An important observation!

Yo!

Recently i was in a dude's home, comparing and experimenting with our mpc's.About "how" they sound etc... He has the 2000XL and me the 2500 one.

So, we sampled something from 45 rpm to the XL (an old retro sample) and rec in a daw.
The 3 ways were:
1.sampling from vinyl to XL and then to daw.
2.sampling from vinyl to XL and then to 2500 and then to daw.
3.sampling from vinyl to XL , SAVE it as SND/WAV (CF Card), load it with 2500 and then sampling to daw.
Beyond the fact that anyone wants "his sound", loves something else than another, all this about the "sound" is subjective...

But, we noticed that by the 3rd way the sample was totally "different" than the "smaller/characteristic" changes of the previous 2 ways. By the 3rd way, the sample was more "boosted", a bit louder .

So, our question is, by saving a sample as SND/WAV at the XL and then load it from 2500 can have differences? And which is the "best way"(we know all this is subjective, but whicjh is the most common way) if for example someone wants to sample smthing (for example only the drums and basses) firstly at a 12 bit sampler or an older mpc to get "that character" and then blend it with the whole song in a 2500? By sampling from the "old machine" to the 2500 OR by SAVING in the "old machine" and then loading to the 2500? In all ways , note that the whole song will finally extracted from the outs of 2500. So , would it better if finally, the whole song was sampled in the "old machine" (if it has enough RAM of course-in our case we have, as it is the XL) and then from the XL to the DAW(or whatever, reels etc...)?

Peace n love!

different models of mpcs have different sound characteristics due to technology used at the time that is known fact when comes to legacy drum machines...best way is subjective like you said and usually means what works best for you,..

mpc xl is 16bit and so is mpc 2500 but mpc60 for example isnt. so you wouldnt be able to load up wav's sampled from 60 into 2500 since you'd be attempting to load 12bit file into 16bit machine it wont play...

so if you wanted that character you'd have no other option here but to resample mpc60 either to your mpc2500 or DAW and even here results may vary because converters on your audio interface or mpc2500 will slightly color the sound.

yeah i know all that you mentioned, it is a "small diffeerences" theme and objective..
If i want to do that from an XL to a 2500? (16bit to 16bit) it d be better to do it by smplng or by save/load it?

and this thing we noticed was normal? i mean the "big" change to the sound by the 3rd way(save/load) than by the other ways (sampling...)

Theoretically speaking, every time a sound passes through an AD/DA conversion, there is a change in the sound. With modern converters however, this is rarely an audible change. In the case of those two MPCs, both colour the sound going in and with the 2000 XL, most likely color the sound going out as well..

So if you're trying to transfer sounds as transparently as possible, you try to avoid AD/DA conversions by using sample file dumps and/or digital audio inputs/outputs. if you like the sound of a certain DAC, you should resample that with the best possible converter you have, and from there keep all file transfers in the digital domain in order to "preserve" the obtained sonics as much as possible.

Now then, you say that when you utilize a digital file transfer (ie. going past resampling), the sample volume increases? This should be impossible since the original file was not altered in any way. You should check that the master headroom setting on your MPC2500 is calibrated to the same level as the 2000 XL. This should be easy to test with a, say, 1kHz test tone sample loaded into both machines, and by utilizing identical gainstaging on both units. A peak meter should indicate any differences in level.

And FWIW you can change a bitdepth of a 12bit sample into 16 very easily with a proper sample editor software. No need to resample (unless you want to capture the sonics of the 12bit DAC)

yeap, we ve already tested the master out level of the 2500 and its the same as the XL, at 0 db.
When we sample smthng from XL to 2500 the sample has the same level db (as it should be), but when we transfer a sample by XL to 2500 by save and load (via cf card) the sample is louder ! We cannot give an ex[planaton to that!

Just to simplify your tests, can you send a same file from your computer to both mpcs?

What you're describing sounds really strange unless there's a gainstage mishap or mis-calibration somewhere.. During sampling there a are additional gainstages involved which would make pinpointing the anomaly much more difficult.