Which MPC?

Hey everyone. I am about to enter into the sampling world. I am foremost a singer/songwriter. I want a full sampler/production center. I am not into computers and prefer the lower fi sound thing (ie, I still record a lot on 4 track cassette and 8 track 1/4"). I want to make beats that utlize obscure sounds for drums as well as samples of my live playing and samples from old records. I process sounds through guitar amps and pedals so onboard effects are of no concern. I want to be able to do some editing and heavy sequencing, as well as sampling some guitar playing and other short sound loops. Which mpc should I go for? I need an all-in-one solution. The 3000 looks great but I am a bit worried about editing and availability. The 2000xl is more affordable but will it sound funky? Will I be able to figure this stuff out from scratch? Any help would be great. Again, I dig old school hip hop but I am going to be creating something quite different than that. Cheers....Scott

I am also a big fan of the old school, low-fi sound, but actually I use the 1000. the 2000xl is nice because you have the option to change sample rates, whereas with the 1k, you cannot do this (yet...I think a lot of people are hopeful that JJ will implement this option in the next OS). honestly though until that happens (if so) you can just record into whatever daw you are using and convert the sample rate to lower-fi. of course, there are other factors that will come into play such as whatever sound card you are using, your preamps etc. so as far as using this method IMO it's more imitation, but if you really need the gritty early 90's new york sound then I guess you're better going with the mp60 or s950 for sampling, both will give you a real dirty 12 bit sound. well anyways hope I was of some help to you, happy shopping mate.