New to the forum and MPC connectivity before purchase...

just wanted to say hi to everyone,i am new to the forums and look forward to being apart of the mpc family soon enough lol but first,i would like to clarify what i would need for connectivity and if it will be expensive or not. as far as a mpc,obviously not USB and i am wondering what is the minimum required to have it up and running on my laptop via FL studio or reason? i read in another forum that all i needed was a certain cable to be able to do so,link here: http://www.futureproducers.com/forums/p ... op-233051/

but i am not too sure what i need to buy to connect it to my laptop to allow me to transfer files i suppose and have it recognized by my laptop in reason of FL studio. i have always used midi keyboards in the past whenever i would make music (i have not made any ina bout 4 years lol so i am a bit of a temp noob right now) and now i wish to venture into a pad controller/sampler as i have always wanted to. any help would be appreciated,thank you

Well FL and Reason are both sequencers. The MPC sequences within itself, so I guess it's really a question of what you are trying to do. What are you looking to have FL and Reason do? Are you sequencing ON the MPC and using Reason sounds? Or are you just looking to use the MPC as a controller IN FL and Reason??? Get my drift. If you're just using the MPC as a controller, I would say that's an expensive route and a little bit over kill. You're just using the pads to play drums at that point.... might as well get the MP49 or whatever it is... it's like a USB direct stripped down pad controller. You get the 16 pads to control sounds on your computer, much like a usb midi keyboard would do. That would be the cheapest route. Now if you're looking to have the MPC run as a sequencer, you're going to have to incorporate an interface that will provide MIDI communication to the MPC. This is the older approach to doing production. Things get more complicated and saving sessions becomes more painstaking.

If you modeled some bassline on an external module, you would have to save it on THAT sound module (like a rack mount) Then you would have to remember or document the name of the patch you made for that song in relation to your MPC session files... so when you reload the beat in 6 months you can have your original bass line back in place... this gets old when you stack up 100 beats and have all these new edited patches building up.

Ask me more specifics if you know what you really are looking to do.

i just want to be able to make my instrumentals on my mpc,i have never used a mpc before,so i am really new to it n its functions.i have done some research but it all looked like french to me. i was told to just record audio with it,this was the only component needed: http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/p ... 369729.jpg and i just wanted to clarify if that was false or not.i have some records i wanted to chop up and place on my mpc,i just need to know the "plug n play" method for my mpc 2000. need me to be more specific or is that enough to come to a conclusion with?

all you really need to get started is a couple of 1/4 cables some decent speakers or headphones and a sound source.

theophanephoebus wrote:i am wondering what is the minimum required to have it up and running on my laptop via FL studio or reason? i read in another forum that all i needed was a certain cable to be able to do so,link here: http://www.futureproducers.com/forums/p ... op-233051/

This is what I was responding to. I guess you could play instruments in Reason and record them from your headphone jack into the mpc but this is for lack of a better word... retarded. Are you using Reason and FL right now?

If you wanna record records to chop up you need your turntable to run through some type of mixer or maybe a home stereo unit. It's important that it is going through PHONO inputs at some point.... i'll spare you the explanation (unless you want it), but definitely a must.

The 1/16 to R and L 1/4 cord will allow you to record from any source that has a 16th inch output jack, like your computer headphone jack, or i guess and ipod or walkman, or cd player. Does that help at all?

@Swaylocks preciate it my man,i believe i saw some on MF the other day,similar to the one i pointed out from another forum

i found the audio cable i needed on MF for about $8,so im good on that. @Mastakilla the programs i just got were FL studio 9 (working on getting 10),cubase, and reason 4. like i said before,i have NEVER used a MPC before but always wanted to since i was about 11 years old,i have only the basic knowledge of music production but i am slowly yet surely advancing each. i teach myself piano and all i use in the past was a MIDI keyboard but i wish to use a MPC now considering i have changed my goal on music ultimately,came from maturing over that 4-5 year break. right now,i just need to know do i even need a program to use with my MPC (considering its already a sequencer),how do i add new sounds and etc to my mpc (drag and drop method?), and how do i go about saving the instrumentals i have made and transfer them to my laptop via my mpc

theophanephoebus wrote:i just need to know do i even need a program to use with my MPC (considering its already a sequencer),how do i add new sounds and etc to my mpc (drag and drop method?), and how do i go about saving the instrumentals i have made and transfer them to my laptop via my mpc

Okay, one way you could use the set up you've described would be to use FL to record .WAV files of individual instruments or you could use the .WAV slicer in FL to dice up sounds and then move them to you MPC.

As for "Dragging and Dropping" sounds... you would have your MPC's storage device (zip disk or CF or SD card) being read by your computer.... If you got the MCD drive, you can pop a SD card in your laptop and it will display as a drive on you pc... then you can throw your sounds on it and just pop it in you mpc. Also you wil want to back up your MPC session files onto a Folder on you pc... probablly save them in 2 spots. Technically you DON'T need any software program to use with your mpc.... there's many directions you can go, i think once you are acclimated with the style of production you will then know where you wanna take it.

These guys are really helping you out. Thanks yall.

Just wanted to drive home:

i just need to know the "plug n play" method for my mpc 2000

There is none....unless the thing you are plugging into is a tape recorder. If you want plug and play / drag and drop, you would want to get a newer mpc such as the 1000 or 2500. As mentioned, it's possible with older mpcs using a card reader but you still need a go-between device that shares media with the mpc and your computer...your are not 'plugging and playing' your mpc into anything (other than a turntable or tape recorder).

@nogginj i didnt really mean a plug n play method as in usb but i meant just to get it connected and going
@mastakilla is is possible for me to get a floppy disk drive for my laptop and transfer my sounds from that there? ik they have a usb floppy disk drive but im questioning if it would work or not

A USB floppy would be a perfect "go-between" between the mpc and the computer. You've got the right idea.

Best thing to do would be format the disk from a pc into the 'FAT' or 'FAT16' format, then both machines can recognise the disk. If you format on the MPC I don't think the computer can see it (correct me if I'm wrong).

nogginj wrote:Best thing to do would be format the disk from a pc into the 'FAT' or 'FAT16' format, then both machines can recognise the disk. If you format on the MPC I don't think the computer can see it (correct me if I'm wrong).

interesting, i just ordered myself a usb iomega zip drive... i assumed u could just format it on the mp, but good to know. I should be able to test this out in a few days.