Akai MPC-2500

Very easy, you'll be able to bang out a beat or just have fun minutes after taking it out the box

you can't beat the fact you can add on a hard drive and a Cd/DVD burner for storage media.

plus you can use up to 2gb Flash Cards.

The USB connection is good, but the thing that sucks about it is that you can only use it for data transfer of files (PGMS, wav files, project folders). Its like an overpriced flash card reader.

You get what you put in, if you put in something good you get good, but garbage you get garbage etc. The pads feel good

they're not the best effects in the world, but it all depends on the imagination and creativity of the user

Well Numark Akai is slacking off as usual, taking forever with O.S. updates. but there are ways to work around the bugs from the nu Akai.

while on the other hand if you have the 3rd party JJ os, the machine is quite stable (but it still has its bugs!)

horrible customer service. I called these clowns up and I was put on hold for close to an hour. They didn't even answer me back they hung up the phone

so Akai gets a big fat F on customer service

but the J.J. get an A+

overall I give this machine a 8.5 with a sturdy O.S. it'd be a 10 no question

It's the same as the old mpc's to that's good

Not many new stuff. If you got a mpc2000xl you don't need to but this for the features. You can't import songs from other mpc's (2000xl) into the mpc2500.... this is a big frustration.

Sound is good. 16bit 44.1
The effects however sound HORRIBLE,they are useless. Akai is known for that.

Well, mine has got some serious bugs. Two midi outs are not working. Timestretching causes it to freeze.
My left qlink fader feels strange, as if it's loose on the inside. Don't know what it is. It feels better than the plastic mpc1000 though

Numark is giving support for Akai products, they kinda suck.

I regret going from my mpc2000xl to the mpc2500. I can't load my songs and the bugs annoy me.
I just wanna make music and not be frustrated by bugs and other weird things

Now with a usb port, I am more flexible. The manual is so much better, compared to the 4000. If you know your way around the earlier mpc models, this one is a piece of cake.

Compare to the past models, having 2 in and 4 midi outs-can't beat that. Smaller yet it still packs a punch. Its an advance 2000xl with 8 outputs of audio-stantard. I have already installed the CD/DVD drive, 128 ram and a 40 HD. Plus it loads sample five times faster.

It's a sampler, garbage in then garbage out. Some people say the converters sound different, but this machine is more convenient. Although, you only can sample in 16 bit and max the memory to 128.

Only had it for a month, so far so good!

Always responded to my questions in a reasonable time.

Love it!