Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By JUKE 179r Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:23 pm
*** This can possibley work for older MPC's with internal SCSI card readers installed to edit samples directly from a computer! Try at your own risk!!! ***

This post is an update from another post I had on here:
http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=1424250#p1424250

Finally! I'm able to connect the MPC2000XL directly to a computer! When the computer is connected to the MPC's external SCSI port from the computer's PCI SCSI controller port, the computer recognizes the MPC's internal SCSI card reader. It’s a little more advanced than just plug and play like USB on the newer MPC's due to dealing with SCSI ID’s, connections and WinXP's program work-arounds to get it to work.
This is what I used to accomplish this:
1- MPC2000XL with an internally installed Microtech PCD-47B SCSI card reader
1- older PC (IBM NetVista M41/Pentium 4-1.8GHz/WinXP SP3/1.5GB RAM)
1- Adaptec AIC-7850 PCI SCSI controller card with DB25 SCSI connection
1- 3ft DB25 to HD50 SCSI cable
1- audio editor program

This is what I found with the 2000XL’s OS 1.14/1.14c:
WORKS GREAT
- With the MPC connected to my older PC, all card slots and flash cards on the MPC show up under "Devices with Removable Storage" in My Computer. The internal laptop HD I have installed in my MPC shows up under "Hard Disk Drives" in My Computer. I couldn't access the HD from the computer since it was formatted and partitioned by the MPC.
- From the computer, I can read, write, delete, rename, format, and defrag flash cards (is it worth it to defrag a flash card?) on the MPC as long as they were formatted on a PC.
- Loaded samples directly from the flash cards on the MPC and edited them with SoundForge and MPCEditor (should work with any music editor program). Saved edited samples right back onto the MPC’s flash cards. No problems!
- From the computer, I can transfer multiple files from one memory card to another memory card on the PCD-47B in one shot. Meaning this is without separately loading files onto the MPC and then saving each file to another card slot.
NEEDS HELP
- After booting into WinXP and then turning the MPC on, go to “Computer Management” and “Device Manager”, click "Scan for Hardware Changes". Doing this recognizes the MPC's drives and updates the information data for all the hardware connected to the computer.
- Flash cards/HD has to be formatted by the PC as "Fat" for both the MPC and PC to recognize it. The MPC will not recognize media that is formatted as exFat, Fat32 or NTFS (I didn't have an option to try Fat12 or Fat16). If the media isn’t formatted as Fat, the MPC will show “Type” as "???????" meaning unknown in the MPC's Load screen.
- Under OS 1.14/1.14c, media larger than 1GB will be partitioned into sections when formatted by the MPC. I formatted a 2GB CF card while in the MPC as Fat via PC and the MPC didn't recognize it. Going to try OS 1.2 to see if this makes a difference.

Being able to connect an MPC directly to a computer definitely saves time rather than swapping a flash cards back and forth between an MPC and the computer for advanced editing of files. I’m guessing that this should work with most internal SCSI card readers installed inside the MPC but all I have is the Microtech PCD-47B to test this for now.
More to come…
Last edited by JUKE 179r on Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:05 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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By *Pilchard* Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:33 pm
Great work Juke.
I think you should add , for anyone trying this , make sure your PC and the MPC don't try to access the same drive at the same time or you could corrupt all the files on the disk.
However, this could be a really useful way to transfer files. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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By JUKE 179r Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:57 pm
Yeah, good call on that Pilchard. 8)
I should also add that the SCSI cable should be connected way before turning on the computer and then turning on the MPC.
Also, the Microtech PCD-47B card reader must have firmware version m3.2 to be able to read and write to flash cards.
A PC and a SCSI host is needed to update the drive: PCD-47B Firmware version m3.2
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By peterpiper Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:33 pm
very nice! what about long samplenames?? Do you still have to deal with the 8.3 names?

I'm thinking about to connect my PC (with old Adaptec SCSI card installed) to the external MODisk drive my MPC is connected to (the drivecase got 2 centronic connectors). I can't see a reason why this shouldn't work. Whats your opinion?

peace
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By JUKE 179r Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:58 pm
No matter how long the name is on the PC, the MPC still truncates the file names to the 8.3 file. On the PC I had a sample "DUBSTEPDRUMRHYTHM.WAV", saved it to the CF card in the MPC and it ended up as "DUBSTE~1.WAV" in the Load screen.

What 2KXL OS are you using? Can you write to the MOdisks from the MPC (OI don't know anything about MOdisks at all)? Is the MOdisk formatted by a PC or the MPC? It will depend on how the MOdisk is formatted to know if both MPC and PC will be able to read/write to it.
Please report back if it works or if you have problems. I'm curious about that.

Been getting too late home late from work to try out the MPC with OS1.2 to see if there is any diffferences from OS 1.14 when connected to the PC.
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By JUKE 179r Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:10 pm
Hey Peter... Did it work?
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By peterpiper Sat Feb 04, 2012 5:23 pm
Havn't tried it yet. I just got a new PC system and will try it with the old PC when I'm finished with setting up the new one (copying all the data and try to bring a lil bit more structure to the new HD :)).

peace
By CeeJayDueceOne Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:11 am
Can anyone help me but with the opposite.. i have a 250mb zip drive(no SCSI) just the uusb external zip drive for my windows 7 laptop and i want to get the song i made with all the sequences i made and be able to put it into my itunes.. HELP ANYONE? PLEASE :?
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By Lampdog Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:42 am
CeeJayDueceOne wrote:Can anyone help me but with the opposite.. i have a 250mb zip drive(no SCSI) just the uusb external zip drive for my windows 7 laptop and i want to get the song i made with all the sequences i made and be able to put it into my itunes.. HELP ANYONE? PLEASE :?


mpc main outs to mixer/audio interface into daw and record.
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By Lampdog Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:51 am
why don't you try connecting the mbox to a pc and running it the same way you would on a mac. I had a digi001 years ago and never had a mac. I had it on pc running with sony vegas as my daw and sound forge as my audio editor for years and years, never a problem at all. I've never had a mac. you never know until you try or you've read about it many times on the interwebz from many different sources and they all say pretty much the same thing.
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By Lampdog Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:18 pm
No, sony stuff is not free.

goldwave, wavosaur, audacity =freeware wave editor
krystal =freware daw
reaper =very cheap daw but had the biggest features I've ever seen for the price.