its me, you can believe it. or do not.. its of no consequence.
why did i join?
well to put it simply.. there was an extensive conversation going on here about what i posted. and i didnt like something that was said. there was also clearly some misunderstanding, so i chimed in.
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why didnt i join before?
actually didnt know it existed until my asst found your 5000 bug thread when we were trying to figure something out, only to see others were having same problem.
that being said I have been known to pop up in a forum or 2 over the years, but it isn't a habit of mine. not really my thing. though I do read some from time to time.
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why did i not use the MV?
simple again: didnt like it. im used to the mp. and thought it would be closer to that in operation since they had a similar look. another impulse buy gone wrong. i am however recieving a 8800 today in fact so i'll be posting something about that soon, after i check it out. at the end of the day you will be more comfortable with some machines than others.
what i will say, and this is something im actually going to be talking about on my blog soon, is that as soon as roland found out i had an 8000, the VP actually personally came to my studio to get my opinion on it, and i gave him my honest thoughts, some positive, many of them negative. not that i thought it was a bad machine, i was just hoping for something that could be as simple as the mp (in terms of my workflow anyway) but with more capabilities. what really made me run out and buy it was the real-time time stretching, which while operational, didnt always sound that good (why not just use actual variphrase technology? you guys invented it!) but i did appreciate the fact that they came to visit. turned out dude designed the v-synth and actually showed me a few tricks on it (which led to the making of touch the sky for kanye) which was also cool.
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Isn't anyone curios as to why this celeb user didn't choose to join until July 30. after being a diehard 4000 surrogate. After all he pretty much said all he had to say in the review.
see answer #1
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My question is, after all the points made in the post, why is everyone taking ONE line about money and compounding it into a load of nonsense? Seems like dude is gonna get attacked either way.
good point.. that's more of a personal thing, not so much technical, but hey, it's an open forum.
there is a big difference between say, on one hand, buying something, and after some use, you just aren't comfortable with it, or dont like the workflow of it and on the other hand, buying something, and it doesn't do what it advertises, or just has so many bugs it does not work well, crashes and freezes repeatedly and is clearly not a successor to the previous flagship. hence my frustration and disappointment.
In the first example above, you took the risk and bought something on impulse and decided after the fact it wasn't for you. at that point, you take the L and throw it in the office with the rest of the stuff, or maybe give it away (like i did with my 2500 and a few other pieces of gear) or sell it (which i don't have time to really deal with). BUT IT WORKED.
In the second example,
you (or I) bought something knowing that it may not be the ultimate machine but could find a place in your setup (in my case it could have been the core of my home setup) and then discovering all the bugs (many of which I obviously didnt bother to list). When you have major problems like I did, AND you add on to that some of the shortcomings the machine had (some of which I was aware of at the time of purchase, some I was not), the absence of a few features from previous machines and the poor implementation of some of the new features.. that makes for a whole different outcome.
to put it simply, when it doesnt work as advertised, AND has major bugs, you as a consumer (or a prosumer) have a right to be frustrated. and when the machine has a name that implies it is the successor to the previous flagship, it will only add to that frustration when it is missing many features of that previous flagship.
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As far as the spend it f*ck it and chuck it attitude thing not adding up:
all i can do is chalk that up to you not knowing me.. and not having seen my gear collection.
yes i am a pretty humble dude and carry myself like a every day joe in a lot of ways.
yes i can spend money in ways the average person doesn't or isnt able to.
and yes i am a (former) gear slut ( i believe that is the term). at one point I probably used to spend a good 25% of my income on gear and electronics i didnt even really end up using, but that's part of always wanting the latest and greatest in toys.
kinda like how you may buy a shirt and then realize when you get home you don't like it.. same principle, just on a different level.
Me sometimes splurging on gear because I can afford to, and being a realist about it in conversation does not equal bragging, and doesnt make me any less of a good or humble person. it's just reality. Dude asked why i bought it. I told him.
Someone else implied that I kinda fell for some hype and or something and my answer served to set that straight as well. I didn't get caught in the hype machine and run out all excited, I thought about it after reading something, and said hey what the hell I'll go buy one. And the reason I sometimes have that attitude is pretty much because... well, because I can afford to.
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Lastly, as far as people going on about the 4000 bug issues.
I never said the 4 was perfect when it came out, and I don't think I said it had zero bugs. I had the machine about a week before it was released in the US, and to my understanding there were issues with the Japanese version, which was available for a few months before coming out here. i DO remember when i first used it there were only 2 issues that kinda hindered my workflow. One being an issue with being able to switch between mono/poly on a sample, and I honestly can't remember the other. What i DO remember is that regardless of the 2 issues i had, i was still able to work and be creative without a ton of worrying. my workflow was not impaired. Which is my deciding factor in whether or not a piece of gear is useful. And compared to the 2000/2000xl. It was a giant advance in the MPC lineage, and I was more than happy with my purchase.
Everyone works differently. So some bugs you experience I may not, and vice versa. I look at some of the bug reports and I'm like who even USES the machine that way? or why would you need to do THIS when you could do this? And then i think about when i first met swizz 10 years ago or so. he didnt even know what midi was, and he would just sample himself playing keys and chop that up... and he didnt care. I showed him how midi worked and he was hype, but he still went on doing things his way, and made a ton of hit records. I'm pretty sure he programs differently now, but he had his own workflow then, and it worked for him. Different people use different machines different ways, so the only perspective I can speak from is mine, and where I walked away from the 4 after a few uses feeling great about the machine, I simply did not feel that way about the 5.
I'm not going to go on in depth about this anymore on here, I'm wasting things I planned on talking about in my blog lol. so if you see some repeats on there, that's the reason why. I think I'm going to start doing (much shorter) thoughts on different pieces of gear on my site now. If anything, this kinda inspired me to get back on my blog game a little (time permitting) =)
I wish all of you guys the best and much success in the future.
God Bless
JB
"I'll be boch" (c) Ahnuld
PS no i didnt install the new OS and probably won't get around to it anytime soon. If they do some kind of revamp as far as how the synth is implemented, then I'll definitely be checking that out.
UPDATE: what a coincidence. right as i clicked "submit"... Just received email from... drum roll..
hint: starts with an "A"
later.
but then i was pretty impressed. almost enough to try and make something on it.. i probably will when work slows down.
and talking about his millions 
). Its good he cleared up the fact that he got his MPC 4000 at a later date (because I was about to call him a liar) because I purchased several of them before they hit the US and it was terrible. My only point was that the problems with this new MPC is actually better than my experiences with the MPC 4000 when it was released. My Fantom G also had/has some issues...