.02 bug thread?

NorthernElite wrote:...but, my wife, if only I had a returns policy on her

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA awesome!

Askia Shaheed wrote:The last OS came out not so long ago. What problems are you having? I ask because I haven't seen anything specific from you in this forum. Have you found some problems not identified in the OS 1.02 bug thread?

One problem which I know for sure can't be fix with a os upgrade, is every once in a while. When I power up the 5000, the white text on the screen bleeds or blands out to almost to a full solid blue screen or white screen and when I adjust the contrast knob to highlight the text. The screen start doing a very light flicker until the text bleeds out again. I can get it to stop by hitting the on and off switch.

But the bugs on my 5000 is you can't erase a performance from the track, when you hold down erase button and press the pad you triggered. You have to delete the track to get rid of unwanted performance.

When selecting a new track in the sequence I'm working on and assigning a program to that track. The sample would not sound when I hit the pads. To get around this I have to go back to the previous track I was working on and trigger the pads. Then select the track I want again and the samples will play when I hit the pads. Sometimes If I remember right away, I will press play and that would straighten the glitch out also.

Every now and then my 5000 will slow down to the point I think it crashed. I usually get a warning sign when I start getting a latency reaction when I select different modes.

There are other glitches aswell but I can't remember them off hand. I'm drawing a blank, trying to think of them. It's been a while since I touch the 5000. I been busy from working overtime and to tired to really sit down and get back into it.

These glitches doesn't stop me from making music with 5000, but I still like it to be as stable as my 4000.

Askia Shaheed wrote:

Heavie wrote:Akai need to start throwing out os bug fixes and upgrade for the 5000 at a faster pace.

The last OS came out not so long ago. What problems are you having? I ask because I haven't seen anything specific from you in this forum. Have you found some problems not identified in the OS 1.02 bug thread?

Maybe he's got the same problems and there's no need to post 'em twice As far as I remember I bought that thing in July this year, a few days later I installed 1.01 (released in May?) and again a few weeks later there was 1.02 (released in August?). Now we have November and it'd be the third release - time to get used to the process and present a sort of timetable.

As discussed in many other threads the MPC produces a sort of beta test feeling and I assume, offering "refurbished" B-stock devices is an indicator for high return rates. So I conclude that the "return on investment" is not as expected and only flagships making money are of interest. Akai's just a name and no other MPC was offered this way. In my opinion there's no excuse but maybe I'm feeding a dead horse.

If they knew the new OS will be available this month (November) - why not stopping all these rumors and bad influence (esp. from people like me)? If they knew JJ OS is somewhat better - why not handing over control to JJ OS developers? I'd even pay a little amount of money if basic things like SysEX-recording or Chop Shop 2.0 would work properly and it'd be great to have an official list of improvements. Have a look at the Pandora handheld (completely open project) or Nokia's N810.

Finally if they never stop all these rumors by giving some more "product news" like "new OS 1.03 in final testing stage..." or by offering additional material like samples or tutorials (this forum gets no support from Akai, does it?)

I bought a bike at a bike store and they setup breaks and gears and stuff. My tool dealer gives me some blades for my (carpenter's) plane or cutters for my router, sometimes fixes minor problems. This is the difference between a good and a bad image and image makes a name either reliable or unreliable. Someone drops a line somewhere in the internet and another one may find this line. The internet era goes beyond marketing officials and colored brochures. And to repeat one of my earlier sentences: "I only keep mine in hope of a better OS"

I'm not sure what crazy sh;t you guys are trying to do with your MPC 5K, but I'm using mines very successfully to make music with and it's holding a central role in my studio. The identified 5K bugs are not stopping me from using the 5K to make beats and slice and dice samples.

Obviously, JJ is a well established OS for 1000/2500 and whilst it would be cool to get the 'bells and whistles' for the 5K, I still think it's a great product as it is. (that's not to say I don't recognise that the known bugs should be fixed by Akai).

I'm certain that a new OS will be forthcoming from Akai to resolve the known bugs - until that time - relax and 'don't sweat the small stuff'.

Peace and blessings - Elite.

Heavie wrote:One problem which I know for sure can't be fix with a os upgrade, is every once in a while. When I power up the 5000, the white text on the screen bleeds or blands out to almost to a full solid blue screen or white screen and when I adjust the contrast knob to highlight the text. The screen start doing a very light flicker until the text bleeds out again. I can get it to stop by hitting the on and off switch.

Dude, get your 5K checked by an Akai Service centre - this sounds like a hardware fault - I can tell you mines does NOT do that and that problem doesn't sound good.

Also pressing the erase key and 'pad' does erase the performance data for that particular pad on mines.

Are you running 1.02?

I'd get your machine checked by Akai.

Heavie wrote:But the bugs on my 5000 is you can't erase a performance from the track, when you hold down erase button and press the pad you triggered. You have to delete the track to get rid of unwanted performance.

That doesn't sound like a bug. Press Rec Overdub + Play. As the sequence plays, hold the Erase key and press that pad you want to delete. That should do the trick.

Heavie wrote:When selecting a new track in the sequence I'm working on and assigning a program to that track. The sample would not sound when I hit the pads. To get around this I have to go back to the previous track I was working on and trigger the pads. Then select the track I want again and the samples will play when I hit the pads. Sometimes If I remember right away, I will press play and that would straighten the glitch out also.

