The MPC4000 vs The MPC3000

Well the Boxing Day box off went down in the shorts and the 3000 complained that his assignment wasn't the same genre as the 4000 so I went back and found a 3000 beat that is the same genre from the same era, so this one is the definite match.

Which one wins for you? The 4000 or the 3000?

Do you like the crystal clear highs and the oomph in the lows or do you like the midrange bump that gives a thump?

Both are amazing sounding machines.

For this match up I recorded and arranged everything inside each MPC, balanced the sounds inside the MPC and recorded the mix out via the stereo outputs into Logic where the mix was mastered by AI then tweaked to my taste.

This is an example of the sound of each machine after the music has been mastered. There seems to be a fable that after mastering you won't be able to tell the difference between one machine and another. To me that is incorrect.They sound different. The sound of the EQ of their converters are different. Most people may not technically know which one is which but they will have a preference to the sound of one over the other but may not know why. Something that caught their attention that they were drawn to and like about the sound maybe? It's happened to me many times with different things from microphones to pre amps to drum machines to samplers over the years.

Both of these vintage MPCs has a sound that bangs and sounds big. I've been very impressed with the 4000 and it does give the 3000 a run for its money. They sound different. One isn't better than the other. They are both powerful sounding. They just have different textures to their sound.

That is the conclusion that I've come to.

Now this is out of the way I can get back to the real stuff for the new seasons coming up.

Blessed 2026