Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
By N8MOTO Tue Oct 27, 2020 7:10 pm
Found an MPC 2kxl on Ebay with the 8 outs and max memory and I'm really excited to start diving into it, but since I don't have it yet and I'm still learning all the ins and outs via Youtube/reading I figured I'd make a post to see if I could get some help.

My main goal is to be able to sample records but my turntable is a Music Hall MMF 2.2 (No built-in preamp). I have it connected to a Denon AV Receiver as the preamp but I'm not sure I'd be able to plug the MPC into that? Even if I could, that would involve me sitting in the living room and I'd rather work at my desk with my PC. If that's the case then I'm guessing I need a mixer, I have a Yamaha AG03 but I don't think that will work (I need a phono in which is more DJ mixer specific from what I've gathered). Do I need an audio interface or will the mixer be enough?

Other equipment I'm planning on getting would be an SP-404 OG or SX down the line, as well as a MIDI controller (Sooner rather then later). I'm wondering what other mods would benefit the XL (a card reader would probably be my next upgrade). I just get confused on the hardware aspect, like which plugs do I need and why having the 8 outs is so important. I also wanna make sure I have everything so when it gets delivered I can start playing with it. Thanks for all the help guys, I'm excited!
By Afferbeck Wed Nov 11, 2020 8:29 am
I use my hifi amp's phono input for my turntable, then use the tape outs to the MPC. Not all amps have tape outs though. You could use the headphone out from the amp instead with a stereo to dual mono cable. But you'll probably want to be set up in a more convenient location than the living room, so getting a cheap phono preamp would be the best idea.

You don't need a mixer but if you want to be having multiple samplers and instruments and such plugged in, a mixer will be a lot more convenient than replugging cables all the time. Also the XL doesn't have any sound shaping other than a low pass filter, which really limits what you can get out of your sampling. EQ and compression on a mixer can be a big help. You can get the FX board to let you do things like high pass, but those boards are expensive.

You will probably want a card reader in your XL as you can't save much of anything on floppies, and unless you're already set up with zip disks, it would be a bit backwards to go that direction instead of flash cards.

Cables you'll need will be a regular power cable it should come with, headphones or 1/4" TS cables out to speakers or through a mixer or interface and then out to headphones or speakers, and cables to sample from your turntable/amp. Probably dual RCA to TS cables.

If you want to create a polished finished product you'll want an audio interface with enough inputs so you can bring the XL audio into your PC for mixing. The 8 outs on the XL lets you split all the sounds in your song onto different 8 tracks to be recorded separately for more versatile mixing. But you'll need an interface with 8 inputs to make use of them. From what I can tell, your Yamaha only has a single input, so you could only create songs in mono, or record multiple passes of different tracks then organise them in your DAW. Alternatively you can get a hardware recorder and avoid using a PC entirely, but mixing will be a lot less versatile.