MPC 60 CF card upgrade

Hey

I have been reading the countless threads which mainly concentrate on the technicals of upgrading a 60 or s950 with scsi/cf card. But i want to know if the benefits justify the price? Ive only had the 60 for a few weeks so still getting used to workflow, using floppies etc. So would the 60 be able to hold a sample library of sorts (and how big), could i import individual samples from different programs into a specific track im working on, how many projects/tracks could i save (on average) and does it speed up the loading?

Apologies if this all sounds a bit 101 but i need to justify the cost of upgrading (as its quite pricey with scsi, cf card etc)

It's worth the cost, but not just for extra storage capacity, also reliability and faster load and save times..
A CF card can hold up to 768 mb, so work out the average size of your samples and do the math to see how many fit into 768mb.(minus a few MB for program files).

And yes you can import sounds from different programs into memory.

Great thanks for the info. Sounds great!

I also feel like the cost of the SCSI card is worth the price as well. It seems to simplify the saving and loading process quite a bit. Using CF cards is also much more reliable as floppies tend to wear out over the years due to dirt and dust build up, mechanical issues with the floppy drive, or even something as simple of the disk itself falling apart. I've had numerous floppies go bad on me for whatever the reason so to me the piece of mind that comes with the CF cards and SCSI setup also helps to justify the cost. Not to mention the physical the space you might save if you choose to discontinue using the floppies.

Personally I use a combination of both floppies and CF cards but that is just my personal preference and what works best for me.

Ottomatic wrote:I also feel like the cost of the SCSI card is worth the price as well.

If the MPC60 does not already have OS 3.10, you need to factor in the cost of that as well as the SCSI board.

Ottomatic wrote: I use a combination of both floppies and CF cards but that is just my personal preference and what works best for me.

Same here.

Backwards compatibility is important for me. A brand new, modified, floppy drive can minimise a lot of reliability issues. You can't expect a 25 year old drive to be a good thing for your disks, or to be mechanically reliable. Also unused DD floppy disks are hard to find, but not impossible...

Regarding the upgrade components (i have OS 3.10E), Im right in thinking i would need -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stratos-Tech- ... 4625bef8a0

and

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Akai-MPC3000- ... 35db260d6d

Thats it?

I would go with the new Stratos Technology RaizinMonster SCSI-CF reader, would be cheaper than that reader.

The guy who makes the cf reader is popping around to install/upgrade everything on the mpc 60....so a pretty good deal.....So the scsi and cf card and im good to go?

The guy that is selling that card reader on eBay doesn't make it, he buys IDE/ATAPI card readers from the manufacturer (maybe All Storage Corp. in Taiwan, who manufacture the card readers that DeLock sells), possibly 2nd hand SCSI-IDE/ATAPI bridges, and resells them to make profit.

The RaizinMonster reader that Stratos Technology manufactures and sells is listed for 12900 yen on his website, that seems to convert to 75 GBP.

The RaizinMonster combines the functions of the separate SCSI-IDE/ATAPI bridge and IDE/ATAPI card reader into a single unit.

It is totally up to you to decide whether paying 220 GBP for a card reader, versus 75 GBP, is worth it, based on having the reseller come around to install it for you.

I know which way I would go, as installing them is pretty straight forward, I would go with the RaizinMonster and the adapters that Stratos Technology sells to make for a cleaner installation in the MPC.

I would also ask Stratos which exact cables and adapters that he sells are required for a RaizinMonster installation in an MPC60, and how much they cost, to compare overall prices between the different solutions.

Thanks for the info Simon. Bit of a murky world getting this MPC upgraded. Ive already had one deal fall through this week (after i paid up) with an italian for parts as I apparently didnt show enough appreciation in the emails - wtf! Swear he was a samaritan not someone flogging old parts for £££). Eventually got it refunded.

It seems the better option is just to buy everything from Japan. But im not keen on the idea of installing it myself

Time might also be an issue, depending on how quickly you want it happening.

Artmix/Stratos (same guy) might not have the RaizinMonster readers ready to go, I have read that some have tried to buy em, and they are out of stock at the moment, probably as it is such a new product.

Might be worth contacting him to see when they will be available to purchase, and what else you need other than the card reader and his MPC60 SCSI interface kit.

If you are buying one of his Stratos SCSI kits, it probably wouldn't cost much more in shipping for him to send the card reader along with it.

But with Airmix/Stratos i have to buy a scsi converter card (not cheap) in addition to the scsi kit and scsi card to get his cf card running. I could just buy the scsi card (with kit) for $189 and get the (albeit more expensive) hotswap cf reader.

What SCSI convertor card are you talking about?

Just the MPC60 SCSI interface, plus the RaizinMonster SCSI-CF reader, what else do you think you need, do you have any links to it?

The RaizinMonster is a SCSI device, it plugs directly into the MPC60 SCSI interface.

My mistake. The converter card is actually the cf card drive. The naming threw me