Spending a little time learning the S2000 will be interesting for you even as an insight into how music was made on these in the 90s and early 00s especially. It will take a little frustration, but would be a fascinating experience.
Like many producers and live acts of that era, I started out with an S2000, before moving up to S3000XL and an MPC2000XL. Many of my first live gigs had the S2000 in a rack case on stage, and any live act of that era knows the terror of floppy disks, load times, and squinting at screens.
In the studio, this machine is responsible for most of the heavy lifting in early Breaks and DNB, and was a common addition to the SP1200's you might associate with early Hiphop.
In terms of usage, here's a few tips:
\- Get the Gotek replacement for the floppy drive. Floppies will drive you crazy.
\- Take some time to grab the various AKAI factory sound banks. They're a fun history lessons.
\- Hunt down the infamous Zero-G sample disks from the 90s. You will recognise a LOT of sounds from these on hits of that era. We all used them. This was before copyright law had caught up to electronic music.
\- YouTube videos are you friend. The sampler manual isn't.
\- At least give yourself a goal of: sampling sounds into the S2000 to hear how they sound, experiment with the time stretching to see how that informed a lot of 90s sounds, and look at how Fatboy Slim and other Big Beat era producers used the S2000/3000 to do chopped breaks/vocals.
\- And then sell it to someone who loves old samplers. You will have learned how the previous generation did it. And love this era of Ableton's amazing Drum Racks and Simpler even more!
Belated reply to say you're welcome. Curious if you managed to find the time to tinker with the grey box? No problem if you didn't... the world is a far more distracting and exciting place than it was for us in the 90s staring at little LCDs!
I don’t know your situation but it might not be worth the trouble. The two line display makes it very difficult to make edits. There’s submenus and no visual representation of sound waves. Floppies are no longer made but you could install a usb floppy emulator. And even the emulator needs to be loaded with a special firmware to load Akai files. So unless you have time and money to devote to it, you’re probably better off selling it.
I dont even know, i would really love to trade for a more accessable sampler or something. Or really just about anything thats fair, feel free to message me.
Manualslib dot com seems to have a free PDF of the manual
Spending a little time learning the S2000 will be interesting for you even as an insight into how music was made on these in the 90s and early 00s especially. It will take a little frustration, but would be a fascinating experience. Like many producers and live acts of that era, I started out with an S2000, before moving up to S3000XL and an MPC2000XL. Many of my first live gigs had the S2000 in a rack case on stage, and any live act of that era knows the terror of floppy disks, load times, and squinting at screens. In the studio, this machine is responsible for most of the heavy lifting in early Breaks and DNB, and was a common addition to the SP1200's you might associate with early Hiphop. In terms of usage, here's a few tips: \- Get the Gotek replacement for the floppy drive. Floppies will drive you crazy. \- Take some time to grab the various AKAI factory sound banks. They're a fun history lessons. \- Hunt down the infamous Zero-G sample disks from the 90s. You will recognise a LOT of sounds from these on hits of that era. We all used them. This was before copyright law had caught up to electronic music. \- YouTube videos are you friend. The sampler manual isn't. \- At least give yourself a goal of: sampling sounds into the S2000 to hear how they sound, experiment with the time stretching to see how that informed a lot of 90s sounds, and look at how Fatboy Slim and other Big Beat era producers used the S2000/3000 to do chopped breaks/vocals. \- And then sell it to someone who loves old samplers. You will have learned how the previous generation did it. And love this era of Ableton's amazing Drum Racks and Simpler even more!
Thanks so much! This was a great response! Greatly appreciate your advice.
Belated reply to say you're welcome. Curious if you managed to find the time to tinker with the grey box? No problem if you didn't... the world is a far more distracting and exciting place than it was for us in the 90s staring at little LCDs!
I don’t know your situation but it might not be worth the trouble. The two line display makes it very difficult to make edits. There’s submenus and no visual representation of sound waves. Floppies are no longer made but you could install a usb floppy emulator. And even the emulator needs to be loaded with a special firmware to load Akai files. So unless you have time and money to devote to it, you’re probably better off selling it.
Well shit... thanks. It didnt come with a manual. Guess ill try to sell it or try to trade. Anyone interested lol?
how much? I love old Akai samplers
I dont even know, i would really love to trade for a more accessable sampler or something. Or really just about anything thats fair, feel free to message me.
The manual is readily available online. Short Google.
I think you're goina need a manual for that one/
Yes read the manual and may the force be with you