How Many of You Switched From The 2000XL?

What's Good Peoples

I'm curious to hear from all you 3000 users that switched from the 2000XL. I love the 2000XL and I feel like I know it inside and out but the 3000 has always called to me. I really like the XL for the speed. I can get drums chopped quickly and navigating the menus is super easy.

Now I'm not asking for a XL VS 3000 comparison so don't yell at me . I know the differences between the machines. I just want to hear from you guys that switched. Curious to know:

1. How you got into the 3000?
2. What made you stick with it?
3. What do you miss if anything?
4. How has your workflow changed?

Thanks for sharing

I have gone back and forth a couple of times and I find that the 3000 slowed me down for my style of making beats but I still love the machine. I started off using the 2000XL so that's why maybe I like to use the XL. I have the XL down pat.

1. My boy had one and asked me if I wanted to buy it so I did.
2. I haven't stuck with it. I have had 2 3000's and sold each of them.
3. The Sequencer & the Sampler
4. When I was using the 3000 I hated having to chop up breaks on it and just the workflow for me was very slow.

I just got my mpc 3000 - the 2000xl/s950 would be my second choice but not the mpc 2000xl as a stand alone. Hate the sound and build. in this business of SOUND, sound is important. Thats why i left pc beatmaking alone after making beats on asr-10's for years and a mpc later on that i sold. I think i found best mpc that fits my needs, sound, build, stability and great sequencer. the way of chopping i dont like. chopping on a asr10 is easier. I hate that i have to got thru 6 pages just to sample, chop and assign a sound.

page 1 - menu
page 2 - record sound
page 3 - menu
page 4 - assign sound to pad
page 5 - menu
page 6 - truncate/trim

( main screen )

1. I kept hearing good things about the sound and quality of it, and started to look into it, reading the manual, reading rewiewes of it and stuff. Suddenly I saw a guy in my country selling a mint LE with a flight case, and I knew I had to get it. I borrowed all of the $1600 from a friend, as I was a student with no money. After some hours with the 3000 I felt that I did not need the XL no more, so the guy who borrowed me the money bought the XL.

2. The things I expected: the sound and quality of it and the fact that I can do the same things with it that I did with the XL. I can't make as good sounding drums on the XL, plus the sequencer is dope to work with! Plus I love the pads, the XL feels really bad after using the 3000.

3. Maybe a brighter screen like on the XL. Track mute screen.

4. Not much, exept using my ears trimming/chopping instead of my eyes (which I think is a good thing as it is sound I am working with). And with the 3.50 OS (DOPE!) installed it it's really no major differences in the workflow, just the trimming/chopping by numbers.

i actually sold my 2k xl last week.

i copped me a MPC60II about a month ago and have no regrets

it sounds a heck of a lot better, plus its damn near easy to use.

I traded my 2000xl in on a 4000. Total I paid $800. And I don't even miss the 2k xl. I got my 3000 last year and would never part with These Two Kings.

www.myspace.com/blackc7

I got a 60 MK1 recently and it took me a while to really get into it after using my XL for years. I think the xl sounds better if you do electronic music stuff with lots of low end kicks and hifreq hihats but the 60 responds better to vinyl sampling. I used the xl a lot for synth programs too because you can loop individual sounds which you can't do in the 60. But you just need to whack the 60 with some fast and dirty sampling with full on gain and get to sequence and not worry about clicky bass samples etc.

The best feature about the 60 is the cool look. It makes a big difference to me because it really makes me want to switch it on all the time and do stuff which I can not say about the xl at all.

The second best feature about the 60 is that you can stereo mix per sequence, not just program and master, which opens up the mixing process a lot for me because you can subtly change the colors of chorus against the verse etc...

I try to keep as organized as poss with the 60, so save all sounds to individual floppies marked kiks/snares/hh/ bass ... as well as the song programs. I am better organized than with the xl now.

One thing I always found frustrating with the xl is that you can load in all those great programs that took you ages to come up with, like drums / strings/ synths / etc but you can't freely assign them to tracks but have to go through the drum map assign... that's why I am probably going to trade in the xl for a JJ OS 1000.

I can't say the same as the others. I LOVED my XL. It was so simple to use, and had just enough of everything to get by. Sure the time-stretching was slow, but it had the feature (and as long as you weren't stretching a long loop, it wasn't too bad) The Effects were dope (my opinion) and I liked the fact that you could apply the effect and reduce the main volume, leaving JUST the effect. I can't do this on my 2500, and it wasn't an option on the 3000. I've used all the MPC's, but personally I think the 60 (the first one) looks the best. I'm not convinced with the whole "warm" thing, they all sound the same to me, and this is me listening with my ears, not in a silent room with a way to measure the exactness of sound. Consumers don't know the difference between a song created on an drum-machine, or a computer, and most people are quite happy illegally downloading MP3 converted music which sound like polished schyt. My kicks knocked on the 3000, and they knocked on the XL, that's what I'm going by. Sure there's a slight difference, but not enough to sell one machine for another.
Probably the biggest selling factor for the XL is the use of folders. I'm not trying to rename every sample, and i'm definitely not trying to spend $10 on a ten pack of 1.44mb floppy disks when you can get a 1gig card for $9.99
I'm actually picking up another MPC-60 today for $400. It's super clean, and comes with the case, so I couldn't pass it up. It will probably sit in the basement until I need it for backup.

I must agree. I think the xl sounds very good and the 60 is not the holy grail.
You are lucky to get a really good 60 for that price. Mine looked good and had new pads but I had to re-solder some stuff and put in a new back-light and just ordered a new floppy drive (all that when I was told the machine was in excellent condition on ebay). Also the little buttons seem to get stickier and stickier (any tips on cleaning them?) Don't make the same mistake when opening it up to leave a chaka khan 7 inch inside for 2 weeks (actually i wondered why it sounded so good all of a sudden)...

I did more stuff on the xl than on any other machine, I just want to try a 1000 with JJ so I can load up lots of programs and freely assign them to trax, eg. program one is kicks, then snares, ... bass, leads... and record my analogue synths and guitars straight to trax and chop em. So I just want to upgrade from the xl to make my life easier. I want to be able to do all within one machine and I have been struggling doing that with the xl. Apart from that, the xl rocked for me. I'm getting a second hand 1000 with JJ delivered this week, I let you know what I think if you want...

I switched never looked back. The 2000 sounds thin period. I got the 3000 and it has made a world of a difference. After workin on the 3000 the 2000 just feels like a toy............to all those that say it dosent matter what gear you have...I feel they are lying to themselves....these machines (3000/60) really do make a huge difference in the overall quality of production.

Ah well... I wish I could just let the xl go but I can't say goodbye to either of them yet, torn between lovers...

i had the mpc2000 classic for alot of years. When the display started to go out on it I sold it and bought a beaten up old mpc60 for a good price.

I'm really loving the 60, i like the looks and the textbased OS is pretty sexy aswell. When you feel tired from hammering on the pads you just rest your arms on the nice leather armrest.

And as someone mentioned earlier the floppys is a great way to get organized.

yep, totally
I think the xl is an in-between machine, where the limitations are a frustration whereas with the 60 they are a challenge.

fritzifratzi wrote:I think the xl is an in-between machine, where the limitations are a frustration whereas with the 60 they are a challenge.

very well put

mikael__ wrote:the textbased OS is pretty sexy aswell. When you feel tired from hammering on the pads you just rest your arms on the nice leather armrest.

haha!