Hi everyone. I’m a Jazz guitarist and looking for a way to add more life to backing tracks of jazz standards, ideally in a live environment. Do you think this type of unit would be a good fit?
Well it’s certainly one Jazzy machine I can tell you that! Depends what you’re trying to do with your backing tracks , and what your experience with other samplers/ drum machines is. I’d say yes just because I LOVE this machine, but really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
IMO two main characteristics of the S2400 that stand out from other modern samplers/ sampling drum machines available today - are the sound and simple workflow that nod to the SP-1200, but with modern capabilities like SD card, USB, additional sample time, etc . - and the LIVE LOOPER - acts as an 8 channel looper in addition to 8 channels of samples in a pattern. Once USB Audio is enabled it will also act as an audio interface and able to stream 8 channels of audio over USB to record direct into a DAW. It has midi in/out, allowing you to control external gear from the S2400 as your “hub”, clock in/out to sync clock with external gear.
IMO the target demo for this machine is someone who does a lot of sampling, or works with a lot of samples to compose tracks - they’ll see big value in the ability to sample in at 26K for 12-bit or 48K for 24-bit, in conjunction with the classic and hi-fi audio engines, internal resampling, and analog output filters - which provide a wide range of sonic characteristics. Again with a very intuitive workflow for sampling in, assigning samples, tweaking parameters (level, pitch, envelope, slice, filter) and ultimately building your patterns. Just my perspective though, I’m sure many will use this in entirely new ways.
Are you currently building your backing tracks using a drum machine/sampler? What kind of life are you looking to add to them? Hopefully I can provide some potential use cases for you.
In the meantime, check out this video from Alex Ball - ISLA S2400 - It's the mutt's nuts! - YouTube
Alex made the video manual for the S2400, which is also worth watching for more in-depth info per feature set, but that video is an excellent summary of it’s capabilities.
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Thanks, it’s kind of you to respond so fully like you just have. I enjoyed the video you recommended and it has started to answer my questions.
I have done any sampling before. In my mind I see a scenario where I sample a backing track into a unit, slice the track into parts in accordance with the structure of the song, then alter the playback in terms of order, pitch, filters etc and add a not-complex beat underneath to tie it all together.