Looking for help fellas

Hey there,

Recently became the proud owner of an MPC 2000xl and wanted to get some help from you fellas. I've already been reading a LOT on this forum before finally pulling the trigger on getting my MPC 2000xl.

BTW YES I have browsed all over this forum and the net but due to outdated posts / links and conflicting views I decided to shoot here and see if one of ya'll can help a brother. I want to remove the floppy disk drive and connect an IDE to CF card adaptor. MPC Stuff is an insane rip off so I am wondering if anyone can give me some tips on what can work.

So far, I have found these adaptors and believe they should work. I wonder if anyone here can confirm this might work or advise me otherwise? Thank's fellas

LINKS:
https://www.allekabels.nl/pci-kaart/497 ... J7DPD_BwE#

https://www.conrad.nl/p/renkforce-inter ... sert_kz=8J

https://www.allekabels.nl/sata-kabel/17 ... gJvkPD_BwE

Here's a link.

https://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=140216&hilit=compact+flash&start=435#p1772496

As far as the MPC Stuff website, some of the prices may be a bit high, but the Card Reader is not. $189.99 to save all your music is nothing. That's 18 dollars a month.

SD Card Reader Flash Drive Kit - Akai MPC 2000XL - Hot Swappable
https://www.mpcstuff.com/sd-card-reader ... swappable/

Well, I paid 200euro for my mpc so it's almost the cost of the whole thing to me. I don't need hot swappable or anything, if I can even get 1GB of sample on hand I would be in HEAVEN. 1.44 meg is kinda wack I heard people can do it much cheaper but also heard lots of reports it didn't work for some people. Thanks for the link though

I'm looking at those prices mentioned in the thread and no way in hell I'm paying over $150 for a CF card reader lol. I found some cheaper possibilities that might not offer me hot swapping, but for 12ue it's worth a shot right? Plus, ordering from the US is already $20, I'm based in NL. Anyway, I'll update if I get any success.

EvoMPC wrote:I'm looking at those prices mentioned in the thread and no way in hell I'm paying over $150 for a CF card reader lol. I found some cheaper possibilities that might not offer me hot swapping, but for 12ue it's worth a shot right? Plus, ordering from the US is already $20, I'm based in NL. Anyway, I'll update if I get any success.

If you get a non hot swappable CF read/write, you'll kick yourself for doing that. This is a 20 year old machine, $180 US is nothing, just wait until you have to change the screen, tact switches, slider, and pad sensor. This is the nature of the beast, when it comes to OLD GEAR! You're going to pay a premium, because companies no longer make this stuff.

Another option is to install an IDE zip drive, you can probably pick a 250MB drive for around 30 EUR, install is fairly easy if you are happy to splice together the zip power cable to the MPC power cable using terminal block (the MPC uses a non standard power cable). The XL supports 100 and 250 zip drives only. Set the drive jumpers to 'master'. I've been using zip disks on my XL for 20 years now (I have a usb zip drive for my computer so I can transfer files easily).

Yes, Zip is another option and I've never had any issues with them. Many people have, but I just finished transferring all my Floppy, Zip, and IDE hard drive content to new storage mediums. No more Floppy, Zips, or spinning drives.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! Not really sure why the fact that the screen might break would make me more comfortable to go spend $150+ on CF drive but in the end I found my answer here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=187552

I've order the same part mentioned at the start of the thread. Maybe not hot swappable but does want I want. In all honesty, I can't understand why some people are going on about this hit swapping. I mean, you can't get what you want from a 512mg or 1gb card of material... that's PLENTY for me.

Also don't think I'm going to kick myself for spend 12eu vs 150 eu If I ever get to the point where I feel I NEED to hot swap I can forgive myself for spending 12 eu.

Check out the gotek floppy emulator. i have one in my 2k classic and it is awesome! You just need to download the HXC software onto your computer to format "Floppy Disc" partitions onto your usb stick. Providing your samples are the right format you can just drag them into the partitions and then plug the usb stick into your mpc and load them into the RAM.

The hotswappable aspect is awesome because often i'm making a song and then go "oh yeah i need a different snare" or something like that. I then unplug my usb from my mpc, plug it into the computer and just drag some drums from my computer onto the usb, plug it back into the mpc. Voila!

