First MPC and looking for starter advice

Just got my hands on a MPC 1000 blue/red. Seems to be in good shape. Came pre-loaded with JJOS v4.99.

My first question is should I just flash it back to the stock Akai software to start with?

I was told to skip that and go straight to JJOS v1 since that seems to be the easiest sw to use for beginners.

Any tips/advice would be appreciated.

Bang headz!

If you're not familiair with any type of mpc then maybe it's easier to start with the free JJOS. It's more similair to the original akai OS, thus easier to master when using the manual. With the manual and the free JJOS it's it'll be quite easy to master the basic stuff like recording and slicing samples, making programs, sequencing/recording peformances and loading and saving.

Once you know the basics switch back to JJOS1 and use the JJOS1 manual to get more out of your mpc.

Menco wrote:If you're not familiair with any type of mpc then maybe it's easier to start with the free JJOS. It's more similair to the original akai OS, thus easier to master when using the manual. With the manual and the free JJOS it's it'll be quite easy to master the basic stuff like recording and slicing samples, making programs, sequencing/recording peformances and loading and saving.

Once you know the basics switch back to JJOS1 and use the JJOS1 manual to get more out of your mpc.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll get on that right away.

One more question for now - how fast is the USB-to-pc transfer (using HDD) supposed to be? I'm attempting to transfer about 2gb's of samples from PC to Akai HDD and only getting 650 KB/second rate. Is that normal?

Think what I'll do is first backup and format the HDD before re-flash.

Is it possible to update OS from HDD instead of compact flash card?

importztek wrote:

Menco wrote:If you're not familiair with any type of mpc then maybe it's easier to start with the free JJOS. It's more similair to the original akai OS, thus easier to master when using the manual. With the manual and the free JJOS it's it'll be quite easy to master the basic stuff like recording and slicing samples, making programs, sequencing/recording peformances and loading and saving.

Once you know the basics switch back to JJOS1 and use the JJOS1 manual to get more out of your mpc.

One more question for now - how fast is the USB-to-pc transfer (using HDD) supposed to be? I'm attempting to transfer about 2gb's of samples from PC to Akai HDD and only getting 650 KB/second rate. Is that normal?

Answered my own question on this one - the connection is only USB 1.0 hence the turtle movement.

Still looking for an answer on how to update OS from hard-drive.

Searched far and wide too, including forums and Google. All results point to using a compact flash card.

OK so I just realized you're not supposed to format the HDD from computer, only from MPC itself.

Now I can't even access the .bin files that I transferred to the HDD to update.

I also don't have a "Utility" button in my Mode > Load/Save screen so I can't format the HDD from MPC even if I wanted to.

Any suggestions?

Or should I just go cop a CF card...

UPDATE: Damn, nevermind. Figured that out too. RTFM!

cop a cf card mate, its piss easy to do and saves hassle.

Alright, not doing bad so far. Figured out how to flash the software, hook-up and read/write to HDD, transferred samples and assigned to pads, and have started creating tracks and sequences.

I have one question - why do my instruments sound off rhythm or different than when I play them live as I'm recording? Like when I bang on the pads live it sounds right on key but then when I play it back it sounds like something moved/delayed the moment I hit the pads. Hard to explain but I hope you get the jist.

What I'm doing now is time correcting each track I record to 1/8 so it sounds on key but want to avoid doing that because then the beat sounds like it was made in FL Studio with a mouse/keyboard.

Any help appreciated.

You got quantization on i.e T.C

change that to off.

acronym wrote:You got quantization on i.e T.C

change that to off.

Forgot to thank you for this. I'm about halfway through reading the manual and have mastered the basics. Now moving on to tracking out to editing software on the PC.