Memory question!

Hi!

I've just ordered an MPC1000 and am right now looking at some CF cards for it. I haven't used samplers that much before so I have no idea how much storage a sample would use at all! How much storage do you guys use in your MPC's?

Another question I have is the 128 MB expansion for the sample capacity. What benefits will there be with an upgraded MPC compared with a non-upgraded? I really have no idea here either!

Help!

probably less than you think... single drum sounds take up seconds of audio, so they will take up less than 100k of memory. i was used to having a sampler with 32mg in it and i rarely exceeded that..... give me a computer however and i'll probably end up with gigabytes worth!

i got the 128k upgrade too, mainly because i had the money, but also cos I want to use it for playing live, so i need to be able to store lots of audio for interludes, general pad noises, long samples and such... it's a good idea to get it I think, unless you really are only going to be using it for drums (and assuming it's in your budget)

The CF to get is also dependent on how you use your MPC. If you are often near your computer, a 128meg might do fine, since that is how much the MPC will take as maximum, and you can store things on the computer.

If you use the MPC more standalone, you might want to get a bigger CF.

I am planning on using it as a drummachine for liveperformances and also in the studio so I guess I'll get a pretty large CF to be able to store lots of sounds and songs for the performance.

Still, I haven't quite understood what the 128 expansion does! As I said, I suck at samplers =P What's the difference between and expanded MPC and one who's not?

The EXM 128 just allows you to store more sounds in the MPC memory. Maybe it will be more understandable If I relay this in recording time.

With the 16mb you only get like 2 min of stereo record time. With the EXM 128 you get like 12 min. Think of all the more sample you can record with like 10 more minutes of recording space. That's quite a lot. I don't gig but I've had a few time when I would go over the standard 16MB memory. When I got the exm128 I don't have that problem at all,

Sometimes when I'm putting a track together I'm not sure which drums I want to use. I can now load up hundreds of drum sounds and try them all at once. Before the upgrade I couldn't really do this!

If your going to be gigging and think you need a lot of sounds you may want to upgrade the ram, because you don't want to spend time purging samples out of memory and loading more in after every little while.

I hope this make sense to you.

It does!

Thanks alot

A new question just popped out of my head though...

How smoothly can you change songs? Let's say I want to play live and have a break of just a few seconds between to songs. Is it possible to somehow link songs together and let the MPC get all the files needed for the new song automatically? Or do I have to spend time digging through directories while my audience is waiting? =)

What you're really asking is still the difference between RAM & CF card. CF stores things "offline", for when your MPC is off, or for saving lots of stuff to. But RAM, is what the MPC uses while it's ON. So you have 20 songs, 99 sequences, and XX time in samples (depends if you have the 16mb or 128EXP RAM) always INSTANTLY available. So, you load stuff from the CF into RAM & go... you can switch to another song in RAM as fast as your fingers can move.

If I got it right I can storage to 2 Gb 'offline' with CF but only 128Mb can be used during your performance untill you load 'new stuff' from the CF into the RAM...

does it take long to load the maximum samples into the RAM ? (I mean to use all the ram that's free for the samples, I guess it won't be the full 128Mb because your sequence,... take space also) How long does this taken + - ?

Do you have to turn of the MPC and start it up again to do this ?

Thanks for the advice and sorry for my bad language...

"If I got it right I can storage to 2 Gb 'offline' with CF (whatever the maximum is of your CF card) but only 128Mb can be used during your performance untill you load 'new stuff' from the CF into the RAM (correct)...

does it take long to load the maximum samples into the RAM? (I mean to use all the ram that's free for the samples, I guess it won't be the full 128Mb because your sequence,... take space also) How long does this taken + - ? (RAM is dynamic, meaning EVRYTHING you do is kept in RAM, ie, seq, pgm, sng, samples)

Do you have to turn of the MPC and start it up again to do this? No

Thanks for the advice and sorry for my bad language...(no probs)