So I got an MPC 2000xl a while back wish I thought would be cool to have combined with my 303. Frankly, now I that I gotten the hang of my 303 I've soley been on that, I mess with the mpc every now and then..but its just so time consuming, confusing..i feel like im wasting time messing with it everytime i have an idea an get on the mpc..I got the $40 tutorial that the guys from the mpc board recommend to any aspiring mpc'er's..and its good..but idk..between buying components for it, and me debating on whether to get a zip card reader or a CF card reader, how to hook it up to my mac without killing my wallet, the learning curve..etc... Anyways, I went by this vintage music equipment shop in my neighborhood last week, and on his shelf in the back he had a Moog Rogue for $600..so I asked him if he'd be willing to trade for gear of equal value for the moog and he said he was open to the idea. I've been wanting a good synth and have wanted a moog for awhile too..but I had also wanted an mpc for awhile and now that I got one..im not to sure i like .So I need some feedback, trade the mpc for the moog or keep the mpc learn it.

Some things that I do like about the 2000xl. I love the pads..as silly as that sounds..also, I know it really is a beast of a machine..from what Ive seen of people who know what they are doing with..its a murderer. Sample time, I hear the sequencer is great ("I hear..." such a sad statement.)

sigh..decisions.

trade for the moog... you can always buy another mpc down the road.

Sold my mp2kxl and never looked back! I say do it, if you are bored with it switch it up!

i love the idea of working with floppies on a 2000xl, spent a few weeks on my homies 2000xl and definitely got the hang of it, and savin a program across multiple floppies is super easy, and it doesn't take that long, and floppies, once you find a source, are super cheap, you grab like 50 or 100 of em, and just start savin sounds you wanna use, pitch everything alllll the way up 45 +10%, as to save space, and organize sounds by source, and what kinda sound, then you can have all your breaks, all sorts of percussion sounds, vocal samples, and other building blocks that aren't the main sample of a beat, and then when you do start workin on a beat, you can fuck with the cuts on the 404/303 and figure out some ideas, then cut it into the mpc, and you can start pullin out those floppies and tryin shit out, pitchin it right in the machine, see how it sounds, and once you get all the shit you want, save that program and the sequences, just always gotta name sounds unique names that help to explain whats on em, and gotta write on the floppies what sounds are on it and organize your floppies so they're easy to dig through..........my advice is to sell it to me for $400, i'm sick of tryin to find one on craigslist, everybody wants to sell there machine for 600 or 700, don't really use it "proper" anyway, but instead have it running some menial task for them that doesn't really work that well for they're purpose, and they could care less who they are sellin it too..........but dude it comes with the G Unit drum sounds and Brooklyn Original Drum Breaks!!!!!!!

i called one dude who would of been the perfect situation for me, but he had sold it already to a friend for like fuckin 350, and he said he just didn't know how to use it, he had gotten it from a friend a few years back, but it just didn't have any sounds in it to work with, and didn't know how to load sounds into it to work with, and when i mentioned samplin records, he had no idea what i was talkin about, said he had his other beat machine that he uses and that he was sorry i wasn't the one who bought the MPC, yeah me too buddy.......can't give any advice about the trade, sorry......but if your still sure you don't like workin on the MPC and wanna get rid of it, and you live in the north east US, and your lookin to sell it, i'm your man, let a homie know!!! hahaha

yea man the 2kxl is an absolute monster you just need to figure out how to utilize it, it's not about having efx and features like an SP...its a true centerpiece and once you get the hang of it you can really streamline what you are doing, it's all about having your sounds properly organized but the workflow can be blistering b/c you properly sequence and premix as you make the beats

Word. Thanks for the feedback fellas, imma keep it. One reason is that this busta I was try to trade first said no, and that he has only been able to get $100-200 off of em??..mansityoassdaown. Van your feed back was mad helpful, as far as organizing sounds and all that. I've been able to sample in and etc..its just that workflow curve I gotta get. I need to find that bulk source you speak of for zip cards, as of now I only have one.

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omg, get out of my head.

But for real don't you hate that? I've been looking for one too to compliment my 303 but I get so annoyed reading the sales write ups-"Yeah, I had it for 4 days, I bought it thinking I would be the next Dilla/Dre. I used it for like 10 minutes and it ended up in my closet/under my bed collecting dust." Like....and then you see the same 4 ones being whored out, just circling the ebay circuit.

This is why I have a love/hate with this whole beat revolution thing. It took away some of the glitter and magic from producing so everyone thinks they can do it so they over saturate the market with their half assed attempts, raising the prices in gear, records, everything and flooding the block with garbage music so people are not so interested in checking stuff out and good artists end up being lost amongst the junk.

If you're happy with the 303 then don't let the 'supposed to''s of the MPC make you keep it..

