Post your views and questions about the Akai MPC2500
By N8-R Sun Jan 18, 2009 8:21 pm
So I've been away from my place for a while, traveling, and havent had a chance to play with my new 2500 much. I did, however, take my manual with me. I was reading up about the various save options and I'm not clear on something about the project files.

so when i save the entire memory... EVERYTHING is saved to this new location, including the samples? So, if i loaded the samples from folder A, then I save the project to folder B, I'll essentially have duplicate samples there as well? Or does the project file just INDEX the original sample locations? Hopefully it'll be the latter, otherwise, it'd be pretty inefficient and my CF card would fill up real quick.

Thanks in advance peeps. Wish I'd taken my 2500 with me so i could test this myself, so bear with me :oops:
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By Upright Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:52 am
Good question for someone who doesn't have their Mpc in front of them. I could fire up the 2500 to test this and make sure what I'm going to tell you is fact but I've done this so many times I think I got this :D .......I would say that where ever you "Save entire memory" all the samples will save in that location. So in the situation you mentioned you would have in fact duplicated the samples to two different folders. :D


Edited: Just tested it and sure nuff that's the way it works. :D
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By Dodgedriver82 Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:06 pm
if u save entire memory on monday, then re-adjust things on tuesday, save the entire memory on tuesday to another new folder , then just delete the first original "new folder" this way u always have ur updated work, and u dont have 12 copies of every folder.





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Mixtape Murda PART 2 !

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 95867&q=hi
Last edited by Dodgedriver82 on Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
By _Stilo_ Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:45 pm
N8-R wrote:thanks! that clears it up. i guess i'll only use that save option when REALLY necessary then.

Or if you want to make sure you properly save everything.

Hell, I wouldn't want my MPC to save links to samples :shock:

This ain't a Windows PC...imagine you load a project from your HD and save to your CF or vice versa...then you start wondering where your sounds are the next time. God I can only barely imagine what this forum would look like if Akai had done it like this :lol:
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By DJ Hellfire Mon Jan 19, 2009 6:30 pm
_Stilo_ wrote:
N8-R wrote:thanks! that clears it up. i guess i'll only use that save option when REALLY necessary then.

Or if you want to make sure you properly save everything.

Hell, I wouldn't want my MPC to save links to samples :shock:

This ain't a Windows PC...imagine you load a project from your HD and save to your CF or vice versa...then you start wondering where your sounds are the next time. God I can only barely imagine what this forum would look like if Akai had done it like this :lol:


Interestingly, the XL works like that. No files on the same partition get duplicated, since it doesn't realy use a folder system. So like 30 beats on the same partion could all use the same sound in different programs without having a dup. Only prob is if you lose that sound or it gets corrupt, all beats that use it suffer.
By _Stilo_ Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:50 pm
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".

By the way, I do use folders on an XL :shock:
By Mike Feedback Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:32 am
_Stilo_ wrote:
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".

By the way, I do use folders on an XL :shock:

I agree with _Stilo_. I had the XL for 6 years and it doesn't save paths to all the different sounds, it saves them in the current folder. in fact, the program file layout only has 16 positions available for the filename, and so it would be impossible to save a folder path.

and I also used to use folders on the XL and continue to do so on the 2500. i would never not use folders and not have duplicate copies of the same sample if it's used in multiple beats. what if you use sample 1 in 2 separate beats, and then modify the end points for that sample in beat 2... you're going to totally screw up beat 1!
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By DJ Hellfire Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:48 am
_Stilo_ wrote:
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".



I was referring to you saying that the MPC doesn't save "links" to the sounds. I was saying that when you save all the beats within the same root menu, the MPC is pretty much saving "links" to sounds when they are used in mulitiple beats. I wasn't referring to "save entire memory" in relatiion to the XL. I never use folders for beats on my XL, but I do use folders for my sound libraries.
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By DJ Hellfire Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:54 am
Mike Feedback wrote:
_Stilo_ wrote:
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".

By the way, I do use folders on an XL :shock:

1. I agree with _Stilo_. I had the XL for 6 years and it doesn't save paths to all the different sounds, it saves them in the current folder. in fact, the program file layout only has 16 positions available for the filename, and so it would be impossible to save a folder path.

2. what if you use sample 1 in 2 separate beats, and then modify the end points for that sample in beat 2... you're going to totally screw up beat 1!


