Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By distortedtekno Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:43 am
One more year and it's officially vintage. It still feels like yesterday when I was introduced to the 2000 from a friend of mine. At the time, it was a real game changer for many of us with features that weren't available on the 3000. Plus we couldn't afford the 3000 at $5000. My friend got the 2000 for Christmas in 1997 and I ended up spending the same amount of money building a PC a few months later, as I suddenly got hooked on ReBirth and Cubase. But I missed the feel of dedicated hardware and still enjoyed making beats with my friend on his MPC.

I went through a lot of software and hardware since my first drum machine (Boss DR-550mk2) when I started in 1995. Nothing compared to the MPC2000. In 2004, I bought the MPC1000 and spent a good 8 years with it before selling it to buy a Mac Mini and start working with Reason 6. I started missing my MPC after a year or two later. Then in late 2013, a friend of mine had 3 nonworking MPC2000s that he gave me to salvage. So I built 2, sold one, and sold some leftover parts. I pondered selling the unit that I kept over the years for a newer model. But the truth is, I don't need anything more than what the 2000 had already offered since day one when it was first released, and they don't make MPCs like they used to. So with all the spare parts and the new LCD displays available, I'll keep this machine going for another 20 years and still enjoy it.

If you read the Sound On Sound article, the review unit's OS was dated 24 December 1996. But I didn't want to wait 360 more days to make this thread for it's 20th anniversary. I'll start celebrating early. :mrgreen:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/apr97/akaimcp2000.html
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By SEMS Wed Dec 30, 2015 3:59 pm
Yeah might as well have waited another year for the 20th :lol:

I just celebrated 20 years since getting my first pro piece of gear... S2000. Wish I could go back in time & teach myself how to use it properly. I'da made some proper heat.

Got my first MPC, the 2k, in the summer of 97. Like distortedtekno said, the 3k was forever out of my range (thought they were closer to $2500 new, not $5k? Could be wrong though), so when they came out with the MPC2000, it was quite a bargain at $1200. I saved up $600 & my pops gave me the rest as a present. He also took me to the swap meet & bought me a gigantic box of old records, musta been over 100 of them. Was the greatest day of my young life at that point :lol:

Feels like yesterday, yet feels like two lifetimes ago. Big up the MPC 2000, without you I dunno how I woulda made music for 10 years.
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By JUKE 179r Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:18 pm
The first time I ever saw an MPC2000 in use was when I was stationed in Korea in '99. One of the guys who lived in the barracks showed me how to make a beat on the MPC connected to an external SCSI Zip100 drive. He made a whole beat from scratch with samples in about 2 minutes. I thought it was the dopest thing I ever saw live considering I came from making beats on Roland TR's and sampling on a Casio SK-5.
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By distortedtekno Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:27 pm
@SEMS - Yeah I couldn't wait another year. i just happened to notice the date on the OS from that article and got all nostalgic. :lol:
Where are you located that you were able to get one for $1200? They were running for $2000 in New York in 1997. That was without any expansions. The RAM was $100. But we found a sale at CompUSA and got 2 16MB SIMMs for $50 back in '98. The 8 outs were $250 and the EB-16 was $350. I forget how much the SMPTE card and the flash rom cost then. All we cared about then was the RAM.
I'm pretty sure the MPC3000 was $5000 when it was released, or somewhere close to it. I'm not sure if the 3000LE was selling for the same or not.
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By Coz Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:44 pm
I used a friend's 2K for a while and loved it. By the time I had enough money saved the 2KXL dropped, so it was a no-brainer to get the upgraded version. :nod: :smoker:
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By SEMS Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:58 pm
distortedtekno wrote:@SEMS - Yeah I couldn't wait another year. i just happened to notice the date on the OS from that article and got all nostalgic. :lol:
Where are you located that you were able to get one for $1200? They were running for $2000 in New York in 1997. That was without any expansions. The RAM was $100. But we found a sale at CompUSA and got 2 16MB SIMMs for $50 back in '98. The 8 outs were $250 and the EB-16 was $350. I forget how much the SMPTE card and the flash rom cost then. All we cared about then was the RAM.
I'm pretty sure the MPC3000 was $5000 when it was released, or somewhere close to it. I'm not sure if the 3000LE was selling for the same or not.


