Hi ,
i am new to the forum , been using SP1200 and Sp12 Turbo for 25+ years making beats
on it in combo with AKAI S950 and or MPC3000/200XL
Been following whole development of S2400 from the beginning - very fascinating!
Recently i see some S2400 units finally in EU online retail shops and ebay for reasonable prices ( less shipping and Customs if purchased from US) and been contemplating on getting one.
Today i’ve subscribed to this forum and get more incite into S2400 and real users info before purchase decision.
Are there any SP1200 users here that purchased S2400 next to their Sp1200 ?
Like to hear your experience so far with S2400 , sound , workflow differences with OG , etc.
Does S2400 uses a true hardware 12bit AD/DA converters chips when sampling in 12bits or does it uses some sort of DSP or software “resampling” " bit reducing" after it samples in 16bit …
i can’t seem to any clear info on it ?
Ive read here on the forum about some annoying bugs in OS ( freezes , etc)
and bugs /limitations in MIDI implementation - how do you deal with it , whats your workarounds?
Like to hear your thoughts and experiences
peace
Dimitri ( jazzroom sounds )
Whatsup Dimitri, been following you on IG for a while, love your music.
I’ve never used an sp1200, so I can’t help you in that regard.
What I can say is with the latest firmware installed I actually haven’t had a lot of freezes. Before the latest update there were some annoying issues with the gain settings not loading, and samples not playing when first loading them. Now, there’s hardly any bugs that I notice.
The sound of the machine is great, and can go from clean(ish) to a lot of aliasing. The combination is very useful imo, though it doesnt have the inherrent dirtyness some samplers (like the sp1200?) have.
Thanks for reply and listening to my beats - appreciate it man!
great to hear that you are digging the sampler and that the bugs
are being ironed out!
keep groovin’!
peace,
Dimitri
Great approach !
i sometimes use my Sp12 as a drum machine only to
often in combo with MPC1000 or other samplers
or resample music samples from SP12/1200 to other more “clean”
beat boxes and sequence the Beats from there because MPC1000/2000XL
has track mutes dynamic real time filters and better MIDI sequencers …
do you know if S2400 uses true 12bit hardware sampling engine ( like OG unit)
or maybe it uses some sort of software “emulation/resampling” of sampled in sound?
i still cant find a clear info on it
The engine uses 12 bits in lofi mode but files are saved as 16 bit wavs. The least significant 4 bits are ignored by the 2400 in this mode so its 12 bit. Mickey/Vlad and team can fill in the details, but I think there is a thread somewhere that they do explain how lofi mode works.
So it samples in 12 bit on the sample inputs for real?
wow, still puzzeld a bit on the Dual 12bit 16bit engine
havent heard of a Lo-Fi mode … is it a software mode inside OS or
a a hardware chip set AD/DA or something that is inside the motherboard ?
will try to find that LoFI mode tread via search
I have both and to be fair the 2400 is much more fun to use.
I know that some people claim that limitations creates creativity but there is a limit to that.
2.5 sec max sampling really is an issue when you want to smaple anything other than drums or a horn.
Yeah, i know about speeding things up and slowing it down but in my experience it not always sounds as good and it’s a lot of extra work depending of the source.
That’s the reason why you see people using these (now very expensive) devices for drums only or using it to trigger another sampler that has more sampling time.
The 2400 doesn’t have these limits and it allows you to you capture some of that old school workflow but with a lot of extra modern day features.
mind you that you CAN use these features, you DO NOT NEED to use them.
Getting samples in the 1200 is also a challgenge due to the old style operating system, even with the new Rossum.
You will need to sample everything into the machine pretty much and that’s a lot of work when you already have great samples at the ready.
Not too mention the price difference. You can easily buy 2x 2400’s and a MPC One for the money of a Rossum 1200.
Nah, The old 1200 floats on a lot of hype and sentimental value.
Might hit harder downlow but music is more than just hard hitting drums.
Pound for pound the 2400 outclasses the 1200 on a lot of aspects.
I like the build quality of the 2400, of which i only dislike the way the display was adhesed to it’s frame and it came loose. I fixed the latter and even on the inside you can see it’s all quality the way it’s build and put together.
+1 on what @Soldier2400 said. For me coming from an MPC 60 the game changer is the ability to quickly audition sounds that have already been sampled. You really get a sweet blend of both old-school and modern workflow. In some ways I view this machine as if I had both an SP1200 and an MPC 3000 in one machine for both lo and hi-fi sound quality.
Exactly ! You can be as OG as you like and use an OG workflow if you care.
However you can also use modern day workflow and everything in between.
It’s the best of both worlds if you will.
With the 1200 it’s OG all the way, with all the OG limitations and frustrations that come with it.
Lot’s of people forget that the legendary 1200 hits were made with other gear connected to the 1200.
Just like Ski beatz made Dead presidents with the 1200 and the S950 for the bigger samples.
The piano sample simply doesn’t fit inside the 1200 with it’s 10 seconds.
I know because i tried it, had to sample that beat in 4 sections and had it sped up.
I had 1.7 seconds left for the remaining kick, snare, hihat and the bass section.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts @Soldier2400 !
i agree about the painful limitations of OG SP1200 and a need to attach it to
something else ( i use S950 ) .
and TRUE - music is not just hard hitting drums loud hi hats and ringing aliased Rhodes chords
/ a jazz sax / piano player /
ive been just nerding out on S2400 …wondering about its sampling engine versus 12bit OG…
After reading some tread on this forum about its ADC/DAC Hardware sampling engine … " classic mode " (as far as i could comprehend the tech language ) that S2400 samples at a higher bit rate on the inputs and resamples / downsanples or converts it " on the fly " to 12 bit 26Khz … right?
I know its not important or essential - if its sounds right - its right ! but does this downsampling - resampling process happens on hardware or software level is unclear to me .
nice one @notanumb3r !
so you can load any samples on a SD card and preview them on S2400 ?
can you preview samples from the card or (sample pool if there is one ) while the beat is playing?
( you cant preview samples from disk on MPC3000 and there is no track mutes)
Yeah so anything you load or sample directly to the S2400 can be auditioned before loading it into memory. On my 60 I have to deal with SCSI and wait to load the file into memory before I can try it out with my other sounds. The old school workflow is definitely elevated with the S2400.
You can preview a sample while a sequence is playing with or without assigning it beforehand.
You can sample while a sequence is playing only in live loops mode. This mode has its own limitations, mainly RAM.
thanks for reply @tnkz76 !
great feature - being able preview samples while sequencer is playing!
So you can’t play your sequence in Loop Mode - is there a workaround ?
lets say :
Can a sequence being resampled to an audio file to be able to replay it in Loop mode
or being converted to a Loop in order to sample while ( sequence) loop playing
and visa versa : Can a Loop Sample being converted or used in a regular sequence - hope it make sense?
You can play a sequence in Loop mode.
A sequence can also be bounced and resampled.
What I meant is in Sample mode where you record samples you cannot have a sequence running at the same time.
If you want to record samples while a sequence is running you need to use the loop mode.
In this case recording time is limited. I do not have the figures in mind but it is like in Sample mode you can record more than 10 minutes if you want and in the looper mode it may be something less than 1 minute depending on the settings used for recording.
If you have time have a look at the manual, I think it is documented.
Honestly its been a lot more fun making beats on the s2400 for me personally over the 1200 i would say the only 2 things the 1200 has over it tbh, is a tad bit more character on drums not really that much changes probably need headphones to spot the difference and the clacks from the pads. I create a lot more with the s2400 standalone.
