Round Robin?

S2400 Feature Requests
1

Is there a way to put the pads in “round Robin” mode?

I have a bunch of left and right hand percussion samples with variations. It would be nice to have a way to cycle through, for example, a1-a4, with those pads playing variations of a hand drum or snare.

It def would add a level of realism to percussion and even melodic parts in pitched mode.

Actually, now come to think of it… it would be huge for melodic parts. Imagine 4 slightly different samples of a plucked string instrument, with each multimode pitch part set up to micro-pitch variations of the same notes in a scale of 8 pads. It would make articulation sound much more natural.

I do this frequently in Reaktor and Kontakt, and I know some of the MPCs and the MV8000 could do something similar. Can the 2400 do it?

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2

just open them in multi slice and play them like that or will that not get you the desired effect ?

3

Sure, it’s a workaround, but not exactly.

The issue would be performance… being able to play in patterns as you might on the original instrument.

For example, if a take a simple bongo kit with round robin:

A1: 2 variations of L outside
2 of R outside
A2: 2 rim L
2 rim R
A3: 4 bass tones
A4: 4 slaps

… I can now play all of these samples in a meaningful way at once on only 4 pads. For people who are drummers or familiar with old rack samplers, this was the easy way to get a natural sound and still “play in” the parts.

Sure, it might be more realistic to spend a much longer time programming it all in, but it would be at the expense of being able to perform the instrument in context.

Now, if we had velocity switching, that would fix everything… but I figured round Robin might be a cooler ask due to the way multi modes work on the s2400

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4

well it is the best workaround we have with what we got right now - i dont play a bongo but i have had samplers since about 96, i imagine using multi would work well enough, that or i would buy and learn a bongo

in all honesty i myself would be looking at another sampler for these sort of tasks anyway, maschine or even the computer dare i say it , right now the 2400 is not the machine for this level of involvement and if we start talking of velo levels we are really into proper depth

why not use the 2400 as midi seq: for a better sampler more suited to the task? even a free software sampler triggered from 2400 ?

maybe later, who knows

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5

btw please understand i am not poo pooing the idea, not one bit

6

I would prefer layers and round robin in this case.

Having to prepare a sample to be multisliced and then round robined would be a time consuming and not flexible task.

Except if we have pattern to bounce feature first bit still would be time consuming.

Layers would bring polyphony issue on the other hand.

So yeah not sure if it will be ever implemented, it may be better to use another machine in this case.

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7

True about the depth part… maybe a lil glib with the “just play a real one” part. No offense taken.

I agree that velocity splits are sort of overkill for a sampler with an SP-style layout… that’s why I thought round Robin (and layers) would be useful.

Again,I think it’s a matter of workflow. The current way is akin to only being able to access 8 sounds at a time, whereas you could build up some awesome drum kits using 32 samples for more realism and play them “as a kit” with RR…

I think programmers and “one note at a time” folks won’t get much out of it. Finger-drummers would love it.

I’ve used a metric ish ton of 90s-00s rack samplers too, and it’s a basic feature on most…. Could be a really unique way of approaching it, especially if it could be used in tandem with multi-mode.

Layering is something I didn’t suggest, only because I’m not sure if it has been implanted yet, and didn’t want someone responding with “RTFM”.

But layering would be useful. Especially when making unquantized groovy stuff, to line up things that need to be exactly in time (layered kicks, etc). Trying to hit that sub bass tone exactly on the kick at fine resolution can be a nightmare otherwise.

8

I have never used round robin samples so I don’t have a feeling for or against.
I am most familiar with earlier MPCs and the SP1200 and neither had round robin capabilities (which may be an indicator if this feature is a fit here).

Chiming in on the work around front though:

  1. Re: chopping for multi-slice being time consuming - is this true though? Round robin samples have to be prepared at some point somewhere? Why does multislice make this any more work than it would on say Maschine?
  2. Re: Jamie’s workaround - this is how I would have done it in an MPC back in the day (or the SP). (for @Ddimartini3) wouldn’t it be as simple as playing in the part with one finger on one pad, then just running through the step edits and changing the multi-slice (for a round robin effect)? Sure, it’s not instant - but for a 4 bar loop this wouldn’t take more than 2 minutes of editing.