I haven't experienced this. Can you give a step by step reproduce in the bug report thread?

Heavie wrote:Every now and then my 5000 will slow down to the point I think it crashed. I usually get a warning sign when I start getting a latency reaction when I select different modes.

Same goes for this one.

There are numerous people that use MPCs. Everyone has a different method of using them. I may never encounter bugs you find and vice versa. This is the reason why you should report any issue you find in detail, either here in our bug threads or directly to Akai so they can be fixed. MPCs do not connect to the internet and send crash logs to Akai. We have to do that if you want your problem addressed.

NorthernElite wrote:I'm not sure what crazy sh;t you guys are trying to do with your MPC 5K, but I'm using mines very successfully to make music with and it's holding a central role in my studio. The identified 5K bugs are not stopping me from using the 5K to make beats and slice and dice samples.

Full ack, it doesn't stop me from using it, too but I waste time. I'm not able to press the pads fast enough to record a 16 step sliced sample in 170 bpm (Drum&Bass) so I tend to use Grid Edit mode. But after slicing (Trim -> Chop Shop) I can't hear any note in Grid Edit mode. So I need to slice all the samples first, save that to disk, power off and power on again. If I know have a brilliant idea of chopping this and recording it again it bugs me to do have this delay every time.

And sometimes I come across funky synth settings (external synths) and so I need to save the settings to an internal memory or dump it to my computer and do really weird stuff to automatically restore these settings - I can't record SysEx events with my Music Production Center.

NorthernElite wrote:Obviously, JJ is a well established OS for 1000/2500 and whilst it would be cool to get the 'bells and whistles' for the 5K, I still think it's a great product as it is.

Why is it so hard to say "Mkay, that was sort of a good job and we'll build a new flagship on top of his experience."?

NorthernElite wrote:I'm certain that a new OS will be forthcoming from Akai to resolve the known bugs - until that time - relax and 'don't sweat the small stuff'.

To be honest, I don't think that "beat making" is the right way to use a 64 track hard disk containing audio recording and editing efx loaded "flag ship". If I read the brochures and see the promising videos I expect something from a "Music Production Center" and I bought the 5k by intention and didn't change my mind to by it instead of a 500 only because the amount of knobs.

But to offer a solution: if Akai manages it to solve that chop-grid-edit-muting and the sysex-ignorance I'll post at least 30min of MPC 5k usage beyond beat making on youtube. But this has to be in 1.03 and that ought to be released until Christmas.

Onkobu wrote: To be honest, I don't think that "beat making" is the right way to use a 64 track hard disk containing audio recording and editing efx loaded "flag ship". If I read the brochures and see the promising videos I expect something from a "Music Production Center" and I bought the 5k by intention and didn't change my mind to by it instead of a 500 only because the amount of knobs.

Sh;t!!! I've just read the manual and it appears I WAS 'using it wrong'...lol

It states clearly on page 39 that anyone using the 5K can only use it for Drum & Bass specifically it should not be used for 'Beat making'

It's a shame because I really liked the number of knobs it had - I'm returning the 5K and getting a trumpet instead.

As I said earlier, Akai should fix the known issues, but in the meantime I'm still loving it.

All I can say is that is that the 5K works for me brutha and trust me, the way I use the 5K is the 'right way' for me.

Thanks for your input.

Askia Shaheed wrote:

Heavie wrote:But the bugs on my 5000 is you can't erase a performance from the track, when you hold down erase button and press the pad you triggered. You have to delete the track to get rid of unwanted performance.

That doesn't sound like a bug. Press Rec Overdub + Play. As the sequence plays, hold the Erase key and press that pad you want to delete. That should do the trick.

I'm not trying be a word for word smart ass. So thanks for the tip, but after owning a mpc2k and a 4k. I'm quite sure the erase feature was available on these two older models which works well and I didn't have a problem with it. So believe me when I say the erase feature is not working properly on my mpc5k.

This not direct at you Askia Shaheed, but some of you guys here tickle me. I feel if you don't own a product, than you shouldn't comment on something you don't know nothing about. Some of you guys are loyalty brain washed on a product you spent your hard earn money on. Some of you guys are so proud to own a mpc5k or any other model mpc, that you sound like you would die for it. Even though these products meet your expectations. There are guys here that seeks a higher level of performance out of there product and comes up shorts. How much investment do you have in a company to shoot down a person who speaks up when he's having bug problem or you do your best to hush them up when a product that is not meeting there stamp of approval.

If your happy with your mpc5k. Fine where happy, that your happy. But keep your mouth shut if someone find a bug that you never expierence, because your not using the mpc5k to the fullest. You may not use that feature now, but you may need it in the future and there are older mpcs owners here that know. The future is not good for a older mpc that has bugs and glitches. As a mpc5k owners we all need to go through the whole mpc5k with a fine tooth comb. The support for the mpcs is short and limited. So we need to stay on akai with mpc5k while it's hot, because once time gets past the mpc5k. This unit will be forgotten, just like my mpc2k and the 4k.

I got nothing against the mpc5k. I just want my money worth out of it and be completely happy with it.