Customer Reviews

Madwaves MP-5-US MadPlayer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I actually did not know what to expect when I ordered it. From what I read I thought that it could be fun. I was expecting something a bit like a casio keyboard but, when I first opened the box I was at first impressed by the packaging and the quick start guide. I found that I had everything I need including hadset (with mic), batteries and charger. The charger is not great, a bit confusing at fist since its designed for 4 batteries, but after charging the batteries overnight I was ready to give it a go. My first impression was not that great, I did not know exactly what to do nor what to expect. I started by just playing with the DrumnBass style and working my way around the buttons seeing what each did. Several times I ended up in a help mode, but then easily found my way back again. After about 20 minutes I got the hang of operating in the different instrument lanes and subtunnels. At this point I thought I should read the manual to really find out about how everything works. The manual is probably one of the best written I have read. It is easy to follow and very detailed without being to technical. The manual really made a huge difference in my understanding of what the madplayer is capable of. There are many things in it that just are not mentioned in the companies website. Within a few hours of reading the manual and messing around I had pretty much got evrything I could do and then decided to really give the player a go. Forget the headset, it does not do the player justice, just plug it into your stereo system (I used a mini to RCA adapter) and play with it live and very loud. The sound quality is amazing. I have used some pro gear from roland and this thing sounds as good or better. As I played more I began to realize what this product is really about. I started to make songs that made me feel great, and they were my songs. I am not a professional musician so the power it put in my hands was enlightening. I also used a great feature which allows you to mix audio samples in ral time. The supplied audio samples are not all that great, but apparently they have a whole bunch of em on their web site. PLus you can make them yourself if you want to. So I made a few Jungle and Drumm&bass songs and thought I would test what I made on a few friends. I played back the songs on my stereo and did not tell any of them that I made them. They all asked me what the new CD was that we were listening to. When I told them I did the music they did not believe it. Overall, this is one great piece of gear. Yes, it does take some work to understand, and there are a few ennoying bits, like the charger and heatset, but overall this is a must have for anyone into music. It is a product that really can not be explained, but has to be expereinced to be appreciated.

I think that it is a rare occurance when a manufacturer puts out an entertainment product that actually provides proactive stimulation and creative fun. MadPayer is just that, and more. I bought two for my children, one 9 and the other 13, because I hoped that it would get them away from playing mindless video games. This little device did that and much more. My boys now spend their free time making music and entertaining their friends as ossposed to being zombied out on playststion ( we just put our playststion up for sale on ebay). This is from one happy parent and two very happy boys. Thank you to the company that makes this product.

This is a product that keeps getting better and better with each upgrade that the company posts on its website for free. The last update turned it into a whole new product by letting me record my voice in realtime over the music and save on the smart media card. It is now as close to a portable recording studio as one can get. I am into making beats and rhyming over with my teenagers and with this product it is now so easy to do. Why am I writing a review, because my kids can not put it down long enough to write one on their own. We are talking of getting another one for an upcoming birthday present.

David "dubdub" Henderson

Pros:
plays mp3, wave, midi, kar and other format files; has composer mode; records (selectable resolution) via mic input

Cons:
No external power supply connector, eats batteries. PC software has a few bugs, don't know about the Mac s/w. Needs more generic styles than just the x-hop, mod stuff; i.e. rock, jazz, blues, pop, etc. Needs a better GUI for the "hiway/dj" mode. Fine for non-musicians, but lame if you want real control. A midi/grid type editor would be real cool. Also the headset-mic is junk, but it demos the possibilities. Last, I can't get the unit to use more than 32MB of a 128MB SmartMedia card. Tech support is good so far, but we're still working on it. As usual, most companies will or can not come out and tell you what the bugs are.

Still a way cool product, despite my cons list. I have a hunch they'll fix most of these issues.

I saw the MadPlayer on fresh gear (TechTV) and said: well this looks cool, I am going to give it a shot. I also looked for a vendor which allowed me to return (thanks amazon.com) if I don't like it...
There is no thinking about returning the player. This little wonder is amazing... Create music and interact with it... I have to resist the temptation to play with it instead of doing my work :-)
I already created a couple of songs, tweaked, retweaked etc... Adding samples, Microphone voice with effect etc. is a lot of fun... I didn't even try the radio or mp3 player functions yet... Too much fun creating music....

When I got my MadPlayer, I wasn't really sure if it would live up to the hype on the box, but I found out fast that this little unit really DOES MORE than they say it can. It lets me create my own CD-quality songs, and I may not win a Grammy with them, but they sound real good to me. I even put the CD of Madsongs I made (I love that I can burn my own MadCDs...) on my stereo when my friends came over, and they wanted to know where I got the hot trax. They didn't believe me when I said I made them, but then I showed them my MadPlayer and made a song, right there on the spot with it, and now they all want one, too. That was a while ago, and since then I really got into all the stuff you can do wiht the MadPlayer (I needed to get with the Manual for that, and that was definitely worth the study!) Now that I got the free upgrades off the MadWaves' web site, it's even easier for me to make music, cause now with what I learned and with the upgrades I can record my vocals and sounds and stuff in real time, burn them to my hard drive, and lots of other cool stuff. I'll never be a professional musician, but with MadPlayer I don't need to be because me and my friends think MadPlayer already makes me sound like one.

lol i bought this a few years ago but never reviewed it... it was a fun toy.. thats all it was, i got tired of it within a year.. oh well.

