500 is lonely (but maybe not for long)

Love this forum but I'm a nerd hobbyist lurker so don't get all offended by my lack of depth or hardcore 'tude .

I have had a 500 since they came out. I love the concept. I love the feature set. I even love the quality (I've beat the hell out of mine and it still keeps on ticking).

BUT, (like Peewee Herman says, "Everyone always has a big butt")

I've struggled with being productive. I can't explain it very well...but I can't seem to break free and just enjoy making beats with it. It feels like work. Setting up programs, finding projects, navigating the various menus. It's always felt more like building rather than creating, or making the instrument rather than playing the instrument. At least for me.

Yesterday I went in to buy the new APC40 and walked out with the XR 20 (don't ask). Honestly I sort of felt like a tool, because the thing is clearly limited - AND I HATE that they wasted half the memory on preconstructed patterns.

On the other hand, this thing has seriously kicked off my creativity in a way that neither the 500 nor any DAW ever has. Ever. The drum sounds and 1-hits are awesome (synths not so much). There are only three tracks but I find myself doing so much more with them. It took about two hours to go completely through the manual and learn it. Now I just close my eyes and my fingers just take over. It's the experience I've always looked for.

Here's the funny thing. While I'm using it, I keep thing about how fricking cool my new beat would sound with a certain sample that I have stored on my 500. Or how cool it would be to chop up the beat a little differently or how I would really like to use a certain effect. And I realize I'm appreciating my 500 more, but in a totally different way.

Bottom line is I'm glad I have both. I think XR 20 is where I create it, and 500 is where I finish it up.

I'm pretty excited.

Wow, good wrinting! I agre that it feels like "work" to edit on the 500, and it is limiting my creative side. I am looking for a step sequencer for the 500 like the electribe one, but this might work.

Eimer, why don't u go for a 1k?
If ur used to ur 500, the 1000 is easy to master. It's easy to swap data cause they're compatible. Even one with the fakked up pads could be useful if u use ur 500 as a midi controler.
If u love the 500, u gonna love the 1000 even more

I think that it really doesn't matter what kit your using, if your getting the sound you want and you feel creativity flowing then what's the problem?!

Cool that your happy with where your at!

serge_a_storms wrote:I think that it really doesn't matter what kit your using, if your getting the sound you want and you feel creativity flowing then what's the problem?!

Ur right on that one, but if u have to work too hard to create the sound, then it can kill the creativity.

Here's the funny thing. While I'm using it, I keep thing about how fricking cool my new beat would sound with a certain sample that I have stored on my 500. Or how cool it would be to chop up the beat a little differently or how I would really like to use a certain effect. And I realize I'm appreciating my 500 more, but in a totally different way.

Pretty simple then. Just use the XR20 to trigger samples on your 500.

I'm right there with you man. I have both models myself and the xr20 has got an easy workflow while the 500 puts you through labor.

When I first got the 500 it kicked my ass for a month, I didn't even made a beat. I was gonna send it back but I never had an Akai product before so I kind of gave it a 2nd chance. I finally whipped it into submission and made my first beat, thats when I was falling in love with it. The xr20 didn't give me lip, it just let me did what I wanted the 1st day I got it. All it lacks is a sampler and a cf slot.

Now after a year and a half with the both of them(500 came 1st) I find myself strictly on the 500. I work fast now, I've gotten creative with it, and I create my own sounds. The xr20 served me well but I use it now just to write rhymes.

Menco wrote:Eimer, why don't u go for a 1k?
If ur used to ur 500, the 1000 is easy to master. It's easy to swap data cause they're compatible. Even one with the fakked up pads could be useful if u use ur 500 as a midi controler.
If u love the 500, u gonna love the 1000 even more

I was going to buy the 1000 when the guy in the store (it's always the guy in the store that's the bad guy) told me that the 500 could do the same, but with a lack of 4 pads and a smaller screen. I was stupid enough to buy the 500 in stead. I would love to trade my 500 fully maxed out with a 1000 (plus some money of course). But can't find any buyers.

