Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By kingrome_1 Tue May 19, 2009 9:35 pm
SMC wrote:Word, I'd buy em all day maxed out for $400!!!!! DANG!!!

Dude, if you have a 001, get yourself a cheap G3 or G4 Mac Tower

G3's can be had for like $30-40 on CL, and G4's for $150 to about $300 depending on what you get.

If cheap is the key, get a G3, otherwise I suggest a G4. I know cats running LE on dual 867 MHz G4's, I have a G4 MDD Dual 867 running a Mix System and it's off the chain for live or production work, and I've known guys running HD (First Gen PCI/PCIx stuff) on G4's.

To build on the Mac thing further. I've got 3 systems.
LE on a Dual 2.8 Rackmount AMD with MSI MOBO, 4GB RAM Win XP Pro SP2, PT LE 7.1 - 16 Channels
MIX on a Dual 867 Mac G4 MDD with 2 GB Ram, OS 10.3.9, PT TDM 6.4.1cs4 - 32 Channels
HD1 on a Quad 2.33 Intel on a ASUS P5Q, 8GB Ram, Win XP Pro SP2, PT HD 8 - 16 Channels, soon to be 32
(And I should mention all my plugs are native, and I've got, and use, a lot of em, and I can mix a bit on my G4)

All very good systems for what they are used for.
A 001 on a G3 will get you by, while a G4 Quicksilver Dualcore, or MDD,
with 2GB Ram will get you by on production, and mild mixing.

You're not gonna do 48 track extensive mix and master effectively, at least not with DSP heavy plugs,
cause you just won't have the processing, but either a G3 or G4 will get you going, with 'according' results.

Just some thoughts.....

Ooooh, oh yeah.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %26otn%3D1

HAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Maybe I shouldn't have :)

thanks for the info chief i know mac is hte way to go but it seems scary lol...i just feel like my 001 is gunna start giving me error msgs when i try tyo install everthing.
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By SMC Wed May 20, 2009 2:09 pm
kingrome_1 wrote:thanks for the info chief i know mac is hte way to go but it seems scary lol...i just feel like my 001 is gunna start giving me error msgs when i try tyo install everthing.


On XP probably :)
http://archive.digidesign.com/compato/xp/001/
NOTE the supported hardware, doesn't list a lot of your critical components such as MOBO

On a G4 AGP Quicksilver, prolly not.
http://archive.digidesign.com/compato/osx/001/
http://archive.digidesign.com/compato/osx/001/g4.cfm

I've seen 001's on G3's, but it's not officially qualified

I've also seen em on XP, but it's not officially qualified,
and you've got 5 million hardware configurations which may be incompatible

A G4 Quicksilver at minimum is gonna be trouble free.

So, if you run 6.4 (Maybe up to 6.4.1cs4) with OS 10.3.4 (Panther, maybe up to 10.3.9)
You're gonna be fine.

Macs are way simple to work.

A dual 867MHz G4 MDD will run you $300 tops on CL.

Keep in mind Macs run completely different from PC's in terms of system/hardware/performance/compatibility/etc

You can't compare bus speed, and CPU speeds to that of PC,
cause in Comparison, a Mac runs at about Double the speed if you were looking at a PC.....
(ie, dual 867 on a Mac is more like a dual 1.734)

I've seen 800 MHz single core Quicksilvers sell for $75 on CL
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By SMC Wed May 20, 2009 7:15 pm
OMGorsh... I just typed a ton and it dissapeared.......

anyway. It's great. Everything is clean and streamlined.

Things get installed in one place rather than 10.

Windows is made by one company. And your individual PC can have hardware from a ton of manufacturers. And software can be dependant on the hardware as well, especially pro tools.

MAC makes the hardware and the software. So there's no guesswork on wether the hardware will work right on the OS with the software you're using. Pro Tools for that qualified Mac only has to target ONE setup, vs a possible... what.... thousand?
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By SMC Thu May 21, 2009 1:50 pm
I strongly suggest a G4 within the compatibility listed here:
http://archive.digidesign.com/compato/osx/001/g4.cfm

That being said...... I'd grab a DUAL PROCESSOR G4 QUICKSILVER if you can.
It will run you $150+ but is gonna kick butt for you.

Otherwise any Single Core Quicksilver 800 MHz+ will be fine as well.

YES there is a difference in G4's and Quicksilvers.

If it's not silver DO NOT buy it. :)

Just avoid the 733MHz Quicksilver.... And make sure it's silver, that's all you need to worry about.
and there are diff names for them too such as Quicksilver, MDD for Mirror Drive Door, FW400, FW800
Just get a 800MHz single core AT LEAST, can't stress that enough.....
The rest is just increased hardware benefit such as bus speeds, processors (speed, single, dual), etc

When looking at the Mac, click the Apple on the top left of the screen and select ABOUT THIS MAC,
and it will show you the model, Processor/s, RAM, OS, etc,
then you can click MORE INFO or whatever it is and look at further specs.

You can also go to the Utilities panel and look at the complete hardware listing, sorry,
I'm not with mine so I can't really tell you exactly, but if it's not in the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen
(You might have to hover there if it's on auto hide) Then double click the Disk Drive, go to Applications??
Scroll thru and find Utilities?

Then you should find more info, but at any rate, the ABOUT THIS MAC will tell you your most critical info

MAKE SURE IT'S AT LEAST AN 800MHz CPU cause the 733's had issues with Pro Tools.

:) Helpful?

Also, when you get one I can help you get it set up right.
You may need to install a second hard drive if it doesn't already have one.
Pro Tools doesn't like to record to the OS drive, it will, but it's buggy, so you'll need a second drive.
Then, internally, you'll take the Optical Drives (CD/DVD) and plug them into the 33MHz bus
Then the OS Drive into the 66MHz,
and then it can vary.
If you have no other buses then the Audio drive will also go on the 66,
if you have another, it will be a 100 or a 133, and your Audio Drive will go there.
This will provide optimum bandwidth usage of your buses for what particular drives need.
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By jgarcia1419 Sun May 24, 2009 4:49 am
cf reader all the way. it will make life easier and let you focus on making music instead of waiting for sounds to load up!
:P
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By mumkai Wed May 27, 2009 9:16 pm
vinyl_junkie_1620 wrote:Sweet buy, I see you got a 60mk2 also..very nice indeed
CD rom man are you joking me hahahah how you gona save to that ****? cos it's ROM read only..get your self a cheapo usb zip drive of ebay

Use ZIP's, the MPC-2000XL is totaly different to your 60..you don't need MPC editor or ****..the MPC-2000XL reads windows format zip's, floppies, cd's, cards etc...you just stick a zip drive in the PC (make sure you format them in the PC not MPC other wise the PC doesnt see them I found) and drag the files you want on the zip..go crazy create folders what ever then just bung the disk in the MPC...yeah ok you don't have any pgm's created at this point but you got all the sounds there and also I think every project is different so PGM's I don't really care for very much..don't know if the 60 lets you audition sounds before you assign them to a pad but the 2k does



would this work with mac?