| Akai's MPC2000 Midi Production Center |
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Okay, I'll admit it: For years I've personally lusted after one of Akai's MPC Series Production Centers. I had the opportunity to try out an MPC60 at a NAMM Show a number of years ago, and have been trying to figure out a way to get my hands on one ever since.
See, the problem was, these things were not only super sophisticated, but expensive as well. Certainly way out of my league. At least until now...
Thanks to numerous breakthroughs in both technology and production techniques, the engineers at Akai have finally been able to bring the MPC Series within reach of all serious musicians with the release of the brand new MPC2000. With a new lower list price of just $1495, it looks like I can finally have my dream machine. What's so special you ask? Let's take a look "under the hood."
The MPC Series was the first serious piece of equipment to merge CD-quality 16-bit sampling technology with a MIDI sequencer that set the standard for both immediacy and ease-of-use. What that meant was that you could sample in your favorite drum sounds, play them from the great-feeling onboard drum pads, then use the sequencer to control all your synths and samplers. It was very cool then, but this new machine has taken this design philosophy to a new level.
The MPC2000 ships standard with a 16-bit sampling engine with 32 note polyphony, two megs of onboard RAM (upgradable to 32 megs via standard SIMMs), dynamic digital filters with resonance, graphic cut and paste sample editing, a 64 track sequencer with 100,000 note capacity, linear or pattern (drum machine style) recording, enhanced sequence editing, and the MPC's unique note variation slider for note-by-note control of level, tuning, attack, decay or filter. Of course, there's a large, 248x60 LCD with graphic user interface, a 25-pin SCSI port, 16 great-feeling velocity and pressure sensitive drum machine pads, floppy drive and fully ergonomic data/digit wheels for entering data.
If that's still not enough, how about 1/4" balanced recording ins, RCA-pin digital ins and outs, 1/4" stereo outs, headphone out, and full MIDI in/out/thru ports? And if you want even more, you can add eight individual outs, S/PDIF digital in and out, a multi-effects processor, 8 meg Flash ROM board, and a SMPTE board, all of which are optional.
What none of this tells you is exactly how easy the MPC is to work with. Controls are right where you'd expect them to be and the large LCD graphic interface takes you through every function with ease.
Hey kids, I've already ordered one for myself and I suggest you do the same. Call your sales engineer for all the facts and your special price on the MPC2000.
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