need some info before buying a 3000

About to buy a 3000 for 900 but have some questions about the save process and zip config before i buy.
1. What zip disk will work for sure and is there a switchable usb/scsi devices so i can move samples from cpu to zip and then switch the cable back to scsi and hook to the 3000.

2. Does the 3000 load programs like any Other mpc were u load all sounds,midi,and sequencing all at once?

3. do i have to sample drums in to get the coloration for my drum or will they auto transfer coming out the converters?

4. How many sounds can be held on a zip and when makin a program on a mpc can i swap zips and go ahead and save all to another zip so i can have my work on that one zip alone?

just gotta know what i can do with this older technology cause i dnt wanna make things any harder on me but i really do wanna 3000.

dmajor100 wrote:just gotta know what i can do with this older technology cause i dnt wanna make things any harder on me but i really do wanna 3000.

If this is the case, the 3000 might not be for you.
As far as the ZIP drive, you can buy USB zip drives for your computer, about $15 on ebay. You can also get a cf card reader.

I dnt mind extra work i just dnt know how people save and load the work bwck up and the manner of how they do it. Do people save all seq on one zip and programs on another, do ppl save as much as they can on a few zips or what? Id persoanly like to get a cf card reader for max storage but that just would clear up storage and still need to know about loading. I read the manual and is a aps the program with sounds that are assigned to that program?

Im all about sound quality so this might be worth it

well you will have the sequences and songs file that you save which takes up almost nothing (a couple of kilobytes) and you have your program/sounds file... which the program itself takes up nothing but the sounds do... so essentially what ever you save on.. my opinion is that it's best to save everything from that song in one spot (ie: a floppy disk)

now if you are saving on a zip (which I dont recommend because they are very prone to failing and you lose everything) you only have the one spot to save several song's data in that one spot because it doesn't read folders... so you actually must name every file (your sequences and your sounds) for all your songs differently or else you will have problems when you load stuff later. you must name things like "kick1" "kick2" etc... or else you will run into issues.

So floppys is Better cause if one floppy fails then its just that one floppy huh, i agree on this. So floppys are okay but a cf card reader should be Better which is a option and like i said i might juat get one from mpc stuff and go from there. I wish soneone did a youtube vid on how to save and load ur work so i can understand a bit more. I wont be doing sampling on here unless its a drum break but nothing big that will take up alot of ram thats what i got maschine for ha ha.

dmajor100 wrote:So floppys is Better cause if one floppy fails then its just that one floppy huh, i agree on this. So floppys are okay but a cf card reader should be Better which is a option and like i said i might juat get one from mpc stuff and go from there. I wish soneone did a youtube vid on how to save and load ur work so i can understand a bit more. I wont be doing sampling on here unless its a drum break but nothing big that will take up alot of ram thats what i got maschine for ha ha.

well I said it above... you have your cf card... and every bit of data gets stored in the same place because it can not read folders.... meaning, you cant do like on the 2000xl where you make a new folder for the contents for each song.

so, when you have the sounds, programs, sequences, etc.. for a bunch of different songs all in the same directory.... you need to make sure you give them a unique name.. for example "song0153.seq" for the sequence... "kick153a" for a kick used in that song...

So is it best to just save to a seperate floppy and Save a whole beat there? How would i load stuff back up, do i have to load the se,pgm,snd files individually or does that aps file load everything for me. I have alot of drums but i guess im just gonna have to get my favorite to conserve space but this brings up another question do all my wav drum files have to be converted 16 bit since most are 24 bit and after that do they gotta be.put on floppy to convert them to snd files? Doesnt that mpc program were ya drag and drop wavs on pads operate on mac?

well when you load a program, it loads the sounds up too... know what i mean?

also, the 3000 doesn't read 24bit, so if you transfered those onto a disk and tried loading them it wont work... you can convert them to 16/44 though... or you could just sample right into the sampler and it will record in to the right format inside the machine.

So does it read strait wav files, i can conert my best druma in logic and just import on a zip since i cant on floppy

dmajor100 wrote:So does it read strait wav files, i can conert my best druma in logic and just import on a zip since i cant on floppy

yes.... but the 3000 is a sampler... it samples. you get the sound of the converters by sampling into the thing. that is the best way to get the full experience IMO.

Oh realy i thought any thing u put in would give u the 3000 sound compling strait out the converters.

dmajor100 wrote:Oh realy i thought any thing u put in would give u the 3000 sound compling strait out the converters.

sampling into the machine is the step where most of the good sound comes from.

K well im about to purchase, so how many floppys do ya think i need and what kinda do i buy and were can i get them

dmajor100 wrote:K well im about to purchase, so how many floppys do ya think i need and what kinda do i buy and were can i get them

It has built in SCSI so why not grab a SCSI ZIP or JAZII and use that for now?
Even a cheap SCSI hard drive that you have lying around would work.

You probably would want to go the card reader route if you really plan to use the 3k for the long haul.