Buying an MPC 4000

Hello guys!

I'm buying an MPC 4000 for sequencing drums and synths. I don't have a mixer so i'm looking not just to midi sequence synths but also record their audio output to the 4000 so it can play along the drum pattern. Can that be done in the 4k? I know it's easier done on the 2500 with the audio tracks but what is the way around it on the 4k? Is there any?

Been doing a bit of research on this already. My only concerns on the 4k is the HDD breaking on me or the USB connection at the front. Is the HDD going for many years no problem on these units? Thx

The hard drives last a long time....10-20 years. It's a standard IDE hard drive.

If you're worried..replace it with an SSD and alleviate your fears.

As far as recording into the 4000 goes....recording a sample into it and then throwing stuff on top of it is easy as pie.

If you want to start talking about multitracking into it, I'm afraid it gets complicated quick. There's a way to do it but it's almost worth buying an interface and recording into a DAW...they were made to do things like this.

The USB connection in the front has no problems...

If you want to record riffs with the mpc via midi, and then record the pertaining 2,4,8 bar audio phrases from your sound modules/syths.. yes, easy to do. The MPC sequencer also will run while you record, so if you want to record improv audio parts, also not a problem..

I've heard recording longer pieces of audio are a problem due to samples going out of sync eventually. have only gone as far as 8 bar audio parts played live and recorded with the MP. never had those issues.

Akai really should have used laptop hard drives, they're at least designed to withstand a reasonable amout of vibration while running. If you bang your MPC like a set of drums , go SSD as said above.

that's good news didn't know it can be replaced with an SSD.

thanks for the replies guys. i didn't mean multitracking in the 4k i'll be doing that into the DAW no problem whatsoever.

what i meant was once i created the drum pattern i want to record a synth playing over the sequence and then loop it. not just sampling the synth into the MPC i can imagine that's easy. and i dont want to record the synth pattern as midi only but audio, straight from the synth's audio outs, playing over the drums in the 4k. i might be playing something in the middle of a bar and what naught. do u get my point? i don't mean just sampling. is that easy in the 4k, recording audio live over drums and then looping it?


the point is i only want to go to my DAW once my track is pretty much done and then finnish it in the DAW.

your replies are being appreciated

Technically that is sampling, and what you describe is what I was trying to describe... so yes.

yeah u're right szr cheers. i went back to your post and it makes sense yes. as far as sync goes and sequence length, 8 bar would do for me too. besides i'm quite convinced the 4k syncs well. yet there have been complaints and exceptions for various reasons, you know how it is. but its always good to get feedback from someone experienced with the unit so thx

Forgot to mention you need an adapter for the SSD, use the search on here, there's a thread on it

soundtech wrote:Hello guys!

I'm buying an MPC 4000 for sequencing drums and synths. I don't have a mixer so i'm looking not just to midi sequence synths but also record their audio output to the 4000 so it can play along the drum pattern. Can that be done in the 4k? I know it's easier done on the 2500 with the audio tracks but what is the way around it on the 4k? Is there any?

Been doing a bit of research on this already. My only concerns on the 4k is the HDD breaking on me or the USB connection at the front. Is the HDD going for many years no problem on these units? Thx

With JJOSXL for the 1k and 2.5k it's a breeze. I love digitally sampling my logic sounds when using logic as a Sound Module.Then dumping it to an audio track.


I dont even try it with the 4K, but I suppose it can be done. But instead of automatically dumping the audio into a audio track like JJOSXL...you would have to add it to sequence.it would create a track for it and play the audio along with the sequence.might be a better way, but i haven't tried to use my 4K in that way. I go so many sounds in my 4K that I don't really need to use it that way.

The USB port in the front is for USB thumb drives , Keyboards(typing) and external Hard Drives..there's also a USB port in the back for CPU connectivity.

I use both USB drive's every day and have since I bought mine 2 years ago, no problems here. You should be fine. I replaced the factory HDD with a new one when I got mine, and it's been great. Really awesome machine....enjoy!

thanx for the input guyz

another thing. somebody asked but i'm not sure they quite got the answer. i couldn't figure this out from reading the manual.

"I know that the 4000 is the only unit that can do this but just to be sure does this mean as you scroll through sounds on your internal hd you hear them in your seq qhile its playing"?

here's the link: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=57309

is that right? it's a feature i find very good and am really interested in. can any of you guys mpc 4k users confirm?

I don't believe previewing samples with the sequencer running works.

mQueue wrote:I don't believe previewing samples with the sequencer running works.

No it does not. Would be nice so that you could preview how drums sound in the mix, etc before loading them up.

thanx for the replies