I finally own one!

After months of deliniation I have finally purchased my MPC4000! I am stoked about it and already enjoy using it after about 12 hours. I am sure all of you are going to get sick of seeing me post because I will probably come here with all my problems

Anyway, I do have one problem with it and I was wondering if any of you have heard of something similar. Of the 4 cursor buttons (around the jog wheel) for up/down/left/right. My down button is harder to press then the other 3. I am assuming that is wrong but thought I would ask. And the place I got it from doesn't have any more until US distribution starts up again. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Adam

Ok, newbie question here. I have a good understanding of this machine. I mean I know the various things that it can do but I just have to learn how to manipulate them the way that I want too. I've had the 4K for about a half day now and I'm sampling, looping, creating sequences, tracks, and setting up songs with track muting, I've got AK.SYS running via USB with Sound Forge set up as the wave editor and I've even figured out Q-Link a little. That said, I'm still a little baffled by how to set everything up.


I mean just when I think I'm coming along, I find myself confused as to what it is a I'm trying to do at that moment. Basicly, I would LOVE IT if one of you mofos could explain how you attack a song from beginning to end. The way you set up your progs, sequences, tracks, and song arangements. Or in the alternative if you could send me to a tutorial that spells it out. One thing that is driving me crazy is that I can't figure out how to get the sample I want into a specific pad bank when I load it from the MPC. I can do it with the pad editor with AK.SYS though. Anyway, I've rambled enough. If anyone can see fit to help this MPC newbie become a producer of fine beats it would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

The first thing I ever did with my MPC4000 when I bought it almost a year ago was create a whole track from just a single drum loop I sampled off an old noisy cassette. I chopped it up using regions, took a couple of fragments of the sample looped to create a sawtooth kind of sound and then used that to create bass, and other synthy sounds. Once all the sounds had been created, then I just sequnced everything. The sound quality blew me away, but it wasn't the best track.. a bit too happy.

By the way, I love your character image. Did you do that yourself, or have you got a friend who's a writer?

Glenn.

Avene wrote:By the way, I love your character image. Did you do that yourself, or have you got a friend who's a writer?

Glenn.

Actually I snaked it from Banginbeats.com but I agree with you, it's dope!

PEACE

Adam

Just got mine today; Loaded up my mpc 2000 pgm files via zip scsi with no problem. I'm doing lots of poking around. Damn I miss the xl. I knew where everything was and how to make that joint behave. Haven't touched the manual yet; attempting efx next; after I do that then it's external midi time. I don't like the mixer screen or the pgm screen; looks like i'm going to have to crack the manual soon cause assigning efx just isn't apparent right now. I had the same prob when I first tried it on the old school 2000. One trip to the manual and problemo solved. The mixer section sucks.
I'm getting the analog 8 outputs on tuesday; thank god (295) and 256 megs ram (80). Now I have to find out what kind of cd-r and hard drive I can self install into the unit. Same Ish all over again; once i'm done though; it's on.

Guys' I'd like to know what came in the boxed version of the mpc 4000; I bought mine used and just got the manual and the power plug. Were there any or are there any usb cables etc.... or other things that came in the box?

Peace

It also comes with a cd with a sample library. I think you can get that for free from akaipro.com and the newer produced ones come with ak.sys cd as well and I know you can get that for free from akaipro.com. Also a warranty card, info for service centers and stuff like that. The important thing is that MPC, everything else is minutia.

Cool; So no Atapi ribbon cables for installing internal drive or power cables/screws? The manual says it comes included. I'm opening this joint Tuesday night when I pick up the analog 8 output expander.

It does come with a power cord as well. Mine didn't come with any ribbon cables for drives but then mine was a USA MPC that came with the internal 60 gig IDE drive already installed and CD-Rom already installed so I'm not sure if you got one without it if it would come with the cable.

Yeah; it's supposed to come with brackets/plates for mounting the drives properly. Looks like I'll have to desperately try to get in touch with akai this week and/or see if my buddies at the local shops can see to it that I get the necessaries from a boxed one.

Anyhow; I'm using external scsi zip and cd-rom drive. Loaded up akai s1000 cd-roms (dance mega series) and I must say that as a stand alone sampler the mpc 4000 is pretty damn incredible. I used the triton as a controller and I was amazed. The quality of sounds was comparable to the triton sampler (the triton is not 24/96 khz) and the triton sampler section is unparalleled. The beat slicer on the Triton is superior to the mpc 4000's; it's more comparable to recycle; the mpc 4000 just falls way too short in that dept. The efx board on the 4000 sucks; I'm sorry but I owned the 2000xl with the eb16 efx and I'm putting my neck on the line by saying this but the eb16 quality of effects sounded better. The tritons efx section is also leaps and bounds above the mpc 4000's efx and even emu samplers. As a sampler/hardware sequencer I feel the solidity of akai. No one can touch akai when it comes to the sequencer on hardware. I'm already at home using the swing etc... and tracking on the mpc 4000.
Gripes:
When I load a program akai or 2kxl from scsi cd-rom or zip and chose the clear all memory option I can't assign the sample program on the main screen; it does nothing. On the 2kxl it didn't do this.

The Efx are horrible. Useless; what happened?

