Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I've been reading the manual for this machine (mpc 500 - nice small little sequencer - perfect?) and cant really get the feel for the functions I'm looking for...

In a live situation, presently I use a groovebox to sequence my synths... Its all well and good, but I REALLY wish I could punch in and record bits into the patterns as I go...then switch away from that pattern and back again blahblahblah... NOT possible with the groovebox... the punch in part anyway.. (besides.... I need a simple sampler also... something I dont have... I dont like using laptops live... )

So I can see with the MPC that you can make a bunch of sequences, and use song mode to make songs from sequences...

- but I can't seem to tell if you can just jump between sequences (patterns) ala groovebox/electribe style... -
or If you can punch in to record mode without having to stop the performance...

Can anyone verify this for me? (I was hoping the new linndrum would be my savior, but who knows whats going on there...)

aredj wrote:- but I can't seem to tell if you can just jump between sequences (patterns) ala groovebox/electribe style... -
or If you can punch in to record mode without having to stop the performance...

I haven't used the 500 but I believe it's quite similar to the 1000 I used to have on the sequencer side of things. On the 1000 you can do both of those really easily, to jump between sequences you use the 'next sequence' function, try looking for that in the 500 manual. Also you can drop into or out of sequencer record mode while playing (I think) whenever you want, but you can't go into sample mode without stopping the sequencer, which is a bit of a pity.

Ok.. cool.. That looks right... Pretty much what I'm looking for... I guess its asking too much to be able to set patterns to pads I suppose.. I dont need to realtime sample - anyway...

Hey stab... you use a sequencer live don't you? What are you using? I remember you talking about either getting, or getting rid of an mpc...

Oh I see... 'used to have' yes... what do you use now then?

We use Ableton Live running on a Macbook with an MPD24 now for the live show. When we used to have the MPC we were a four-piece and so I was playing the MPC and a few other things when we played live, now there's only two of us so I play synth parts and we just let the lappy go by itself.

In a way I'd like to go back to doing more hardware sequencing but to be honest it's so much easier playing live now, and we can get our whole live setup on a plane without having to pay excess baggage, and it fits in a taxi for the ride home so neither of us has to be designated driver.

yes you can jump around to any sequence that you have loaded.

aredj wrote:I guess its asking too much to be able to set patterns to pads I suppose.. I dont need to realtime sample - anyway...

On the MPC1000 when you are in "next sequence mode", the patterns are mapped to the pads and you press the pad to transition to that new pattern.

Ahh ok... there it is in the manual... (mpc500)

"while a sequence is playing, you can select the next sequence to be played from the Main Sequence page by turning the DATA wheel or using the NUMERIC function at the 'sequence' field.

I found that line earlier, but did not absorb the numeric function part... Not quite pad per pattern - seems you have to pad in the 2 digit number...

Meh.. the functions on the mpc1000 are sure worth the money... But I only need the midi sequencer and sample playback... Besides... The size of it! I've got piles of rechargeable AA around.. and the portability is novel to me!

Now... let's see how cheap I can find it...

aredj wrote: But I only need the midi sequencer and sample playback...

I think that neatly summarizes the entire functionality of the machine, so you wouldn't be buying too much fluff

even better is to work within the sequence with the tracks.

track mute/unmute might be what you're after.