I have a few questions about the MPC 1000 before buying

I'm looking in to getting the MPC 1000 to try sampling and to use as sequencer for the rest of my hardware. I have a few questions.

To record from vinyl to the MPC 1000 can plug the deck straight into the record in sockets or does it need to go through a mixer first to get the level right?
Am I right in thinking there are no hardware upgrades for the 1000 except the option of a bigger hard drive?
Is there a good range of effects on-board?

grsymes wrote:I'm looking in to getting the MPC 1000 to try sampling and to use as sequencer for the rest of my hardware. I have a few questions.

To record from vinyl to the MPC 1000 can plug the deck straight into the record in sockets or does it need to go through a mixer first to get the level right?
Am I right in thinking there are no hardware upgrades for the 1000 except the option of a bigger hard drive?
Is there a good range of effects on-board?

depends on your turntable really... some turntables require a phono preamp and grounding in order for the sound to come out right... other [cheaper] more modern turntables have a line out which you could run directly into your mpc... that's the case with mostly the portable or USB turntables.

regarding hardware upgrades, 128mb ram and a hard drive... but the best upgrade for the 1000 is updating the OS to JJOS. as of recently they also added the possibility of a screen twice as large with a custom OS... but i'm keeping my 1000 simple. all other things sold for the mpc1000 are strictly for customizing... check out mpcstuff.com for more info

the internal effects of the mpc1000 are pretty basic... nothing special at all... you may want to get a separate hardware effects unit for that...

About the turntable, the few guides I have read on sampling from vinyl make no mention of a difference in turntable. I didn't realise they came with a line-out now.

That screen upgrade is useful I'm sure but it's rather ugly. To clarify, JJOS will run fine with the stock screen.

I had a look through mpcstuff.com already and figured most things they sold were cosmetic.

Thanks

Non-cosmetic hardware upgrades for the 1000:

* Memory up to 128MB from the stock 16MB.
* Hard drive - but need the special adapter.
* Depending on the manufacturing date, the pads may need an upgrade to the new style pads
* Large screen if you want to run JJOS128XL (other JJOS just need the standard screen)
* Nice big CF card if you don't have the hard drive