MPC noob, thankful for advice

Hey everybody, I have been recording from vinyl to Ableton live with an M-Audio mobile-pre USB interface for a bit now. I am not all that satisfied because it is hard to get excellent sound quality with my mobile-pre, plus there is a ton of latency in my recording chain. I am looking at getting the MPC500 or 1000. I would like to know if anybody can say that an MPC has a real-time feel when recording, because I like to scratch-in the drums (snare, bass) and this is near impossible with the amount of lag in my system now.

Also, I noticed the internal memory is only expandable to 128 MB. But I have a 1GB compact flash card, so can I use this to increase the amount of recording time?

Thanks a lot for your advice and patience, the input is REALLY appreciated.

DJPROPER wrote:Also, I noticed the internal memory is only expandable to 128 MB. But I have a 1GB compact flash card, so can I use this to increase the amount of recording time?

No, you can't.

CF cards are for saving your projects.

128 internal memory is still a decent amount of sample time. I think its like 12 minutes or something. Not to mention you can get HD's for it and HDM10 kits ect. search around. 1000 is a pretty dope machine for the price.

if you're having problems with latency in that there's a delay between the audio going in, and you hearing it, you need an audio interface with low or no-latency monitoring. my motu 828mkii has this, i'm sure there are others. it helps a great deal when your pc's a bit crap.

Yep, that seems to be EXACTLY what I need. However, I am still looking at getting an MPC1000 because I would like a playable piece of hardware. Does the 1000 have zero-latency monitoring or is it fairly noticable? Would adding more ram to my computer decrease the latency in recording? Inevitably I will probably get an interface such as the 828mkii, cause mine is just cheap! Thanks, again

the mpc has very low latency, so low it's unnoticable. adding more ram is unlikely to lower your pc's latency unless you don't have much now. i'd recommend a minimum 1GB of ram.

Awesome, an MPC1K is definitely on the shopping list when I get some ca$h. I also went through solving the latency issue. If anybody is having latency issues with an audio interface such as the Mobile-Pre, try this:
1. use the headphone jack on your interface, send audio out to it
2. mute the track you are recording, it will be monitored in the headphones anyway, and you will hear it in real-time.
3. Ableton has a guide on how to calculate the latency in your system, and a place to enter the number (milliseconds) in order to automatically correct for it.

I've managed to divert entirely away from the original subject, but thanks for all your help.

...if you want to scratch in your drums live to the sequence you´ll need a mpc2500 with direct recording feature. i don´t know if the 1000 can do direct recording with the unofficial os? anybody correct me on this.
with an mpc you normally sample you drums, chop them, make a program of the sounds and then bang the pads to fly in your hits to the sequence. this is as live as it gets

peace jo

selecta jo wrote:...if you want to scratch in your drums live to the sequence you´ll need a mpc2500 with direct recording feature. i don´t know if the 1000 can do direct recording with the unofficial os? anybody correct me on this.

The JJ os does not have Akai's "direct record" feature, but instead has a similar function referred to as "audio tracks".

They're slightly different but will produce more or less the same result.