m45k Open500 is a new custom Akai MPC500 firmware that adds a new sequencer, effects, and more to the hardware drum sampler.
The day of custom firmware for hardware products continues. Following the SP-404MKII and the FM-1, someone has now breathed new life into an older Akai drum sampler.
m45k (on YT maskisnotmyrealname) has released the Open500, a new custom firmware for the Akai MPC500.
m45k Open500
The next patient in the hardware mod clinic is the Akai MPC500, and we already have the right tools laid out on the operating table. m45k Open500 is a new custom firmware for Akai’s 2007 drum sampler.
It was a compact workstation that combines a 48-track MIDI sequencer, a 32-voice stereo digital sampler, and 12 velocity- and pressure-sensitive rubber pads. You don’t have to hack your Akai MPC500 hardware for it.
Open500 is a small loader added to the official MPC500 operating system. Once it is installed, you can load add-ons just like WAV files.
These add-ons add features the MPC500 didn’t previously have. This flexibility allows you to choose the features you want—or don’t want.
They use the MPC’s own engine wherever they can (its time stretch, its sample editing, its pad playback), so what you hear in the preview is exactly what you get.
The first release features seven blocks/modules, and they require the HUB module, which is the add-on manager. It allows you to install them into the firmware. You have to have up to 8 at the same time.
New Sampling Features
The new Open500 custom firmware introduces seven new powerful features.
The MPC500 is a traditional sampler that can load sounds or sample from a live input. This brings us to the first new feature.
The new Input Thru module keeps the input open to the outputs. It’s an analog pass-through with an adjustable level. So, you can play a synth or another instrument over your beats. Better: it pauses by itself while you sample.
Sampling is one of the MPC500’s key features. The engine has received a number of new tools. Start with the new Auto Chop feature, which chops a loop into equal slices by BPM and lays them on the pads. Tempo and number of slices are fully adjustable.
Then, Trans-Chop chops on the hits. It finds the transients and puts every hit on its own pad. This process is fully adjustable right in the hardware.
Also new are the Pad Tools that bring swap, copy, and clear functions to the samples. You can use them just for the samples on the whole pad.
Massive FX Boost
Sound design also reaches a new level with the new m45k Open500 firmware.
Sample FX is a new multi-FX processor with eight customizable FX slots for each sample. You can work with fades, gain, bit crush, downsample, drive, vinyl crackle, and silence trim.
That’s not all! Open500 also brings 12 SP-404-style live master effects to your master mix. Just hold a pad, and the effect plays while your beat keeps running. It ships with these: Stutter, filter, trance gate, lo-fi, vinyl, scatter, delay, reverb, reverse, tape stop, chorus, tremolo.
And to top it all off, the developer also created the Grid FX module, a new 16-step grid sequencer visible on the MPC500’s display. A key feature is the ability to edit your sequence while it plays.
First Impression
I’d say the dead live longer. Akai might have effectively ended the MPC500 in terms of hardware and firmware, but this new firmware takes the instrument to a whole new level after this official death.
With this new release, I imagine many people regret selling their MPC500.
m45k open500 is available now as a free download from the developer’s GitHub page.
More information here: GitHub
Be the first to comment