Time for a new machine.

I have a 1000 and am currently experienceing all the technical difficulty's I read about before buying it. (f**ked up pads, upgrades and all the other b*llsh*t everyone has heard about) I am on the verge of selling it. I have been looking at the SP-404. Is that a good trade off? The 1000 has just been a pain in the ass. I have never used the 404 before and was wondering if I could get some opinions regarding the trade off between the two or even a similer device that might be a better and less painful experience than that of the ownership of a MPC-1000. i.e Roland, korg or whatever.

SP-404s are great for effects and portability, but that's about all they have to offer. the builtin sequencer is garbage and the pads are not velocity sensitive. it also can't be used as a midi controller, because it does not have MIDI OUT... so to go from an MPC-1000 to an SP-404, you're losing a LOT of functions. if anything, i'd use an SP just as an effects unit... but not as my only piece of gear. MPCs have a bit of a learning curve... you've gotta read up and put some time into them... the SPs let you throw around ideas pretty quickly, but are very limited and the pitch shift is terrible. just some things to keep in mind.

apples and oranges really!
they are not the same thing. both are good though. have u tried an os change? plus u could order new pads. honestly the 404 compliments the 1k, NOT replaces it.

i do disagree with the 404 sequencer as garbage, it's just very limited and hard to get used to.

2000xl. solid as a rock. and you could probably sell the 1000 to buy it. my partner uses a 1000 and i like my xl better.

2000xl seems like the best bet. I need somthing solid and reliable. Dosn't the XL use floppy disk?

Floppy, Zip or Multi Card Readers can be found for the XL

Spacetimegod wrote:I have a 1000 and am currently experienceing all the technical difficulty's I read about before buying it. (f**ked up pads, upgrades and all the other b*llsh*t everyone has heard about) I am on the verge of selling it. I have been looking at the SP-404. Is that a good trade off? The 1000 has just been a pain in the ass. I have never used the 404 before and was wondering if I could get some opinions regarding the trade off between the two or even a similer device that might be a better and less painful experience than that of the ownership of a MPC-1000. i.e Roland, korg or whatever.

Just get the Akai replacement pads add JJ OS and get on with life.
The XL is just as bad a replacement for the 1k as the 404 if you look at from a realistic aspect.

despite all the extras of the 1k, i switched from the 1000 to the 2kxl and couldnt be happier. (Traded my 1k for a xl on craigslist) Seriously never looked back. But thats just me. One thing to keep in mind, coming from the 1k your gunna want to get an xl that either has the card reader already installed or put one in your self. I changed out my floppy drive with the card reader.

Just in my opinion..

The 1000 was a great machine and made plenty of great beats on it but it was to small and felt so fragile. Plus the lay out and workflow of the xl is where its at for me. I do miss a few small things from the 1k but my roommate has a 1k so if need be i go and fool with his.

dopedee wrote:
The 1000 was a great machine and made plenty of great beats on it but it was to small and felt so fragile. Plus the lay out and workflow of the xl is where its at for me. I do miss a few small things from the 1k but my roommate has a 1k so if need be i go and fool with his.

Then the correct move would have been the 2500, especially with how cheap they have become both used and new.

THE ADVERSARY wrote:

dopedee wrote:
The 1000 was a great machine and made plenty of great beats on it but it was to small and felt so fragile. Plus the lay out and workflow of the xl is where its at for me. I do miss a few small things from the 1k but my roommate has a 1k so if need be i go and fool with his.

Then the correct move would have been the 2500, especially with how cheap they have become both used and new.

just don't get it a with ZIP drive... if you don't know why, read up on the "click of death"... just google that.

THE ADVERSARY wrote:Then the correct move would have been the 2500, especially with how cheap they have become both used and new.

I did that last week, and am so glad I did it. First I thought about switching to 2kxl but maan they lack so much (especially compared to mp2,5k with JJ)

The SP-404 is a unit primarily aimed at DJs not music production. if you're doing live DJ sets you'll find that the MPC is totally out of it's element. In the Booth or on stage is no place to decipher tiny abbreviated text. OTOH the Sp-404 is not a machine gear towards any thing of compositional complexity.

I agree with THE ADVERSARY and just step up from what you have. 2500s are dirt cheap these days if you want to move up in the hardware dept. . Maybe a pad controller for a full size and better playing surface.