Isla S2400

Thats the weak link. He used UPS. I told him to change but he stuck with them and a few folk have reported damaged boxes on arrival.

I pre-ordered one of these for the intro price.
They upgraded their website and my order was canceled for some unknown reason. I inquired because I still wanted it and they told me I could only order at the new $1500 price.

That instantly soured me. Sure, looks like a fun machine though. Bummer.

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ugh. that really sucks. sorry.

the Ricky Tinez review soured me. an in-depth hands-on made the machine seem pretty shit. I believe it will improve. but I’m not interested enough to go through those growing pains.

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Am i the only person that thinks the usability seems to be lacking, and everything, especially the sequencing, seems to be overly complicated? It seems there are tons of “modes” and all kinds of shortcuts that you can only know by either remembering, or reading the tiny screen and pressing the help button… maybe i’m missing something?

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it’s a sensitive topic

I think the point of the s2400 is to be a nod to the sp1200, which I assume (never owned one) requires even more muscle memory to use. But there is a help menu on the s2400, and it looks like the new update adds a lot of nice features for ease of usability. Pop-up notifications, better help menu functions, etc.

The goal is to make the user interface a pretty smooth experience even with added features. I find the S2400 pretty easy to get around on and I’m notorious for really struggling with manuals. I think Elektron makes really great manuals but to be fair most Elektron devices truly need them. I love the features but find things don’t click for me easily with Elektron. I’ve been free of Elektron gear for almost a decade until really recently, like two months ago, when I finally got the Digitone and Digitakt.

The new help menu with actual F Key location indicators is a nice add, and I do like the pop up that gives you feedback about what has been selected.

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Yeah Ricky is going to get some help with the Machine from KenFlux. He missed a bit and his issue with the mute/solo buttons is not something typically encountered.

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And this is why people shouldn’t rush to be the first on youtube. Ricky hopefully has learnt a lesson in all of this.

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To be fair it was a first impression and not a review video, however I do wish he would have spent more time with the S2400 before he did the video. He is also a big MPC user and a lot of people who are wholly in the MPC camp and never used the SP1200 have similar struggles wrapping their head around what is happening. However I think it a right proper sampler with a really good work flow and feature set. It’s very easy to combine it with an Octatrack or MPC.

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I dont think its fair sharing first impressions when you have such a huge influence. He should have thought it out a bit more as the negative review caused quite a stir. Perhaps he will put it right.

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I’d rather he not mislead folks with a first impression video of his 10th impression though, if the world can’t handle Ricky not being able to handle the s2400 then maybe the world should just take 10 deep breaths

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He’s just an influencer.
I guess their value is up to the viewer. I wouldn’t take an individual as the only source for my choice in buying something.

And I don’t care if they’re ‘first’

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Its funny. On the internet you can get a hundred glowing reviews but the one bad one gets spread like wildfire. :rofl:

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I haven’t seen his review or 1st impressions , and perhaps the workflow isn’t for everyone … if he’s / anyone on YouTube being honest then it’s all fine . To be clear I don’t always read magazine reviews and feel they’re fair either , I’ve read a lot of sample pack reviews ( many get 8/10) and imho many have been utter trash.
Ultimately the best method is to buy and try though it’s expensive.

For what it’s worth, I had zero interest in the S2400 before Ricky’s video. I didn’t know what it was about, why I would want one, it looked gigantic, unwieldy, and from the KordBot people, which is a very different product in every way.

Ricky’s video showed him working through it like I’d work through it. Really gave me a sense for what it’s like, what it does, and I’m excited to learn more now. So I come here and it’s mostly people complaining about the video :upside_down_face:

I get it, but man, Ricky’s totally wrong about 1–3 things per video. We all get that. When something doesn’t work, I’m never, like, “this gear sucks!” My first thought is always “This is probably Ricky not getting it.”

There are your friends that are encyclopedias on weird shit, and then your friends who just get excited about stuff and want to share the excitement. Ricky’s the latter. And it’s excitement for the S2400 that I needed to get on board.

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People should really stop calling these videos ‘reviews’. They’re not actually a proper review… they’re just an ‘experience’. It shouldn’t be ‘Here’s my review of…’ – it should be ‘Here’s my experience with…’. To me, a review means you’ve spent an extensive amount of time with something and thoroughly know it inside and out. You’re an expert with it. Furthermore, you’re an expert in that area with extensive experience and similar mastery with competing items and can make a proper comparison between them. That’s a legitimate review IMHO, otherwise it’s just your experience with something. And sharing your experience is fine! The unboxing, the look/feel, how something works, your general opinion and impressions, etc. That’s all completely legitimate. However, it’s also (like others have said) admitting that you’re not an expert with something and as a result will more than likely be wrong and/or have some misinformation about things. It’s just your experience with that one thing with your limited knowledge of it at that point in time.

I really like Ricky’s videos and watch pretty much all of them (aside from the modular stuff), but I don’t view them as reviews. It’s just his experience with something that (generally) he’s sharing on the fly usually after a few weeks of having gotten something. He’s bound to have some bad takes and that’s fine as long as you’ve got the right context about what it really is and more importantly what it isn’t.

In terms of helping/hurting the manufactures, if it’s a product they sent him, then that’s on them. They knew what they were getting into. If it’s something he bought on his own (as was the case with the S2400), then it’s the same as anyone else putting out a video on it. There’s been literally a hundred or more videos in the past 8-10 months uploaded before his (with older firmware and a lot more bugs/issues too), so it’s not exactly as if he rushed something out to be the first on YouTube with it. Just about anyone interested in the machine will have seen a lot more than just his take on it. I actually like how he can be kinda ‘meh’ on things and point it out. That’s authentic and not everything is a glowing fan boy take. Again though, context.

I’ve got no skin in the game on this one as I’m not planning on buying an S2400. I gotta say though, I’m thoroughly impressed overall with it and have to give Brad massive props on the vision and having the courage to do it. Isla is not Akai, Pioneer or whomever, so putting out a product of this scope was a huge (epic) risk for him. He’s been very transparent throughout the whole thing they keep churning out bug fixes, features and improvements. He deserves a ton of credit for pulling all this off and most other companies should take notice.

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Good to see small companies taking on the giants. Udo and Isla.

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Exactly. The title of the video is “Initial Thoughts”, not “Review”. People just want to get offended over anything these days. And yeah, if Isla shipped him a unit with some wonky buttons, then that’s on them.

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