There are no rules. If you don't want hot swappable, you don't need it. You'll understand at some point, that it's best to do it right, once. Instead of wasting your money, doing wrong twice. But hey, good luck with forming Voltron, I sincerely hope it works out for you.

EvoMPC wrote:Thanks for the replies and suggestions! Not really sure why the fact that the screen might break would make me more comfortable to go spend $150+ on CF drive but in the end I found my answer here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=187552

I've order the same part mentioned at the start of the thread. Maybe not hot swappable but does want I want. In all honesty, I can't understand why some people are going on about this hit swapping. I mean, you can't get what you want from a 512mg or 1gb card of material... that's PLENTY for me.

Also don't think I'm going to kick myself for spend 12eu vs 150 eu If I ever get to the point where I feel I NEED to hot swap I can forgive myself for spending 12 eu.

He basically wants to use the CF card like it's an internal hard drive. I've seen people do the same thing, 100's of times. They all end of saying, I should've gotten the Hot swap able. Especially when they start making a beat and forget to insert the CF card before turning it on.

Then wonder why they can't save the beat, it freezes the mpc, corrupts the CF card (With all the saved beats on it), and crashes MPC. I've seen them all.

Dan Jose wrote:Check out the gotek floppy emulator. i have one in my 2k classic and it is awesome! You just need to download the HXC software onto your computer to format "Floppy Disc" partitions onto your usb stick. Providing your samples are the right format you can just drag them into the partitions and then plug the usb stick into your mpc and load them into the RAM.

The hotswappable aspect is awesome because often i'm making a song and then go "oh yeah i need a different snare" or something like that. I then unplug my usb from my mpc, plug it into the computer and just drag some drums from my computer onto the usb, plug it back into the mpc. Voila!

Maybe you guys are right and I will end up regretting it. But at the moment the MPC is just something new to me and I still mostly produce on a DAW. If the MPC really sticks with me I'll look into those options.

As far as saving goes, I don't even try lol. I once had an MPC 500 and remember saving seemed like some crazy operation. MPC workflow to me is: get that beat done in one day and bounce it, otherwise KILL it.

@Dan Jose thank, I'll also look into the gotek floppy emulator if this mission I'm on fails

EvoMPC wrote:Maybe you guys are right and I will end up regretting it. But at the moment the MPC is just something new to me

This is the best time to do it the right way.

yea and its not just about 'hot swap'. those higher end drives just work with less issues, less adapters, and with more cards. being able to use both sd and cf at the same time is super handy too. you scoff at '1 gig' but i hit that limit last night. what then? if you can't hot swap, you better start deleting files.
instead of trying to stay as cheap as possible, you could look at it like, i got this mpc for so cheap, i can afford to splurge on a nice drive. just a different view point.

anyway i'm glad you got something you like and i hope it works from you. if you come to the forums for advice beyond what you find in the search results, you are going to get it, you choose what to do with it.

good luck with forming Voltron

this is hilarious

Ok so the part arrived today, opened up to connect and was confused as hell because the ide connector didn't fit. Eventually I realized it was hooked up with a 34 pin IDE - the 34 pin cable was connected to the 40 pin ide on the MPC board?! The floppy was also 34 pin. I didn't even know about this. This was some ghetto DIY. I don't how but this was apparently working, two pins not even in use. He had scraped part of the alignment notch on the cable away so it could fit.

I thought ok, I'll try hook my part up in the same way. Tried that and some smoke coming from it quickly I turned it off asap and when I tried to power it back with the original floppy in place it wouldn't work. No power at all. I disconnected the floppy and she is powering up and working again. I think floppy disk just makes it not power on now, really weird. I'm gonna have to get my hands on a 40 pin ide cable, think my buddy will have one lying around. What a nightmare. I tested the power on the new part and that seems to work still. Luckily it was only on a couple seconds.

@tapedeck yeah I got it cheap man, but it was a big fix up, still work in progress. Had to solder a couple tact switches. When I opened it up there was significant rust underneath around the screen area, was looking like a write off. I basically sanded the chasis down to get rid of most the rust, sadly some corrosion etc had begun on the board. I don't know how common this is... but yeah. Kind of puts me off investing too much on this one because I don't know how long it will last. I've taken measures to make sure it's going to have a longer life, even though tonight almost ended that lol.

yea i can appreciate that, and honestly i think its great you are trying to give it love and bring it back to life. it all makes sense but yea - just brace yourself for anything else that might go wrong.

great project - good luck