Need some help just got a MPC 2000xl

[Paradise]

Hey guys I need a little help. I'm trying to get this thing going with my studio and all. This is my setup, I got a keyboard nothing exceptional but it's midi compatible, I got Bad ass computer with a Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum sound card, and for software I got Sonic Foundry Acid Pro which I've been using for about a year. I got my mics and everything and I can lay down vocals and make songs complete, I just can't make my own beats. SO......I bought the MPC 2000xl thinking I could produce my instrumentals with it, and I'm sure I can but the problem is, it all looks like Greek to me. The manual doesn't help much. I'm even having problems loading the factory cd of sounds into the mpc cuz I don't have a scsi port for my pc, and to top that off I just found out that I need to have an external cd rom drive to load the sounds directly to the mpc scsi port. Is there any other way to load those sounds? Also I just found out that in order to hear anything that I play through the mpc from midi by keyboard, I have to have a mixer, atleast that's what the akai website with tips said. Do you guys know any good advice for me for starting out? My budget as of now is about $1,000.00 after buying the mpc. Please help, I don't want to make this a waste of money, I really wanna unleash this music inside my head....

Paradise

[SPINSTERWUN]

http://www.mpc-tutor.com/tutorials/index.html

[flossyboy]

Aight you gotta understand what the mpc is and what it's not. First off it's not an instrument so it doesn't generate it's own sounds. The only sound it makes is when you load a sound sample into memory and assign it to a pad, then hit the pad.

A few things you need to know:
.wav - of course a wave file
.snd - wave file equivalent, this is the format the mpc saves
sound samples in.
.pgm - called a program file or just plain, "program", this is your
whole map assignment of sounds for one program file...
Ok, now the MPC has 4 banks of 16 slots(pads) for sound
sample assigning. You see 4 buttons right above the 16
pads with the first four letters of the alphabet, right?
Pushing one of those bank letters, changes the bank,
which gives you access to 16 different sounds(if you have
16 more sounds loaded and assigned accordingly).
.mid - midi file or Sequence file, this file is the file that actually
holds your beat, notation, mixer changes......basically your
sequence.

Aight, there are more file extensions, but I don't want to overload you, plus I gotta get started on some music myselfhahahahaha

Now let's make a beat:
Again, the mpc works by loading a sound sample into memory, assigning that sound to a pad, and then playing the pad. I hope you at least have the floppy drive connected(zip or floppy). Now what you wanna do is a take a disk with some sound samples on them, either .wav files or .snd sounds.

P.S. The majority of the time you will be loading .wav files, the only time you will load .snd sounds will be after you save your "program" file and it converts your previously used .wav files to .snd files. You do have the option to keep the file as a .wav file though, which is a good idea, cause you can put the file back on the computer and do some manipulating. Most windows programs don't recognize .snd, actually they do but they don't play them....at least i haven't found program that does, but i haven't looked hard either. I'm sure there is one by now.

So take your disk, insert it into the drive and then hit "Shift+ Button 3". "Button 3" has "Load" underneath it. When you do that, the MPC will take you to it's "Utilities screen, Where you can load a file, save a file, format a disk, etc". It will also recognize what drive devices you have. Since you only have a disk drive(i'm assuming), you should see "ATAPI" next to the word "DEVICE" on the far left side. That tells the mpc which device to look for data on. If you had other devices such as a scsi hard drive or cd rom drive you could highlight "ATAPI"(with the cursor buttons and use the jog wheel to scroll through your other devices. Like i have a scsi hard drive internally and it's set to SCSI ID 0, so i'll turn the jog wheel and then i can access the files on the hard drive.

Ok with "ATAPI" set as the device, we need to look for the .wav files on this disk and load them into memory and assign them to a pad. To your far right up in the corner, this is your directory folder. If it says "ROOT" that means you are in the root directory( the very first director of a disk). If you highlight it and hit the "OPEN WINDOW" button, it shows you the files and folders on the disk. So pick a folder on your disk(using the cursor buttons) and hit "OPEN WINDOW", now that will show you what's in that folder. ONCE you are in a directory with a bunch of wav files hit the "F4" button to close out of the "fake azz explorer hahah" that takes you back to the "Utilities screen".

Now at the very top left corner you should see "View". If you highlight the word or words beside it and turn the jog wheel it will let you view only certain file extensions within the directory you are currently in. So turn the jog wheel to ".Wav". Underneath it, besides the word "FILE:" it will disply only the ".wav" files from that directory. Highlight the ".wav" file and then you can use the Job wheel to scroll through all the .wav files in that directory.

To actually hear the sounds make sure you have your headphones connected in the back in the headphone jack, or you will have to get a mixer and speakers. Now with the .wav file highlighted hit the "F6" key(on the screen it says "DO IT"). This will take you to the "LOAD A SOUND" screen. At the top it presents the name of the file, and at the bottom it presents which pad it will be assigned to. To change the pad that you want it to assign to, just turn the jog wheel, or for simplicity choose a bank letter by hitting the corresponding button, and then hit the pad you want it to assign to. Then hit "F5" to "KEEP" the assignment and load the sound into memory. Now when you hit that pad, the sound should sound off. If you didn't like the sound, you could hit "DSCARD" and it would take you back to the "Utilities Screen" and not load the sound into memory. Now load some more sounds. Now when you load these sounds, you are creating a mapping assignment file called "Program File", file extension ".pgm". If you save this file, the mpc will save all the sounds you loaded into memory for that program and save the pad assignment. So when you turn off your mpc and want to load a certain beat back up, you would load up the ".pgm" file and then load up your ".mid" file(sequence file/beat).


ABOUT MEMORY:
On the utilities screen on the far right you should see "FREE MEMORY". Under it you should see "snd=xxxxK" and "seq=xxxxK". The "x" represent numbers based on the amount of memory you have in your mpc. "snd=xxxxK" represents how much memory you have left from loading sounds, and "seq=xxxxK" represents how much memory you have left for loading sequences(beats). Like i said, to use the mpc, you have to load sounds into memory. So once you have no more memory you can't load anymore sounds. So if you have less than 16mb of memory, you need to always watch how big the files are that you load.

Well man I'm about to dip out.
Load some sounds and read more of the manual. This should help you understand the manual better. Just worry about loading sounds, and recording your beats(sequences). Read the book on how to save your "Program File" and your "Sequence"(your beat).

Hit me back if you are still having problems
That Texas Fella
sugaty@aol.com