VMPC2000XL: a free Akai MPC2000XL in your DAW
Okay, this one is for the beatmakers. VMPC2000XL is a free, open source recreation of the Akai MPC2000XL, the sampler and sequencer that basically built a whole era of hip hop and boom bap. You get the full old school workflow on your screen: 16 pads across four banks, the little LCD screen with over a hundred of the original menus reproduced, sample trimming, chopping, sequencing, swing, note repeat, the lot.
A quick honest note on what it is and is not. This is a behavioral emulation, not a clone of the original chips, so it does not run the original MPC operating system and it does not need a ROM file. What it copies is how the machine feels and works: load a sound, assign it to a pad, chop it up in TRIM, build a sequence, and bang out a beat. It even recreates the per voice low pass filter that gives the 2000XL its slightly soft, old school character, and the pads light up like worn backlit pads instead of perfect squares, which is a nice touch.
The specs line up with the hardware too: up to 256 sounds in memory, a 64 track sequencer, 99 sequences, and 32 voices playing at once. It comes with demo beats bundled in, so you can poke around before you load your own samples. One heads up from the developer: put your samples in the VMPC2000XL documents folder, but do not put your only copy of anything important in there, because the emulator renames files just like the real 2000XL did.
Get it
Download it free here: https://izmar.nl/downloads
It is free and open source, no registration or activation, and the current version is 0.9.19.
Install it
Windows: grab the Windows 10/11 installer (there is also a Windows 7 installer), run it, and pick the formats you want, standalone and VST3. Rescan plugins in your DAW and you are good to go. On recent Windows 10 and 11 you may have to allow VMPC2000XL to access your Documents folder.
Mac: grab the macOS 10.13+ installer, run it, and pick standalone, VST3 and AU. Rescan plugins in your DAW.
Linux: grab the Ubuntu 20 x86_64 standalone, LV2 or VST3 binaries, or the packages for other distributions listed on the downloads page.
Once it is running, drop your samples into your Documents/VMPC2000XL/Volumes/MPC2000XL folder and load them from the LOAD screen, just like on the hardware.
Hear it in action
Here is a real MPC2000XL getting used for a proper deep house groove, so you can hear the kind of feel this workflow is all about:
If you have ever wanted to try the classic MPC workflow without hunting down, servicing, and paying for a 25 year old box, this is the closest free way to do it. No ROMs, no dongles, no catch, just pads, chops, and swing.