Selling ur 500? I still regret that I did.

bedouin wrote:

Here's the funny thing. While I'm using it, I keep thing about how fricking cool my new beat would sound with a certain sample that I have stored on my 500. Or how cool it would be to chop up the beat a little differently or how I would really like to use a certain effect. And I realize I'm appreciating my 500 more, but in a totally different way.

Pretty simple then. Just use the XR20 to trigger samples on your 500.

hey bedouin could you explain this a little more,,thanx!!

You could use your XR20's sequencer to trigger your 500 via MIDI. Look at the instructions since I don't own an XR20. You'll need a MIDI cable if you don't already have one . . . and a mixer.

i have a vestax pcv175 mixer and i have the xr20 and i have the midi cable,but the reason i was asking is because i have a 500 that should be here by the middle of the week,so this was looking interesting..thanx for the tips

LOL, agreed about the workflow being kind of clunky and a bit of a chore on the 500.
I think if it had a standard 10 key input it would help for accessing functions and entering values a lot quicker than scrolling through menus and values with the wheel.

I had the keystroke inputs to jump between all the major functions on my sp1200 down so pat that my friends who where familiar with the sp still couldn't follow what I was doing before I was already done.
From conception to reality almost instantly.
(And I used to tap all the buttons on beat just to keep the vibe going)
Thats why the other day I was surprised when I was checking out pics of old mpc's and saw that they used to have one.

But the sp was a limited machine, which as you've realized can quicken the work flow but will also suddenly highlight things that you wish you could do when you've hit the wall in functionality.

What your doing seems like a good middle ground. Using the easier machine to get your ideas going, and then you can fluff it out with the 500 if you want afterwards.
Depending on your technical expertise and what kind of sound your making, you could either midi the machines together as bedouin said, or take the best parts that you've made in you new machine and just sample them into the 500 and reassemble the beat as samples.

I'm actually attempting a similar middle ground myself right now.
Although I dont mind the slow flow of the 500 too much (I'm the kind of retentive dweeb who'll move the edit point of a sample back and forth for hours until I think its on beat), I'm borrowing an eps right now that I would like to use for some lead key sounds.
But I want to keep my beats self contained within the mpc so that it retains its portability, so I just want to use the keyboard to trigger the sounds inside the 500.

But I dont know anything about this midi stuff!

So if midi'ing doesn't work out for me, I'll just play the sounds on the keyboard and then resample them as loops.

i agree 50/50 with you about the 500 making one work.
You just have to plan ahead with it. I had made a program set up whereas all the pads are numbered and set up for tracks 1-16 to be midi tracks and 17 above to be sample tracks. not to mention.. all the pads are in perfect numeric order. A1=35 A2=36... etc up to D12=82. since it's a template set up any sample or kit you get.. all you have to do is load the program, load and assign the kit voices to each indivual pad you want them on.. rename the set up program for that spefic kit you have just loaded, create an name a new folder and just save the new kit in that new folder. I can't lie.. i have so many sounds that i'm still assigning them to pads and creating new programs/projects
and it's a chore when you're doing that. the 500 can get cumbersome if one doesn't do some planniing ahead.
i nearly had a fit because i wanted to use the same program parameters that I had open already but not the sounds and put new sounds up. I started to delete the sounds and it was horrible because you have to do each one and then everytime you delete a sound it goes back to the trim first page.. ( I was pissed at akai for not making a feature to delete just all the sounds) so i figured i'd load that same program with no sounds, overwriting what was already there and that way the parameters would be loaded without the sounds and then i can assign my new sounds to the pads and then change the name of the program before i save it. You just have to find lil tricks around the mpc 500 to make it a lil more user friendly.

noramoss wrote:...You just have to find lil tricks around the mpc 500 to make it a lil more user friendly.

Definitely.
And agreed about the void all sounds feature. Just more time unnecessarily wasted to dump every one singly in the edit function (although I'm getting faster at it )