Ive had my MadPlayer since Christmas and I just downloaded the free firmware upgrade. Now everything is easy. You could do it all before, but it took other cables, and playing it into your computer sound card. But now I can make original songs and then play them right to my hard drive through the USB cable, or I can even convert them to wav files right on MadPlayer. I make movies, and what I bought it for was to make soundtracks for my films. You can show films with pirated music in them for very local festivals. But once you try get serious they wont even consider your film unless you have signed releases for every piece of music thats in itand you cant get releases, you have to pay. Not with my budget!
I have made amazing songs, or I guess a lot of them you would call musical interludes, for all kinds of film situations. Ive even created all of my sound effects on the player, sometimes just by isolating one track, like the bass, and slowing it way down, and sometime by recording sounds into the MadPlayer and then using the special effects to change or edit the sound. Whats really crazy, and I had never even thought of it at the start, but when I make a feature length film I could even make a soundtrack CD and sell it at the festivals, because I can copyright all the music I make with MadPlayer. My first product tie in!
I cant say enough about it. Even though Im not trying to make songs with it, that you would sing or rap over, or for dancing, I have generated dozens really hot beats that Ive burned to a CD just to keep. I think theres a film there, too, and I just dont know what it will be about yet.
I have done one other thing with it thats worth mentioning. Ive brought it on trips in my car, playing it through the cassette deck with an adapter. I filled the whole card with Karaoke files I got off the net. My daughter does not like to travel. But she and my wife sang karaoke from NYC all the way to Philadelphia, and it was the best trip weve ever taken. If youve got kids, and youve lived through one those nightmare drives, you know what I mean. I dont think anyone not related to them would want to hear them sing Shake your body, do the conga (I dont know the title) but it sure beat all the yelling and whining that most of our drives usually end up as.
A very cool product.

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER BOUGHT. I LAY OUT LOTS OF LYRICS BUT HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO USE ANY OF THE PC MUSIC CREATION TOOLS VERY WELL. WITH THE MADPLAYER I CREATE MY OWN BEATS, BASS LINES, AND LEADS INSTANTLY AND THEN LAY MY VOICE RIGHT IN... I AM SO AMAZED BY THIS PRODUCT. INITIALLY I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT AND WAS VERY SKEPTICAL OF WHAT IT WAS AND WHAT THE QUALITY OF THE MUSIC WOULD BE. AFTER GETTING IT AND PALYING AROUND FOR A FEW DAYS I AM JUST BLOWN AWAY BY ITS POWER. I BROUGHT IT TO A FRIEND WHO IS A MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER OF SOME LOCAL UNDERGROUND HIP HOP, HE PLUGGED IT INTO HIS SOUND SYSTEM IN THE STUDIO AND COULD NOT BELIEVE THE SOUND QUALITY AND EASY OF USE. IN A MATTER OF MINUTES WE LAYED OUT A NICE SERIES OF TRACKS TO USE ON A CD WE RIPPED.
I HAVE HAD THIS PRODUCT FOR TWO WEEKS NOW AND KEEP GETTING MORE AND MORE HOOKED ON IT. I FIND THAT I BRING IT EVERYWHERE I GO AND JUST PLAY AROUND ALL THE TIME CREATING LOTS OF GREAT MUSIC. ON THING THAT WORKS GREAT IS TO USE JUNGLE OR DRUMnBASS STYLES AND SLOW THEM DOWN AND USE THEM TO LAY RAP VOCALS OVER. I ALSO FIND THAT I USE THE FM RADIO A LOT TO SAMPLE OFF OF... THE SAMPLES ARE THEN MIXED WITH THE MUSIC IN REAL TIME. QUALITY AND FEEL OF THE MADPLAYER ARE GREAT, I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE SILKY FEEL. MY ONLY COMPLAINT INITIALLY WAS THAT I WANTED TO SAVE SAMPLES IN REALTIME IN THE SONG AS I CREATED A SONG... I FOUND OUT YESTERDAY AFTER VISITING THE MADPLAYER WEBSITE THAT THE COMPANY IS RELEASING A FREE UPGRADE NEXT WEEK THAT WILL LET ME DO THAT... I ALSO DO QUITE A LOT OF VIDEO EDITING AND HAVE BEEN USING THE MADPLAYER TO GENERATE BACKING TRACKS FOR THE VIDEOS... SINCE WHAT COMES OUT OF THE MADPLAYER IS COPYWRITE FREE "ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY" I AM FREELY USING THE MUSIC AND MAKING SOME GREAT VIDEOS AND DVD'S FOR MY FRIENDS.
IN SUMMARY, THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST PERSONALLY EMPOWERING I HAVE EVER SEEN. ITS HAS GIVEN ME CONFIDENCE TO CREAT MUSIC, SOMETHING THAT I DID NOT HAVE MUCH OF A FEW WEEKS AGO.....

It looks jazzy, the packaging sure makes it look very cool, the manual is very well written, it's virtually idiot-proof and will yield immediate "results". I am emphasizing the "results" because in this aspect I wish MadWaves would allow for more tweakability. I hope that - given that the configuration menu apparently is still at it's infant stages - more updates will be made available from their site. At this stage, though I don't see how the "raw" output (i.e. unprocessed) can really beat the more pro sounding stuff that can be done with a groovebox or a digital audio workstation. I am currently sampling the drum and bass tracks in audio format and then I tweak the results with my sampler + various effects ina quick and efficient manner. Fun.