SOURCE BIG UPS 2000(XL)

This post is for all those that claimed the 2000(xl) was a "toy". There are 18 producers listed as those who made noise in '03. 10 of them list either a 2000 or a 2000xl as thier "secret weapon"....i've always said that the only thing the 60/3000 had on the 2000(xl) was time...now it seems as though a lot of professional producers are starting to use the 2000 series more. Hopefully we won't see anymore of those 2000's are for amateurs threads. This is in no way intended to put down the 3000 or 60....but only as an illustration that the 2000(xl) is a good machine in it's own right.

PEACE

Cool & Dre use the MPC 2000.

Uno/1

gams

I posted that info about The Source here yesterday. The profiles in the magazine are of newcomers with promise. I wish a lot of the site members here would read that article so they would get over their feelings of insecurity. They would see photos of real people making music with the MPC2000XL instead of worrying about their own success because they read an article from 3 or more years ago that said someone uses an MPC60 or MPC3000 and they feel they need one of those MPCs to be a real musician.

http://thesource.com/intro/

Many pros have actually moved on to Logic and Pro Tools. Read more music magazines. You will find this trend with great frequency. There are things that can be done in software that can't be done on the MPC. There are also things that can be done a lot more easily and precisely in software than on the MPC. A good example is beat chopping. No matter how good you are it you will never get the precision offered by software.

None of this means that you should abandon your MPC2000XL or MPC4000. Yet it shows you how far away the MPC60 and MPC3000 are from modern ways of creating music. I wouldn't expect the demand for the old machines to be eliminated overnight. It will take a couple years until AKAI has developed more MPCs, and the music community mores further in the direction of using software like Logic, Pro Tools, and software samplers.

Never forget that whatever you read, even the December 2003 issue of The Source magazine, is already several months old. The interview could be even a year or more old. It takes time to arrange the interview, time to transcribe and edit it, time to sell it to a magazine, and time for the issue to appear on the newsstand. The person being interviewed isn't necessarily going to give away their secrets, and whatever they’re doing could change greatly by the time the interview has been published. Think about the experiences you read online and the non-paid musicians upgrading their gear. Nothing should make you think that it is any different for someone who gets paid for his or her work. If they can do something better and faster they will make that choice to remain competitive.

I agree with you. But there will always be a market for outboard gear. A lot of people don't like composing on PC"'s. They are just not comfortable with it. I know because I'm one of those people. I like having everything in the MPC and being completely portable and I know I'm not the only one like this. That being said, I didn't want to turn this into a hardware vs software thing. MPC's will always have a place in hip hop as long as they keep making them. It seems to me that the newer models(4000, 1000) are bridging the gap as far as what a computer can do vs outboard gear. You will always be able to make a computer do more...but there are alwayts those issues of software/hardware compatibility, settings etc....I love just being able to turn on my MPC and go. I've had the 60 and the 2000xl and I've been using then since the 90's and neither one of them has ever crashed. But....that's not what this was about...all u 2000 owners can sleep easy....you can make a hit with what u have cause it's been proven.

PEACE

PEACE

agreed

LSA100X wrote:I've had the 60 and the 2000xl and I've been using then since the 90's and neither one of them has ever crashed.
PEACE

WOW, really? It seems like my XL crashes at least once a week.
...and yes, I've tried re-installed the O/S.

I must have the luck of the irish then(lol).....even though i'm black......between me and my camp over the years.....we've had 1 60, 2 60II's, 2 3000's, 1 2000, and 2 2000xl's........none of them have ever crashed....I even installed a 250 zip in the floppy model and didn't have any issues....the only problems we've had is with the most recently purchased one...it came w/ a 100 zip and we can't get the 250 zip to work....other than that we haven't had any problems......o...and I run cubase for my VST's and that crashes everytime i go to the bathroom or when i leave it idle for a few minutes.....so even once a week is a whole lot better than that(lol).,.....

PEACE

Something is wrong there. Did you buy your MPC new? You ought to have it checked out or replace it with a different one. What do you have connected to it? Use the MPC not connected to anything for a while and see if it crashes. If the MPC crashes that way, then you know it has got a problem, possibly in hardware. If not, then something is causing it to crash, probably garbage coming over the MIDI port.

MPC_Producer wrote:Something is wrong there. Did you buy your MPC new? You ought to have it checked out or replace it with a different one. What do you have connected to it? Use the MPC not connected to anything for a while and see if it crashes. If the MPC crashes that way, then you know it has got a problem, possibly in hardware. If not, then something is causing it to crash, probably garbage coming over the MIDI port.

I bought my MPC used. It was a year old when I bought it, and appeared in excellent condition. It has a built-in zip.
While I'm making beats before I track, I don't have it connected to anything (no MIDI, no SCSI.)

To me it seems like bugs, because it crashes during similar circumstances:
I'm a drummer so I tend to play really busy on the pads. This is fine when I'm in the main screen, but in any other screen like the program screen - if I play something fast and busy on the pads it might crash.
Or if I'm pitch tuning a sound, and I'm tapping on the pad while turning the data wheel, sometimes it crashes.
If I set up the program to do velocity->attack, and I play just about anything on the pads it WILL crash. I've tested this over and over.

I've just learned to save a lot and not get too busy on the pads unless I'm in the main screen. It's kind of scary especially because I sometimes gig with the MPC. I wish I could be sure that it was a hardware problem (might give me an excuse to cop a new blue XL
BUT, I've read so many posts on this site that say something like, "I've had my brand new MPC for a week and it already crashed."
That leads me to believe that it's the buggy dead O/S.

I've never had my MPC2000XL crash since I installed 1.14 I believe there are still bugs, but I've never come across any of them. Found a few with 1.12 though.

It's been a while but mine had the tendency to crash from time to time. However the common thing in every instance I experienced was my midi controller. So now from time to time before I go to save I unplug the midi controllers cable from the MPC's midi in port, and check to make sure I don't have a sustaning note going. I do this by highlighting a midi channel on the MPC and hit open window, hit panic and exit that screen. Then I save without fear of losing precious data.

I saw the article yesterday. Yeap! Mad heads are using the MPC 2000 & XL. Thats gravy, it's about time the 2000 edition got some props.


Uno/1

gams

dont forget that 9th wonder guy was listed on there too... secret weapon: fruity loops and cool edit. if its hot its hot (still havent actually heard the tracks he did for jay though)

That's another thing I wanted to bring up. There are people that use fruity loops, reason, cool edit, Boss SP-303, ASR-10's, Tritons etc..... For me, the article made the point that I always subscribed to:IT AINT THE EQUIPMENT...IT'S WHAT U DO WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!

PEACE

"...but there are alwayts those issues of software/hardware compatibility"

Most of these issues come from Microsoft. Issues between the MPC60/3000 and Windows XP has contributed to people not caring for those MPC's as much.

In a few years, people will trying to find an old USB card to put in their new PC just so they can transfer samples to the MPC1000. "Anyone know where I can find that old outdated slow serial connection card called USB? I'm so glad Akai moved up to eFire connections in the MPC8500. That old USB is more of a headache that it is worth."

Hint: if you substitute SCSI on the above, it should be close to a recent quote.