User manual AKAI MPC500

[. . . ] Chapter 1: Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Top Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Bottom Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Hooking Up Your MPC500. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MPC500 Basic Concepts and Terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] This idicates that Step Recording is enabled. 3. Locate the sequence time that you want to record to in the Now field. You can locate sequence by rotating the [DATA] wheel while selecting the 'Now' field. Press a pad or play a note on a MIDI keyboard. If Incr (Auto step increment function) is set to Auto, the sequence will advance by the value set in Timing correct automatically. When you record with an external MIDI keyboard, you can record not only Note events but also other MIDI events, such as MIDI continuous controller, channel pressure and other data. Tip: In STEP EDIT mode, the Timing correct page is displayed only when the TIMING CORRECT button is held. You can change Timing correct setting while in STEP EDIT mode. MPC500 Operator's Manual rev 1. 0 49 Chapter 6: SONG mode In SONG mode, you can set the order of multiple sequences and play them in a series. The SONG mode is useful when you are creating a song by combining short sequences. You can check the structure of an entire song while working, so you can finish the song easily. You cannot record the performance in the SONG mode; you can however convert the song that you created in the SONG mode to one long sequence so that you can record/edit it like you would a normal sequence. You can create a song by assigning sequences to each step. For each step, you can assign a sequence and also set the number of times the MPC500 should repeat the sequence. SONG mode can be accessed by pressing the [MODE] button and then the [PAD 12]. 'Edit Select' Field You can select various edit types here. The lower line display is changed depending on this selection. Song Select This is where a song is selected for playback and editing. The MPC500 can have up to 20 songs in memory at any time. Each song can have its own 10 character name. You can play the selected song in this page by pressing the [PLAY] or [PLAY START] buttons. When you stop the song, you can restart the song from where you stopped by pressing the [PLAY] button. The [PLAY START] button, on the other hand, always starts from beginning of the song. While playing, the upper line changes to show the 'Now' field instead of the 'Edit select' field. The 'Now' field updates constantly to show the current position of the song. The 'Tempo' field, displayed as , shows the current sequence tempo. Assign Seq In this field, you can assign a sequence to the step of selected song. When the cursor is in the 'Step' field, you can select a step with the [DATA] wheel or by typing a number with the pads while holding the [NUMERIC] button. [. . . ] The number of the current Pad sensitivity and the current Velocity curve will be displayed in 'Sens' field and 'Curve' field. Select the 'Pad Sensitivity' field and adjust the pad sensitivity number as you hit the Pad. If the Pad sensitivity number is set to a low value, it's harder to get a high velocity value even if you hit the Pad hard. If the Pad sensitivity number is set to a high value, it may become too easy to get high velocities even when hitting the Pad softly. Select the 'Velocity curve' field and adjust the Velocity curve while hitting the Pad. The velocity curve maps the strength of hitting the Pad to MIDI velocity data. [. . . ]