RAM Details

Yo I'm new to this forum and new to using the MPC as well. I've had mine for about a month now, and I love the machine, but this memory thing sucks... I ordered memory from crucial.com and after getting the wrong RAM the first time I re-ordered what I thought was the right stuff and that was wrong too. I finally gave up and ordered EXM128 RAM advertised by Akai and it's backordered. Which makes me think. How can you have a brand spankin' new Drum machine and not have the accessories ready for the product? Can anyone tell me if this is typical of Akai?


Glove-

Yes, this is very typical of Akai. Everything is brought out in one big rush - nothing is ever completed, features missing, bugs all over the place - why pay for proper beta testing when you know there are thousands of salivating gear junkies willing to pay top dollar for the buggy version - just use them to give you free feedback on the bugs.

This is why, even though I run an MPC site, I would never buy an MPC when it first comes onto the market - wait a few months and the price drops (in the UK it has already droped over 15%), plus many of the bugs have been ironed out

As for the memory, I wouldn't mind buying the Akai module if it was fairly priced - but it's around 4 times the current market price for eqivalent RAM. That's just cheeky. It still baffles me why they even bother only putting a pathetic 16MB as standard - why not spend an extra few bucks and put a 128 chip in from the start (I can't belive it would cost that much more). But no, instead they'd rather build up this bad feeling unnecessarily.

It still baffles me why they even bother only putting a pathetic 16MB as standard - why not spend an extra few bucks and put a 128 chip in from the start (I can't belive it would cost that much more).

Because they want us to also buy the EXM128. It wouldn't cost much more if 128 would be build it, but they made it an option, so they can make more profits.
Anyways, I have my 16MB, and it is always enough for me. I understand that some people might need more then 16MB. But I thing thete is just few of those kind of people, and most of us do not need more then 16MB.[/url]

Actually my statement was a little bit rhetorial - I know why they do this (as you say, to make the extra cash) - but in the end, it just causes bad feeling as we all know that it would probably only cost then an extra few dollars to build a 128MB chip into the machine instead of a 16 -

They've finally admitted that you can't offer effects and outputs as an optional upgrade anymore (i.e. the competition gives these as standard) - so why not memory as well, memory being possibly the most important thing that a sampler needs plenty of (effects and outputs I can live without). (another rhetorical question BTW!)

As for 16mb being enough for most people - I'm not so sure about that. Yes, if you only ever do drum beats, fine - but if you build entire songs within our MPC, 16mb is pushing it.

It would be a horrible idea to put standard or close to standard PC parts in sampler as factory equipped. In order to put any part in any gear a manufacturer has to create a contract with some vendor for a huge quantity ahead of time (usually at design time) to ensure they can get the product when needed. It would have been an additional 2-300 USD to put the 32 meg in the MPC2000 when it came out. Now you can outfight it for 20-30 USD. For that to be factory standard would have pushed the price to 2000 USD for the stock model. Not everyone wanted the extra memory so why make everyone buy the additional memory even if they did not need it? That would have been like including the EB-16 at an additonal 400USD whether you wanted it or not. Not very smart then, so not very smart now, no matter the cost.

May manufacturers have made this mistake before. Who knows when Akai was designing this machine. It could have been two years ago. What were the memory prices two years ago? I think that Akai's memory is right on track for cost at that time (and might even be little lower).

As a matter of fact, Akai may be doing us a big favor by offering this memory. It is possible that Akai contracted out a particular standard memory configuration to be manufactured for them 2-3 years ago. This particular configuration may not be made anymore. If Akai did not have this contract, there may not be any memory available at all (for those that wanted it).

Back to the RAM issue, Hynix makes both components (the HY57...) and full modules (HY72...). We've got the component spec, but if someone offered the Module number, which is hopefully silkscreened on the board, or on a sticker, we'd know what is good (and maybe what 512MB to get). It should be something like:
HY72V12M... (module part#)

But not HY57...(chip part#)

Yesterday I took out the RAM of my friends laptop and thied it with my MPC1000. It was a Hynix, 144-pin, 128mb, PC133, CL3, SDRAM. But it was a 8x16, not 4x32, and the "memory test" ...failed.
I'll try few other types soon, and I'll let ya know what happened.

effekt? Did the ram you tried have spd?

Rob

It would seem that SPD is almost always used on PC100 / PC133 RAM. It'd only be missing (if ever) on cheap 'no-brand' RAM, so if this were a Hynix stick that can probably be ruled out. Also, his friends laptop would generate a message along the lines of "SPD Data Missing, Assumed 100Mhz Memory" on boot.

I think this really makes the case that the 1000's OS is checking that the EXM128 is being used.

I found this .. it is supposed to be the same thing

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configu ... X64SC3/128

"A"

BTW, anyone know a good place to order the EXM128 (and that actually has it in stock or will soon?)

Trying to get up and running with the MPC for my live set asap, but I use a lot of big loops and textures and won't get far with 16mb of ram.

(I'm willing to buy a non-akai chip, but someone has to give me proof that it works...)

effekt? Did the ram you tried have spd?

Yes, there was a SPD module on the board. If anyone wants, I can get the part number ot the RAM that I tried.
Also I forgot to write before: When I inserted the RAM and turned on the MPC, the MPC detected the RAM without any troubles. There was a message that a 128MB memory was detected, and then the MPC proceded with the testing. The testing was actually done i 4 passes, and took long time. I would say aroung 1min for each pass. I thing the MPC was checking every single bit of the memory, one by one.

I don't think that particular Kingston module is an option, it has 8 chips on it. The MPC apparently needs 4 (this is reflected in the SPD info that's read on power-up). And looking at other Kingston products, all of their 128MB PC133 SODIMMs are the same 8-chip design.

please keep us appraised of what you find wrt the RAM situation. very interested.

regards, s_w

bump.