Am I right in thinking S2400 is the closest I am going to get to a modernized classic MPC without all of the silly touch screen and plug in business? Also, do you have Octatrack experience? How would you compare and contrast some of the similar features like looping? Cheers.
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I had MPC60 for years. This is way better in both simplicity of use and sound (again its subjective but imo).
I can sample/chop/envelope/ in 5mins.
Live looper is amazing, and unlike OT pickup machine you can remove overdub layers.
Sound quality (both hifi and lofi, but especially lofi) is astonishing. What is also a great feature is that you can resample anything like a 33rpm records is playing at 45rpm , and pitch down to get aliasing effect. Thats a incorporated 1 click feature!
What i dislike is the sequncer. I think its not very easy to use, and once you record into it, you need to get a hang of record/playback overdub of pitch&filter… Annoying.
I use OT as sequencer and its massive combination!
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Thanks for the great reply. It does sound great. The two things holding me back so far are the size of it (I would basically need a new desk for it) and also the fact that the company is so small, I wonder how long the machine will be made and supported…a little on the fence between this and Octratrack…or holding out to see what Elektron comes out with next.
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Honestly I got it on a whim, swapped an OB6 module I had for sale, and S2400s are pretty niche find in Oz. It’s by far the best piece of equipment I’ve owned. I still can’t work out exactly why lol, I had no intention of getting one of these when they came out. But the sound and workflow are just amazing. I feel all drums and samples that are processed through the S2400 add flavour to my music. Likewise I think the sequencer is pretty good tbh, it’s lacking on the midi front for external instruments but it has a nice swing for drum or chopped samples. It also has an excellent, and dare I say, complete song mode which allows you to mute/solo states into a song mode arrangement really quickly. In theory you can turn a single 8 bar pattern into a full song pretty quickly.
It’s not a do everything machine but it really really good at what it does so. It’s worth the desk space!
I think the Octatrack is quite a different offering. That’s way more about mangling samples in creative ways. S2400 is about using a vintage sounding sampler with slightly modernised features - has heaps of limitations but also heaps of improvements on the original SP1200. But it’s sampling mangling capabilities are not anywhere close to an Octatrack. But then again an Octatrack is no where close to the SP1200 sound.
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Great tip thanks.
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Gotta agree with @Robleighton22 on most of the things he said.
I’ve used the OT for a while, and sold it because I didn’t click with its sound. Theres nothing wrong with the sound (no need for more discussion on that topic), but I wasn’t for me.
Some comparisons:
- The s2400 looper is easier to use, and quicker to set up imho, the OT looper might have some more functions, but the s2400 one does what it needs to do in a logical way.
- The OT is way better at mangling samples, especially in a performance/live. I use the sp404sx with my s2400 as an fx loop and that works great, but the s2400 has no fx by itself.
- The s2400 build quality is amazing, the OT is good. I do like elektrons design better stylistically though.
- The s2400 makes everything sound full, punchy, better. Lofi mode adds amazing texture. The OT is clean sounwise.
- The s2400 workflow is simpler but effective. It just works for chopping up and sequencing samples. The loopers add more experimental options. The OT is a mad lab of sound, but less logical/quick to operate.
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I wonder if sample start can be cc controlled? I could use all my old sample chains and have access to several kits.
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I was one of the early adopters too.
I’ve bought three so far. This is not a flimsy bit of kit. Its heavier than the original SP1200.
Its a Lofi dream machine sampler with much more added. Live looping ala 505mk2 is probably one of the stand out features.
It has coming an analogue filter and dsp fx board(very soon).
I made this track on the very first day.
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You have three of these? 
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I bought one early on. Sold it then rebought it and bought then the new white face as well.
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What made you sell, and buy again?
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I thought id try the OT Anniversary edition.
Both are great in their own way, But i’m more Boom Bap than techno.(Or to put another way. Downtown New York than Malmo in Sweden).
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Same here, OT is great in its own right but I’m a crate diggin boombap guy in my heart, and the isla just clicks with me more.
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Fully agree on this impressions, as mentioned my only “negative” is the sequencer, but if you are doing boom bap its not a negative.
I do love the OT + S2400. Its great that S2400 Midi maps support slices, so you can really use OT sequncer with it with ease!
I can say their support is awesome, they really listened to their community and since I bought it added pretty much everything community asked for, from doubling the voices, to stereo live looper and etc. I can only give praise to the team, even if its small team!
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Wow, the Isla is really blowing me away! It sounds so good and I love the workflow.
Somethings are quite confusing for me still but the basics are very easy to grasp.
Will hopefully get my first beat out sometime this month….
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Good to hear! Very interested to hear what you make with it.
The thing I’d advice you to get familiar with/test while starting out is the way the outputs and panning work in combination with mono/stereo samples/loops. I found this quite confusing at first and it really messed with my head a couple of times. Now that I get it, it saves me from a lot of headscratching moments haha.
I’ve had the S2400 since last year and to be honest, it’s sat there intimidating me. One of my goals this year is to figure it out so it becomes an essential aspect to my music making.
Are there any good videos to watch that go through various aspects of the machine besides the ones by Isla themselves?
THX
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Can you elaborate a bit more on this one, I never had issues/questions over that…maybe im missing something. I never touched the panning menu tbh…
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The Alex Ball tutorial videos! Just watch each one and then you would have basically consumed the manual via video, and they are easy to watch.
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Alright! I’m on it!! I hope to post stuff soooooon!!
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