!!

Hi!

What I great day! I feel happy and the material for my first 7" record is finally finished. So now I'm ready to seek new land

I have had a new Akai MPC2500 Special Edition for months that's been collecting dust on a shelve. I haven't had the "courage" to start using it. I want to do that now!

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I'm a bit sad that I bought it about ½-1 year just before Akai announce a whole new line of MPCs (Renaissance, Studio, the iPad one...) - but I'm trying to look at it like this: I will be using the top-of-the-pops of the oldschool MPC systems (at least it's the coolest model in my eyes, but then again... I'm the biased owner) which is pretty cool in it self. I ONLY miss 24-bit sound support. But I can just record via analog jack cables into my audio interface in 24 bit quality (for better headroom and processing quality).
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I have previously owned an MPC1000 (blue version), so I know some a few extremely basic things. Like how to auto-chop a sample, edit start/end points, auto-assign across 16 pads, and a little more (if I can still remember it correctly). Also I'm a very good beatmaker on PC, I know basic music theory, I'm good at chopping samples, combining samples, playing basslines, sampling my own drums from vinyl etc. So my skill level is not a problem. It's my un-familiarity with the MPC series.

1.
The MPC2500 SE doesn't come with a harddisk drive in it. I plan to buy one and install it myself. Is this hard? I believe I read it can't read harddisks bigger than 128GB. Is this correct? Can I do this myself if I buy an 128GB "MPC-friendly harddisk from thomann.de and follow ie. YouTube instruction videos?

2.
I want to start using the MPC right away. The only storage media included was an original Akai compact memory card - and I don't have another one! I've read that the original OS flash files are on this memory card (and I really want to keep the original OS files as a backup) If this is true, is it then a bad idea to start using it temporarily for storing samples and projects on it? Should I have patience and wait till I have a harddisk installed or at least another memory card?

3.
On my old (blue) MPC1000 I shortly before selling it, installed the free JJOS which I fell completely in love with. I want to buy the best JJOS version for my MPC2500 SE at some point. Wouldn't it be best to just install JJOS right away and start using that instead of original OS? I mean, so I don't have to go trough a double-learning process (meaning: learning Akai's OS + later JJOS). Shouldn't I switch directly to JJ's amazing OS?

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Regarding q. 3: I have searched trough and read a lot of posts about it. I've seen some posts say that learning to use Akai OS before installing JJOS supposedly is a good idea. But is this really neccessary. I know I won't be using Akai OS, because what I've seen of JJOS I love. So, just to repeat myself again, couldn't I just as well switch directly to JJOS?
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4.
Related to q. 2 + 3: I only have the ONE compact memory card that was included (the one I believe holds the original Akai OS flash files). Say I want to flash JJOS onto the MPC2500, is it then a bad idea to use the original Akai flash card for putting the JJOS flash files on, and flash it onto the MPC with? Could this eff around with the original Akai OS flash files on the card??

I'm very aware these questions are very n00b, and some of them have been discussed on the forum before (I have done searches...)! But I just want to be absolutely sure what I'm doing is right!

THANKS a lot in advance for intelligent and useful answers.

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NB: Sorry for my terrible English. I'm from Denmark, a country of people who ordinarily have acceptable English skills, but if I've used bad grammar or explained myself horribly then... believe me, I already know my English sux
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Peace!

Hi,

You can start with buying a good CF card. Personally I think it s enough. I don t remember the capacity of the AKAI CF for the 2K5 but for the 1K it was 32mb so it was too small compared to the 128mb RAM.

If you really want to buy a HDD, I wouldn t recommend thomann, you d better buy it on a website selling computer stuff.

Peace

Installing the HDD is just like doing it on a pc. Check if 2500 comes with the hdm-10 kit or do you have to get one separately. Make sure you get right type of HDD tho (check the sticky threads on 1000/2500 forums)!

Usually people say that you should start by learning the Akai OS because the JJOS manual expects you to be familiar with the ins and outs of the machine (to a certain extent). So all prior knowledge will help you get more out of it. Start by installing the Free JJOS, it's the most like Akai OS but with critical bug fixes and huge improvements already.

Also as the instructions on JJOS features can be a bit cryptic at times you need to do some additional head scratching to really understand them (test them on your machine while you're reading, check youtube videos for examples etc.).

That all said, if you know that you need a certain feature right away (multitimbrality, patterns etc.) then by all means dive in to the OS2XL! There's no denying that the OS is amazing! Don't be afraid to take your time to learn stuff properly and have fun while you're at it.

JJOS DEV youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/60017120/videos

good for checking features out in addition to reading the manual.

Heretic wrote:first 7" record

Are you makin dancehall/ragga? just asking