Purchasing first batch of gear, help needed

I've been saving my cash and reading as much as possible in the last few months, and I *think* I've come to a decision regarding what gear I want to purchase, but I've still got a few questions, and I'd like some suggestions.

What I'm looking at is the MPC 1000 + a s900/950 + an Emu 1820m.

I'm wondering if I'll still be able to get that 'crunch' when I sample with the s900/950 and then transfer to the 1000. There was another thread on it a few weeks back but it never really got answered.

My real problem is connecting everything. I'll be sampling from vinyl, so I assume I would just go from the TT to a phono preamp to the s900/950, and then to the 1000 for sequencing, correct? How would the 1000 and s900/950 connect to eachother?

Lastly, I've also got a vintage synth (Roland SH 101) that has no midi outs, so how would I go about sampling from that? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Well the mpc 1000 wouldn't be a bad choice but an s900/950 don't know about that one I have an s900 you could do good stuff with but it's not an up to date sampler get a triton le with your mpc 1000 you can get it for cheap.

the 1000 and the 950 would have to be connected wit midi. connect the stereo outputs of the roland to the record input of the mpc. basic

Much appreciated.

connor don't get a triton le, you sound like you are planning to be mainly sample based and the triton le is a crap sampler. i think you need to upgrade it to even be able to sample at all.

i think if you plan to sample into the s950 (as i plan to) first and then into the 1k you will get the kind of sound you are lookin for BUT you will be very limited to what you can do within the 1k. As you probably know, the 1k is a phrase sampler and is very limited sample-wise, but it is a great sequencer/drum machine. i would strongly recommend getting a rack sampler and a midi keyboard, which would give you so many more options and help you to make much better beats. Another obvious solution would be to midi up your mpc to the s950, but dealing with floppy disks and limited sample time might not be for you. dj premier uses this setup, he triggers samples in the s950 using a midi keyboard and sequences with his mpc. certain rack samplers allow you to take a sample and spread it across a number of keys and adjust the start and end points of each key, without using any extra sample memory/time. very useful.

the 1820m is a good interface, i also plan to get one soon. it has a built-in turntable pre-amp which you can use to sample into your pc. as far as i know, the 1820m has a virtual patchmix which means you can route any input or sound from the pc, to any output which will be very useful for me. this is how i plan to use my setup:

the 1820m has 8 ins and 8 outs. i'm gonna connect my xl, 950 and asr's outs ('left' xl and asr, 'mix' s950) to ins on the 1820m, then connect 3 outs from the 1820m (1 each) to record ins of the xl s950 and asr. and 2 outs to go to my monitors. this will allow me to sample into the pc first and then resample into any of my samplers, and then back again if i want. i don't feel the need to use 8 outs from my mpc or asr to track beats, i can just solo tracks in the mpc and send them one at a time (4 bar sequences, not whole song!). i will need to assign all samples/instruments to the 'left' outputs on my xl and asr, obviously.

hope this helps, we are sorta in the same position. i'm sure some of the "expert" members on here have resampled 12-bit into a 16-bit sampler. i'm confident it'll produce good results. maybe they don't want admit that it works, and all of their 12-bit gear is not neccessarly needed to get 'that' sound?

When you say 'limited sample wise', what exactly are you referring to?

i'm not sure what he means by limited sampling but i have heard something about the 1000 being somehow limited when it comes to sampling thats what made me get the 2000xl

I don't know alot about the 1K so I'm not sure what the man means either , but two things that I do know of that the 1K doesn't have is timestretch and the ability to zone (chop) samples (the latter being the major downfall , imo) . You can do both of those things on a computer if you don't mind but some people I know of didn't know about the zoning thing until AFTER they bought the 1K , and it sorta knocked the wind outta them .

You didn't mention that you have , or want to get a pc in your post , either . Just something to think about .

You can find 2K(XL)'s for pretty good prices if you look .


Peace

sorry for the delayed reply.

mpc's are sampling drum machine sequencers. most producers would probably not think of them as proper samplers. a good sampler offers a huge range of functions designed to allow samples to be tweaked extensively, and played back easlily via midi signals. i'm no expert on samplers, i'm just getting into the game too, so i can't go into great detail on this.

i know that a rack, keyboard or software sampler allows you to easily sample and create realistic sounding instruments. various looping methods (crossfade etc) allow you to take say a short (or long) bass/flute/string sample and make it last for however long you press the key (or pad) for. spread a few of them acorss the keys, and you have an instrument!

it really depends on what you want to do. i beleive having advanced sampling methods available to me is neccessary. if you want to know more i suggest you download the manuals for the asr-10/emu line/ akai line of samplers and see what functions these samplers have.

i'd search the forum for info on the 1k vs the xl, there's probably loadsa info on that. maybe an experienced sample tweaker can jump in here and explain some more?

anyway a lot of succesful producers (pete rock, easy mo bee), prefer(ed) to keep everything within one drum machine sampler, and look how good their beats are (they would tweak in s950 then resample to sp). limitations can sometimes be a good thing.

research research and research beofre you go out and spend a lot of money!