I had a mpc 5000 for a year - loved it for the sense of adventure - ie. Didn’t really know what I was doing - couldn’t even save sometimes! But then I got an mpc x and the first thing I noticed was how bad the audio quality was on the 5000 - just not in the same league even. Glad I moved on . Modern mpc’s are amazing if that’s your thing
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yeah MPC 1000, 2500 (and assume 5000) - the audio quality was nothing special. the modern MPCs sound a lot better / cleaner. I’ve owned an MPC 4k and that had its own sound, particularly the 96khz setting but again modern MPCs sound fine.
the main attraction of legacy MPCs is that the workflow is focused on sampling and sequencing and that’s it. And so you dont faff around with endless options, whereas the new modern MPCs have a lot more. But i like my MPC Live 3 the most - im familiar with the MPC workflow, it gives we best of all worlds. you dont have to use every function to make the most out of it.
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when i bought a second hand 2kxl in 2004 the 2kxl was considered a bad machine by a lot of people. no punch, terrible sound.
i loved it anyway.
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My first MPC was the 2500. I had fun with it for a few years but I can’t get the data wheel’s noise out of my head. it’s going to stay with me forever.
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yeah. i remember that. i got a 2500 after the 2kxl. but de data wheel is a lot less smooth than the 2kxl.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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LOL exactly
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That brings back so many memories!!
I’ve used the 1000 (jjos and pad fix), 500 and 2000xl (cf drive, new screen) for years.
- The 500 is alright if you know mpc’s but terrible as a first mpc.
- The 1000 with jjos is amazing and still very much up to the competition in terms of features and workflow, which is special for a machine 20 yeads old. I just dont really love the sound.
- The 2kxl is the only one I have left now. Its punchy, and only does what needs to be done to make samplebased beats. Workhorse classic imho.
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4000 is an amazing machine, still under rated imo. Has a Z series sampler inside so if you’re into multi samples, mod matrix, etc then this is the one. Wish I’d never sold mine, came v close to buying one from eBay the other day…
I hear the 1000/2500 can do some of the things the 4000 does, I might look into that rabbit hole …
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I have a 1000 with JJOS that I can’t get rid of because I spent so much on customizing it lol and a 2kxl that I use for most of my stuff. I sample into a Boss SP-303, do some filtering there, then into the MPC for chopping and making beats. The 2kxl is maxed out and has a cf card reader, I have my most used drum sounds on the f-rom and they autoload when I turn it on so I’m good to go. Oh and top secret tip: low hiss, the guy who makes the eSPi app, made a pgm for the 2kxl that chains together pads in bank d in such a way that you get mute groups (two times 7 pads on bank a, plus two separate pads not in the group) which is hugely helpful if you’re a lazy chopper and want to play around with sounds without cutting them to the point.
Some stuff on my IG: Instagram
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Cool beats dude
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In my world, the attraction of the “legacy” MPCs (4k) is that they have tight MIDI timing.
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the timing thing is real and it’s one of those things that’s kind of hard to quantify but immediately obvious when you’re playing into it. there’s something about how those old machines handle the clock and the internal sequencer that just sits differently. modern stuff is technically tighter on paper but it doesn’t always feel that way.
been doing a lot of DSP work lately and it’s made me pay closer attention to the relationship between timing jitter and perceived groove. even tiny sub-ms variations in event timing change how stuff sits in a mix. the old Akai engineers were doing some things right that took years to fully understand.
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i don’t know about the Live, the X and others modern MPC but on the One the input converters are the worst ever on an MPC, imo a shame for the MPC legacy, just dedicated to sample bank consumers, they’d better put nothing than that.
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I had a mpc1000 with jjos for a while back in the mid 2000s. The workflow never really clicked for me, but have heard lots of great music from them.
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cheers man
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I actually made the same observation, same with the Live 2 for me at least.
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MPC 2000xl, timing , pads(makes a huge difference), jog wheel, tilt screen. It’s a great midi sequencer, and can pass cc messages simultaneously to individual midi channels, l use the zero mk 2, works a treat, controls and records all midi. l don’t think l’ve heard anyone mention it before. l use it to control an xv5080, and a virus B
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Great stuff! Although to be fair, all of what he does can be easily made on a modern MPC.
been lusting after mpc 60 for awhile now but just too big and expensive and learning a new workflow…sp404sx, ot mk1, rytm mk1, these three samplers are in my arsenal and probably can do a lot of what the mpc 60 can and cannot do - its just that big cash register would be so nice to have!! anyway good luck to anyone who has and uses those big old beasts