Black Lion Mod for MPC X. Anyone with the Mod ?

The inputs on the MPC X are clean, if the person knows what they're doing. But if you want "better" AD/DA converter get Lynx Aurora or Ferrofish A32. Or you could ditch the Kronos and MPC X and use your DAW and a MIDI Keyboard with High Quality sample sets. That way you can avoid any ad/da conversion or worry about digital clocking.

Other note: Are your headphones plugged directly into the MPC X?

Johnny16 wrote:I just want to clarify that i am not having problems with the MPC-X and everything is working as they should. I just wish that the gains on the input is a little cleaner. I have to adjust the trim pot to 2/3 to get good signals from my korg kronos which the volume is also at 2/3. Doing so, i can hear the noise floor go up a little more. Can't really tell with my JBL studio monitors but the noise was audible using my Sennheiser HD650 headphones.

I finally had a chance to record 8 stereo audio tracks to the MPC-X and I am please with it. With all 8 stereo tracks playing back, it still sounded very good.

I guess i am use to no noise from my Apollo audio interface and when i plug my Kronos to my Apollo Twin direct, I use very little gain on the Apollo Twin to get good levels. Obviously, the converters and the gain on the Apollo is higher quality than the MPCX.

Overall I still think that the MPC-X was a great buy. I just bought mine at Guitar Center store brand new unopen box for $2199 plus tax. They allowed me to use my internet coupons and took off $500. So with tax, out the door price was around $1900.

I would still appreciate it if someone with the Blacklion MOD would share their experiences.

Now that we can connect audio converter to the MPC, I would say, sample/record into the converter and capture what you need in the MPC with the converter, that way you bypass the Analog Ins, if you are not content with it, this way everything is staying in digital domain and on the way out form the MPC you use the same converter. It is important that you have one converter that you monitor your entire work environment this will help you A and B immediately. The USB audio interface with Akai is good, that is what I am doing. I did this years ago with Emu E4xt to take advantage of its converters. Monitoring is the key to everything.

For all the lurkers I want to add its usually good practice to keep the volume of your external source around 2/3 and not full on. It gives you some headroom on the output amp and if you play live sometimes: you wanna be able to increase your volume during playing as well. And gain staging hot and all into your recorder is good practice to have lower noise floor, but pushing outputs into 100% can also distort the signal and add noise.

And also, if you don't get enough level from a line level instrument into your mpc then something is wrong somewhere. The mpc has plenty of (clean) gain.