mpc2000xl+8 outputs:necessity or luxury ?

Hello fellow mpc-heads. First of all i would like to apologize if my english are bad but hopefully they are good enough to get my point across. It's my first mpc and my first piece of equipment in general other than my turntable and preamp and its been about a month since i bought it.Therefore please excuse me if i ask something considered fundamental knowledge of the mpc arsenal.Let's cut to the chase though.

So my question is this. Is it possible to record a sequence track per track into say cubase through the stereo outs or do i need to buy me the 8 outputs upgrade and start from there ? Thanks in advance.Peace.

Thank you for the quick response sir. Could you inform me on how much it would cost for such an upgrade ?

Lampdog wrote:Main outs are only left and right stereo. There's no track
separation at all. In your daw when you record you will end up with a stereo wave
and that's it.

8 outs is used for track separation going into a daw.
Pads are tied to 8 outs when installed.

This is true however, you don't need the 8 out board to track. You can do 2 instruments at a time by panning one left and the other right, and creating either mono or stereo channels on your daw, or you can do one at a time by soloing the instrument you want to track, or by muting the ones you don't.

8 outputs board: ~$150
audio interface w 8 inputs ~ $150

save the cash and just syncronize tracks recorded one at a time. 8 outputs would be more useful if you wanted to run through analog mixboard.

If your mastering/mixing on a real desk you need it, badly. If your just tracking into your computer not at all.

Thank you all for your input on this thread. You have been really helpful. Hope i can be of help sometime. Peace.

Remember although the eight outputs on the MPC2000XL are not always essential, if you come across a cheap Akai S2000 or S3000XL rack sampler check to see if it has the eight output board fitted.

If it does, the board can be pulled and installed in your MPC2000/XL. The S/PDif I/O may also come in handy at some point. Same applies to the EB16 FX board.

The only reason I have the 8-outs on my 2KXL is becasue I got it for dirt cheap on eBay for $65.
I hardly use it but it's there if I ever need to use it.

I bought a 2000 classic of some dude a few months ago for £200. It was a bit grimey, but had the eight outputs and EB16 FX installed.

Took them both out and flipped the 2000 stock on ebay for £200.

Gotta love it.

yea i copped a 2000 with a busted screen on craigslist for $75...took the 8 outs out and resold the mp for $75....did I ever use the 8 outs? not really but I plan on getting an analog mixing board in the near future. short answer...u don't need one.

i say necessity! if you arent making heavily complex beats then it might not and the main outputs L/R will do fine. really depends on what youre doing. i wouldnt be torn if i couldnt use the 8 outs, but id sure hate having time consumed by the process of tracking alone. i know once i get my sounds in my daw i must shape, mix, compress, master etc..., which we all know takes time.

i just tracked a beat with 27+ tracks on the 2kXL and it took me only an hour to track in Ableton which would have taken me probably all day if i was doing 1 or 2 tracks at a time. Also Im sure ive read on the forums the 8 outputs are a higher dB level than main outs. anyway my 2 cents!

tracking out 8 tracks seperately as aposed to together also gives u better sound in the end

TreCipher617 wrote:tracking out 8 tracks seperately as aposed to together also gives u better sound in the end

i must disagree. when i track 8 simultaneously i always do the drums first for the feel. bpm in my daw is lined up with my bpm on my MPC. HOWEVER- i swing my beats alot. in terms of swing - some beats have a late snare and early kick, some beats have late everything (west coast styles) so my DAW metronome will be early or late by small increments. visually, it would be easier to explain but lets leave it at - the down beat of your song isnt ever accurately at 1.0.0.0 at all and when you swing it late youre even pushing it farther from 1.0.0.0.

so to get the right feel (or the same as i have in my akai) and have everything in its right place i use midi sync to slave my akai to my daw. HOWEVER, MANY people do it differently! ive done many different ways of tracking - L/R approach w/ stereo sounds, L/R with main outs, 1 track at a time with main outs and not always, but seldom when doing this i have two or more tracks that i must manually line up. im talking small, small, small values, which i must nudge right or left, trial and error hear back if its lined up...very tedious.

dont get me wrong there are occasions where i have only 4 tracks, which is a small 4 or 8 bar loop. ill just do those quickly individually, yet overall i found simultaneous is just easier for me. sorry for the ramblingss...