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By 99PRBLMS Tue Aug 12, 2025 10:28 am
Hey guys,

I used a MPC 2000XL roughly 20 years ago. And when it broke I have not had any MPC's since.

Finally getting back into them and just purchased a MPC X SE (Its on the way and arrives in a few days).

I Just have a few questions regarding the best way to organize and store everything. I purchased a 1TB SATA SSD which I plan to install internally, as well as a SD card and USB stick.

What would be the best way to install stuff like Expansions, Plugins etc? Does the MPC X SE come with everything pre-installed? Or am I free to install it where i want?

Should I keep everything on the 1TB SSD I plan to install? Or on the MPC itself? Where do you guys recommend to store samples? Saves stuff etc?

I know this is subjective. And everyone probably has their own methods and preferences. But would love some tips and ideas on the best way to organize and install everything.

Thanks in advance!
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By Jean-Marc Liotier Tue Aug 12, 2025 12:23 pm
The consensus here is: don't touch the internal storage - put all your own stuff on a distinct volume, entirely independent.

On My MPC One, that makes maintainance easy: to backup, just eject the SDCard and copy it elsewhere - and Akai can do whatever they want without affecting my files.

SSH access with user root on the removable storage would be nice: less sneakernet to shuffle files around, and no support liability to Akai as the internal storage would be unreachable from there.
By mobiusoneotb Sat Apr 25, 2026 5:59 am
You can plug in your MPC to your PC or Mac and install the included software which is MPC Software. If you bought your MPC used, you might not have a license for it. If that's the case, go download MPC Beats on your PC or Mac instead. That one is like the free or lite version of MPC Software.

Due to the Wi-Fi, you won't have to connect to the computer for updates or for plugins. But you will need to if you want to get your own expansions on your MPC. That's where the software I was talking about comes into play.

Everything else is pretty simple file management. Just make sure that you name everything right and put stuff in folders and you'll be good. The installation of expansions from your computer is the only thing that requires you to use MPC Software or MPC Beats.

However, if you want to create your own programs or keygroups, then this is a very easy way to do it as well and then you can export it to your MPC.