(doesn’t help for live performances though)

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9

@contakt321

  1. “Re: chopping for multi-slice being time consuming - is this true though? Round robin samples have to be prepared at some point somewhere? Why does multislice make this any more work than it would on say Maschine?”

TBH - setting it up is usually pretty easy. On most rack samplers, it’s a check box. For example:

Anything on a1,b1,c1, and D1 would then round robin.

Sometimes there are additional options like:

  • random order
  • reverse order (d,c,b,a)
  • alternating (a,c,b,d)

This gives you a couple of different “feels” to try out.

On some softwares, the samples in a round robin group can each be assigned a probability percentage, like a1 gets 50%, b1 gets 25%, c1 gets 25%.

As long as it adds up to 100%. That’s a really great way to intelligently add variation while still keeping a “foundation/main sample”

Maschine actually has this feature, and the probability, so I guess that’s my answer re: Maschine :slight_smile:

  1. “Re: Jamie’s workaround - this is how I would have done it in an MPC back in the day (or the SP). (for @Ddimartini3) wouldn’t it be as simple as playing in the part with one finger on one pad, then just running through the step edits and changing the multi-slice (for a round robin effect)? Sure, it’s not instant - but for a 4 bar loop this wouldn’t take more than 2 minutes of editing.”

Sure. Like I said, for programmers, it’s not a big deal. For players, and folks relying on 3rd party kits (and folks making kits for others) it’s can be a great feature.

I make kits and soundware for others, mostly Kontakt instrument programming, Reaktor, and Kits for groove-boxes and drum samplers.

For the folks who want this thing for the sound, UI and sequencing, but not necessarily making kits themselves, it would also be of great benefit.

Imagine just wanting great sounds, loading up a well-programmed kit, and then playing in your music. In this use case (more than like to admit it) it sidesteps all that work and just delivers the sounds they want in a playable fashion… And it gives folks looking to support the gear with soundware a way to provide better S2400-specific libraries.

Still, I agree it may not fit into this product’s “wheelhouse” (god I hate that word). And I agree, it’s probably a better idea for those who have the option to just use the S2400 to sequence a workstation/KONTAKT/s950/etc.

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10

how the OT can manage this is an easy method and why i asked for lfo about 20 months ago.

we set random lfo to slice, each slice is a variation of the sample, the random lfo triggers at each hit - boom RR is achieved in a very efficient way.

we have years and years and hopefully even more years with the machine and so long as they are making and selling they may add features - of course one day the 2400 is complete

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11

Round robin is the one feature i hope for most of all. It might seem like a small niche thing but it would be so useful. (For example: Put a sliced melody in round robin for polymetric melodies, drums and empty space for evolving rhythms, all playable live on the pads, combined with the sequenced notes. So you can even havet a static melody and ofset it by pressing a pad… I could go on forever. :slight_smile: )

There was a sugestion of having it in the multi slice, like a revolver mode to chose rotare forward, backward or russian roulette.

Im hoping for this function .

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12

It’s here! It’s here!!

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14

Love the implementation, actually gives me more reason to mess with samples in an experimental way.

Now I wish we had a better chop mode like SP404 or MPC to make setting up multis for this feature quicker. The demands never end!

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15

Definitely looking forward to experimenting with this. Slicing 8 different kicks from a break and having them play at random for each sequenced kick will be awesome.

We also have the option to save all 8 slices individually now. Something that would be amazing for working with round robin would be to save all 8 slices as one concatenated file. So you can slice out your 8 kicks, and save them all as one long 8 kick file, ready for round robining at any time in the future without having to slice up anything again.

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16

Well goddamn… they did it!!!

I can’t think of any manufacturer (not just gear) that listens to customers as well as ISLA.

Implementation is tasteful and the additional options go way past what most of us were expecting. Dope.

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17

and you know dis! <3

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18

holy shit this is great, didn’t know this was a thing but I love it!

about to update my firmware now

19

I’m so happy

This function and the great sound of the s2400. Beautiful!

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20

This is the best new feature for me!

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