Akai MPC 500 problem?
I’ve had my MPC 500 for a couple of weeks and in my limited experience using it, I appear to be having an issue. I’m not sure if it’s a setting that needs changing, if the 500 is faulty, my limited RAM (I have 128MB on order) or if it’s purely a limitation of the 500 model.
In a nutshell, I have created a sequence and have it looping while I play with some samples over the top. When playing patterns over the top, it appears to be affecting the playback of other samples in the sequence.
More often than not, by pressing a pad to trigger a sample it is causing another sample in the sequence to end prematurely. Also, when holding down a pad the assigned sample only plays for 1 bar and then cuts out.
Here is a YouTube video of my problem
The set-up:
- 8 Bar loop.
- Six tracks.
- Default programs in memory.
- Loaded Strings (mono) program.
- Loaded program of mono samples from a TV show I’ve sampled.
- Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Muted.
- No effects applied to any samples.
Explanation:
- 00:03 – Track 1 playing. Low strings.
- 00:19 – Un-mute track 2. Drums.
- 00:36 – Un-mute track 3. Unknown, could be empty!
- 00:52 – Un-mute track 4. Synth?
- 01:07 – Un-mute track 5. High strings.
- 01:24 – Un-mute track 6. Voice.
- 01:40 – Load strings into track 7.
- 01:47 – Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 02:10 – Playing pattern with strings, voice sample play to end.
- 02:20 – Playing pattern with strings, voice (track 6) sample cuts out.
- 02:35 – Playing pattern with strings, voice (track 6) sample cuts out.
- 03:03 – Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 03:14 – Stop loop, show full length of string sample.
- 03:22 – Start loop. Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 03:40 – Playing pattern with strings, low strings (track 1) not playing to end.
- 03:55 – Select program with voice samples.
- 04:17 – Demonstration of voice (track 6) sample cutting out.
- 04:25 – Stop loop and show full length of voice sample.
There’s quite a bit of unnecessary bits in the video and explanation, but I tried to capture as much of the problem as bearable.
I have updated the firmware from 1.10 to 1.13, which didn’t fix the problem.
Is this a hardware or software limitation? Is it likely to be fixed in a later firmware update, or can the audio processors only handle a certain amount?
I have dropped Akai Pro an e-mail explaining the above hoping that they can offer an explanation and/or fix.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 6:58 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
18 Responses to “Akai MPC 500 problem?”
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March 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I had similar problems with the MPC 1000. Sometimes it would work alright then everything would go crazy for no valid reason. I sent mine back to where I bought it from for service and when it returned it was just the same. I heard your model number (500) has problems too. Sorry for that feedback, I thought it might be worth something.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Hi, I have the same exact problem – did you solve it?
March 15th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
No, unfortunately not – Akai are saying that I am running out of polyphony, but I just can’t see that being the issue… The 500 has a 32-voice polyphony and I’m using nowhere near that amount in my demo sequence.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Did you ever upgrade the ram? I have the same problem with my 500, and am wondering if the 128 upgrade will fix the problem.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Hi Wes, I did upgrade the RAM and it did not fix the problem.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
did this ever get fixed ?
June 28th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
One sample (when triggered by hitting a pad) is essentially muting another that is playing from the same program.
You have the program set to monophonic, or the sample in the program set to monophonic. if you change to poly then you shouldn’t have this probelm……..
Peace
October 24th, 2008 at 3:39 am
MAKE SURE THE MUTE GROUP FUNCTION IS SET TO OFF
February 26th, 2009 at 8:13 am
yoooo! that second last comment was it! BIG UP!
September 17th, 2009 at 4:24 am
i have the exact same problem and i tried everything stated above: this problem occurs with only 6 drumsamples in memory playing at the same time and most likely if the reverb is assigned to one of those samples…this happens after playing for a few minutes…
nothing works except switching the effect off but then, effects can’t be used again, especially not the reverb, not even if only one sample is played with that effect… the mpc seems crashed….switching off the mpc and starting again with the same project: all fine again (for some minutes).
what is this sh*t???
February 9th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Hi!!!!! I had the same problem…. I solved it by turning every sample that was played the same time into monophonic and only the sample I was having the problem turned into polyphonic!!!! I hope it helps!!!!
April 8th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I think it’s not a mute group problem but a polyphony problem.
If you don’t set every sample as a “gate” and not “one shot” (as default) and the poly to “MONO” the use of the samples in poly will eat all your polyphony, getting note truncated.
The other issue about the stop after a 1 bar is a problem I had too.
With the last OS and the mono set you should solve all your problems.
bye
December 10th, 2010 at 7:00 am
yea, you have to set your samples velocity>voice overlap
polyphony to MONO, because when you trigger your sample 2x (for example pad1) it will overlap, and it can take up all your polyphony. By setting it to MONO, it like turns off the vocie overlap and makes your sample more solid so you have control of you trigger sample.
March 14th, 2011 at 12:37 am
….trying putting BOTH FXs to REVERB….you get a BIG BUG!!at least thats whats happened to mine….but that was by mistake….whole sequences get eaten up!!!
May 30th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
ive had the exact same problem for so long, ive been pulling my hair out over it. ive read all these posts so many times incase i missed something. ive tried everything (at first i just assumed it must be a poly or mute group problem, it wasnt).
for me, turning my effects off has sorted the problem. ive no idea why the effects set should interfere with anything, but it seems to allow my piano sample to play in full without randomly cutting out. ive tried turning my MPC down, to the point i can barely hear it, but that didnt solve anything in my case.
anyone else managed to resolve anything?
swift
July 14th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
I was having this problem for a while, and getting really bad failures when using reverbs and delays. I eventually checked the RAM stick and found it to be loose, even though on startup it registered as 128mb. Being directly under the pads, someone pointed out they can work loose.
Not saying it’ll solve your problem, but I clicked mine right back in (its scary but if you push it all the way in and then carefully but firmly press it down it will eventually CLICK into place, which I hadn’t done properly the first time!)
I was happy it was something so trivial, and something that I’d done wrong as opposed to serious MPC flaws. It all works fine now.
Hope this helps.
September 8th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
It’s just a case of too much infomation at one time. Use as many different programs as possible, i.e. don’t have more than 2 or 3 samples playing off one program. Also cut everything you can (the silence) off the end of all your samples. if there’s silence on the end of them then it is more samples playing when you don’t need it. But yeah, at some point it decides it can’t play any more noises! I guess it relates to how much info. can go in and out of the RAM at one time.
September 10th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
WHAT AKAI WAS SAYING IS THAT YOU HAVE TO GO INTO THE PROGRAM MENU SLIDE ALL THE WAY DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE POLY OR MONO. IF YOU SET A GROUP OF PADS TO MONO THEN THEY WILL ALL PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY. IF YOU THEY ARE SET TO POLY THEN WHEN ANOTHER SAMPLE COMES THRU, IT WILL ONLY PLAY THEM ONE AT A TIME. UNTIL ANOTHER CUTS IT OFF. HOPE THIS HELPS.