Not sure what I've gotten myself into...New 4000 user

Lampdog wrote:Again, congrats.

Thanks Man! I'm reminded how it feels to be a newb. Keep having to remind myself, "use the **** search"

ntalec wrote:

MeSoHordey wrote:
Unfortunately the manual is the worst I've ever read. I felt like a total newb searching this forum all day trying to figure basic things out.

Two things that are really helpful is the Newbie Bible here and going to the 4k Yahoo Group and downloading all the manuals and addendums.

If you print those manuals they are really helpful.

When I first got my blue 4k it came with a printed manual that looked like it covered a lot until I checked out the manuals there.
Akai did some manual tweaking and downsizing over the years so depending where you look you get a reduced manual.

Good advice. Thanks!

Ak.sys will give you the ability to drag-n-drop samples to memory and pads quickly. And give you a lot of tweaking options as to how programs sound.

I hated it at first but it ended up being worth it.

As far as the manual... The reference manual (the HUGE one) is actually really good if you slog through it. Just bring a highlighter because you will come back to it.

Congrats on the 4k and Welcome to the club.

MeSoHordey wrote:I could probably manage it but I'm not sure it is worth the effort. What do you think?

It's definitely worth persevering with. I had to get my brother to bail me out with getting Windows to recognise the drivers, but it all works as it should now.

For general housekeeping and program building it gets the job done.

That a steal man, 500 is like 375 EUR. Damn, that's like insulting low lol.

Just upgraded from 25 to 4K (white one). Swapped my Juno-106 for the 4K, bought the Juno for 500 EUR but the 4K is really used, everything working fine though. Love this unit. Cant call the 25 a MPC anymore when I look at it or turn it on, it such a cheap feel/build and the sound it so much worse. Still feeling some love for it lol.

It's a shame they don't produce this shit anymore I want to have some spare ones and will def cop some extra ones if I bump in to a cheap ones. 4K FTW.

The guitar center near me has very nice used MPCs at a great price. Consistently. It's almost weird.

I've always wanted a Juno-106. They sound beautiful, but I hear they can be expensive to maintain.

Anyways good luck with the new machine. Sounds like you're loving yours as much as I do mine.

MeSoHordey wrote:The guitar center near me has very nice used MPCs at a great price. Consistently. It's almost weird.

I've always wanted a Juno-106. They sound beautiful, but I hear they can be expensive to maintain.

Anyways good luck with the new machine. Sounds like you're loving yours as much as I do mine.

The Juno 60 is the sound to go for.
Grab a DCB box and you're good to go.

ntalec wrote:The Juno 60 is the sound to go for.
Grab a DCB box and you're good to go.

I would forget DCB and give it some MIDI lovin'...

http://midipolis.blogspot.com.au/

Minerva Manual

1. Introduction
=========
Minerva is a MIDI retrofit for the Roland Juno 60 synthesizer. It is installed internally but with a minimum harm to the original system hence can be called non-destructive.
The Minerva main board which sits in an add-socket actually replaces one of the factory Roland microprocessor without the needing of removing the processor itself. By unplugging the add-on board the original processor is back to work.
The MIDI sockets are prepared on a plate which is installed as a replacement of the DCB socket plate.
The Minerva pitch bend board is to be plugged at the pitch bend board of the Juno. This little board mixes the manual and MIDI pitch bend signals.
While Minerva adds superior MIDI functions to Juno it also provides fine extras for sound manipulation, too. An extra very flexible LFO and an extra mono envelope generator for the filter extends modulation capabilities. Both the extra LFO and the arpeggiator can be synced to MIDI. The voice generation and the tonal character of the synthesizer are not affected by adding Minerva.
The memory capacity is enlarged to 80 patches from the original 56 and the extra parameters are stored in the patch memory as well.
The firmware can be upgraded via MIDI and the patches can up- and downloadable as SysEx data.

--------------------------------------------------------------
2. Operation of the Minerva upgraded Juno 60
===============================
All the original functions of the factory programming are kept. The following functions are added:
- All programmable sliders and switches send and receive MIDI control change messages.
- Patch memory is expanded to 80 patches.
- Dumping of parameters via MIDI
- MIDI Program Change messages are sent and received.
- A so-called Second Page that enables control of the extra parameters.