The moog rogue is totally a good idea IMO.. it has a simple interface like the 303.. what you see is what you get straight up..

i was just talkin with my homie last night about how there have always been the type of people who start playin music, usually its been a guitar, as just a hobby, and stick with it for years and years even though they really don't go anywhere with it, and i mean like anywhere within the realm of learning basic skill, like i gotta a buddy who has played guitar for years and years, and he is absolute garbage, he can't get past the same progression in the same key with the same power chords, its like he can't process anything beyond this limited amount of insight that he has, but he still can get himself "syked" on it, like every once in a while i see him and he tells me he was just recording some stuff into his computer, and i know exactly what to expect, i've heard the cd's before, and not that there is anything wrong with that, music can totally be a hobby, i mean it is for me too, you should be able to do whatever you want for hobbies and creative outlets without worrying about having to prove something to somebody, but its funny that people like this are now spilling over into the beat world, people who think of it as just another musical outlet to try out, and so there are a lot of people who say like "yeah, i used to make beats, i wanna get a new copy of FL on my new comp so i can get back into it"........and what you explained is exactly what happens, you know that who ever is buying the 2000xl blue model with expanded zip drive and the vintage drum kits preloaded on it for 800 is probably some clown who won't take the time to understand what workin on 2000xl consists of, and just expects this shit to happen over night, and won't take the time to research and learn themselves on some shit, it can take years to wrap your head around the process of makin beats.....although diggin and learning about finding and using sounds has been a huge learning process for me outside of the technical side of things (marking sounds properly, effects, mixing, sequencing....) and i know not everybody gives the dig the as much thought and time as me and others might, some people are onto some different shit, and thats cool, but you gotta take the time to develop your hobby, be involved, learn about it, its history, and the other members of people interested in the same shit as you, it doesn't mean you have to go out and become known and shit, but just do your research, learn for yourself, hunt out information, and HAVE FUN!!!!


.........luckily this clearly isn't a problem for the members of this forum

i tried guitar and sucked dick. then i bought a sampler and realized what my "instrument" was but i know what your saying, Formal. The worst is when someone is actually talented, whatever instrument, but only play casually....or stop all together

i'm not formal, but that dude is a good poster and makes dope music so i'll take it as a compliment, hopefully he doesn't take it as a diss haha, but yeah, that shit is the worst, its like growin up and seein kids you grew up skatin with and sometimes looked up to stop.......

i actually played guitar for a long time, and when i started in like 6th grade one of my closest friends followed suit, and for years and years we played music together and grew in the same direction for quite some time, writing music and whatever, and through him i met a group of friends we shared that ended up contributing to my turn towards hip hop and eventually a sampler and records, and i haven't picked up the guitar in a year or two now, and i can just feel his resentment, its not like we're not friends, but i know he just doesn't understand why i won't still play guitar with him and embrace music the same way we did in the past, but he doesn't get that i am doing exactly that but channeled through something completely different, its not like everything i built my musical base off of changed, its all rooted in what i have always been syked on................

but anyway, i wasn't tryin to say makin music of any kind through any medium should be restricted in anyway, it just can be a bummer sometimes, and contribute to something like paying too much for an MPC after struggling to find one for a months, or struggling to have a consistent and coherent conversation about some aspect of music with that person

lol my bad imust have been going between a couple threads !

No offense taken

But I guess I'll throw my 2cents into this mix now. I'm also one of those people that started out on guitar when I was young because I knew a bunch of older people that could really jam. I never took any music lessons but steadily progressed with my guitar playing over the years (or so I thought). I tried to be in a few bands, but I found my lack of music theory really hindered my playing in a group setting. When I was about 14 or 15 my sister gave me a Roland MS1 and I had a just got a Roland MC307 for xmas. At that point I finally thought to myself I could make any music I wanted. Once again my lack of music theory, composition and general production skills greatly hindered me. I didn't have the faintest idea about how to sample or how to really use the groovebox (no youtube at that time). I ended up selling all the gear and really got into undergroud hiphop. I'm thinkin this is like 2002ish. After years actually listening to the "music" I said to myself "hey I can do this". So for the past 6 years I've dedicated a lot of my time (prolly too much) to learning everything can. Personally, overcoming these goals has been one of the best feelings in my life. I can now finally be proud of the work I do.

On a side note, I always try to seek out other musicians to work/collab with. It doesn't matter genre or gear as long as they are talented/creative musicians or artists. What I've come to find out is that people who are the extremely talented ones lack motivation to work in a group setting or want to plan out projects. However, the people with little or no musical knowledge are usually the ones to really get excited about starting a project. So far I haven't met anybody "in person" (not cyber doods) that really gets the big picture of it all. I think what it comes down to is that I want to be in a "band" again now that I have a decent musical understanding and production skills. I'm not looking for the traditional band in any sense of the word, but rather just a group of people working on obtaining the same objectives/goals.

Like formal, I started out on guitar as well. I actually still play it, write with it and record with it. One of the reasons I've recently got into beat making is because I like the idea of creating full compositions myself. I've been in a few bands, and while they are great (with the right people) it can be stressful getting people together for the greater good. There is nothing like having an idea in your head and being able to get it out with out having some else's two cents thrown in all the time.

Secondly, I would like to expand my musical boundries. I've noticed alot of producers who have started out with no traditional musical instrument background, get to a point and then want to start learning the keys..no harm there, it can only advance ones knowledge. In the end I would like to find a medium to where I am able to combine both instruments -still working at that.

I don't expect anything to happen overnight, the reason I asked the question was because I found the mpc a tad more intensive. Granted, I work fine on the 303. So I guess the question really boils down to what is it that I want to with the samplers, and how I want to do it, and which one will work best.