If you take into consideration every MPC back to the MPC60, which model was physically the largest? In other words, which takes up the most desk space? I suspect that the mpc5000 is about the same size as the MPC-X (and thicker in depth) but I’m not confident that it’s the largest. Anyone know the answer?
I had a 60 mkii and it was wider than my 3000. Much heavier too compared to the 3000.
Don’t carry the 60ii unless you’ve been doing deadlifts.
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I always thought that the MPC60 (and mkII) look a little bit like an old school cash register.
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It does. It looks cooler in person, but the biggest gripe coming from a 2000XL was how slow a sequence prints and plays back. It’s only 500ms wait time on the 60 but when you are on a streak you forget what to write next. The sound of the low end gives you that feeling that you want to keep writing phrases. You begin to realize how good you have it when write sequences faster on the modern MPC 2000XL .
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They seem to go for about two and a half grand now a days so you need a cash register to buy one!
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I think it cost $5k US, new in 1988, which adjusted for inflation in 2024 is $13,291, so apparently $2500 should be a bargain!?
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makes the MPE X SE look quite the bargain!
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Preaching to the choir on this. One of my biggest gripes with the Live is why do I have to go to a into a menu just to mute? This is where the Maschine+ shines, just hold the mute button and press the pad you want to mute.
Yes but as an actual piece of gear, feature wise it is expensive compared to newer devices. People only want it due to it’s legendary status and a perceived sound
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Akai gave the feature to the Force, plus 8 function buttons that can set as Mute, Solo or Rec Arm.
You also can set the marco knobs or macro pads (I don’t think MPC3 has the 64 Pad macros yet) to mute or even cooler, you can set them to turn the track db level audio off & on instantly which is great for playing live in a way you can’t do with muting a MIDI track where the muted track only plays again after it’s note-on triggered in again in the sequence.
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You can select the mute behavior in the preferences on the MPC line. Either mute the midi note for a soft cut, or you can mute the track for a hard cut in or out.
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Yes I know, but I was talking doing it with macros so you can have quick access to certain tracks like 1, 4, 11, 26 or whatever.
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Just checked this out and I don’t see an option for this in the preference menu.
In the preferences click the sequencer option. Should be the first thing you can select. Instant Track Mute.
Sorry for the bad photo. I wouldn’t know where to find this in the manual so here’s a photo 
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Haha fair enough but i have seen people use this argument unironically
Bout to test this out right now.
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My only experience in the presence of the MPC 60 was checking one out briefly,an Ozzie guy had it locally in the UK.For some reason (all a bit hazy now but cannot forget) he just loaded a single bass drum on a pad, banged it and the walls and floor of the whole large building (in my memory…) seemed to tremor…the reason I did not seal the deal ( about £450 20 years ago) is that he sort of changed his mind at that point and the fact that it was so big and heavy……got another 2000xl instead which certainly did not have the heavy sound but has its own charms…
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TLDR, I think getting 'knock' from samplers is relative to your whole set up... but, I experienced it from my MPC Live 2 yesterday, it's really fkn cool hitting some drum pads through a 1000W PA with subs. You don't 'need' an MPC60.
The sonic impact attributed to the MPC60 and 3000 is intriguing. If you consider the scenario you described, there are numerous factors contributing to the power of the sound; the sample quality, processing, amplification, and the speakers. To solely credit the MPC60 for this and charge a high price for it is crazy really.
It makes me think of the Sound System culture in dub. They prioritized the right focus, in my opinion, for moving walls. The emphasis wasn’t on the turntable (the MPC60 equivalent in this case).
I had a really interesting band rehearsal yesterday.
Up until now, I’ve been using Ableton Live and transferring stems/parts from the record we released as backing tracks, mainly for the drum sounds and some keys/soundscape parts. These stems have already been mixed and have bus/mix processing, etc… and it’s worked pretty well to date.
I recently made the decision to simplify our live set and use only an MPC Live 2 (in place of Ableton; laptop, audio interface, controllers, etc).
When we tried it out yesterday, the raw kicks and snares from the MPC made a big impact, and the other two band members immediately noticed the difference. They were impressed with how hard-hitting it sounded. This has motivated me to stick with using the MPC for our live shows from now on.
A key difference is the impact of removing bus/mix processing. What might sound good at normal listening levels doesn’t sound as good when played loudly. Conversely, kicks and snares with a lot of impact at high volumes may not be as ‘meaty’ at lower, consumer-friendly levels.
Effectively, you don’t need effects or processing to make things sound loud when they are already loud.
So, the MPC Live 2 is coming into our live setup. The only issue I have now is deciding whether to take on all the mix responsibility and just give the FOH engineer a stereo feed… or add an interface to break it out for FOH mix control.
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It’s all about that sound…
Do you have that sound?
Kids these days don’t know about that sound…
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