First time MPC buyer - 2500 vs. 1000 (plus upgrades)

hi, my name is alex, i've been producing on a computer for 5 years and want to add an mpc to my setup. i have a home studio and a pretty limited budget.

so I'm looking at the 1000 and the 2500. My debate is, whether to get the 1000 and upgrade it, or get the 2500 which already has better pads and the bigger lcd screen. If i got the 1000 i'd upgrade the pads immediately, partly for functionality and partly just to look cooler. the screen would get upgraded eventually. if i got the 2500 i wouldn't have to upgrade anything. the 2500's Direct Record feature is appealing, as is the extra outputs - but neither are necessarily a game-changer.

a hesitation i have about the 1000 is that i worry that it will be more cheaply made than the 2500 - which, if true, hopefully i can just upgrade it as i go and make it higher quality.

thoughts? i'm always hesitant when buying new gear and wonder about these things a lot. i want to end up with a nice, quality machine that doesn't cut corners. i make and sell beats to artists so i also want no sacrifice in sound quality as well as build quality.




thanks, i know these questions come up a lot, and i've cruised the forum but am still unsure of which way to go.

running JJOS, OS differences between the 1000 and 2500 are negligible. whichever you get, first thing you should do is upgrade the OS.

in my opinion the only real consideration that matters between the 1000 and 2500 is outputs. is 6 audio outputs enough, or do you need 10? 2 midi outputs, or 4?

build quality - underlying components, pcb, etc are identical. pad sensor style is identical (both are Sensitronics FSRs). 2500 screen isn't bigger than the 1000, but it flips up. both can be expanded with the jj/mpc-stuff large LCD screen and accompanying OS (google it or find details in the JJ forum)

i've used the 1000 since 2004, JJOS since 2006 and love it.

http://music.ratsofnym.com

^^^^ That


I would like to add as an owner of both machines that I love to pop my mpc1000 in my backpack and be gone.

I work mostly on the mpc2500 behind my desk at home. Just love the wider lay out of the buttons. But that is just me.

Snagged one off the 'bay. Looks like a good one. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0970402934


It's a 2500 with the following extras...
Black LCD Screen installed(with no more then 2 hours of use)

Black Pads installed(with no more then 2 hours of use)

Black knobs and buttons ( all black parts are factory NOT PAINTED!!!)

JJOS 3.10 installed

AKAI EXM128 installed(Real Akai Memory)

DVD rom drive installed (CD-M25)

HDM10 Adaptor kit installed (No Hard Drive)

512MB compact flash card

CD-R with over 700 drum and sound samples.

3 extra knobs

manual (real manual NOT a printed copy)

power cord

And the original grey pads

Look like good find??

The black LCD's are great, I have one and love it. There's a chance you could have found one with a HD already installed and it possibly would have been as low as $850. But you have the black LCD which is actually more expensive than an IDE HD.

For the clean condition it appears to be in and the convenience that you don't have to track down/mail order any of the additions/mods I'd say you got a fair deal. On gear purchases I don't worry about $100 in either direction provided I'm getting all that I want even paying a bit more.

That's the free JJ OS in there, you might want to explore your otions with JJ OS-XL for the 2500.

The black LCD sold it for me. I've been watching the 'bay for a solid 2 weeks. This one was pretty tricked out with a relatively low price - but that LCD just looks sweet. Thinking it will cause less eyesore, since there's more dark space than light.

From what I've read, JJ OS 2xl seems like the most up my alley as far as features. I will play with the stock JJ OS though, because sometimes features get in the way of workflow - and workflow is precisely why I just dropped nearly a grand on this piece when I already have a solid Ableton Live setup with all kinds of VSTs and custom presets (no Suite though, hence no Sampler)..

Will see about hard drive space. I currently have 19 gigs of samples. They will not all go on the machine, but many will. And there's the sampling I've yet to do, and the recordings I've yet to make.

Stoked.

Can I sample from a turntable, CD player, or instrument DURING playback? Searched around and couldn't find answer.

Additionally, I suppose that to sample using a microphone, I'll need a mixer or some kind of "boost" for the microphone... "hardware"... pssh

No you'll have to stop the sequencer when sampling unfortunately.

People are always shocked to hear it but yeah the way you described the black LCD is exactly why it's so nice. It's very easy to look at and the off angle viewing is better than any standard, green, blue or white LCD I've used.

With JJ-OSXL I kind of feel that the extra features don't really get in the way. Even using a fraction of XL it's a nice feeling on almost every screen to know you can go a little deeper into features if need be, but the layout is hardly swamped by the feature set and interface.

Maybe have the comparison chart up while you run through the free OS and it should be easy to see which features are good for your flow.

19GB? In today's world that not so bad Yeah you could probably just catch a sale at Newegg and get a few 4GB CF cards (Sandisk Ultra, Lexar Platinum II confirmed to work) and be good.

No audio interface for a mic? You could go mixer with mic jacks/pre-amps/48v phantom power or the other option is an audio interface with the necessary mic hookups. (of course computer will need to be on to go that route).

A 1000/2500 JJOS and Live is a great combo. Congratulations on the new purchase and having the best of both worlds in and out the box now.

Thanks!

I have a wicked overdrive pedal that models a Mesa Rectifier, likely going to run the mic through that for some crazy sounds.

I will play with the stock JJ OS though, because sometimes features get in the way of workflow

in the case of the MPC, it's the opposite. the standard OS is so pathetically crippled that it gets in the way of workflow. waste no time.

Nym wrote:pad sensor style is identical (both are Sensitronics FSRs).

some 2500's use INTERLINK, according to RR these supposed to be better than Senstronics in terms of durability.

interesting to know. Interlink was the original company, Sensitronics came afterwards.

what is RR?