What's the difference between the MPC2000XL & Midi Pro, Smpl

Hello everybody,

I'm a newbie to the MPC2000. I really want to buy a MPC2000XL but I saw on Musicians Friend that they have the following:

MPC2000XL with external hard drive

MPC2000XL MIDI Production Center

MPC2000XL Studio Plus Sampler

I thought the MPC2000XL was supposed to be all in one? Is there a difference between all of these products? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm basically just looking for something to sample weird noises and create beats with and also to be able to gather any beats I create into a sequence to be used live for songs ( I think that's called sequencing, right? )

Thanks to all and Merry X'mas!!!
Cyrus

it's all the same box with different options installed.

If you have the cash, get a fully loaded MPC (with eight outs, effects board, and internal zip). This is probably what they are calling the "studio MPC."
The internal zip is key, by the way, because finding a SCSI zip is a b!tch and saving things to floppies is too slow.

An external hard drive is fine as well, but personally I would use my computer to store the samples and then transfer them to the MPC on a zip disk (maybe using MPC editor which you can download as a demo for free at midicase).

As for the internal effects I can't say as I don't have that board and at 250 odd bucks upgrading to it seems expensive for what you get. I myself would go for the eight output and then feed all those outputs into external effects processors (like the KAOSS pad), filters, guitar stomp pedals, and EQ boxes. This gives you more physical knobs to play with, but requires an external mixer if what you are recording to only has a stereo in. Of course you can get a decent chinese analogue mixer for under two hundred bucks these days, and that'll also give you eight channels of eq to mess with (somehting the MPC lacks).

I hope that Im not overwhelming you with information. Good luck.

In any event get whichever one is in your present budget. You can always add the other options to your MPC at any given time. By your question I would advise that you get the basic one to start off with. Why, because the extra money you pocketed could be spent on your sampling supplies if necessary. Cd player/burner, vinyl and or turntable, cables, headphones, perhaps a module like the Mo phat or something. Trust me theres no need to rush into the full blown MPC. As simple as the MPC it's also a very complex instrument. Don't rush take your time and have fun learning.

yeah, its almost like the MPC should come with a warning label for people who think that the minute they take it out of the box they'll be able to sound like DJ Shadow or something... it is a very complex beast and a lot of what you can do with it isn't immediately obvious.

One thing to mention, though: the MPC 1000 is going to seem really tempting to cats who are new to this whole game. I would advise against getting one right now, however. Akai is notorious for using the end user as a beta tester (they've been better in the last few years, but still). Remember the S5000/S6000 teething problems or even the problems with the XL at the begining? The MPC1000 sounds real good on spec. but don't buy one just so you can be the first one on the block to have it...

On the subject of extras... you can skip the 8 outs and the efx board, but you'd be a fool not to get a zip built in. It's only a hundred dollars more at most on line sites...
Sure, floppy is fine and all. I didn't have a zip for almost three years and got along okay (and I have the stacks of floppies in the back cupboard of my studio to proove it). It's just hassle, it has nothing to do with music, and should be avoided.

Really get a external scsi hd case (ebay) and a old mac hd (salvation army) and you end up with a faster and more reliable storage than flaky and sensitive zipps.
Yes the small mpc seems nice.Lets wait an see how it all pans out.Who knows maybe they'll sell out for 450 in a few years when the new tarkus breed of samplers comes out

dear mr honda...
does a HD work better for you? I must admit it is kind of tempting to get one, especially when i see how cheap some of them are going for on Le Ebaye.
Still, you gotta admit that it's easier transfering stuff from, say, a computer, using zip than it is using floppy, even if the zip disks aren't reliable for long term storage.
hell, a floppy drive for a computer costs almost as much as a zip at this point!

I cant stress how nice a hd is.
Safe and fast and quiet. And I belive that with a decent scsi card in the pc/modern mac you would be able to use it as a gobetween just as you would a zip(external that is). But hey zip works fine too.