Short review of the Akai Mpc5000

Short review of the Mpc5000

To sum up the MPC 5000.
It has all the features I loved on the MPC2500 (direct recording ,auto chop etc)
But it is a step above every other Mpc I have used.

Reason is the TC. (Quantize feel)
I was told by a Akai beta tester the the TC uses the Timing Clock of the Mpc3000.
Originally the Mpc5000 was even named the Mpc3500 due to this fact.
I love the feel of the TC and the added 64th notes TC is another bonus,also the TC strength option is great.

The synth is quite good and combined with the effects is a real force.
My fav feature is the arpeggiator.
It works really well and I have made some real cool sounding things so far using it..

I have not yet used the hard disk recording ( for what I do direct recording will work even better)
But the HD recording is a great option..
The massive Hard drive is great to have too..

Another one of my fav things to do is control filters/cut offs with the q link,that combined with the arpeggiator is great and takes my synth parts to another level..

I love the HUGE screen and with rumors of it soon being able to be upgraded to touch screen,that will really rock.

(Yes Akai had originally designed touch screen for the MPC5000,it was made by a tech I know ,but in the end Akai didn`t use the feature)
More news on that as it comes to me..

----

Now for the bad.
The one thing I was really hoping to be improved over the MPC2500 was not.
The chop shop auto shop is no different then the mpc2500`s at all.
I was hoping not non destructive editing,or a more recycle type system.
Chop shop did not need to be called 2.0 on the MPC5000 since nothing is different then the old chop shops auto chop on the MPC2500.

Also the tempo detect feature still can`t get the bpm right (same problem as the MPC2500 and MPC1000) .
This confuses me since the MPC2000xl tempo detection is money.
Having no auto tempo detect feature is a pain when you patch phase a sample since you need the exact tempo to patch phrase a sample right.
I still have to manually detect the tempo if samples on the main screen..



In conclusion,I always thought the MPC2500 was the best Mpc ever made.
Having a onboard synth makes the MPC5000 (with a midi keyboard) a powerfull self contained project studio
The MPC5000 has improved on the MPC2500 in many ways and takes it place as the new
KING OF THE Akai MPC`S..

It was named Chop Shop 2 because it ould now support viewing of stereo files. The MPC 2500 Chop Shop was initially Mono and later upgraded.

I wrote about Detect Tempo in another thread. I got it to work. I only had to make minor adjustments. Its been a long time since I used the MPC 2000XL but I do recall having to make minor adjustments on that was well. But I will agree that the 2000XLs function is a little better than the 5000.

I think that it was initially named the MPC 3500 because it was a step up from the MPC 2500 and 3000, but didn't have the Z-8 series sampler built in like the 4000. But after deciding on the feature set and having an eye on the future, it was later changed to be the MPC 5000. Naming it MPC 3500 would be an admission that they have no plans to improve it beyond what the 4000 could do. I don't have any inside intel like you do...but this is just me speculating.....bring on the MPC 5000XL with the color touch screen and OS 3.5.

Some of what Just Blaze talks about in his review is fixed in the new os (mpc importing from older mpc etc)
JB does have a point about how you load the synth patches (with no preview option) and the ability to tune a entire program is not there.


The real thing that makes the mpc5000 worth getting is the feel of the quantize and the many many options of TC you have..
It feels like my old mpc3000`s sequencer and that I love.
But I might just say that ,no I will say I like the quantize feel even better then the mpc3000 due to the quantize strength option..
Like any Akai mpc made after the mpc3000 we should just come to expect bugs in the os,same as we come to expect Windows OS bugs.
You just got to take the good with the bad I guess..


I can get past the no entire program tuning function.
There is a way around that like anything else.
You just go to trim hit window & tune the sample BEFORE you chop (see Just that was easy right)or pitch shift your sample b4 chopping
I always get my samples right before I chop anyways( timestreatch ,pitch etc)


Akai needs to make a preview on the synth patches thats no doubt and improve the chop shop.
Then I will be happy..




UPDATE: I just noticed a new bug.


DECAY is not working with the q link faders.
I love to put open hats on dacay with the q slider to create a open and closed hat in real time..


I sure hope Akai Fixes this next update!

mpc3500 wrote:
UPDATE: I just noticed a new bug.


DECAY is not working with the q link faders.
I love to put open hats on dacay with the q slider to create a open and closed hat in real time..


I sure hope Akai Fixes this next update!

See the Bug Report thread. I believe I found the source of your problem and it may not be a bug.

DECAY is not working with the q link faders.
I love to put open hats on dacay with the q slider to create a open and closed hat in real time..

it happen to me few times with tune sometimes when i assign it i wouldn't go through and some times it wouldn't come off.