Mpc500 Basic Concepts And Terminology; Sequence; Track; Song - Akai MPC 500 User Manual

MPC500 Basic Concepts and Terminology

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the following terms and concepts since you'll encounter them throughout this manual.

Sequence

A sequence is the most basic "building block" of music you can compose on the MPC. MIDI information from the MPC's pads, buttons,
and Q-Link slider (or an external keyboard) are recorded to tracks within a sequence. Each sequence has 48 tracks and the MPC500 can
hold up to 99 separate sequences at one time.
The length of a sequence can be set from 1 to 999 bars and you can theoretically create an entire song using only one sequence. However,
the MPC has a special SONG mode that lets you arrange several short sequences together to create a song. This allows you to create a
sequence for each section of your song and to arrange and rearrange these sections however you'd like.
For example: by creating a separate sequence for the verse, chorus, and hook of a song, you can use Song mode to quickly arrange the
verse, chorus, and hook in any order you'd like. This saves you from having to repeat the same section (such as the chorus) many times
throughout the song. More importantly, SONG mode makes editing and re-arranging your song easy since you can simply change the order
of sequences (or number of repetitions for each sequence) instead of re-recording the entire song.

Track

A sequence has 48 tracks and each track can record a performance. For example, you can record the verses for a song on track one while
recording the choruses on track two. Alternatively, you can record different instruments on each track (i.e., piano on track 1, bass on track
2, synth on track 3).
Note that your performances are recorded as MIDI events and the actual digital audio is not recorded onto a track. Because of this, you can
edit your performance many different ways once the performance has been captured. See the section below entitled "Note number, velocity,
and length" below for more this.

Song

As we stated above under the "Sequence" description, the MPC has a special SONG mode that allows you to arrange different sequences
together to form a song. Each time a new sequence is added to a song, we say a new "step" is created within the song. You can use song
mode to arrange different sections (verse, chorus, hook, etc.) of a song together. Alternatively, you can use SONG mode to sequence several
songs back-to-back.
Songs are created and arranged in the MPC500's SONG mode. Each song can have up to 250 steps and the MPC500 can hold 20 songs at
one time. See page "Chapter 6: SONG mode" on page 49 for more information about this mode.

Sample

When you tap the pads on the MPC500, you trigger various different sounds that we call "samples." Samples are digitized snippets of audio
that can be recorded using the [INPUT] jacks (on the rear of the MPC), loaded from a memory card, or transferred from a computer (via the
USB port).
Once a sample is inside in the MPC500, it can be manipulated in different ways. For example, a sample can be trimmed down in length,
looped, pitch-shifted or processed using one of the various effects found within the MPC. When you are finished editing your sample, you
can assign it to one or more drum pads so that you can play the sample with those pads.
The MPC500 supports 16-bit samples at any sample rate (audio imported at sample rates higher than 44.1k is automatically downsampled
down during playback). Samples can be either mono or stereo.

Drum Pad

The MPC500 has 12 pressure sensitive pads that are used to trigger sounds. These pads are arranged in 4 banks called "A," "B," "C," and
"D." These banks can be quickly selected using the [PAD BANK] buttons giving you easy access to 48 different sounds. Use PROGRAM
mode to assign samples to these pads.

Program

A program is a file that contains all of your samples and settings for each sample (i.e., pad assignments, loop points, pitch tuning, effects,
etc.) The MPC's PROGRAM mode is where you can edit and assign samples.
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