Akai MPC2000

The latest MIDI and sampled percussion combination from Akai is the first not to feature Roger Linn's signature, although it clearly takes its inspiration from those that do. But Paul Wiffen discovers that, although this unit adds a feature he's been waiting 10 years for, it's missing the high price tag of its predecessors.

Previously on The Sampling Drum Machine Story: although I've never been asked to review an Akai MPC unit before, I have extensive (if vicarious) experience of their use, as two of my musical collaborators have been keen MPC60 and MPC3000 users. The fact that both of these chaps started their musical careers as drummers attests to the success of Roger Linn's concept for a sequencer, which also addressed the special needs of sampled percussion programming. Indeed, several A&R people who heard songs we'd recorded using the MPC asked who the drummers on the tracks were. (As I was trying to present the project as a band, I gave the names of the drummers who had programmed the MPCs — although, as we never got signed, perhaps it wasn't that much of a compliment after all!)

The concept of combining MIDI sequencing and sampled percussion was originally enshrined in the Linn 9000 some 12 years ago, and some might suggest that it was this product — or its high price tag — that put Linn Electronics out of business. Those of you who were out of short trousers in 1985 may remember a somewhat scathing Linn 9000 review of mine, from which the phrase "dinosaur extinct before its release" became a particular thorn in the side of Kevin Kent, whose job at Linn was to sell them. My principal complaint about the 9000, apart from the fact that it would only hold four very short samples, was that there was no looping ability, which meant that the short playback time couldn't be extended for cymbals and other longer percussion sounds.

This 'percussion doesn't need looping' stance was maintained on the three Akai MPC units that carried Roger's name, the MPC60, MPC60 MkII and MPC3000. In fairness to those units, I should say that they did have much longer sample times than the 9000, and these could also be further expanded in the case of the later models. What's more, my two percussive colleagues swear that they don't miss the looping capability, not even in these days of ubiquitous sampled drum loops — which you should always re‑trigger via a new sequence note every time they loop, because that way you stay in sync with everything else. But I always favoured the approach to percussion looping of the Studio 440 from Sequential Circuits (who also went out of business, so obviously it's not a company‑saving feature), just because it allowed you to go beyond straightforward percussion sounds and cover more musical sounds (apologies to any drummers left out there!). Ever since I sold my Studio 440 almost 10 years ago, I've been waiting for someone else to do looping on a percussion sampler/sequencer.

Looping The Loop

So imagine my joy when, as I was leafing through the MPC2000 manual, a Looping screen caught my eye. Yes, folks: it slices, it dices... it loops! Suddenly my interest went from academic to personal. Having been considering purchasing a QY700 for live use after reviewing it last October, I'd found the supply of them so scarce that I had already started to look around for a substitute; if this unit could also use looped samples then it might be the one for me — and £200 extra is not a lot to pay for a 16‑bit looping sampler section inside a sequencer.

I trust you will forgive the impetuousness of your humble reviewer if I pursue this line (instead of the conventional 'this is what the box looks like', 'how you make a sample' and so on), but I feel that I may not be be alone in having been put off previous MPCs by their lack of looping. A little more detective work in the manual — the list of expansion options, to be precise — reveals that it has many things in common with Akai's S2000 sampler, and it therefore seems that the MPC has inherited its looping ability from its sampler cousin rather than from any dormant MPC gene. You might argue that this could be deduced from the shared numbering, but the similarities are much greater than between the S3000 sampler and its MPC numbersake. Not only does it use all SIMMs for memory expansion up to 32Mb (as opposed to the MPC3000's half‑and‑half approach of one 8Mb Akai board plus one SIMM), but it also has back‑panel slots for the IB‑M208P board (eight outs plus SPDIF) and the IB‑M20T SMPTE board, and, internally, slots for the FMX008M Flash ROM and EB16 DSP effects boards — so, all in all, it's perhaps not surprising that, like the S2000, it loops as well! Nevertheless, this is still a major innovation for the MPC and I for one intend to celebrate it.

It seems that the MPC has inherited its looping ability from its sampler cousin rather than from any dormant MPC gene.

What's more, although the loop can be set to the start and end points of the sample — which would be useful if you were dealing with sampled drum loops — it doesn't have to be. The sample can actually be set to loop from the middle to avoid a repeated attack transient, and then to play to the end once the triggering pad or MIDI note has been released. Through velocity interaction with volume and filter envelopes, much more complex sounds can be created than have been possible on any previous MPC.

