mpc1000 and ableton

started playing with home recording about a year ago... didn't want to buy gear until I was sure this was something I wanted to continue learning more about. in short, I've absolutely fallen in love with the process and now want to get some more pieces to the puzzle... up to now, I've only used garageband, my powerbook, a mini disc recorder, couple of guitars, and a crappy usb keyboard.

the first thing I purchased was get Ableton. also bought a portable turntable, (numark pt01-as suggested in this forum), started buying vinyl and would like to start chopping samples and making my own beats. the mpc1000 seems like the logical choice... I really love the hands-on aspect and the way you can chop samples on it. looking at the microkorg
for a keyboard/midi controller.

i'm curious about how well the mpc and abelton work together, as far the making beats and chopping samples go... just hoping someone using a similar set up can comment on the flow and compatibility of the ableton and mpc... or maybe suggest other options. sorry for the long post...

have a listen to some of my tracks too if you have a moment and want a better idea of what I'm doing... myspace.com/4billygomez

thanks for the help.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, I just got home from an 8 hour band practice and decide to use the topic as an excuse to collect some of my thoughts about how to integrate Live or Max into my current setup....

i am now approaching a fairly similar setup to what you've described: MPC1000, microKorg, MS2000, MS2000R, guitar, bass, Powerbook, MIDI foot controller. I got to the point with the hardware of doing some live sequencing with the MPC driving the synths and then obtained the foot controller a couple weeks ago. The intention is to run either Live or Max/MSP/Jitter on the Powerbook, using that as a looping and effects station for all the other sound sources.

I like the idea of using the Live/foot controller as giant effects pedal since Live runs VST plugins as well. Instead of having a bunch of guitar pedals and racks for effects you can just have the guitar signal run into Live and have a virtual rig setup. a lot easier to carry too

I have not had a chance to setup Live or Max for this purpose or configure the foot pedal due to current heavy schedule and the need for a bigger mixer but there are numerous videos of similar setups on the web. I have half convinced myself to get a firewire mixer to address the problem of hooking all the devices up and then getting the channels into the Powerbook, just can't find one with enough inputs which meets my current budget.

the microKorg is going to be replaced soon by a better (on paper) model. you may want to wait for one of those as it has better polyphony and what looks like a better panel layout.

the MPC1000 is a lot of fun to use except for the pads. THE PADS SUCK. it's not bad for studio use where you can go back and dial in the velocity or whatever when it doesn't pick up on something you played but for live use, it's tough. the pads just don't respond consistently sometimes. i am not alone in this opinion.....

the MS2000/R combo is pretty sweet. direct and dedicated access to all the synth parameters in the form of knobs is much more intuitive than the micro's matrix programming. great for studio use, a **** to move for live applications.

a typical scenario would be to setup the MPC1000 with a looping drum beat, use one of the korgs for bass and one for keys, and then do live guitar improvisations. the MPC can be preprogrammed and running the hardware synths and triggered by live; then with the firewire mixer, it should be possible to loop any particular channel or combination of channels using the foot controller while playing guitar or the keys.