The Slot - Akai MPC2000XL card reader

Hi and welcome to all music producers here!

I am a beatmaker working with akai mpc 2000xl and recently I have decided to look for a inexpensive card reader or a hard drive for my machine, to get rid of the old floppy drive and hundreds of floppy disks which I couldn't keep in order. Unfortunately I couldn't find one to afford around Europe so I decided to build my own.

I though it would be a great idea to make few more as the production of a unit is not that expensive and spread the word around so that anyone could upgrade and finally bin the slow and crappy floppy drive.

Please visit my website http://www.theslot.spirythm.com to check how it looks and read a bit more about it.

Thanks and I wish fresh samples and creativity to everyone!

Peace.

lil late bro!

sonseelye wrote:lil late bro!

I'm bumping this up to say I just installed one of these in my 2KXL and I recommend them without reservation. I'm guessing a card reader can be added for a little less if you DIY, but I know for a fact it can also cost a lot more. This package came with everything I needed in a nice package - the drive (with a metal front painted to match the XL), all the cables (including a power cable adapter I didn't even need), screws, the OS update on a branded floppy, a 1gb CF card to get started, illustrated instructions... it's a class act. The guy who makes them was very informative and helpful, letting me know about a delay and keeping me posted on shipping even though delivery took less time from my order than most of my eBay purchases. In fact the most annoying part of the whole affair was dealing with the 15 sodding screws on the base of the MPC...

So yeah, he didn't get much useful feedback here and I took a bit of gamble on the order, but it paid off. For anyone looking to add a CF reader who doesn't want the hassle of assembling the various components, cutting wires and so on, I think this is well worth considering. It's a great service for XL owners.

Whats the largest CF card can you use?? (in GB's)

Elleventy-seven, give or take a parsneck.

/seriously, the search function is your friend.

I should add to this that I know scsiforsamplers is a well-established member here and I've no doubt (as reading the board will demonstrate) provides an excellent service with card readers too - I wanted to comment that I was happy with The Slot because it seems like a good option for UK buyers, especially now that our exchange rate glory days are over...

Looks like a nice kit. Is it hot swappable also?

Actually, I don't sell an IDE card reader for the MPC2000XL - I stick to SCSI - and I've always advocated buying an IDE card reader since the MPC2000XL is nice enough to offer that option.

I did run across the webpage for the Slot a while back and it seems like a very nicely done product. I'd recommend it to anyone if it meets their needs.

roxstar wrote:Looks like a nice kit.

would have liked to know about this a few months ago.

Just to (re)confirm it's not hot-swappable as it's IDE, and this is pointed out on the site & box. But with 32mb max memory to play with I could pretty much weld a CF card in there and never have to worry about it again...

Ministry of Undos wrote:Just to (re)confirm it's not hot-swappable as it's IDE, and this is pointed out on the site & box. But with 32mb max memory to play with I could pretty much weld a CF card in there and never have to worry about it again...

One issue with non-hotswappability (?!?) though is if you have your sample/drum library on one disk and save your projects on another...no way to work like this without a second external drive.

^^^this is true - that is why I will soon be offering a dual CF-CARD box that will have two CF slots. That way you can keep that library CF card loaded all the time and just swap the ones you are using with a particular project. That dual drive unit will still cost less than the current MCDISK prices you see on eBay.