Mpc 4000le - Le?

Whats everybodys thoughts on the 4000LE? I am interested in the 4000 for the better sampler, all those filters, and many of the other features of it, but is getting one without the HD and CDR sort of defeating the purpose? Will I be missing out on 50% or more of why the machine is so cool?[/color]

Well kind of....but if you get the LE you can add the HD and CD later when you get more $$.[/color]

You can actually do without the hard drive if you use the Akai Sys software.  By connecting your MPC to your PC via USB, you can load/save samples on your PCs hard drive.  As far as the CD burner is concearned, the burning features are not completely implemented with OS Ver 1.40.  You can only burn files and not actual finished tracks.[/color]

jahrome wrote:You can actually do without the hard drive if you use the Akai Sys software.  By connecting your MPC to your PC via USB, you can load/save samples on your PCs hard drive.  

Is it really that seamless? [i.e. no need for a massive internal storage drive if you've got a big pc drive?]

can you read akai s1k programs from cds on the pc and load them into the mpc via ak.sys? [being able to audition in cdXtract is pretty key]

how much of the program construction & editing does ak.sys take care of? what else does it do? I can't find any literature on it...

thanks!

[I would *love* to have some dedicated sampler hardware with some pads, but if I can't manage my sample library 60Gb or audition samples, it won't work for me... please advise!]

Also, is anyone sync'ing the mpc4k to SX or another softseq? how does this work? do you play back patterns on the mpc from SX, or vis versa?

one more: can you trigger samples in the mpc via midi [i.e. from an external source like SX]?