I WILL SOON BE THE OWNER OF A MPC 4000!!!!

I'm new to the forum & I'm happy to say that I will be picking my MPC 4000 up next friday for a crazy price of $750!!!! im driving 2 hours away to get it and cant wait to get it! anything you guys could do to help and tell me what to look forward to will be helpful. im coming from using a 1000 that i admit i did not reach my full capabilities of the machine. also, what should i look for in a keyboard that will work well with my 4k?

I advise that you look forward to owning an mp4k
A good keyboard is possibly one that has midi, and sounds/sound shaping tools that your ears like.
If it doesn't have midi, you can use the sampling engine to record phrases, the sequencer records while playing back, so it's not a problem if you pick up an old piece of gear without midi either.

Actually you may not want a keyboard with sounds or a synth .. as the mpc4k can load lots of sampler formats... I've loaded old S1000/3000 sample cd programs into it, works fine.
..You can basically use it as a rompler.

Maybe that was your plan anyway, alot of ppl on here say keyboard, when they mean synth/rompler, then others use that term when they actually mean midi keyboard. You will get the most help on here if you try to be specific about what you're looking for.

ok well right now i have a keyboard without midi just an audio output... basically i would like to utilize the sounds of the keyboard along with my 4k. for instance create a drum pattern on the 4k and use the keyboard to play a melody and bring them together for a sequence/song. nothing to heavy, having gotten that far in yet to learn about what else to do... i kno i have alot of research to do as well

Do you want to program your own sounds with synths/samplers.
This vid will show you what kind of things can be done with a nice sampler [asr10]:


In that vid it's used as a sampling synthesizer.. maybe you just want something that has preset sounds, that load instantly, in hiphop currently motifs & microkorgs are in fashion, personally I hate them.

Search around on youtube, study your fav artists and any sounds they use that you like, find out what gear they used,,, etc

I use a mixture of techniques for creating songs, some of my samplers I use just to record audio phrases from various synths/other samplers that I play live, then trigger those sampled phrases from my mpc, drum patterns I do often with the mpc, but it is usually triggering drum sounds I have in other samplers via midi, or it's sync'd to my sp12, which I program the drums on.

Then I have some syths which are midi'd up to my mpc, all sound sources from the synths and samplers go into my mixing desk. Then I record the 2 mix outputs from the desk into my PC/sampler..

What other people do alot of, is they track out all their audio, like in my case I could have each audio channel on the desk recorded into my PC, and then add vocals, edit/create the arrangement etc...
Personally I don't like that way, but you have to experiment and find out what your like and what works for you.

Your other option is to sell the mpc4k, buy something like the renaissance/maschine, and have all your sounds coming out of your PC.. If you don't mind sitting in front of a PC to make music, it might be a nice option.

Thanks for the info Bro! Yea I kno a lil bit about the asr!!! I would like to have one 1 day... But I think I would like a combination of both, starting off I would like something that has sounds.... I was looking at the korg micro station! That's looks awesome at a good price! So that maybe what I start off with.

Just wanted to add, that with the 4k, you can do everything you saw being done with the asr... don't expect it to sound as warm or rich when using as a synth though. very different sound

szr wrote:Do you want to program your own sounds with synths/samplers.
This vid will show you what kind of things can be done with a nice sampler [asr10]:

In that vid it's used as a sampling synthesizer.. maybe you just want something that has preset sounds, that load instantly, in hiphop currently motifs & microkorgs are in fashion, personally I hate them.

Search around on youtube, study your fav artists and any sounds they use that you like, find out what gear they used,,, etc

I use a mixture of techniques for creating songs, some of my samplers I use just to record audio phrases from various synths/other samplers that I play live, then trigger those sampled phrases from my mpc, drum patterns I do often with the mpc, but it is usually triggering drum sounds I have in other samplers via midi, or it's sync'd to my sp12, which I program the drums on.

Then I have some syths which are midi'd up to my mpc, all sound sources from the synths and samplers go into my mixing desk. Then I record the 2 mix outputs from the desk into my PC/sampler..

