MPC/MV users care to share your insights? Opinions Welcome

aprim wrote:The MV is a great tool if your looking for a All in one unit. Perfect for a someone with no other gear. It has a mixdown deck as well as Audio tracks. It dose everything except spit lyrics over your beats.

But The 4000 is geared towards being the center of a bigger studio. Something to control all the gear its surrounds. It not a JACK OF ALL TRADES like the MV(MASTER OF NONE), but its the best HARDWARE seq sampler out there.
With 96k 24BIT sampling this can't be messed with. Although you will see alot of disagreements on diffrect boards.
If you are looking for an investment in a future piece of gear the MPC4K is a great purshase. The MV will end up on ebay in a year when your trying to upgrade to the MV-X or whatever they release thats 24 bit color screen all the latest Roland gizmos.
When it comes down to it both will work, but for the extra cash get the MPC
You'll see why its a world class machine.

I second that I have been burned before with the Roland updates.

i made the choice between both the MV and the 4K and it came down to this :

MV = 16 bit 44.1khz FIXED RESOLUTION
4K = 24 bit 96khz VARIABLE RESOLUTION/ 4X MIDI Out

depending on what you want to do of course and how much you want to pay, Akai is the more expensive route but worth it IMO.

good luck!

Took me 30 mins to find this so I went out of my way, prob the best summary from a guy who has used both, have to agree with him

Doctor Beat wrote:yeah, I got da MPC4K and I copped a MV back in december. After a couple weeks of frustration, I returned the MV to the store, ya know what I'm sayin'?
Put it simple: the sequencer of the MV is linear only. Da MPC can do pattern-based and linear sequencin'.
If ya don't wanna do patterns for creatin' beats and loops, the MV might be OK 4 ya.
Anywayz, the MV's only half the resolution of da 4K and it just don't have da MPC 'feel'. Plus, the MV's seq only got 1 midi in, 2 midi outs and 16 internal channels. Da 4K's got 2 midi ins, 4 midi outs and 128 internal parts, ya feel me?

More powerful? my *ss!
Sure, it's got 8 'audio tracks' but read closer: it ain't no disk recorder, it's in RAM like the sampler. It's cool but I can sample vocals and phrases with mine 4K too and at 24bit, not 16bit like the MV. Plus, if I really wanna track I use my disk recorder sync'ed up to da 4K.
And check out the sampler, da 4K's 10 times mo' powerful: 24bit, mo' filters, mo' modulations, lfo's, etc and mo' sound libraries. Da 4k can read MPC2K/3K, S3K/5K/6K, roland S700 and EMU 3/4 samples AND programs, ya dig?

I said it b4, the MV's a rip-off and they put sum 'bells and whistles' to cover for their half-*ss job on the sequencer and sampler.

Thank you MPCeople

The info you all provided was very helpful.

I understand the key differences between the 4000 and the MV now. The 2 machines are similar in concept but very different in essence. I see how Roland tried to cop the MPC...They did a pretty good job makin it appear to be a 4000 but the guts/quality of the machines are very different. That said, I think the 4000 is too rich for my blood right now (believe it or not ) so eyez stickin with what eyez got. I really like the 3000 so far, but it would be nice to have some of the extra features in the 4000 and 8000. and YES, I am Reading the manual Raven.

I checked ebay but the 4000 sells for almost 2 grand and I have reached my current budget unless I sell somthin... If I could get a lightly used MV for under a thousand dollars, I would consider it just because it reads
Acid files and I would love to ditch my old PC that I run Acid on. My Pc is so messed up that I barely turn it on anymore and my Acid CD's just sit there

The other thing that I really like about the MV is the all in one concept. I know this concept is kind of lame but there is a beauty to being able to hit the power switch and just start composing, recording, and mixing/mastering at one piece of hardware, if for nothing more than creating a focused environment so that you can look straight ahead at one piece of gear and not interupt or loose your creative musical flow. I think too much gear can really distract from the creative process. Unfortunately, I have to agree with many of you and say that I think Roland paid more attention to trying to cram as much wow factor into the MV that they skimped on the actual nuts and bolts...I could be wrong, but they did that with much of if not all of their VS line and groove boxes.


Thanks Iceberg-Slim...30 minutes to find that!!!! Thank you...that post was really helpful.

Hey Reveal...mind telling me why you are a grumpy old 4K user? I would be interested in knowing as I havent totally written off getting a used 4K if I can snag a good deal. Thanks.

Raven...look bro, I think you totally misunderstood my questions to you and you made several assumptions which given the nature of online forums, can happen.
You admit to being a hostile kind of guy, so I can understand how you jumped to the conclusion that I was being hositle in my posts. You see by being hostile in nature, it is easy to always see/hear/read the worst intentions in a person. I know because I struggled with anger and hostility for years and it is still a challenge for me in this F%^&* up world to CHOOSE to see the GOOD when it is so easy to see the S*&*T. All I can say is martial arts and meditation...I am a really awful person without them....LOL.

*******Reprinting your post was an ACCIDENT bro...I was trying to quote you and somehow that happened...I honestly dont know how that occured, but there was no malice intended...really sorry***********************

When I said
HOW!?!?!?!? PLEASE TELL ME
I was not demanding or hostile...note the word PLEASE. I was simply very eager to hear your opinion...that is why I used the ! ! !...because I figured anyone with such a strong opinion must have some very valualble information, and I need to know!!!!!! LOL I was simply trying to convey my interest in what you had to say.

I never said that I was ready to dump the 3000. I was wondering if there was something out there that was better sutied for my applications, and I figured that it would be better for me to find out NOW instead of later after investing YEARS learning how to get the most out of a piece of gear. Believe me, I am not a band wagoner...I have keyboards that are OLD, and I wont get rid of them for the latest greatest because it took me so long to learn how to squeeze them for everything their worth. I said I was playing for 20 years, not recording. I am a newbie to recording. When I recorded years ago, someone else did all the work. So now I am looking for the most simple and versatile tools that I can LEARN.

COOL?

PS...tell me what is a TROLL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

PLEASE

risri, you seem like a good dude, and maybe i came at you too hard-SORRY. It was the topic of you post that got me upset the-- MV-- I can't see the attraction this thing has, it's just a tool i know
but it's personal to me. I started (electronic music) on an mp, and it's close to my hart as though it's a part of me, just as the guitar is. It's a kind of love
that develops when you pour you'r soul into somthing.
You will find this out when you work with it.I will defend it from the inferior--mv--that plastic wanabe.I just hate to see good pepole stuck with that thing when they can own the real deal. If you stick around this form, you will see the love people have for their mp's, I'm not alone on this. I see people new to mpc's that don't know about the magic that happen's between man and machine,
the CONNECTION (it's deep) and i want them to share this experience, so they can create, and exorcise there demon's.Yes i'm an angry guy,I go to
therapy, and try not to act on it. No music in jail.
anyway WELLCOME TO THE MPC FAMILY, BRO.

Raven...that was the coolest post. I relate. Thanks bro.
Peace all.