its certainly possible. depending on your laptops sound capabilities (ins and outs) it would be more or less difficult to control and sequnce softsynths in conjunction with the mpc. of course a pc would always be useful for sound editing and mastering tunes.
something i've been looking at:
edirol pcr-a30
this is not only a keyboard midi controller (with cc knobs and sliders which will come in handy for controlling softsynths - as the mpc (2k at least) only has midi note pads) but you can midi it to the mpc so it'll record the sequneces and cc's and whatnot . you can also have the midi out of the mpc going to it, as well as the stereo outs for the audio, and the pcr will transmit midi and audio at the same time to the pc via a single usb cable.
this is the setup im looking at right now, but i haint got the pcr yet so i cant vouch for it 100 %. depending on your needs and what your laptop is like you might like another setup (you might want 8ins and outs - you might want to use a dedicated audio/midi interface - you might have a seperate recorder and not have to worry about generating tones from a softsynth via midi while simltaneously recording the mix out via audio)
btw - the mpc can do great for house - just be aware that it doesn't have control change functions - so expecially for house (with lots of long filter swweps) you will want to combine it with a controller that does support them - as its sequencer will be able to recognize, record, and transmit them to external midi gear. the mp will do great for shorter more percussive sounds, and it has great timing and swing, and an excellent method of sequencing, but for longer more melodic sounds it works better controlling (or just sequencing) something else.
i just made this last night with my 2000, and an oxygen controlling a softsynth through it. the drums and basses are from the mpcs internal audio engine the keys and stuff are from the pc. the problem with this setup is i cant record while i have everything playing - soundcard conflict - so i had to tediously multitrack stuff i shouldn't have had to. but hey....
http://31d1.com/files/bidi%20-%20posh.mp3
anyway, hope this gives you some ideas, and btw, im referring to an mpc2000 here, a 1000 or a 4000 might have soem substantial differences.