As a result, the MPC2000 can make much more sense out of the majority of S1000 and S3000 samples than its predecessors, which could load them but then only play them back as one‑shots (see the sidebar 'MPC/S 3000/1000 Disk Compatibility'). However, the MPC envelopes remain fairly primitive, as they are still designed primarily for percussion sounds, with just attack and decay values and the ability to decide whether the decay starts immediately after the attack finishes, or in time for the end of the sample (or when the key or pad is released, if the sample is looped). But this is still just about enough for standard envelopes such as piano, strings and brass, which have not been possible on an MPC before. It won't replace a general‑purpose sampler for all sounds, but it dramatically increases the range of tasks the MPC can be used for. The only little annoyance this looping facility brings out is that parameters such as filter frequency are still not updated until you re‑trigger the sound (when you couldn't loop sounds you never really noticed this, as you had to keep re‑triggering anyway!).

Of course, the way that sounds are assigned to pads or MIDI note numbers means that there's no way to trigger a sample at different pitches via different incoming MIDI note numbers from an attached keyboard; each sample can only be associated with one MIDI note number — so grand pianos or sweeping string sections are ruled out anyway. The main advantages of the looping are that cymbals need not take up so much memory and that you can cycle drum loops if you want to. And talking of drum loops (smarmy DJ‑style link)...

Loop Tempo Sync'Ing

Another great looping‑related feature I discovered when leafing through the manual (sometimes it really pays to get that tome out and at least skip‑read it) was the MPC2000's Beat Loop Function. This, I suspect, comes courtesy of another strain of Akai sampler, the Remix 16. What this function allows you to do is to match the tempos of unrelated loops. You set the length of the drum loop in beats and it instantly tells you what the tempo is. Then, as you tune the loop up or down, the New Tempo readout tells you what you are changing the tempo to. This means that you can take half a dozen loops and use them together by adjusting their tempos to be the same in this page. Of course, the pitches of the loops are changed by this tune process (no miracles with time stretch yet!), but if you take loops of roughly similar tempi, their sound shouldn't suffer too much. Things only get really strange when you start changing the pitch sounds over a fifth — which is more than half as fast again, or slow — but then some people really like what drastic re‑tunings do to a sound.

I'd never seen anything like this feature on a hardware sampler before (although numerous software‑based products have similar features). It's accessed via the Open Window button, a new facility on the MPC2000 which helps to make up for the fact that the backlit LCD is a lot smaller than on previous MPCs. Basically, the way it works is that whenever you are in an area (filter or envelope, say) on the screen and you think that there aren't enough parameters, you click on the Open Window button and a set of extra parameters appears in a new window — just as on a WIMP computer. It pays to know the function of this button, as it gives access to more than half the parameters available on the unit, so if you didn't know about it, you might think the MPC2000 a lot less programmable than it actually is. Another good reason to be a sad person like me and read manuals in the wee small hours when you are suffering from insomnia!

Cosmetics

Now I've told about my favourite new features on the MPC2000, I suppose we'd better get back to the boring stuff. Lazy bounders like me will be pleased to know that the unit weighs considerably less than its predecessors (isn't circuit integration a wonderful thing?) and is considerably more compact in size. The reduction in the number of buttons has been compensated for by the addition of a Shift key — which makes the numeric key‑pad also available for selecting the various modes — and the Open Window button mentioned above. As the numeric buttons are already performing two functions, the Akai engineers have relieved them of the task of naming things as well; this now becomes a sub‑function of the pads. It feels a little strange for AB to be at the bottom and YZ at the top, but this is nowhere near as confusing as when the transport functions used to double as letter keys on the older MPC machines.

The pads are still laid out in a 4x4 configuration (does this make MPCs off‑road vehicles?) but they have now moved to the right‑hand side of the machine. I tried to work out whether this favoured left‑ or right‑handed people but came to no real conclusions, so let's call this an alternative arrangement. The only people I think it will affect are those who can program MPC3000s in their sleep, but they have plenty of other new stuff to throw them anyway, so I doubt this will add to their troubles unduly.

