Switching from Roland MV800 to MPC

Im an MV user and i will be switching over to an MPC. Does anyone have any suggestions on what MPC to purchase for a first time user? I really like the 2000xl but it would be hard to adjust from CD on the MV to floppy on MPC. What would be a better transition.

Thanks

maybe the 4000? are you going to miss all the features? Also, why are you switching? cant you own both at the same time?

Keep that Mv dude

The great thing about the MV is that it has the RBUS which can be connected to a Roland VS2480 and you can send 8 tracks. Thus not needing the output expansion on the MV.
The only bad thing I have heard about the MV's has to do with timing. If you haven't had any problem with that then I agree with the others who say keep it.
To answer your question though, I recommend you get a 4000. It is an amazing machine. I wish I had known about it sooner. It is so easy to use and understand. However the earlier version had some bugs so it is good that I am into it now as a fully working machine. The price is rather low for the 4000 now so if you want one don't pay over $600.

Cheers,
Ian

the timing is okay.. for quantise it just is set up differently. You dont have that 1/16,1/16(3) type setup... you just gotta mess with it till you find your magic number you like and you are good....

the mpc quantise is simpler and it just works for most cases... you pick a setting and you are good... otherwise you turn it off.

I thought the MV had the templates in it like most of the other high end Roland gear. The Fantom S, X and the MC909 have groove templates which help make your tracks swing. It works really well in both machines.
However I hear you DeBauch about simply turning it off. I find that if you just bang it out without quantize you can get great results.

Cheers,
Ian

PS Another thing I note and yes I know it is a bit off topic...but the Roland Fantom S has bad timing when you use it as master (or sequencer of external gear) and track by track play out your tracks individually to another machine. For example it has four outputs and it is a 16 part instrument. So in the second go around when you track out (if you track out to a digital recorder or to a computer) the next set of sounds (say 5,6,7,8 of your parts) you will notice that if it is the Midi master the notes do not all line up properly with the first 1,2,3,4 you track out, because the time is off. It jitters. I have heard that the MV (more specifically the MV8000) does this same thing.
With the Fantom S the work around is to make sure the other machine is the midi master (be it midi clock, MTC or sync track) and the Fantom S is the slave. I notice that the MC909 has perfect timing in this regard and can be the master as is my MPC4000 and lastly my mutltirack Roland VS2000.
In short timing is everything and not all MPC's have the proper timing. So these are things to consider. Hopefully you are not having this jitter issue and maybe you aren't using the MV to sequence multiple machines or to track out into another unit.

I suspect the mv8000 does have jitter.. I am guessing the 8800 too since they are basically the same architecture. But if you are doing everything in the 8000, it somehow lines it all up fine. What I found is recording a 5 minute beat in a daw... somewhere it may have a tick or two off when you check the end of the waveform. I dunno.. I never really looked into it, but I had a song I bumped from the 8000 to the pc via USB and I wound up deleting the project from the mv. Anyhow a friend for some reason really liked that beat and wanted it.... but it wasn't really complete.. it didn't go anywhere.... it wasn't a great length either... So I tried chopping bits in a daw to maybe get some sort of structure going. I had a bit of trouble because occasionally there would be a split second gap. It wasn't a truncation issue either. That being said.. it wound up turning up okay, nothing that hindered anything. Different machines have different clocks..


anyhow I think the drifting long audio tracks thing was fixed in one of the later 8000 updates. I dont think the 8800 suffered from that at all.

as for the templates for quantize.. If I understand you right, I guess it does... but I think if I remember correctly, you choose what looks to be a ppqn number from the available ones but the lower the number the less spots between beats the note will get adjusted to.. for example, the highest number available is like having quantise turned off... if you pick something like 120, it is similar to 1/16 or 1/8.. dont quote me on that because I haven't used my out of commission mv in like 2 years. Anyhow the thing is, after that you pick a quantize strength... then you can do things like shuffle (swing) I dont even remember which number and quantize strength I used for my 1/16(3) fix... but I think you get the idea... it isn't anything that someone with a bit of experience can figure out in 5 or 10 minutes through experimentation.

mr_debauch wrote:the timing is okay.. for quantise it just is set up differently. You dont have that 1/16,1/16(3) type setup... you just gotta mess with it till you find your magic number you like and you are good....

the mpc quantise is simpler and it just works for most cases... you pick a setting and you are good... otherwise you turn it off.

The only problem I have with the mv is that when I sample a 4bar loop and chop it, when I record, the sample shortens out in the recording. Can anyone help?

Dor1en wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:the timing is okay.. for quantise it just is set up differently. You dont have that 1/16,1/16(3) type setup... you just gotta mess with it till you find your magic number you like and you are good....

the mpc quantise is simpler and it just works for most cases... you pick a setting and you are good... otherwise you turn it off.

The only problem I have with the mv is that when I sample a 4bar loop and chop it, when I record, the sample shortens out in the recording. Can anyone help?

increase the bpm by 1? hahaha

There's no timing issue, just as mentioned above, its set-up a little different. There are tons of templates, light swing, heavy swing, reggae, 4 0n the floor, you name it!

Ian Canefire wrote: To answer your question though, I recommend you get a 4000.

What he said, prices are pretty reasonable used and cheaper than some other MPC's.

I would not buy a 4000, I'm not suggesting it is not a great machine, it is, component wise l would be worried, l had issues with mine, l fixed it and sold it while it still had currency, a pity as it is definitely the best mpc, l used aksys a lot, ahead of it's time in that regard

I think I will go with mpc studio. It seems to be more computer friendly and for the go.

Thanks forum

a 4k would be cool, and it will have alot of the features that you have on your mv, but its definelty the most complex mpc, with that being said, it will just be natural learning on it becaue you are switching from an mv.

i would go with a 1k with jjos2xl though. you get the best of both worlds, and usb transfers instead of messing with floppes or aksys of the 4k.

you just plug it in and drag files to folders and your set.

also, the xlcd screen is something to look out for, you could get one without jjos2xl, and get the xlcd screen from mpcstuff.com for around 130 dollars, then upgrade to the 128xl os if you want to.
this will give you the same size screen as your mv 8000, but it will be on a mpc 1k instead.

i would def keep your mv too, you might wanna go back and use it again sometime!

keep in mind that if you get the mpc studio you will have to be connected to your computer for it to work, i myself like using my mpc standalone, thats why i dont want an mpc studio anymore.

i used to make all my beats on my computer in logic, and i hardly used my mpc because i didnt like the workflow, (this was around the time they were just announcing the mpc ren and studio) so i really was set on getting a stuido when it came out, but in that time i really got used to using the 1k standalone and i dont make beats on my computer at all anymore, it just got boring to me.
so since your already use to hardware, i think you may be let down a bit by the mpc studio because it wont work unless you are hooked up to the computer.

just my .02, try some stuff out and see what you like!

Dor1en wrote:

mr_debauch wrote:the timing is okay.. for quantise it just is set up differently. You dont have that 1/16,1/16(3) type setup... you just gotta mess with it till you find your magic number you like and you are good....

the mpc quantise is simpler and it just works for most cases... you pick a setting and you are good... otherwise you turn it off.

The only problem I have with the mv is that when I sample a 4bar loop and chop it, when I record, the sample shortens out in the recording. Can anyone help?

Sounds like you assigned the sample to Instruments. Go into your Partial Edit and adjust the Decay so it doesn't fade out so quickly. Or assign the samples to Audio for them to sound off "as is".