Lookin' to buy an Akai MPC

[jordan novice]

Which one should I purchase? Looking to spend around 500, but wouldn't be opposed to spend a little more.
What's the differences between them and what should I look out for? Will be purchasing it used.

 

[gatzbygordon]

well the mpc 2000's and XL's are what you will find below 400 on Craigslist, but also keep in mind these machines are well over 20 yrs old.

the screens are the first to go on these..they start to get lines and then you have to shell out well over 200 thats if you can even find a replacement..also the onboard memory on these are pretty limited unless they had the ram upgraded to 32 mb which is the max..

also to load files you will have to use disks..some folks might have upgraded the regular stock floppy drive to a faster zip drive, or if it has the SCSI port installed in the back you can get an external SCSI drive..

some folks have also added CF drives to them to make em faster..

what id recommend is getting the 1000..i got mine from ebay a while back for 700 you can find them cheaper now, they have hard drives depending if the previous owner upgraded and the max ram is 256 if you install the EXM ram..stock its 32 MB i believe.

it also has a CF drive and you can also download a really cool operating system called JJOS which makes the machine really user friendly and easy to navigate.

but beware the first run of the machines that were blue had PAD SENSOR defects and basically after time the pads will start to lose their sensitivity and then you will have to replace them OR you can use an external controller like an MPD with a midi cable to trigger the MPC pads...they fixed the pad problem later and released the black version of the mpc..

things to check for are the screens..make sure there are no pixels out..

make sure ALL pads are responding

make sure the machine boots up and stays on for a bit

make sure all the drives work whether its a cf card reader floppy w/e just make sure it loads the format..

i started out with an sp 404, then got an mpc 1000, then got an sp 505, sold all of those and got an mpc 2500 LE..

the 500 IMO is garbage its cheap i know but dont get it..numark i believe took over akai and started making the cheap mpcs with plastic chassis..

also akai XR 20's arent samplers i believe they are just drum machines like the old alesis.

if you come up with any more questions id be glad to answer them and anyone else for that matter.

 

[jordan novice]

How's this one? Sketchy because he doesn't know much about it.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/3500975720.html

 

[djtmr]

You should go to guitar center or a music store near you and try them out and see which one you like.

going cheap is def not the best way to go either. 

you also may want to look into the machine as well. 

Th e mpc is old hardware and may require you getting a bunch of other peripherals to make it work like you wanna. 

 

[gatzbygordon]

if you want to sample use the mpc..but you will also need a means to sample either from out of your computer into the machine or a turntable.

that craigslist ad is deleted too.