Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By distortedtekno Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:54 pm
That’s not the right adapter. But anyway, IDE CF readers are always the best bet for the XL in terms of cost. So you made the right choice.
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By Wal Martian Mon Jan 14, 2019 4:22 pm
Lampdog wrote:
2kxl is 0.001% brighter.

2k has 0.002% more bottom (think creamy bass)

There is something special about the classic lo pass filter, very round and 'creamy' sounding. The xl being brighter I could see that, I haven't used it enough to form an opinion. They're loud for sure.
By Plasticlegs Mon Jan 14, 2019 10:26 pm
oldskl1 wrote:So with one of these you can hookup the scsi2sd externally?

http://amigakit.amiga.store/product_inf ... ts_id=1290

there will be sufficient power from the scsi? I have a 2kxl

I fried the motherboard on this thing once so scared to open it and mess around :shock:


SCSI provides no power. Externally, I power this using the MicroUSB cable to a power plug and into a wall outlet. If you want to do this internally, it has a 5VDC Molex connector. Just grab a crappy desk top computer, open it up and clip an extra Molex connector off the PSU with an ample length of lead wires. Find where the floppy drive gets it's power on the motherboard and solder that to the same spots and plug it into the SCSI2SD card. The floppy is pulling 5VDC so you've got nothing to worry about. If you take to a repair shop and explain, the guy might charge you $20 to do it for you or a little more if don't bring him a Molex connector with the leads.
By Plasticlegs Mon Jan 14, 2019 10:57 pm
Wal Martian wrote:
Lampdog wrote:
2kxl is 0.001% brighter.

2k has 0.002% more bottom (think creamy bass)

There is something special about the classic lo pass filter, very round and 'creamy' sounding. The xl being brighter I could see that, I haven't used it enough to form an opinion. They're loud for sure.


It's that almost undiscernible difference that drives owners of either units towards feelings of buyers remorse!
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By Lampdog Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:13 pm
It really is, because you can hear it barely, and it will haunt a true audiophile for life. It didn't bother me. Had a friend a 2k, I had a 2kxl. Never bothered me at all. It's not a big enough difference for me to care. I think I am the only in the world who hated that 2k two-layer scroll wheel.
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By richie Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:34 am
Wal Martian wrote:There is something special about the classic lo pass filter, very round and 'creamy' sounding. The xl being brighter I could see that, I haven't used it enough to form an opinion. They're loud for sure.


See that is what the confusing thing for me is. Both the 2K and 2K XL have the same a/d d/a stages and we already know they use the same 8 out card. So it has me wondering if the differences we're hearing have to do with the age of the capacitors or if another factor is at play.

I also wonder if it is even worth testing over spdif to see if there is any internal processing difference as well.
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By richie Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:35 am
@Plasticlegs could you post your configuration scsi2sd configuration file / settings that were done with the util?
By Plasticlegs Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:44 am
richie wrote:@Plasticlegs could you post your configuration scsi2sd configuration file / settings that were done with the util?


On the General Settings tab I left everything to it's default - SCSI Host Speed Normal; Startup Delay 0; SCSI Selection Delay 255 and everything below Unchecked.

Device 1 Enable SCSI Target checked, SCSI ID (I used 0, you can use that or 1 or 2, you just can't select 6 because that's the channel the MPC uses); Device Type Hard Drive; Quirks Mode None; SD card start sector 0 (this changes with each device added, see next paragraph for details); Sector size (bytes) 512 Sector Count 2097152; Device size 1 (Below I indicated GB though the MPC recognizes less than 600MB); Vendor and Product ID are whatever words you want to appear during boot; Revision is 4.2 and Serial Number is whatever defaulted. The only fields not default that I changed are the SCSI ID and the Device size.

For the remaining 3 device settings you do the same thing (just pick a SCSI ID number one up from the last, so my Device 2 was SCSI ID 1, Device 3 SCSI ID 2, Device 4 SCSI ID 3) but remember to check the Auto tab beneath the SD card start sector field so it can populate that automatically. It will advance the sector start point based on the previous SCSI ID's device size.

Once everything is set, just Save to the Device and your setting will be set up on the SCSI2SD.