All good homie, been mad nostalgic since this past Xmas as well. :-D

I thought that's what they were, but you definitely could be right man. I honestly don't remember. I probably still have the receipt at my moms house somewhere, but I'll never find that again :lol:

I also can't picture my pops laying down a grand to help me out with a music-making tool... $600 seems a lot more reasonable. But yeah maybe my memory is hazy. The SOS article you linked has it at £1200, which was about $2000 at the time, so yeah. But they also have historically done that thing where if it's $1000 in the US it's £1000 in the UK as well. So I dunno. Same thing with the SOS article on the 3K, I think it says £2500.

Maybe someone with more concrete evidence (or better memory) can chime in?
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By amenphetamine Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:18 pm
SEMS wrote:Maybe someone with more concrete evidence (or better memory) can chime in?

AFAIK, MPC60 was $5000 and MPC3000 was $3500 when released. Don't have any concrete evidence tho..
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By richie Thu Dec 31, 2015 12:57 am
@ZWUKLOW I think you have to take into account currency conversion as well. Not everyone sold at MSRP. In Toronto I remember the 2000 was going for $3500 back in 97.
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By Retro Styles Fri Jan 01, 2016 1:24 pm
I'm a ninetysixer so, I felt in love with MPCs 2010-2011 and I wanted so bad an MPC 2kxl.
Years passed, I changed my mind about which model is closer to my desired sound and in the late 2014 I was able to buy an MPC 60, but... health and family problems, didn't let me to buy it and I was looking local auctions for the 2000 classic as an alternative.
It was 1/2/2015 when I got it.
I walked through the guy's home and when I saw it, I said to my self "Man, that's bigger than I thought."
Some times I tend to ask my self, what if: what if I had the 60, what if I had the xl and have these doubts, but the truth is that I,m in love with my MPC 2000 Classic.
I feel so romantic about it. I'm in love with it, I'll say it again!
Who knows maybe the 60 was better for me, but... I'm happy with what I have, and that is that really count in the end.
Happy new year!
May health be with us in order to be happy with our fellow people and our belongings!
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By peterpiper Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:04 pm
Retro Styles wrote:I walked through the guy's home and when I saw it, I said to my self "Man, that's bigger than I thought."


Haha thats funny cause when I saw the 2000xl for the first time at a friends house I thought "WTF, That thing is small". But that was because I had the chance to see the 60 a few weeks before :)

When I got into sampling I never thought about the MPC. I had a drummachine and went from Atari Sampler to a racksampler and played it with a keyboard. I always thought MPCs are crap cause they don't have keygroups and AKAI stuff was so limitded with only a LoPass. My Emu E64 had all kind of filters you can imagine and my Cubase Atari 3 is the best sequencer anyway.
After many years I saw Damu on youtube and his early videos. That got me into the 2000 classic. And I havn't regret.

Lets dream a bit..... the 20th Anniversary would be a perfect date to come up with a new stand alone machine "THE NEW 2000".....ok, lets wake up.

peace
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By SEMS Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:07 pm
peterpiper wrote:Lets dream a bit..... the 20th Anniversary would be a perfect date to come up with a new stand alone machine "THE NEW 2000".....ok, lets wake up.

peace


It's the new Akai, they'd come up with a way to ruin it. :?

I still think everything after the 2KClassic is pretty wack...
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By JUKE 179r Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:59 pm
SEMS wrote:I still think everything after the 2KClassic is pretty wack...

:?
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By SEMS Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:44 am
JUKE 179r wrote:
SEMS wrote:I still think everything after the 2KClassic is pretty wack...

:?


Lol sorry :lol:

Never got along with the 1K. I even felt weird using my boys 2KXL... something about it wasn't right. Maybe it was the jog wheel?

EDIT: I did forget about the 4k, which I did enjoy using very much, and is probably the best MPC all-around as far as features & functionality, as well as tightness. I made an EP with my boy who had one like 10 years ago, and I do remember really digging it. Didn't get one because I had the 2K already & I was getting more into computer sequencing anyway. The one thing I HATED about it (and still kinda do) is the look and feel of it. It just looks like a plasticy toy. If they woulda made it look like the older MPCs, the 4k woulda been the GOAT MPC hands-down.

But not to derail, let's get back to the 2k love :-D
Last edited by SEMS on Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By distortedtekno Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:41 am
Happy New Year everyone and Happy 20 to the 2000. I had to dig up this topic again for the love of this machine. Mine is still as solid as ever. With all the talk of the new standalones on their way, I'm interested to see how that develops. But I still can't see them having the longevity of the 2000. The 2000 is like working on a classic car. They're easy to take apart and repair. These new models are gonna be like working on a newer car with all kinds of hassles under the hood when it's time for a tune up or a repair. So I still love the 2000 because they don't make 'em like they used to. :nod: