Tried everything, but still no dice... SYNC b/w MPC and Cuba

Setup:

MPC2000XL MIDI OUT A ---> M-Audio FireWire 410 MIDI IN
M-Audio FireWire 410 ----> Cubase SX3

After going through the Cubase Sync Section in the manual, and doing everything step -by- step, I'm still not getting nada... can't control anything, and I tried setting MPC as Master, Cubase as Slave, and vice versa, all the MIDI TIME CODE and MIDI CLOCK combinations... tried everything.... nada.

The only think I can think of is that the M-Audio FireWire 410 is causing something to mess up along the way.
In the FireWire 410 Control Panel Sync Source options, its "Locked" in Internal mode. There are also options for "External-optical" and "External-coaxial" but the Control Panel doesn't let me choose them! The button is always stuck on "Internal" for Sync Source.

Maybe that is the problem... maybe not though. Can anyone on here help? This is like mission impossible for me right now

The 'Sync' settings you are referring to are for digital clock sync, via the coax or optical audio jacks. Completely unrelated.

If Cubase is like logic, it doesn't like to be slave. So to simplify things, just forget that for now.
So now you need to run Cubase as master, and in the setup you describe, you've got your cables connected improperly.

Midi out from computer to midi in on mpc.
Set up sync options in MPC to use the correct port / timecode or clock.
Set up cubase to transmit the same sync signal over the correct midi port.

You can read more detailed advice in this thread - there is an almost identical thing going on:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=138378

I don't use Cubase, so that's about all I can tell you.

Thanks Noggin...

Yea I was reading that thread before... I tried what you said but its still not working. Tried setting everything to 30 frames per second.

The MPC will freeze up sometimes though when I press "Play Start" and have everything set up on the MMC the way I think is right. It seems like its 'waiting' for something from Cubase... or it just froze... because I always have to turn off and turn on the MPC again, it just freezes at that point. When that happens, a split second message will show up on the bottom of the screen that seems to say "Waiting for midi clock data" or something of the sort.

I had it set up for MIDI Time Code btw, 30fps.

Someone please help? If anyone's in the San Diego area, I can recompensate you for your time, maybe meet up somewhere and try to troubleshoot the problem, I have Cubase on my laptop.

Nobody?

I don't even know who to turn to for advice on this... I feel like I've tried everything, read all the manuals, called tech support for akai cubase etc (no help there lol...) etc.

Should I try to hit up places like guitar center or something? Anyone in SD who could help me out? I can recompensate for time, I really want to get past this roadblock.

because I always have to turn off and turn on the MPC again

If that is true, which honestly, I doubt, then your MPC might have way more problems than not being able to receive sync. You should be able to hit stop and get out of that.

If you hit play, and it says 'waiting for midi clock', did you try sending midi clock to it?

Do you have the MPC set up to receive correctly...don't just say yes...try listing exactly what your mpc sync settings are on, as well as what the cubase sync settings are on. This way you have to double check everything and we can narrow down things one at a time.