The Cons of an MPC-1000 as Opposed to the Pros of an MPC-60

Okay, I am in the process of buying an MPC. My options are the 1000 and the 60. I've found two people, one selling a 1000, the other selling a 60. From reading this forums and through friends, I've received nothing but positive feedback about the MPC-60. Yet no one seems to have much to say about the 1000, positive or negative.

Can any of you MPC-60 users school me on the cons of the 1000?

Skinemax wrote:Okay, I am in the process of buying an MPC. My options are the 1000 and the 60. I've found two people, one selling a 1000, the other selling a 60. From reading this forums and through friends, I've received nothing but positive feedback about the MPC-60. Yet no one seems to have much to say about the 1000, positive or negative.

Can any of you MPC-60 users school me on the cons of the 1000?

If viable ... get each machine to try.

The new little guy has a lot of modern conveniences at the expense of taking away an immediate and straight forward user interface.

The old fella is pretty much a button per function setup with an easily remembered menu system, 12 bit super cruncher, built like a tank.

Seriously though ... try both.

Rohan.

I wouldnt go for an MPC1000
Either buy the MPC60 with OS 3.10 or the MPC2000 or 2000xl if you are on a budget
The MPC1000 is too limited. 60 is limited too but it got balls
Read some user reviews and check the specs on akaipro.com
The seq edit page on the mpc4000 is sublime tho.. No other mpc has that

If it's gonna be your only piece of gear I would go with the 1000 (yes I said it) the 60 really shines when it doesn't have to do everything, a 60 with the upgrades and a 950 or other rack sampler should be enough to keep any beatmakes busy for the rest of his or her natural life.

But it takes a bit more cash usually to have the 60 outfitted right, 3.10 OS, SCSI is nice, and a rack sampler and some sort of mixer adds up to more than the 1000. But IMO is worth it if the 60 is right for you.

Like Rohan said, try both machines see if you like one better. And read as much as you can on both. Read the manuals if it will help.

go hit up a guitar center, sam ashe or local music shop that sells music production equipment and test one out for yourself.....that's what I do with every piece I buy.....act like you're heavily interested and you wanna buy it that day, ask to sit with headphones and just mess with it. Personally i think the mpc-1000 is a piece of shit.....it's a freakin toy. If you travel a lot and want to work on beats on the air plane or in a hotel room then yeah it's great but for true professional production i'd say go for the 60...you won't be disappointed. Another thing is if you are the lazy type and like to simply load samples that you got off the internet or cd package then yeah go and mess with the mpc1000 but if you're dedicated to sampling then go for 60 for sure!

DRUMZ.1

Cons of the MPC1000:

1. It's gets pretty hard to fill up 128 Meg.
2. You might miss getting a smoke since the MPC1000 takes only a few seconds to save.
3. I miss the expensive repair bills of the 60.
4. I miss paying hundreds of dollars for simple expansions.
5. I miss the backlight burnout.
6. I am not sure what to do with the the new room I have on the desk.
7. I miss chopping every single byte of dead space in samples in order to squeeze one more sample into 750k of memory.
8. I miss the "pitched up sampling, pitched down playback" memory saving trick to get that 15th sample into memory.
9. I am not sure what to do with digital I/O.
10. Graphical waveform editing is hard to get used to.
11. Not sure what to do with built-in effects.
12. Not sure what to do with 4 filter types.

If you are not sure if its a 1K or a 60 then you should probably get a 1K. I think for most of the 60 users we knew FOR SURE it's what we wanted. For most people it's 2K vs 1K but not a 60 vs 1K. They both have their advantages but proper research will tell you what is best for you.

Con's of the 60:

1/ Not sure what to do about the hard hitting sound of the 60, it's ego is just too big. It needs taming to bring it in line with the other Mpc's.

2/ Not sure what to do about it's stable operating system, it just doesn't exite me, it's too steady.

3/ I don't want to buy a machine that has produced hit albums. I'm not interested in buying something that has been tried and tested.

4/ The limited sample time is a real bind, it forces something upon me called creativity, and i don't like it.

5/ Not sure what to do with the 60's useless feature of "shift timing", can't really find a use for that.

6/ Not sure what to do about the 60's resale value in 3 years time after Akai have released the 1000 sucessor.

Range Rover or Honda CBR600??

Don't forget two filters per voice.

Come on Mike, you know it's not like that for most of us, don't you? Did you help design it or something? It's pretty obvious that the people at akai looked at the 60 and 3000 to design the 4000 and the 1000, more so than the 2000. the pads on the left, inclusion of footswitch inputs, multiouts and FX standard. There are some people that the 60 will suit much more. I am one of them. perhaps you didn't get the memo that stated progress is an overrated illusion?

How about these cons:

Smaller pads,

No Armrest,

Cramped layout,

No track velocity parameter.

Multi function pads and buttons, you have to hit shift, or Numeric, or whatever to do what you need to do. Effective, but certainly not elegant.

Tap Tempo and Note Repeat share the same button and can change the tempo of your track while note repeating (Ok OK, if you set it to 4 and tap the pad instead of the button like you're supposed to this isn;t too bad, but there are many dumb people out there )

You did see that I recommended the 1000 first right? Come on now.

If this is your first and only MPC I would go with the 1000. The MPC 60 is definitely for niche users. Cats that have played with sampling and are looking for a different/older type of sound. If you are just beginning the features of the (much newer) 1000 would be a much better fit. The limitations on the 60 are easy for someone that has a true love for it to overcome, but if you just want to make beats go for the 1000. This is just my opinion.

for sure Djames.

djames wrote:If this is your first and only MPC I would go with the 1000. The MPC 60 is definitely for niche users. Cats that have played with sampling and are looking for a different/older type of sound. If you are just beginning the features of the (much newer) 1000 would be a much better fit. The limitations on the 60 are easy for someone that has a true love for it to overcome, but if you just want to make beats go for the 1000. This is just my opinion.

I concur but man, 2000's are going for about 750.00 USD Try and Get one.

The MPC 60 only has 26.2 Sec of Sample time IF IT'S FULLY BLOWN OUT! Plus the Upgrade is 595.00 and the upgrade is a must if your are gonna It Save to Zip. Plus a Stereo Sampling isn't an Option. Something to think about!

If you sample right and keep your drum programs from having 45 sounds in each kit....26.2 seconds is all the time in the world.

either you get you wont be upset. one thou youll eventullay want to upgrade when you fall in luvv wit mpcs. 60 will stay wit you forver. so think about long term vs easy usabliity. i wouldnt take a 1k over 60. thats me. u make your own decision.

SLT, I always get 64 samples in 26.2 seconds, oftentimes more. It isn;t that hard, and I am not sampling at 45, or using sound compression, including drums, bass notes, horn stabs, everything. If you just sample simple stuff for a song you have more than enough time, and you will have the best MPC experience you can possibly have.

Also, Can people that haven't used both units extensively please refrain from posting their opinion with no basis in fact or explanation besides what they probably learned from people on this forum who have? This place is really going down the tubes because idiots who can read a spec sheet think they know all about gear. jaem is so right.

Wait, can we just lock comparison threads? God damn, you're gonna make your own decision anyway, and nobody really gives you any information you can't find out for yourself.

the upgrade is not 595, there are many upgrades, and a 60 can come with any of them, it's not like you have to shell that out. Stereo sampling is an option, and so many people with stereo samplers never use it.

Again, please don't talk out your ass, this place smells enough as it is.