Get a 1000

I read these forums a lot and it seems the BEST way to go is with the 1000. Antonym has made it clear that the pads suck. Also, he has a solution, which he states is simple. SO buying a used MPC 1000 for as little as possible and then fixing it and modding it and adding jj is the MOST cost effective way if you must have a machine.

please elaborate, lampdog

this will largely depend on sequencing style.

if you're brought up on classic mpc style sequencing from within step edit and that's what you like, there's no reason to go beyond a 2000xl really besides faster load time/more memory. at a point there's really nothing more you need.

the biggest strength in the recent mpcs is grid editing, but in turn one could say that the jj os has less a different workflow than older mpc series/os's. different (and i would say better fitting for my work)

i just like grid editing so much more than step editing, you can move around sequences with dozens of notes it so much faster. really facilitated drum programming for me.