Basic JJ Questions: MTC, Installation, Upgrade

I'm about to buy a 1000, and thanks for the great resource.

1. How solid is the MTC sync? It seems that multiple outs aren't as necessary if you can sync it to your recorder and do it track by track. (Though more time-consuming.) Is it just as tight to do it this way as with an MPC with eight outs, all at once?

2. Does installation of JJ really require a flash card? That would bump up the price a bit since I would have to buy a flash card drive for my computer.

3. I buy the newest OS. When they upgrade to version 5.0 do I buy it again or does my code work on the new OS? Not complaining, just wondering.

1. How solid is the MTC sync? It seems that multiple outs aren't as necessary if you can sync it to your recorder and do it track by track. (Though more time-consuming.) Is it just as tight to do it this way as with an MPC with eight outs, all at once?

I'm not sure if I can answer this question because I haven't tested the MTC sync feature yet on the 1000. I will pretty soon though.

2. Does installation of JJ really require a flash card? That would bump up the price a bit since I would have to buy a flash card drive for my computer.

You will need to have either a hard drive installed in your MPC or a CF card. It is not necessary for you to buy a CF card reader for your computer because you can use the MPC's USB port to access your CF card from your computer. If you have an internal hard drive in your MPC, you can also access that through the USB port as well. Just download the OS to your PC and copy it to the hard drive or CF card on your MPC. Then on the MPC, go to the load screen and find find the folder you copied the OS file to. It will show up as a ".bin" file. Select it and press "DO IT" and it will automatically install the OS.

3. I buy the newest OS. When they upgrade to version 5.0 do I buy it again or does my code work on the new OS? Not complaining, just wondering.

No. You don't have to buy the OS again after purchasing it the first time. Each MPC 1000 has it's own machine ID. Once you purchase the OS the first time, a password (to enable the save option) will be emailed to you and that password will only need to be entered once for that machine. If you update to a newer version, no password will be required. You should still keep the password stored in a safe place just in case though.

MTC has been solid for me(on an older Roland VS-880).

Actually, MTC was the feature that drove me to buy the full version(as, just my luck, other than my recorder, the MPC is now the only piece of MIDI gear that I've got that will sync to my recorder, so it's quickly become "master of the domain", hehe).

MTC is ok but I still track one sound at a time manually and line them up in Pro Tools. I did some tests with MTC and it still drifted a few milliseconds. Could be my midi interface though. For the most part though it is tight.

flash cards cost nothing, come with the 1k anyway, and are v useful to have

Just a little reminder: It's only possible to install the JJ-OS from straight from the HD if you have an earlier JJ-OS already installed. AKAI's OS (any) does not support this!

Thanks for the replies. I didn't know that the computer could address the MPC's a flash drive via USB.

I got the OS in there just fine. Now to experiment with MTC.