The lack of information on the site regarding recommended hard drives and cdrws for internal use is disheartening. I'm going to have to experiment. Ultra atapi hd 100 or 133? 5400 or 7200rpm? I'm assuming any internal cdrw will do. My four and a half year old external scsi cd-r was recognized with no problem. I'm picking up an internal sony atapi cdrw tomorrow; i'll let you know how that goes.

I think the 4000 is a powerful addition to any setup. I have to limit it particularly for the beat minded musician (one who doesn't only do beats on the pc) who likes hands on. This is the piece to own. I'm spoiled by the quality of workstation that the triton has become (triton factory presets suck and so does their entire rom library) as a sampler/workstation it is incredible.
Emu sound modules are second to none; the quality of efx and sounds are superior to anything out there. Thick Rich sounding sounds and god forbid you add filter/efx to them via onboard tweaks.
I like the mpc as the master sequencer for these units. I constructed alot of pgm files from when I owned the 2000 and xl and have a tremendous sample library on cd-rom (akai s1000/3000 series) I no longer worry about gettting the mpc 3000 again; this machine kills it in every way shape and form in sound quality, swing, features and overall workhorse. I can personally attest to that. The ability to hook up a turntable directly to this unit definitley appealed to me. Sure there are round about ways that i've used many a time but this is fantastic.
The flexibility with scsi, usb leaves you with so many options. The aksys software just raises the bar and sets the precedence for every other after the mpc 4000 to follow. Every hardware unit should have a software counterpart.
I'm pleased and don't regret giving up the xl studio plus. I haven't even messed with the filter and sound shaping section of this beast yet. It's going to be tough tearing me away from the tritons filter sweeping and sound shaping capabilities. I have checked out the roland fantom and the motif and happily decided to stay with the triton. Fantom has the d-beam but lacks analogue outs (there is the digital option though) and isn't as intuitive as korgs triton. The motif is a strong contender, it sounds amazing but as a workstation I don't like it. I really wanted to toss the triton but only because of the quality of sound library available for it and the horrible factory sounds. The ribbon underneath the pitch bender is nasty; you can do so many things with that ribbon, filter sweeps, efx, simulate turntable scratching etc... and the knobs can be assigned immediately to do anything from filter sweeps to efx tweaks in seconds.
I do hope the sliders on the mpc 4000 will excite me to that point. I'm only 48 hrs with this bad boy and haven't scratched the surface yet. I already feel the power within this unit and it's just a matter of time b4 I find a way to abuse it and hopefully expand upon what is waiting to come out of me.
Peace

What's so bad about the effects on the MPC4000? And which effects do you think are the worst? They sound alright to me. Have you tried editing the parameters?

IMHO the efx on the 4000 sounds great. The only thing that sucks is the reverb but most samplers have horrible reverbs anyway. I like the compression and distortion and chorus effects. I like how you can sample and resample with effects. I think this is the best effects processor akai has made so far.

I don't like any of the efx. Between owning the Triton, Yamaha 01v and Emu sound modules; the efx on the mpc 4000 sound tinny and are unusable for me. I went straight to the reverb section and I made my decision based on the presets. Hearing the presets backed me off of even trying to edit or even bother to check for other useful efx. The aforementioned equipment really is leaps and bounds ahead in the efx department.

On another note; I messed with the q-link function; it's as serious as it gets. Real time filtering (cutoff; reso) and pan and volume changes (again real time) were astounding. (emu and Korg though are masters in the dept of filter, reso lfo control overall quality, I prefer Emu of the 3 when filter sweeping and effecting a sample/loop) But nonetheless Akai has a winner on their hands. More time with the unit and maybe I'll come back and tell you different. Anyhow this is truly fantastic for a drum/sampler/sequencer workstation.

I'll be receiving those necessary materials by tomorrow (thank you akai Japan for putting me ahead on the list and calling me back pronto with the contact info I needed to expedite this) to install an internal 40 gig hd and 52x cdrw. I paid 150.00 for both newly boxed. I'm wating for the 8 analog outs as I type this (it's coming today) and increasing the memory (ram) and I'll have a full blown studio A sampler at a 2050 dollar cost. I'll have the camera on for the install/upgrade part of the Mpc 4000 instructional video I'm working on.

Peace

Damixx, don't write off the effects due to your first impressions. Start messing around with the effects and you'll find that they don't sound so bad. You say the reverbs sound tinny? If you checked the edit page, you'd notice that on nearly all the reverbs the HF damping is set quite low. Set this higher and the reverbs no longer sound as tinny.

I used to own an 01V and an E-MU E5000 myself, and to my ears the MPC4000's effects are no worse than the effects on those units.

When it comes to filters, the voweliser filter on the MPC4000 is no match for the vocal sounding filters on the E5000, or any other E4 series sampler. But that's about. The effects do the job quite nicely though. If I need to use external effects, I'll just run some parts through them and resample them into the MPC4000.

Glenn.

Installed, ib4adt 8 output expansion, internal 40 gig hard drive, 52x cdrw and 128 megs pc 100 sdram (snatched it from a 5 year old pc, I no longer use).
All went well. I now officially own a beast of a machine. I feel like i'm one with the unit now that I've installed the parts myself.
It's onward now to producing the video and make some kick ass projects.

Peace