The MPC2000's back panel is somewhat lighter on connections. Some of these are only temporary absences, with the holes for the eight parallel output/SPDIF connectors and SMPTE sockets ready and waiting. Others are permanent, such as the MIDI Ins and Outs, which are limited to two on this unit — the same as on the Yamaha QY700, which is at a similar price point. While this is obviously a cost‑cutting feature (and we haven't really discussed yet how much cheaper than its predecessors the MPC2000 is), it is a real shame that there's no expansion option to increase the number of MIDI Outs. Still, as the MPC3000 is not being discontinued, it will, I suppose, need something to justify its considerably higher price tag — just over double the RRP. Whether people will still continue to pay the price for it when they can't get the digital I/O, DSP effects or Flash ROM, remains to be seen.

On The Sequencing Side

Here things are virtually identical to previous MPC units — just a few buttons moved around and re‑assigned — probably because those who have followed this method of sequencing would not accept any changes to their basic working method. On the Main screen you still assign a track to either DRUM or MIDI (sequencing internal or external sounds respectively) and to one of 32 MIDI channel numbers which are in the format 10A or 6B. Because there are only two MIDI Ins and Outs, the other 32 channels via C and D, which the MPC3000 had, are gone.

Much more complex sounds can be created than have been possible on any previous MPC.

Tracks can be edited note by note in a Step Edit screen which looks just like the List Editor in most software packages, except that only four events can be viewed at once because of the small screen. However, the View parameter means that you can make the most of these four events by excluding or selecting just Notes, Pitch Bend, and other controller information, Channel or Poly Pressure, Tempo Change or System Exclusive Events. If you are used to editing in this way, it's just like any other comparable system in terms of speed and accuracy. A handy Play Soft Key allows you to check any event as you are editing it.

The Edit screen's name is a little misleading, as this is where you copy bars or events rather than changing the actual events (although this may be what some people understand by editing). Some rather clever icons help with this copying business, so it's less easy to make a fatal error when you're moving phrases around.

Disk Matters

Similar icons are used to show what type of disk you're loading from — 2D, HD floppies and Hard Disk, Magneto‑Optical or CD‑ROM SCSI drives — and where you are sending the data (to a cute little MPC2000 icon or the ubiquitous trash can). A Type field identifies the source disk, as in MPC2000, MPC3000, S3000 or S1000, MS‑DOS or unknown ('????') format. For comments on the success of loading these different formats, see the sidebar on disk compatibility. The same View field as in the Step Edit page allows you to single out the type of file you want to load, so you don't have to scroll through unwanted file types. Loading sounds in the MPC2000 format was very quick from both floppy and SCSI devices; once the sound is loaded you can listen to it, then assign it to a pad/MIDI note number or delete it. Loading was so fast that this was almost as good as the 'audition from disk' feature that some samplers now have.

Conclusion

Overall, the sound of the MPC2000 is excellent, belying its new cheaper price tag in exactly the same way as the S2000 does. Clearly, these days sound quality is not a function of price as it was a few years back: cost savings are now made in terms of inputs/outputs and other options, and most of these can be added slowly as the user's needs increase — and many of them, such as Flash ROM and DSP effects, will be making their appearance for the first time ever on a sampling drum machine/sequencer when the software upgrade which supports them becomes available. The nice thing about this is that someone with only £1199 to spend is no longer penalised for that by getting stuck with a machine that will never get any better — indeed, the only people who may feel a little peeved are the MPC3000 owners who can't get all these splendid upgrades.

I dislike machines that rely on floppy disk operating systems on principle (would you want your brain to be carried around in a vulnerable external form?) but the MPC2000's can be copied onto a SCSI hard drive for booting, so this isn't too much of a problem. Maybe when the Flash ROM support comes it will possible to store the operating system in that, which would be the best of all possible worlds. Until then, SCSI drive seems the best bet; and, of course, you can use it for sound and sequence storage as well, especially if you end up expanding the memory to any great extent.

The size of display is perhaps the S2000's only serious disadvantage, but it never really left me feeling uninformed, mainly because of the clever View options and the Open Window button which, once I had discovered its function, always brought a pleasant surprise to the screen in terms of extra parameters to play with.

Whether the additional sample parameters are enough for my needs I have yet to decide, but this MPC is definitely more my sort of thing than the previous ones, not least because of its price point and upgrade options — a real advance on an established formula.