Mpc 2000xl and s900/s950 set up questions

LucRyan

New member
Hello, im still fairly new to the forums and i am still learning about hardware. At the moment i have an mpc 2000xl and im looking to buy an s900 or s950. I have a few questions. Im looking to get a 12 bit sound out of these sampler and im not sure if it's better to just use it to sample sounds and then use my mpc to trim, edit etc. Or would it be better to connect them (s900 or s950) via midi to the mpc 2000xl and use it as a sampler? Also if i used the s900/950 as a sampler and mpc 2000xl as a sequencer does the midi connection limit any of these machines? Ex. If i sampled into the s900 could i go on my mpc2000xl time stretch and still trim/ edit on the s900? Im also a bit confused on what it's like to connect these machines with midi. Thanks
 
Is it better to sample in the s900/s950 and resample with the mpc 2000xl or utilize the s900/s950 with midi and have it work with my mpc 2000xl
 
Use MIDI for sure. resampling will have SOME of the texture, but not all of it.
What you should do is sample your things at 45rpm+8% on your turntable into the s950, then pitch it own, this saves memory + gives a lot more crunch, sounds much better actually.

At first the s950 will be hard to work with, but you'll get into it and after a while it'll be real comfortable to work with.
 
There are advantages to working both ways, for example by triggering the S900/950 you can play samples at different velocities etc, by sampling it into the MPC you can overcome memory limitations.

Editing on hardware such as the S900/950 is a dead easy if you can work with the numerical key pad, that is if you use a little basic math, other than that a good way to edit is to use an old waveform editor such as Squash it! by Electronic Cow running in an Atari emulation on a modern computer.
 
I ended up buying the s900. im still a bit concerned with the lack of memory and scsi but i should still use midi? I thought i should resample in my mpc to make memory and scsi accessible. Why is it that resampling doesnt get all of the crunch from the s900?
 
The memory limitations are not so bad on a 12 bit sampler, by that I mean you would get less 16 bit samples into the same amount of memory....ideally you want to use all the old school tricks such as recording shit at high speeds and then slowing them on playback in order to conserve memory....don't worry about SCSI your entire memory should fit on a single floppy.

You should still get the same crunch when sampling the S900 into the MPC, it's just that you can set up different sample velocities on the S900, like if you hit softly you can get a different sample than if you hit it hard and it's kind of painstaking to sample all that crap into the MPC, there are other reasons to hook the S900 up by using MIDI, such as using the test tone to beef things up just like Public Enemy.....but work however you want man, like find your own path and do what's comfortable for you.
 
Yeah im new to hardware and im still trying to learn all the ins and outs. Anyways Thanks for helping a little brother out
 
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