Sat for a minute with the great Naoya of Akai Japan today and explored the MPC 4000 1.51w many of the functions were working fine including the no spin drive just have to use that load button again to restart the drive. He hip me to the use of usb flash rom stick for changing files and the os 1,51 and 1,51w when it is convienent. One problem I talk about was the slice sample into a sequence which in 1.51 would sequence with correct timing but erase the previous sequence. However 1.51w merges the samples with the sequence, but doesn`t quantize/line up the notes like before. We worked at it several times but in the end we had to manually line up the notes it is definitely a bug which he said he would refer to the software team. I questioned him on length on the eq in mixer however it is still set from qlink page. He did show me how to adjust individual eq gains by changing wet/dry parameter to the effect parameters (you learn something new each day how did I miss this it wasn`t in the manual) but I was happy to use the function. As before Mr Nakamura compose the tunes that are playing on the MPC demo at NAMM he told me and let me listen to. It is nice with that electro dance sounds. At first I asked him was it built from loops like Reason no he said. He sampled all the notes from his keyboard (actually he a pro keyboardist) and synstheize them in the 4000 which he says he prefers to work. Then off into the world of synsthesis which left me wide-eyed and silent watching a master at work. ( Tip it is best sometimes to stop asking questions and just watch.) Someone can explain to ya all day but one still won`t understand until you do it yourself which is what he does afterwards with give it a try, Naoya is a cool as dude. Through the course of sound designing on the 4000 program mode he showed me one tool he still constantly use which is the MFC Filter Module and went to explain that the DSP chip in 4000 and the analog circuit has a different sound. I stated that both have filters and couldn`t I use the qlink to control the setting in the 4000 which he agreed; however, for sound designing, studio recording and live improvsation which he demostrate I had to agree the MFC is much more intuitive and warm. It cannot mount on the 4000 like the 2000 but I can resample the results into the MPC 4000 and control it using qlink with controller messages and vice versa. So I decided to get one USED from Naoya the man to eq, filter and mode my samples. I talked about the MV 8000 a little about others comparasion to the 4000 which he said that 1.60 will be released soon. And in the forseeable future there are no plans for a MPC 2500 or next model this year or the next year. Alot of users of the MPC use HDR and MTR for mixing and mastering. In the future O.S 1.61 other concerns would be address but he couldn`t give details. I for one always tracked my sessions to a MTR (Pro Tools) before Roland 2480 and tracked and mixed it. But a pro mastering engineer can really polish up one`s production which is another story. I shook his hand for his help and time and arrange to have the MFC deliver to my place I didn`t bring alot of money and his office is like a storeroom and warehouse so I couldn`t use a credit card because they don`t keep cash registrar in the office he had to talk with the marketing guy first to free up the display model which was the blue one first but the mk guy wouldn`t let me have that saying it was the last one. I didn`t push it didn`t want to get Naoya in trouble who told me it was used hey the lessons were free!!!! The shirt was too small so I have to reorder again the XXL is out of stock I coulda got the XL but I wanted it in a loose style. That it