What other people do alot of, is they track out all their audio, like in my case I could have each audio channel on the desk recorded into my PC, and then add vocals, edit/create the arrangement etc...
Personally I don't like that way, but you have to experiment and find out what your like and what works for you.

Your other option is to sell the mpc4k, buy something like the renaissance/maschine, and have all your sounds coming out of your PC.. If you don't mind sitting in front of a PC to make music, it might be a nice option.

I haven't been here for a minute but this is definitively one of the best posts of the 4k capabilities in a minute. Great post.

thanks alot guys! im gonna keep my eyes open for an asr, but for now im gonna go with a Korg microstation... just a few more days... ill post pics when i get it

Cool, hey make sure to test out the 4k well when you're collecting, if the pads are not so responsive it might mean u need new sensors, so use things like that to bring the price down if you can.
Unless you already agreed on price, use any scratches etc as bargaining material too. Won't hurt to mention that everyone is selling their old mpcs to buy the renaissance either, and that the prices have dropped alot recently

If the screen is on the way out it costs 215 @ mpcstuff .. again, if you see any flickering, or lines on it take it into consideration.

Also sometimes the screen cable connector gets loose during transport, so don't stress if it's blank when you get it back to your studio. No big deal to reconnect properly.

@ SZR, so that is why the price is dropping. I just got a 4000 for $500 on Friday and it is near mint condition. I had been watching the prices for about 8 months. I saw one in New Jersey for $700 but missed out on that deal. I figured I would wait to see if one would pop up for $800 - but not as low as $500.
In any case mine does not have maxxed out ram, or the output expansion. The paradigm shift has really taken hold and hardware seems to be getting used less. After searching through forums for info and learning about various MPC',s MV"s, RS7000, RM1X, MC909, ASQ10's and such I learned which are rare, which units were special and which were slept on. It seems like three years ago people were using hardware and software. Now, all of the above mentioned items are available at low prices and software only has really taken hold with controllers.
As Dylan said "the times they are a changing" again and the hardware lovers should rejoice. ASQ10's were unicorns for a while. Now they pop up once every 6 months, and I heard of one being found in a dumpster.
I brought home the mpc 4000 and showed it to my wife and asked her does this item look like something worth only $500. She shook her head no. Nuff said.
Cheers,
Ian

S*IT that's a nice price!
I paid more for my fixer up 4k... but they do cost alot more here in europe even now... saw one sell for 1100€ recently on ebay.
..Have seen alot of mpc60s go for cheap over here though in the last months.. for me it's a good thing, as I love vintage gear. They'll be cheaper for me to scoop up soon

The prices on some of the samplers you mention have actually gone up recently, RS7000,RM1X...
Also last week on ebay I saw a bunch of 2kxls sell for as much as they used to 2 yrs ago.

I think alot of people will buy the renaissance, after selling their mpc60/3000/2000/4000s ... and kick themselves in the ass afterwards.. .. Renaissance syc'd to mpc4k sounds like something that *might* be cool though... if their software is not as buggy as I think it will be.

Historically 4ks have always had price slumps and the price usually picks back up.
It's like that with all MPs.

The problem now is a lot of MP owners want to sell to get a Ren but they are realizing that it's still a blind date so they prices will creep back up then drop again after it's release.

As far a keyboard to go with the 4k you will definitely want a keyboard or controller with MIDI.
As mentioned the 4k can load various formats and you can easily make instruments out of samples so playing full sounds from within the 4k is pretty direct.
You will need the MIDI keyboard to properly play things out.

If budget is tight get a controller instead of a keyboard just make sure it has 5-pin MIDI DIN not just USB.

Hello guys, i'm buying one myself. It's been great to find out what to check about it when buying.

Where on the MPC menu can i check if the effects board is installed and whatever other installations it may have? And what is the minimum it should have installed when checking please?

Global > F3 will show you what is installed.

I think they sold the machine with the effect board only.