Akai S2000 users still out there?

[Synthetech]

Hey all,

I bought an S series Akai sampler for a 2nd time (first was a S3000XL back in 1999).
The S2000 I got was dirt cheap (compared to what I paid for the S3Kxl! in '99).
I was glad to find most of the editing was similar to the S3Kxl. So I managed to quickly be back to sampling a phrase or synth sound and get it looped/tweaked to perfection.. and this was before I got the SCSI setup with MESA up and running.

MESA is ok, but it lacks alot and is buggy. I cant get DSP to work at all on MESA with my XP machine.. it crashes the moment I try to open up the DSP editor.
I also noticed that MESA does not do realtime control changes.. like realtime filter tweaking.
Instead it waits for you to release the knob before it changes the value for the knobs parameter. A very annoying handicap!

I have begun work on a GUI controller that will do REALTIME filter/resonance tweaks. Plus have other realtime controls that adjust the S2K in realtime via MIDI sysex commands. It may also have a MPC like pad group too if I can spare the extra time/effort into it.

I was curious if there were many people still using this old girl. I realize alot of people have moved on to software synths/samplers, but the old S series still sound so great when you get a good sample/program going.

[roecker]

I would love to see a editor for the s2000. I do not have one in my sampler arsenal as of now but would add one if such a thing existted.

[Synthetech]

I would love to see a editor for the s2000. I do not have one in my sampler arsenal as of now but would add one if such a thing existted.

I may eventually get one done.

So far I have made this,



It's a very rough draft.. eventually it will get background images and other graphics

It's a very small start, but I can do realtime changes to the parameters.
I made GUI joysticks on the right side for filter/resonance, LFO Depth/Rate and pitchbend/lfo. they sound fantastic together in realtime changes.
MESA simply cant do that. It does snapshot changes.

Hopefully I can crack it even more and get into the start/end/loop point/loop length edits and perhaps make realtime sliders for it too.. you get some wild zipper sounds when you change loop length from short to long while a sample plays.


The sysex gets a bit tricky since you can have like 256 keygroups(each key on a keyboard) inside just one program, like a drum kit across a keyboard.. but each keygroup can have it's own set of parameters to change.. very different than your typical synth/rompler module.
So it can be challenging.. I still tend to program a sound either direct thru the little LCD or via MESA.
That editor I made so far I mostly use just to be a live controller.

These are great sounding units. They can have a grit and growl to them to spice things up.

[Marco Koeller]

I bought an Akai S-2000 because i wanted to work with "limitations" again. May sound crazy, but the possibilities of that digital DAWs today seem overloaded to me. In the early 90s, i worked just with analog synths and samplers like the S-700 and the S-900/950.

Digital DAWs offer that "Total Recall", to me it was no progress, as you could shift your musical descisions far into the future instead of being spontan. That was the way i worked in the early 90s, you often had to make descisions right at the moment.

Yes, i know, the S-2000 is not that "golden egg" But to me, it is a logical and working machine which i still use often today in my current productions.

Besides the S-2000, i use a Roland JD-800 and some vintage Drum-Machines by Roland. Sometimes, i even connect the good old Korg DW-6000 to do some sound experiments.

Overall, i have to say: The S-2000 with 32 MB Memory onboard is still a good machine
And as old Drum&Bass Lover, i like the LoFi-Timestretching algorhythms ))