1. That's what I meant when I said partition. But I was referring to how I save beats on my XL. I save everything in the root menu of the card/zip and the MPC organizes it all by All PGMs & Sounds, All SEQ & Songs, and All Sounds and so on, so it's still easy to find everything. Like I said, I didn't use folders on my XL for beats, so saving this way avoided duplicate sounds.

2. Whenever I did this, I simply changed the file name. For example, if I had a sound called "Dub Bass" that played in Mono mode, but I needed it to loop for a particular beat, I'd simply add Loop to the file name. So it would become "Dub Bass Loop" which creates a totally new sound and all other beats that used "Dub Bass" still locates "Dub Bass" when loaded. Simple.

But I started this shyt back on floppies back in 2000, which is pointless to use folders on. Then it was Zip 100's, but I still had to preserve space, so I kept my save method the same. Zips were expensive back then. Now with all the shytloads of giggery you have now, it's not a big deal for me to now use folders and have to deal with duplicate sounds. So I changed it up with the 2500 and use folders now!
By _Stilo_ Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:05 pm
DJ Hellfire wrote:
_Stilo_ wrote:
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".



I was referring to you saying that the MPC doesn't save "links" to the sounds. I was saying that when you save all the beats within the same root menu, the MPC is pretty much saving "links" to sounds when they are used in mulitiple beats. I wasn't referring to "save entire memory" in relatiion to the XL. I never use folders for beats on my XL, but I do use folders for my sound libraries.

Well, I assume you know your XL good enough to know what you're talking about. Still I would never save all my beats without organizing in folders, like Mike said I would be too afraid to sooner or later f**k up my work.

But to Mr. N8-R, I guess with 40 GB hard drives at a price tag of $50 you don't have to worry much about having duplicate samples.
By N8-R Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:11 pm
whoa a lot of replies, thanks peeps.

I understand the usefulness of project files saving samples together with everything else. Makes perfect sense. In a way, I'd been expecting a little more flexibility in terms of indexing and whatever since I had been used to working within a computer all the time.

I know the hard drive option would make the duplicate file thing practically a non-issue, but in a way I'm apprehensive to take that route. I think part of the allure of MPC's is the stability or their solid state configuration as opposed to a laptop or a computer with spinning hard drives.

I may be totally wrong here though.

Thanks again.
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By DJ Hellfire Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:32 pm
_Stilo_ wrote:
DJ Hellfire wrote:Interestingly, the XL works like that.

No, I don't think so. There is no "Save Entire Memory" on the XL. And of course, you can save different programs using the same sounds with any MPC, that's the whole concept of programs. But when I hit "Save All", I actually want it to "save all".



1. I was referring to you saying that the MPC doesn't save "links" to the sounds. I was saying that when you save all the beats within the same root menu, the MPC is pretty much saving "links" to sounds when they are used in mulitiple beats. I wasn't referring to "save entire memory" in relatiion to the XL. I never use folders for beats on my XL, but I do use folders for my sound libraries.[/quote]
Well, I assume you know your XL good enough to know what you're talking about. Still I would never save all my beats without organizing in folders, like Mike said I would be too afraid to sooner or later f**k up my work.

2. But to Mr. N8-R, I guess with 40 GB hard drives at a price tag of $50 you don't have to worry much about having duplicate samples.[/quote]


1. Yeah! Well, like I said, the only way anything would get fuked up is if one of the sounds got corrupt. But I always had backups of my drums sounds that I could load if this ever happened since it tells you exactly what sound can't be found. Luckily, I haven't had this problem with zips. I had this problem at least 100 times with floppy. Only thing I never had back ups of was my samples. I had the originals, but never back ups of the chops. Now I do though! :lol:

2. Not even $50. I just copped a 40GB Hitachi off Fleabay for $30. So yeah, I agree. Dups are no longer a concern!
By Mike Feedback Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:41 pm
DJ Hellfire, maybe you just misspoke. I was just trying to explain that the XL doesn't save "links" to sounds. It just assumes that all sounds are in the same location as the program file.

If you're always renaming files when they already exist instead of replacing them, then you would be fine saving every beat in the root directory because every beat would be using it's own files and not sharing files with other beats.
By _Stilo_ Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:26 pm
N8-R wrote:I think part of the allure of MPC's is the stability or their solid state configuration as opposed to a laptop or a computer with spinning hard drives.

I may be totally wrong here though.

Well, it's not running Windows, so you're good to go basically. Get a harddrive, you won't regret it.