So Saturday morning while bored, I did my usual trawl of things that I cant afford on the net. After a lengthy Evilbay linger, I swapped over to the Sound on Sound Readers ad's where I spied a bargain. An Akai MPC 60 mkII with Os 3.1 installed all for a paltry £300. Seeing as there is no way I will find an Emu sp12 turbo or a 1200 for under £600 I got excited. Hip hop aficionados wax lyrical about this hallowed beat making sampler. Its crunchy 12bit samples make kick drums sound big snares sound snappy. Having had a lot of trouble lately getting my drums to sound right in the mix, and using AU/VST drums can be a soulless undertaking, I jumped at the chance of getting something I could smack the hell out of.
I convinced my self, convinced the lady and then we were off an a 5 hour adventure across London on TFL's finest Buses, bikes and trains to get to get the beast home.
To say that is is large is an understatement! Its like a bloody cash register.
Beneath the 80'styled cream plastic beats a heart of precise timing. This is the sampling drum machine that followed on from Roger Linn's milestone, the Linn 9000 sampling drum machine. Love it or hate it, it was the machine that created the sampling worksation. Only 1,100 Linn 9000's were rumored to be made so if you have one your a lucky puppy.
On getting the MPC home I found out why it was so cheap. The chap I had bought it from had a young son who had used the Floppy drive as a cash box (not surprising really seeing as it looks like one) and I found a one pence piece in the disk drive that has killed it off. I am now falling head first into a void of trying to find a compatible 1meg floppy drive that works with the arcane settings of the MPC 60. Seems that only a few kinds will work. cross your fingers. Also it needs a new backlight, a common fault. They seem pretty easy to get and I am sure one will find its way into my post box next week.
On the upside the sound is fantastic. As soon as I started to sample some of my machines into it I could see why people love using it. Its simple to sample a sound in, and it just sounds good when you play it back. The pads are big and responsive and the sequencer is tight! it has a stereo pair out and 8 individual assignable outputs. It has 4 midi outs with 16 channels of midi per out so 64 possible midi devices can be controlled from the sequencer as well. Yipes
On the downside this is a unexpanded MPC60II so it only has 13.1 seconds of sampling time. I can get a upgrade for the memory for not too much that will increase it to 26.2 secs. Doesn't sound a lot but it teaches you to be economical. I am mostly going to be using it as a drum machine so it shouldn't be a problem. And when I have saved up my pocket money I will get a Scsi upgrade and fit a card reader to keep it in the 21st century.
Its nice to get a piece of kit that actually lives up to the hype. I have 101 things that you read the forums and reviews but still don't give you that elusive rightness. This puppy walked in the door and delivered 1st time.
I will post up some Boom Chick pretty soon and you can judge for your self...
I convinced my self, convinced the lady and then we were off an a 5 hour adventure across London on TFL's finest Buses, bikes and trains to get to get the beast home.
To say that is is large is an understatement! Its like a bloody cash register.
Beneath the 80'styled cream plastic beats a heart of precise timing. This is the sampling drum machine that followed on from Roger Linn's milestone, the Linn 9000 sampling drum machine. Love it or hate it, it was the machine that created the sampling worksation. Only 1,100 Linn 9000's were rumored to be made so if you have one your a lucky puppy.
On getting the MPC home I found out why it was so cheap. The chap I had bought it from had a young son who had used the Floppy drive as a cash box (not surprising really seeing as it looks like one) and I found a one pence piece in the disk drive that has killed it off. I am now falling head first into a void of trying to find a compatible 1meg floppy drive that works with the arcane settings of the MPC 60. Seems that only a few kinds will work. cross your fingers. Also it needs a new backlight, a common fault. They seem pretty easy to get and I am sure one will find its way into my post box next week.
On the upside the sound is fantastic. As soon as I started to sample some of my machines into it I could see why people love using it. Its simple to sample a sound in, and it just sounds good when you play it back. The pads are big and responsive and the sequencer is tight! it has a stereo pair out and 8 individual assignable outputs. It has 4 midi outs with 16 channels of midi per out so 64 possible midi devices can be controlled from the sequencer as well. Yipes
On the downside this is a unexpanded MPC60II so it only has 13.1 seconds of sampling time. I can get a upgrade for the memory for not too much that will increase it to 26.2 secs. Doesn't sound a lot but it teaches you to be economical. I am mostly going to be using it as a drum machine so it shouldn't be a problem. And when I have saved up my pocket money I will get a Scsi upgrade and fit a card reader to keep it in the 21st century.
Its nice to get a piece of kit that actually lives up to the hype. I have 101 things that you read the forums and reviews but still don't give you that elusive rightness. This puppy walked in the door and delivered 1st time.
I will post up some Boom Chick pretty soon and you can judge for your self...
2 comments:
hey hey, sounds like one funky monkey. you sampling makes me smile. ; )
Congrats - thats the power for drums right there ( also everything else ). My brother just bought a MK2 too. I go with the 3000 cause i do a lot of stereo sampling and need that extra memory. But i love to rock the 60 also - its just like you wrote - the lmits of the machine makes me go into the sound and look for the very best few seconds ;). And when im done on the 60 i can go str8 to the 3000 and finish that beat. The 60 and 3000 are so fast with the extra menu buttons - also the 4ooo.
However - i got lost. Nice you got that machine - enjoy every minute.
Peace
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