With the 2kxl and other samples I was used to driving the input hot to get some converter distortion and limiting. This doesn’t seem possible on the s2400 because of that annoying digital clippinging. I have never had a sampler more instantaneously clip than the 2400.
What is your strategy for deal with this missing feature? I am currently recording through an sp303 but that signal noise is annoying as hell (I could probably use a newer 404mk2 or that teenage engineering mixer)
Is there perhaps a way to at least implement a good sounding limiter on the software side in the sampling menu so it’s a bit easier to drive up the level of the incoming volume without the instant digital clipping at every little peak?
Are you using the DSP card? If so, did you have this problem before, without the DSP?
Hi I’m not using the dsp.
As far as I remember, this extreme digital clipping on input that is only marginally in the red has always been the case.
Never have had this problem. How hot are the samples you have going in? What’s your gain-staging look like? Have you changed it to 12-bit? Are you samples 48/16? Are you making your own or loaded in samples? From where? Not enough information here.
I’m recording samples in through analog input 12.
This is where I (we) have the extreme digital clipping from volumes peaking 0db in the input signal.
I have started this thread to address this behaviour. While it is perfectly normal that some digital distortion would occur, in the s2400, it has neither character (as in for example the boss sp303, MPC 2400, or even when normalising beyond 0db in the MPC 1000), nor is there any kind of limiting happening at the input stage to mitigate the fact that because of this digital clipping, even millisecond peaks beyond 0db ruin an otherwise well-balanced input signal and recorded sample.
The workaround is to record at such a low level so as to make sure that spontaneous peaks do not ruin the sample, or to compress through another device at the input stage.
While this is of doable, it is simply not what I would expect from a sampler and takes away some of the immediacy of sampling directly into the s2400 at an adequate volume.
At the very least I would hope to see some kind of input limiting on the software side so as to at least make intermittent peaks more manageable.
Because I don’t know the internal architecture in its entirety, I don’t know if there are ways of dealing with digital clipping differently than to produce shrill distorted noise.
I can see you totally understand how to properly gain stage… but I don’t encounter these problems… I’m wondering why out loud to myself. Maybe it’s an issue with the specific set of devices. Mine is from the second roll-out, as I became interested in the sampler right as the first assembled units sold out. I think I remember waiting 6-8 months after my pre-order went through… worth every second I waited… same with the DSP OG release.
It may be an issue of using the output of the S2400 as your main “amp” source… that’s a documented thing. I don’t go directly out from the mains to studio monitors, I use my interface [Focusrite Clarett 8pre] (I have, but rarely, and typically if I’m not in my studio I’m using headphones and that amp has enough juice to power my HD600s and my HD599s also pump hard).
One thing we also have to address if even if you do use an interface or amp after the sampler and before your speaker sound source, you may have a less than optimal one, like a scarlet solo or Behringer.
Because you’re not wrong about wanting more gain. I have the Vermona DRM1 MKIV and it is notoriously weird to mix, the kick when set to booming sub is terribly low compared to the other 7/9 channels… though I’m using the Vermona Kick Lancet now for that anyway.
I’m not trying to tell you that you aren’t experiencing the problem and it’s obnoxious and frustrating since you absolutely understand what and how to fix… I’m just saying that I haven’t had any issues what-so-ever. So lucky me.
Hey thanks for sharing your setup and everything.
Just to be clear, when you record a sample through one of the the analog inputs and your signal is in the red, you don’t get nasty digital distortion?
That’s the thing fam… I’m not letting my sample go into the red. I think you’re trying to use the techniques that worked with the MPC60 when you purposefully overdrive it and allow the device to compress and limit it. That also only had 12-bit and you couldn’t record anything longer than a couple seconds, which is why the speed up/slow down vinyl record trick was applied and where that aesthetic sound comes from.
I know it seems like extra work to achieve that sound, but that’s because of everything else the S2400 has been designed to do. There’s a couple ways to get to what you want, but you’ll have to go into track settings (or shift+settings for global) and change around a lot of stuff. Change thee audio engine, change the bit depth, change the recording gain.
I’ll be honest, I hate over compression, it’s just not my thing. But that’s because I deliberately am mixing it hot, and I love distortion… I do a lot of analog synth recording and sampling and I create the patches to sound like they do on purpose. If I want gritty, I change around my EG Amp stuff. Needing to use a compressor isn’t my job, it’s the job of the mastering engineer if I am doing a release where people are using tons of different devices (which each have their own bass duck settings too, like those little “pill bass battery” speakers, weirdest compressor and limiters ever. The Hexdrums has a master compressor and drive on board and I can get better stuff without using it at all.
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Thanks, yeah input compression from recording in hot is exactly what I was looking for.
However at this point I’d just be fine if I could dial in some very mild limiting to get rid of the distorted peaks in an otherwise well-balanced sample.
i have the same issue, those hard click noises really suck. i was also a bit disappointed that i dont get that sweet analog distortion. but i changed my workflow. now i record the sample with normal volume and then distort it trough the outputs, this way you get the sound you’re looking for
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Thanks I am now using my sp303 again for sampling and record its output into the s2400.
Really sucks that this supposed oldschool sampler doesn’t know a basic oldschool trick but behaves more like a mid 2000s soundcard in that regard.