mpc 500: yes/ no?

H

hart36

Guest
ive been rocking one of these badboysimages.jpg with a macbook pro and ableton. but recently i came across a mpc 500 for sale second hand. i was thinking about buying it as id love to have something portable that i can make music on. id like to know what your guys thoughts are on this and if its worth it?
 
Your setup is already portable. I mean if you want one go for it, but they are pretty limited; I guess depends on the price and how much your fiending for it. It won't give you any results like your current setup though.
 
yeah true i guess... my setup is kinda portable. but yeah i dunno i can get it for like 1000 dollars?? well 6000 rand
 
That doesn't really seem like that great of a deal to me, here in the US an MPC 500 sells for $500-600.
 
yo I literally see mpc 500s on craigslist for $250 you'd be straight ****ed in the head to waste $1000 on that lil limited piece of work
 
that sounds ****ing cheap wonder how much shipping to south africa would cost though ha ha
 
Kojak said:
That doesn't really seem like that great of a deal to me, here in the US an MPC 500 sells for $500-600.
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That's more like MPC 1000 prices. I usually see MPC 500's sell for around $275-350

They were very short lived and not much of a demand for it. Definitely won't be any kind of classic.

I would have to imagine MPC sales in general are on the decline; you can get a used 2500 for what a used 1000 used to cost.

If you ask me Maschine> Any MPC I ever owned or used. It's just too works too well in the studio compared to the MPC series. With Komplete Elements in 1.6 you can hook up a midi keyboard and you've got essentially the same product you would have to spend thousands on to get a MPC and a Motif or comparable.
 
I bought one for the reason the OP mentioned.
The 500 is a bit underrated as far as function, and workflow goes.
It has the basics nailed down from a software standpoint (it's more or less a portable mpc2kxl).
The chopping is done by ear like the mpc60, and mpc3k.
For $300ish it's a reaonable deal.
 
I'd personally rather rock an ipad an Beatmaker.....or NanoStudio. Sorry to whomever wastes money on old technology. I hear alot of talk about how this piece sounds so gritty, grimey, or whatever. It is 2011.....old is good but new is cheaper to maintain. I can make new sound old. You can sample old on new. It's about the new for the low in this game. The old non wave showing stuff is good to practice your ear though. It's all about the ear in my opinion.....but visuals are great. Close your eyes and open your ears.



Albeit I like the old for the low too. ;)
 
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if your looking at getting a mpc500 for that price i would just get Native instruments Maschine (for less than 400$ USA)...You wont be disappointed. Seeing how you already have a nice midi keyboard, maschine would be much easier to integrate into your current setup than a Mpc.
 
The Tone Ranger said:
I hear alot of talk about how this piece sounds so gritty, grimey, or whatever. It is 2011.....
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It sounds like an audio inerface, not grimy.
TBH the 14 year old mpc2000 sounds alot like an audio interface.
The grit people refer to with mpc's is most likely the sound of the s950 that was a popular sidekick of the mpc back in the early/mid 90's.
I've heard beats made with only an mpc60 that were clean.

The whole reason in todays age to have an mpc is to get away from the pc/mac once in a while, and to have a different way to do things.
Having the ability to sample, and sequence inside 1 box with built in pads is still unique to hardware for the most part too.
Even a computer needs an interface+controller, and that's a bit less portable.
Ipad/Iphone apps are cool, but still to get real pads,or keys, a controller is in order.

Out of curiosity, can an iphone connect to any usb controllers. Serious question.
 
Mattman04 said:
Out of curiosity, can an iphone connect to any usb controllers. Serious question.
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Akai-SynthStation-25.jpg


The iPhone is just too small to do anything with though IMO. I think the iPad however has huge potential as a serious tool with it's interface.
 
re

I would take a 500 over no mpc I guess, but you shouldnt get one unless you HAVE to have portability, its too limited in many key ways compared to something like a 1000, which is only a tiny bit more expensive.
 
The beat thang sounds so awfull.. i mean "THA BEAT THANG!", really? sounds real professional haha
 
turtle said:
The beat thang sounds so awfull.. i mean "THA BEAT THANG!", really? sounds real professional haha
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I could care less about the name of the hardware and the effects..... the features of it seem to be beyond any other portable pad based sequencer/sampler.

Maschine is the best thing smoking as far as with a laptop goes though. I still say Beatmaker 2/ Xewton/ Nano Studio and an Ipad2 is what portability in 2011 is.
 
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