Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
By Phillystres Wed May 26, 2004 7:16 pm
I just purchased an MPC 3000 Le and I need Help with the following:

1) I need to know wear I can find a backlight for an MPC 3000 LE,How Can I be sure the Backlight is dem something else isn't wrong

2) How can I Tell how much memory installed??

3) How Do make sample assigned to the pads stutter with no overlap??

4) Is the Forat zip drive floppy replacement a good Idea???

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By elmacaco Thu May 27, 2004 12:32 am
If you can see the screen but the light behind it is dim, the backlight needs replacing, Very common problem.

Go to www.midi-rakete.de and order it, much better than Backlights.co.uk.

Go to load a sample from disk and it will tell you how much memory you have free (do this when nothing is loaded in the machine).

Go to the sounds menu and go to the envelopes page, there you will see poly, change it to mono, and try out note-off so you know what it does.

I wouldn't go with an internal zip, it can be handy to have the floppy around.

By mpc3000le Thu May 27, 2004 3:51 am
Regarding the backlight.

If it is not glowing at all then it may be turned off.

Press in on the display contrast knob until it clicks.

This turns the backlight on and off.

Doing this will allow you to gage how faded out the backlight could be.

Rohan.

By elmacaco Thu May 27, 2004 4:22 am
Wow, do all 3000's have this feature or ust the LE ?
By Phillystres Thu May 27, 2004 4:50 am
mpc3000le wrote:Regarding the backlight.

If it is not glowing at all then it may be turned off.

Press in on the display contrast knob until it clicks.

This turns the backlight on and off.

Doing this will allow you to gage how faded out the backlight could be.

Rohan.


Ok the The Bacl ight is working afterall but one thing,Why is the screen so Dark with the BackLight off???
By peezie Thu May 27, 2004 6:57 pm
the 3000 screen has white text on black background (or light on dark) as opposed to black on white on other models...
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By kybeats Thu May 27, 2004 10:06 pm
Press in on the display contrast knob until it clicks.

This turns the backlight on and off.....

I never heard of that but it works good lookin...

I thought that maybe you could turn the light off in the daytime to save on its batteries lifetime....Wouldn't that be something

By mpc3000le Fri May 28, 2004 6:03 am
The Baklight can be turned on and off on the MPC3000, MPC3000LE and many of the S series models.

Why ? To stop burn out over long periods of being left turned on and idol.

In the MPC3000/MPC3000LE case this option to turn the backlight on and off is of most use when the IB-CRT VGA output board is fitted.

IE: You would be looking at a connected screen instead of the LCD and hence saving the backlight from burnout over time by turning it off.

Rohan.
By peezie Fri May 28, 2004 5:43 pm
hey rohan, my lcd screen buzzes after about an hour of use. will it mess up any other components inside if i keep using it like this? i want to get it serviced, but havent had money or time...

By mpc3000le Sat May 29, 2004 4:43 am
All flouro type LCD back lights make these noises to some extent.

The flouro LCD back light step up transformers in musical instruments are not that far removed in reality to those that drive your typical home "roof mount" tube style lighting in houses. ( on a smaller scale of course ).

Place your ear up to one of those.

They ARE noisy type of circuits.

Place a radio near one, listen to the induced noise ...

Because of their electrical noise generating characteristics they are often wired in machinery such that they don't interfere with other devices.

In other words... The power feed is direct wired to the mains stage seperate from delicate and filtered stages that drive sensitive computer electronic and audio sections of your MPC.

This buzzing becoming more prominent over time is the result of the LCD backlight flouro driver's internal high speed switching circuit changing as it warms up after periods of use.

A lot of LCD backlight drivers exhibit additional noise content in sypathy with line bourne mains power supply noise.

Place your MPC3000 on the same mains circuit as your washing machine on spin cycle and you will hear a definate change in how the buzzing is being affected.

The solution ?

First ... Run the MPC3000 and other equipment in your studio off a good quality mains isolator and harmonic noise filter device.

Second ...

Consider having the flouro backlight display driver changed to a better quality type that is less prone to noise generation under usual stresses of operation.

Third ...

Fit the machine with an IB-CRT board, connect a VGA monitor and switch the LCD backlight off for good...

Maybe a display specialist could jump in here and add some more suggestions ?

Just my $0.02 worth.

Rohan.

By elmacaco Sat May 29, 2004 6:41 am
A flat panel monitor with vga inputs would be the sweetest thing!!

I still think I'd prefer the little screen though, context for the soft buttons and such.

By mpc3000le Sat May 29, 2004 10:30 am
A friend of mine runs an MPC3000LE with a black flat panel Samsung LCD.

Looks slick !!! :-)

Me ? I still have an old IBM CRT style monitor on mine. ( can't afford a new LCD monitor just for the MPC at this stage )

Backlight only gets turned on when the monitor is not connected.

Cool.

Rohan.
By peezie Mon May 31, 2004 4:06 am
i have the vga option but i cant find a monitor that works. lcd panel would be sweet but it seems only the old ibm monitors are compatible..

By mpc3000le Mon May 31, 2004 12:12 pm
Goto a computer shop and purchase one of those "Monitor compatibility adapters" ....

They have VGA sockets on each end and heaps of jumpers for trial and error setting in the middle.

What is their correct name again ? I forget ( surprising yeah, sorry )...

:-)

In actual fact the MPC3000 IB-CRT board will work with any "true VGA backward compatible monitor", a lot of cheap ( and not so cheap ) modern monitors skimp in this area of their design.

Rohan.