Convert to Elektron

I am using an MPC live and the OT seqs together via MIDI merge box, good stuff. Best of both worlds I’d say! Only problem is recall, I need to take nots which OT pattn goes with which MPC seq… I guess I could use pgm chng commands on the MPC for selecting the matching OT pattns, then I’d only need to make sure the projects match on both.

What is this SMPTE chip and how do I buy one? :diddly:

Well, on the 2000 you’re kind of out of luck because it was on a board that you had to install (an I have a feeling it’s almost as rare as the nonvolatile RAM board that nobody bought, last I checked those things cost almost as much as an MPC2000 if you could even find one) and it;s probably not useful enough to be worth the expense, but on the XL they moved it to the motherboard and the chip is just a stock part. I got mine for $15 on eBay about 6 years ago. I don’t think the newer MPCs can understand SMPTE, but on the 2000 and the 2000xl you can send SMPTE timecode from your DAW’s audio cart to the MPC’s SMPTE in once you have the chip or board installed and once it is locked in it will be really solid, since audio out has exponentially less jitter than MIDI on a general purpose computer. You can also use it to do the stuff it was meant for, like slaving your MPC to a multitrack tape recorder (even a portastudio!) but I haven’t messed with that.

In theory you could have SMPTE timecode saved as a static sample in your Octatrack and use one of the cue outs to send it to the MPC2000. Not sure if that would be useful but it might have some interesting results if you abused it.

Honestly I don’t actually use it much because the stuff I do is kind of sloppy anyhow.

This is the chip for the MPC2000xl but you should be able to find it cheaper. The reason it’s upside down in that photo is that it’s not proprietary, it’s a stock part thatwas in a ton of 90s video equipment. I’m having no luck tacking down the part number but they should still be out there NOS for a lot less than $40.

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ICS2008AV is what you want for an MPC2000xl. There’s an empty socket on the main board (clearly labeled here) and it pops right in. I checked ebay and they’re still available there new for $15 USD but I’m not going to recommend a specific seller because buying chips on eBay is always a risk and I don’t want to point someone in the direction of bad chips by accident!

FWIW I got mine on eBay and it worked fine, and I think these are still widely available so counterfeits probably aren’t much of a problem, not like old synth voice chips or something.