Everything is default. The only things you'll change are the SCSI ID and the Device size for each of the 4 virtual hard drives, remembering to chick the Auto tab beneath the SD card start sector to advance where the current device can be found on the SD card.

Hope this helps.
By Plasticlegs Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:18 am
One last thing. I've got a 4GB SD card, but the MPC-2000 only recognizes just over 500MB for each virtual HD. If I was doing this again, I would just use a 2GB SD card and format each SCSI ID to 500MB each. That's plenty of space for sounds and sequences.
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By richie Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:54 am
@plasticlegs thanks for posting that. I'm sure people will find it of use!

The MPC 2000 definitely recognizes over 600mb of formattable data. I have used several different external SCSI devices such as CF card readers (only limiting factor I've found there was that 1 of the last readers I tried could only format up to 1gb of data regardless of the card size), Iomega Jaz 2gb cartridges, 9.1gb scsi hard drive and 18gb hard drives (although I cannot remember if there was a quirk with the 18gb one, something I'd need to look into when I can prioritize the time.)

So I'm not sure what lead you to believe it could not format any higher. Was it something you tried with your scsi2sd and were unsuccessful? If so then that needs to be looked into. I know off hand that Juke was able to use the SCSI2SD on the 2000XL (I know we're talking about the 2000) and had 4 SCSI ID's each utilizing 9gb just fine.
By Plasticlegs Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:05 pm
richie wrote:@plasticlegs thanks for posting that. I'm sure people will find it of use!

The MPC 2000 definitely recognizes over 600mb of formattable data. I have used several different external SCSI devices such as CF card readers (only limiting factor I've found there was that 1 of the last readers I tried could only format up to 1gb of data regardless of the card size), Iomega Jaz 2gb cartridges, 9.1gb scsi hard drive and 18gb hard drives (although I cannot remember if there was a quirk with the 18gb one, something I'd need to look into when I can prioritize the time.)

So I'm not sure what lead you to believe it could not format any higher. Was it something you tried with your scsi2sd and were unsuccessful? If so then that needs to be looked into. I know off hand that Juke was able to use the SCSI2SD on the 2000XL (I know we're talking about the 2000) and had 4 SCSI ID's each utilizing 9gb just fine.


You might be right, Richie. I read on another message thread somewhere that you can use any size but the device will only recognize 600MB. I've been using my MPC without a manual so, totally winging it. Believe me, chopping without understanding that outer wheel function was a drag! I thought I accidently found remaining space at just over 500MB on some screen. No idea how to find that screen again.

I'm new to the MPC-2000. I've chopped and sampled on the MPC-60, SP-12 and EMAX and loved how easy they are to work with. I've also used the S-950 but was a tedious work flow and I didn't like it.

If I get some time I'll try to find that screen I thought I saw and confirm if what I saw was HD space remaining or something else.

I'm admittedly a NOOB with this machine, so I apologize in advanced if I'm wrong on this, but I'll check and post what I see. If you know an easy way to just navigate to space remaining on the HD, let me know.

Thanks!
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By richie Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:49 am
@Plasticlegs well there are a couple of cases that could explain what lead you to believe the 600mb thing.

Most Akai S series rack samplers are only cable format a bit over 500mb, regardless of the drive size. The 2000XL is limited to 1gb when running OS 1.2 as it uses FAT but 1.14 using a SCSI card reader can utilize the full 9gb. Maybe some of that information got cross mingled with the issue you're having?

The S-900/950 is easier for me to work with once I set up my keygroups. After that it was a matter of me sampling my stuff and truncating accordingly. I'm still a novice with doing more intensive functions.

On the MPC 2000, I don't chop on it at all. I work with my samplers by sampling pieces at a time I want to use and truncating, so I never got the hang of zone chopping, etc.

Have a look into this 600mb thing though, I know that it isn't happening to people with other samplers. You're sort of an anomaly as no one before you have really talked about successfully using the scsi2sd on the MPC 2000 at all man.
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By Lampdog Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:14 pm
richie wrote:….The 2000XL is limited to 1gb when running OS 1.2 as it uses FAT but 1.14 using a SCSI card reader can utilize the full 9gb.



Yes.

I tested this exact thing years ago working with scsi4samplers.
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By JUKE 179r Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:48 pm
Wal Martian wrote:

great.... me and my drunken rambling... :lol: