What To Buy?

I've been researching which MPC to buy, whats the best for the money, and what gives me what I need. I've come up empty handed.

What is the best for programming (multiple) entire songs with multiple beats for recording and live applications?

What is the most reliable? The 4000 seems to be getting ripped here, but kills in sound quality.

Does the 1000 have enough power (and editing capabilities)?

2000XL vs. 3000?

None of the music stores in the area have any to play with, so I'm really unsure what to do. You all are my only hope to help me figure out which to spend my money on. I'm sorry if this post is redundant, the search brought me nothing buy a huge mess of nothing. ANY INSIGHT is EXTREMELY APPRECIATED!!!

Man. There's gotta be a store in Orlando.
It's Or-land of Dough($) for Chrissakes!!!
Just kidding. But, you should really try to vist a store though.

Anyway, any MPC is dope. That's the first thing to consider. If you are a rookie, you should consider the newer products. They will have better support and you won't have to dig under rocks to get what you need.

The 1000 has a great price point.
The 4000 has monster features.
The 2000xl has a right combo of features and price right now.

What are your most important concern, price or features?
That's where you should go.

Peace.

Price isn't all that important. The main things I need: Reliability, Ability to program multiple songs each with multiple beats to play live, and obviously good sound quality.

Thanks!

That makes your decision more difficult because these instruments all quality under those terms. Any choice you make you will get good stuff from the MPC fam. I'd say, if you don't mind taking a little more time to learn it, the 4000 has the most features. If you wanna hit it and quit it, the 2000XL is dope. If you need something small to take out on the road, the 1000 is easiest and lightweight.

I have a 3000. I love my machine, but if I was a buyer today, I'd get a 2000XL or the 1000 (mostly for the size and the USB port)

Good luck man. Either way, you're getting quality hardware.

Peace.

Thanks for your help. I appreciate your time!

Honestly if you are doing shows. It seems the 1000 is best suited. The media used is rugged and fast. It has a lot of memory and storage and is very compact. It doesnt have alll the features of the 4000 and 2000 or the fluid OS/Layout of the 3000 and 60 but, if used with a comptuer it can do about as much as the 2000. (reverse and timestretch) Thats the market it was aimed at it seems. Those who already utilize a computer in their setup.

Is the maxed out 128 Megs of RAM enough to put an entire live show on? I was reading through the 1000 User's Manual I got offline, and it said you have to preload everything into the RAM from the flash cards.

Could anyone elaborate for me on this? The way I'm seeing it is that you can only have 128 Megs of sounds on there, and if you're using a bunch of different kits, and have a bunch of different beats and songs arranged, I have to assume that would take up more than 128 Megs. That worries me.

Any insight?

Well. My MPC only has 1.5 MB ram. 9 times out of 10 that is enough to hold two of my songs that are not on vinyl yet. If you are sampling mono instead of stereo and using proper panning. Chopping samples instead of trying to loop half a song helps conserve ram as well. If you have a big Flash Ram card, a whole show shouldnt be that big of a problem. I would imagine it takes less than 30 secs to load a song on it, but you would have to confirm that in the MPC 1000 forum tho. If you truely want it all... buy the 4000. That seems to be a popular item these days.

maybe i'm completely underestimating the amount i can hold on 128 megabytes. basically what you are saying is that if you can hold 2 songs on simply 1.5 MB of RAM, then I should be able to hold over 64 songs? or am i off in this judgment?

And I am debating whether or not I "want it all," it almost seems as though some of the features on the 4000 are extraneous, and almost more than one would need. Although the 96 kHz sample rate seems almost too good to be true! I can't imagine how good that would sound live, it's almost as if you'd be able to see the soundwaves.