The Showdown!

Greetings....
I've posted a similar question on the MVnation forum, but I would like mpc owners opinions as well, to help make a more well rounded decision.

I'm currently on the brink of purchasing a hardware sampler, and am looking at either the Akai MPC-2500, or the MV-8000 and was wondering what everyone's opinions are on them. I know since this is the MPC forum opinions will sway towards the MPC, but I have to ask. Has anybody used the MV-8000 and maybe want to switch? I'm going to go fondle both of them this weekend, but feedback would be nice. Also, why you would choose one over the other, specs wise. A couple of reasons i'm looking at the 8000 are the cd burning capabilities, and display/vga options, also around the same price as the MPC with seemingly more features.

Also some questions on the 2500 - can the ram be expanded to more than 128m, if so how and can regular ram be used/up to what size. Same for the hard drive - laptop hd right? And i've seen 120gb, but how does one know if it will work in the mpc? Thanks for any opinions on this matter.

Respect.

i was so sure i was going to buy an mv8000...until i used one. i'd read the mv forums, i'd read most of the manual, i looked and pictures and reviews and watched videos. but...then i found it to be so slow it was almost comical. the vga option was attractive but it wasn't terribly exciting to me because i was really more interested in no longer using a mouse. i ended up purchasing the much cheaper mpc1000 over the mv8000 because i found just about everything i wanted in it. eventually i moved up to the 2500 because i wanted better sample editing and a few other features. the mpc is so fast and easy. for me, it was largely about sequencing with hardware and the mpc is a pretty damn fine hardware sequencer. now, i'm no 8000 expert but i've never seen it do anything that has made me regret my choice.

I have to 2nd what Zs said. I really wanted to be one of the new producers that had something different than a MPC in their studio. But after I purchased it in '04 I was surprisingly disappointed in its capabilities. I was not really impressed with its interface at all and that darn green pukey screen just was so not what I was looking for. I owned this machine for over a year and tried to MAKE myself fall in love with it.......Never happened!

For what its worth, Roland has been pretty fair about updates on thier equipment(more than I can say for Akai's staff), and they're already on vesion 3.25 or something. But for the most part if you just want to start working and groove, go with the MPC so you won't waste money later like I did!

I had a 4000 for a while, since they first came out.
When the MV dropped I was very into getting one so I sold my perfectly fine working MPC and bought a MV.
After a few weeks and playing with the VGA option I relized it was not was I was looking for.
The MV is a studio in a box, the MPC is a peice of a bigger studio.
If you have nothing the MV may be good for you, if you have a DAW, and other things you want to use in conjustion with you sampler workstaion then the MPC 4000 is for you.
I speak for myself when I say that the MV is a bit of everything but master of none.
The MPC is a top notch sampler and a real midi workstaion.
Its what you perfer.
I would rather have my Mackie Mixer eqs and my Masterlink to do a mixdown.
I would rather have my Avalons be my pres for vocal recording into a protools or cubase DAW with real Apogee da converters. Why would I record vocals on my MPC?
There is a place for the MV but not in my studio. People love that machine because it works for them.

No showdown just what works for you.

I'll have to also co-sign the 3 replies before me. My choice (MPC2500) was made simply because I know that I had been wanting an MPC for years. I didn't need any of the "extra" features that were offered in the MV8000 )multitrack recorder, vga output etc...)simply because I have other gear that would take care of the same tasks. The MV8000 was a bit enticing but in the end, the MPC2500 won because even though I tried to make myself believe that the MV8000 was a better choice, I didn't want to leave myself open to any disappointments. And thus far, I have not been regretful of my decision. And I guess you were right about us in here swaying more towards the MPC but what did you expect?

I agree with everyone as well.

The MV-8000 is more like a complete studio in a box. That is what I would probably get if I didn't have anything else in my studio.

Since I have quite a few MIDI sound modules/samplers/keyboards....an MPC was the logical choice for me.

slow and never like the roland interface even though i own a fantom. The mpc is all about the workflow. I can move around the machine reall easy. the roland is menu , menu and crap kills the creative flow in my opinion. I am not a akai nazi i will use what ever is managable.

this is from an old thread but it should help out, just didntwant to write it all again......

I had a MV for a while. I does have a loop option. the main reasons I didnt like it was that the load times took to long( 2min to load up and 2min to switch projects) and the other main reason was they had instrament(program for akai's) velocity, but no track velocity. so if you wanted to change one of your tracks velocity and you were using the same program on another track, you would either have to load the program in another spot(taking up more memory) or change the notes individualy. it also just had many random options that I never used because they were terrible compared to the PC. like for one thing, you could only use one effect at a time, resample to get the effect on there so you could use the "one effect ata time" for another track, whereas in protools I could just put as many effects as I needed for whatever. The MV is good for someone that needs a "all in one" but if you have computer programs and a good synth, then its just a bad MPC.

jahrome wrote:I agree with everyone as well.

The MV-8000 is more like a complete studio in a box. That is what I would probably get if I didn't have anything else in my studio.

Since I have quite a few MIDI sound modules/samplers/keyboards....an MPC was the logical choice for me.

I second that. Perfect for someone who dont have any recording equipment and so on. I can do without the long loading time. The MV is a awesome effort by Roland. I love and respect the company as for personal choice just to make tracks how I like I'll go with the 2500.