Isla S2400

I try to make it a habit of using the enter button instead of encoder press.

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Where’s is this statement? How do you know Mickey was paid in good faith? This is beginning to get comical with you. Sure thing Peter C.

that’s an insane haul but I do wonder what qualifies him and his crew to be vintage synth repair people…? just because they created the S2400 doesn’t necessarily qualify them.

I ask this as an owner/lover/future buyer of vintage synths. the more qualified people we have repairing them before sale (and not just claiming “our tech says everything functions great!”), the better.

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Thats what i did in the end. Smart move.

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I would like the Jupiters(which he is keeping lol). But scanning through the rest apart from the Moog prototype im not interested.

I’m not specifically interested in buying from him. I’m just saying the more well-maintained and properly cared for vintage synths we have out there, the better. if someone’s going to fix them up prior to sale, I hope they know what they’re doing. fine, charge handsomely for it. just do it right.

the only units I saw that gave me the tinglies were the Oberheim four and eight voice SEM’s. yowza.

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The main playing pads are totally fixed at this point though. No double triggering, failures to trigger, or other annoyances that persisted for way too long. The latest FWs have finally got that core stuff ironed out.

I wish this was true of mine. Got mine late last week and the pads double-trigger frequently. I can’t find a pad threshold setting where they’re playable but don’t double-trigger. I’ve got a support ticket in, so we’ll see how it goes. The mute/solo buttons are also insensitive like you described.

Maybe it’s due to being new? I had this a lot with my 404 mkII, but it eventually settled down. No firmware or sensitivity changes. The pads just seemed to get better after some wear-in time. I wonder if that’s a thing with force-sensitive pads? Or maybe I just subconsciously got used to how to play them.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a given with force-sensitive pads - I’ve never had issues with Akai, Maschine, or Push 2 pads.

I had the double triggering at first. It improved with the firmware and Mickeys recommended settings. But… If i played the pads fast they were there occasionally. I disliked the pads instantly but stuck with it for a bit as there was nothing else to compare. Hope you get it sorted.

I’ve found that I only get double triggers if I hit the pads with two fingers. I don’t know if that’s how you hit them, but I’ve always used two with MPCs, which works fine, however, S2400 seems to pick up each finger separately. I have to consciously use one finger (Kicking a 20+ year MPC habit isn’t easy).

I noticed the same thing and just assumed I was going crazy. It doesn’t seem to matter how quickly I hit the pads with one finger but as soon as I drum with two I start running into problems. I’m scratching my head as to why that would happen - some sort of capacitive strip detecting and sorting out touches rather than discrete sensors, maybe?

Edit: this would also explain some really weird behavior I found where I’d occasionally have a drum pad lag. For example, I’d hit the pads with fingers 1-1-2 quickly and sometimes the second 1 would be after the 2 if I hit 2 quickly enough. I couldn’t figure out why that would happen but it would be explained by it using one big capacitive sensor like a phone’s touch screen.

Edit 2: Maybe it’s just something to do with the pressure I use when playing with two fingers, it can happen when I’m only playing with one. Blah.

Brad had a loong history of repairing and enhancing electronic music gear from well before he created the Kordbot and S2400. His intimate knowledge of the SP-1200’s internals informed his designs for the S2400.

I would have no reservations at all about buying a refurbished classic synth from Isla Instruments, except that I live on the other side of the world and these rare gems are going to be well beyond even my fantasy budget!

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there ya go! that’s the kind of info I was hoping to hear!

:+1:

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Brad also has someone working for him that does a good bit of synth repair and restoration work on his own. David Noller of Dynamix II.

Got my S2400 yesterday. News of them not being produced for awhile kinda make me knee jerk buy one, I was looking at them deeply about a year ago and decided to hold off at the time due to being in the midst of buying a house.

Anyways… first impressions:

Pads are great imo. I am getting some double triggering but I haven’t messed with the settings yet (anyone have recommended settings?) but it’s not that bad. They feel like a mix between Maschine softness and MPC height. They feel really nice to touch.

The buttons above the pads aren’t as bad as what I thought (based on the Ricky Tinez video) but I definitely understand where he’s coming from. The rubber feeling buttons feel like any other soft touch rubber button but when you feel the little “click” that most of these buttons do, nothing happens. You have to press even harder than you expect. Now that I know this I’m not having any issues with them not registering.

Overall build quality is obviously good. Every other thing that people describe as being “built like a tank” feels like a straw house in comparison. You could definitely murder someone with this thing, fucking heavy lol.

OLED screen is quite beautiful in person and in motion. The way the lines move (example, when adjusting the envelopes) is so damn smooth.

Still trying to get the workflow down. Definitely quite a bit of menu diving but it’s starting to click with a few hours of use. Some of the stuff I watched in the Alex Ball videos doesn’t feel intuitive at all (like setting zero crossing and button combos that aren’t really obvious). I need to remember to reach for that help button.

But the big thing is how does it sound? And it definitely hits in a way that I did not expect. I know everyone said it sounded good but god damn. I understand the “SP1200” sound now. I used to think you just need to throw a bitcrusher and reduce the sample rate but it’s definitely more than that, specifically how the aliasing works when you pitch the samples down.

Anyways, I’m addicted to samplers. There’s no way I needed this or anyone needs it but it’s nice to have a sort of sequel to the SP1200 in my gear lineup. I would definitely never pay the prices for the official Rossum one ($4k for 20 seconds of sample time?) or buy a used SP1200 so even though this is pretty damn expensive in its own right it feels like an easier pill to swallow. And even if I use it as just a drum machine (which I won’t) I think the sound it’s pushing out makes it worth it.

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Just ordered mine. Was going back and forth between this and a second OT. I really got a lot out of the 2 OT setup when I had it, but I’m really keen to try the 2400. Wet Saturday afternoons in the basement sampling off vinyl was just too tempting……

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Hopefully you are in the first 100 preorders and got in on the free case!

i’m sure i saw one on gumtree for sale recently (uk)… a bit expensive for me, but they seem to have hit the quality everyone was looking for.

Yessir. Nice bonus.

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