Much of the equipment for this project had been in storage for quite some time, some of it since the year 2000. It was a mystery as to how well it had held up, whether it would boot up and work properly. This post goes into some of the issues encountered when the old gear was plugged in and booted up.
Follow up:
Akai MPC-3000: The MPC series has the deserved reputation of impeccable timing. My machine has always run hot. So hot, in fact, that it burned up its own power supply several years ago. I replaced the PS, but it has always run extremely hot since then. I opened the machine up and hot-glued a CPU fan in a vent to suck some of the heat out from around the PS. This has helped the heat problem a great deal, but it also makes a lot of noise, and the MPC is running on borrowed time. Hopefully it'll make it through this project before it bursts into flames.
Clavia Nord Lead and Nord Rack: These were the world's 1st so-called "virtual analog" synthesizers, which I used extensively on my 1st two CDs. The only problem I had when I booted them up was that the Lead (the keyboard version) had lost its presets due to a dead battery. I replaced the battery and reloaded the sound banks. They work perfectly.
Emu Xtreme Lead 1 Turbo: This is a great sounding box if you have the patience to wade through all the menus. I used it extensively on protOtype2, and it was one of those machines that saved the day on many occasions. One complaint I've had with gear in general is that many manufacturers choose to put inadequate cheap power supplies into otherwise excellent boxes. I'm sorry to say that the XL-1 power supply suffers from the same ailment. My XL-1 is acting erratically and I'll be lucky if the box makes it through this project before it dies.
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