starting from scrach?

hey guys, this is my first post so it might be a little lame but im just gettin' started...

i love a million different kinds of music and wanted to get an mpc to use for a bunch of different styles. i love hip-hop, dub, electronic stuff and also plan to use it live for sublime-esq phrase samples. im really a guitar player and my real knowledge has to do with glowing vacuum tubes and germanium transistors. (if anyone needs guitar advise i can help! lol) anyway...

i have never owned or really heavily used an mpc or any sampling/looping/beat making stuff before, so i dont have a preconceived idea of what feels "normal" to me... i feel like an integrated box like an mpc would be better than a laptop/software because im a much more hands on type person. id like to be able to sample from a turntable/vinyl and other sources too.

after searching the forum iv basically come down to an mpc1000 with the jjos or an mpc2000xl. both seem to have there advantages, but since im starting from nothing i can work with either basically. the 1k seems to be more powerful and have more built in effects and such, were as the 2kxl seems to be more solidly build and is supposed to have a fatter sound.

being a guitar player, i can relate to the "older shit is warmer sounding" thing, and feel like its mostly true, and love the fact that the older one was used on some classic stuff, but am worried it might lack features i might want later on. like i said, im 100% new to this so i dont know whats really important and whats just extra shit. what are the really important functional/feature differences? also, is one layout more "standard" were i would be able to adapt to different machines faster, or is it pretty much not that important? what would you do?


sorry this is mo' long and thanks for all the help... -john

Lampdog wrote:1k w/ jjos.

You can make it sound fat later on in your daw.

exactly.

Even though the 1k has more capabilities, I believe its the first "numark" MPC; which means theyve taking shortcuts on the build quality, so I would go with the 2kxl since its solid.

fasttrackpimp wrote:For starting out , I'd say to get the 1000. You won't have to mess with scsi or atapi **** and you won't have to search as hard to find a decent 1000 as you would trying to find a decent xl.

+1


and you don't have to worry about buying an old technology $300.00 screen when it goes out.

i honestly also have to say get the ol´

i didnt get really comfortable with 1k even with jjos

the grid editor is ultra handy... but thats about it so much ither stuff just in the way (IMHO)

depends on what you wanna do, if you need that many functions and want it to be modern connectable and small 1k all the way
just wasnt for me

thanks for all the info guys. i guess at this point im just going to see what comes up for a better deal since they still seem pretty equal on most fronts.

i MAY have a line on a really nice 2000xl, what is a fair price for one of these?

^about 500

I'd say forget mpc alltogether and move on to software

I would go for the 1000 w/JJ. Or look for a used 2500($800), about the same price of a 1000!!

Basically for your needs any mpc will do but the main thing for me is the improved workflow of the 1k with jj. It's not about the features (which are light years beyond any other mpc) it's just how fast you can work on it.

Also you don't wanna mess around with outdated, unreliable and expensive storage systems. And you will want to interface it to your computer... The classic mpc's are an investment of time and energy and you should make sure you are serious before you get one.

Btracks81 wrote:I would go for the 1000 w/JJ. Or look for a used 2500($800), about the same price of a 1000!!

+1