Yall probably could help better than guitar center.

I bought an MPC2kxl about a month ago and guitar center obviously has no clue about it. I dont have the internet, and when I do get on I cant find exactly what I want. I have a MPC2kxl and a hp pavilion laptop. I also dont know jack, yet, about audio gear and all that. I know yall are gonna call me a nube or whatever, but so be it...

If someone could help me with these things, it would help greatly:

1- All I have is MPC2000xl, laptop, and speakers. I know I need turntables ,mixers, zip drives and all that jazz. Please recomend some that work great and the basic applications for them (ex. A zip drive will.....). I will save up the money to buy everything, I just need a list of items to save up for. Once I have it all, Im sure I can figure out how they connect and interact with good ole trial-and-error.

If anyone takes the time to lend a helping hand, THANK YOU, KINDLY.

Personally, imo, that zip stuff is so old school. What I would do (and this will work with flying colors if you're computer literate and you're good with your hands) is take whatever floppy/zip reader out and replace it with a card reader.

That way if you have a card reader on your laptop (which I suspect you do), you can transfer and save your work with no problems.

Rob Joker wrote:1- All I have is MPC2000xl, laptop, and speakers. I know I need turntables ,mixers, zip drives and all that jazz. Please recomend some that work great and the basic applications for them (ex. A zip drive will.....). I will save up the money to buy everything, I just need a list of items to save up for. Once I have it all, Im sure I can figure out how they connect and interact with good ole trial-and-error.

Your budget will ultimately dictate what you will be able to purchase. It's hard to recommend anything without knowing how much money you can spend.

You don't need a whole lot of gear to make music. You already have enough to get started. I would not buy a bunch of gear and then try to hook it up and figure it out. Try working with the stuff you already have and then build off of it.

You only need a turntable if you want to sample from vinyl.

There is nothing wrong sampling from CDs. I imagine your laptop already has a CD-ROM drive so you just need to connect the output of your sound card into the input of your MPC with a cable like this:

dabmeister- By card reader you mean like a scandisk memeory card type deal? Any suggestions on one that will fit correctly in the slot currently used by my floppy reader? Thats a great idea btw, the floppy loads so damn slow. Think the card reader will be a little faster?

Hunter- Im not too keene on the sound card aspect of my laptop. Would I have to remove that and modify it, or is it as simple as plugging in some cables? I have tried an M-Audio midisport uno USB-MIDI connector, but that wasnt compatible with Windows Vista -64...................Also, if im reading you correctly, your saying I can just hook up a turntable straight to the mpc and sample that way? If so thats awesome. if not please explain. And good point about mastering what I have currently. I have been burrying my nose in this MPC manual since I got it. I feel relatively comfortable with all the MPC functions now. But I am going to have to save up for my next piece of equipment, which will allow even more time for me to learn it proper. And as far as money goes, I'm pretty dedicated to doing this, so I wil just save up til I have the amount I need.

Thanks for all the help fellas, I really do appreciate it.

Rob Joker wrote:so, if im reading you correctly, your saying I can just hook up a turntable straight to the mpc and sample that way?

No. If your turntable does not have a preamp, then you will need to amplify the signal into the MPC.

Seriously consider purchasing the MPC2000XL Tutorial advertised to the right of the screen. This tutorial will go over many of the basics that will aid you in your setup.

Hunter- I will purchase the tutorial next week. It looks like exactly what I need to get my setup correct. Thank you.

Dabmeister- Thats what Im talkin about man! I'll cop that within the next couple weeks.

Thanks to both of yall. I'll post pics once I get everything set up.

-Rob

You can get the card reader a bit cheaper if you search around on this forum.

Thanks Coz, I'll do that.

1 more question- Is there a cd reader I could install? Would that be a better idea than the card reader?

Rob Joker wrote:Is there a cd reader I could install? Would that be a better idea than the card reader?

The only cd reader you can use would be an external scsi cd-rom. There's no place you can install a cd-rom on a 2kxl.

Your best bet is to stick with the card reader.

Ok. I'll stick with the card reader.

I was also wondering If I could put some kind of memory in it. I'll mess with it for a few hours and the only way I can save it is back to the floppy (which is a pain in the ass, because I have to re-load everything every time I turn it on). When I shut it off, I loose everything if I dont save to Floppy.

P.S. I know Im asking alot of questions, but thats only because I feel yall will be able to put me on the right track.

Thank You For the Help Thus Far,
Rob

Rob Joker wrote:Ok. I'll stick with the card reader.

I was also wondering If I could put some kind of memory in it. I'll mess with it for a few hours and the only way I can save it is back to the floppy (which is a pain in the ass, because I have to re-load everything every time I turn it on). When I shut it off, I loose everything if I dont save to Floppy.

P.S. I know Im asking alot of questions, but thats only because I feel yall will be able to put me on the right track.

Thank You For the Help Thus Far,
Rob

Once you get your compact flash card reader in there you won't need the floppy anymore and a 2 gb card holds as as much sounds as 1500 -2000 floppys and you can save your programs and sequences and sounds on the card

Welcome to the world of making music. Youtube is your best free source for help on vid format. Dont give up and keep it simple untill u get the hang of it. Boom boom clap beats untill u figure out the bars and timing. Keep it at like.90- 100 bpms.. have fun.

I just installed my card reader on the MPC. Thanks to all those who helped put me on the right track. I'll post pics when I get the time. Im going to get a turntable with a pre-amp next week. let me know if yall got some tips using the turntable/mpc combo.

Rob Joker wrote:I just installed my card reader on the MPC. Thanks to all those who helped put me on the right track. I'll post pics when I get the time. Im going to get a turntable with a pre-amp next week. let me know if yall got some tips using the turntable/mpc combo.

these vids will help you learn some techniques

http://www.youtube.com/user/supreme7g#p/u/7/s39XfNoBvh0