sampling...need serious help

That's a pretty broad question so unless ya ask something more specific all I can do is tell you what I do.

If I want to sample something from a song on my ipod, I have a cable that goes from a stereo 1/8 jack to two 1/4 jacks, I plug the headphone out of the ipod into the audio in jacks on the Fantom. Then I press "sampling" and queue up the part I want to sample on the ipod. Then I start the sampler and hit play on the ipod. Then I use the sample editor to trim off anything unwanted at the beginning and end of the sample. Then I save it to my PCMCIA card, or use it in a rhythm kit, or assign it to a pad, etc.

Hope that helps.

can you use a portable cd player.....and how do i assign it to a rythm kit or pads

Look up "create rhythm kit" in the manual. The manual kind of sucks and it doesn't go exactly like they say, but I managed to figure it out. My Fantom is at the band's practice space at the moment so I can't run through it to give you a quick overview. But you should be able to get it.

I was considering on getting a mpc at one point...but after researching, advice from former mpc owners and what not I've come to figure out that the Fantom X can do "everything" that a mpc could do and more....but you just got to operate things differently since they are different instruments....my only complaints with sampling on the FX is that it samples at 16bit and the pads are a little "stiff" compared to those of the mpc...