This is a small collection of MPC 1000 beats. No doubt there's a lot more on there..
After rocking the 1000 for about a decade or so I switched over to the 2000XL for a little while, to get a feel for much more limited and old school hip-hop production methods. I can say a lot about this. My first impression of the 2000XL was that it was like an old ass slot machine. Trusty, but funky and still works. For the 2000s generally the MIDI timing is on point. You have to preview a sound before you load it in, and loading takes time.. In terms of raw sound however the 2000 series is a tad punchier than later MPC models. May or may not have something to do with Roger Linn leaving the company during this time, as Akai was acquired by Numark, who basically didn't really care much in terms of quality and devotion to legacy. I never tried the 60 or 3000, but I respect those machines greatly. If anything if I were to "go old school again" it would probably be the 4000. For the time being more or less indefinitely at this point, I'm happy with the 1000/2500 platform, especially with JJOS
So I was using the 2000XL for about a year pretty intensively. When suddenly the machine just flat out died, or at least the screen did. No lines or anything... It just straight up gave out. Rather than copping a new screen from MPC Stuff I decided instead to just sell it off and use the money to buy a decent 2500 with the new XLCD screen. I sort of had the precognition that heads would get tired of the DAW controller MPCs that eventually unfolded. However it doesn't seem the be the case as much as I thought it would. Nevertheless you won't see me rocking a Ren or a Touch or a Live, or whatever newfangled touchscreen things they have at Guitar Center these days. There's a lot of romance floating about how the 2000s don't jam. In my personal experience this wasn't the case. I've never had the 1000 or 2500 jam on me once.. Not even getting into the horrible pad sensor design on these models, there's much more to read about that elsewhere. And if you know you know..
I've more or less equally been about straight composition versus sampling loops (not even cutting). So my beats from even the early days have been either/or/or a cross in-between. And it will no doubt continue to be this way.
I can't front. Computers and software have gotten to the point where it's so much easier and faster and cheaper to just lay stuff out in a DAW. I only work this way entirely about 20% of the time at most. The majority of DAW use is mixing. I still use the MPC, and I got a second audio interface to basically use as a digital converter for adding VST instruments to the mix on productions, so it's all good and I've finally gotten to the stage where I'm entirely 200% comfortable with how I'm rocking shit. It's a decent hybrid mix of analog and digital. I got a dirty scratchy-ass Ramsa mixer and plenty of things to plug into it.
I do want to start filming some beats making videos, and do live streams and all that, but that's been a struggle for the past couple years. I don't even have a smartphone.. My instagram account only has like 3 pictures as of now and it was all because I was able to use a relative's smart device. So there's that. I did try on at least two occasions to stream a beatmaking session, but each time there were some issues preventing me from filming. I'm tempted to pull out the old VHS or 8MM recorder and just do it that way.. But it wouldn't be live. Time will tell. It might have to be pre-recorded and semi-unedited. But I would like to stream live on the spot sessions. Maybe even some Rhythm Roulette style sessions pulling records out randomly. Tune in to be hip to whatever happens..
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