#42

Some days I like to go through Ghostinmpc’s IG feed or their website and imagine all the cool things I could do to my 2kxl or (very broken) 1k.

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#43

What’s wrong with it?

#44

Most of the tact switches and buttons need replacing and I think the pad sensors might need replacing too. I took a gamble on a very cheap one on yahoo auctions here in Japan and I lost. I don’t think the fixes are very difficult just a PITA!

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#45

Used damn near all of them. Sold my Live after 3 years to go back to 2500 JJOSXL.

Tips. Assign slider to sample start. Assign to pad. Set pad to note on. Perform. Depending on the length of sample all kinds of granular can be achieved in conjunction with note repeat subdivisions and adsr settings.

For anyone wanting probability and conditions type behavior, I suggest exploring patterns and assigning them to pads. I’ll have to make a video on this soon.

5 Likes
#46

On my MPC1k the HDD is wayyyy faster than compact flash. I have no real way of measuring it other than the load times being a lot better. Of course everything about the 1k/2.5k is slow - USB1.1 and the CF controller is probably 1st gen spec ie it probably couldn’t do much more with a better spec’d card anyhow. Last time I backed up my HDD it literally took a whole day with USB fully saturated 10MB/sec the whole time.

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#47

i made 90% of this album on a 2500 with jjos2xl and a virus ti:

70% of this also on the same 2500 (but with more ableton live involved):

in this very old stuff i did tracks 2,4 and 6 entirely with the mpc4000:

edit: oh, and i was forgetting my last album made entirely on the mpc live (except the Iniziazione Astrale track):

i have a shitload of livesets on various mpc’s uploaded on soundcloud but they are invisible now that i didn’t renew my pro account… need to find some other storage for them…or just up 'em on bandcamp…

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#48

A few links of not so typical MPC use:
Someone doing nice fluffy clouds on a 1000.


Konrad is a very nice person, his first lp on spectrum spools “soft coast” is a classic of that era and he did a few MPC only releases that are a very cool as well, eg https://n--u.bandcamp.com/album/mpc-tracks-vol-i
Also someone mentioned the patterns per pad trick, as far as I can tell Jan Jelinek used this as well, these days he mostly seems to rely on the octatrack though for live shows.
And shameless self plug, I did this a few years ago on a MPC1000: https://youtu.be/cwP7t66lRhA
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#49

I sprung for jjos2xl

I’m going to give my 1000 another chance. Thanks for getting this thread going.

Does anyone know if you can assign aftertouch to control the volume of a pad?

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#50

well…
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#51

I was lucky enough to be given a MPC 1000 by a friend. It was pretty beat up, non of the pads worked and only some of the tact switches worked. It was also filthy!

It’s an original blue version with individual pads, rather than the sheet of pads on the black version.

I managed to clean it up and got the tact switches working by spraying them with electrical contact cleaner. Some of the plastic buttons were broken so I swapped some around (so that the frequently used functions now have good buttons) and fixed the others with Sugru.

I managed to sort-of fix the pads by prising open the cages and replacing the rubber contact sheet inside with little squares I cut from a sheet of Velostat.
This works okay, but the velocity response is a bit inconsistent, and varies between pads.

The encoder is still a bit skippy, but I haven’t sprayed it with the contact cleaner so I might have a go with that.

I’ve had it a couple of years now and rather like it as a music production device.
I’m thinking of spending a bit of money on it by getting the pad upgrade, a new set of plastic buttons, and maybe a blue or black screen rather than the difficult to read green one. I’m comfortable doing work on it myself.

Does anyone know anywhere in the UK or EU that sells MPC parts? I know of MPC stuff in the US, which seems like they have everything I need. The prices there aren’t too bad, but the import tax and VAT added would make it much more expensive.

1 Like
#52

fixing pads and buttons is definitely a good idea, you wont regret spending some cash on it, it’s still a great machine!
i know a guy in italy that usually has spare parts and upgrades but he’s not answering my messages about s-950 parts (usually he answers quickly).
anyway a quick google search showed this:


pretty sure there are other uk resellers…
check ebay too, lot of stuff there usually from many countries.

also check beatmakers\turntablist forums or fb groups in eu\uk, usually there’s always someone reselling\fixing\upgrading…

good luck mate!

2 Likes
#53

Jazzcat maybe?

Also, somewhere I have a bunch of spare parts somewhere from when I refurbed a MPC 2500 and a 1000 some years ago. I think I had tact switches, buttons, encoder knobs and other stuff. If I find them I’ll let you all know whats on offer and anyone who wants them is welcome.

1 Like
#54

That would be very kind. I’m happy to pay, as I know these replacement parts aren’t cheap!
I had the case off again yesterday to check the encoder. I couldn’t get it to behave, even cleaning it with contact cleaner.
I also determined I only really need two new buttons - an original purple cursor key one, and a transparent one. The stop / play and tap tempo are also broken but the Sugru fix has worked well on these.
I found the pack of ten tact switches I bought a couple of years ago so I think, as a minimum, I’m going to get the pad upgrade kit, fix the four cursor tact switches (they are the worst, by far) and try to replace the encoder, if I can find a suitable replacement. I have the datasheet for the original.

Has anyone bought the “fat pad” upgrade for their MPC 1000? Are they worth the extra $40?

#55

i had them and they were definitely an improvement over the basic ones.
iirc i put the dark fat pads and cork on my 1000 and it was much more sensitive and also nicer under the fingers.

(p.s.: have to say the mpc live has the best pads i ever tried on an mpc, out of the box, no need to upgrade them at all.)

4 Likes
#56

Hey, can I join your club? :smile:

MPC 2000 XL owner, represent!

Loving this big boy, replaced all the tact switches on it about a month ago.

I’m more into the old school “boom bappy” sound and early DJ Shadow sound (Entroducing, the first Unkle ablum).

There’s this guy on youtube from who I really dig the output, combining both styles seamlessly: Peter Simkin

7 Likes
#57

akai-mpc-live-2-retro-top
akai-mpc-live-2-retro-top1000×1000 197 KB

GAS reignited. This new colourway does look very tidy

5 Likes
#58

Looks fantastic! I assume that color won‘t be available for the MPC X?

1 Like
#59

So far it’s just the Live from what I can see, but I hope they do the whole line.

#60

Re: Sd and CF cards for MPC1000 (JJos Os3 in demo mode)

So, I tried with the Micro sd to Cf adapter and two different Micro Sd Cards, the adapter works but both cards will fail. I got a lot of “File not found” errors, then all the folder names disappear until I reboot.

I tried many things: Formatting the cards from the MPC or from the Mac in MSDos Fat 32, the files are all 44.1khz 16bits, filenames trimmed down to 16chars, etc. I used a software called Mpblaze to convert all these files automatically (the whole Maschine 2 factory bank, approx 6gb structured in many subfolders).

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IMG_47213024×4032 2.26 MB

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IMG_47223024×4032 2.26 MB

Among all those cards, only the original MPC 128MB card is reliable…

I give up :disappointed_relieved:

#61

I’ve read that the MPC 1000 is only supposed to support CF cards up to 2GB.
However, I have a 4GB CF card that works fine (Transcend brand).
Do you have a smaller SD card you can test with?

1 Like