Forum for all other samplers & synths such as Maschine, MVs, Akai S & Z series, Roland, Korg, OP-1, analog synths etc.
By Synthetech Sat May 25, 2013 12:57 pm
I'm new again to the Akai samplers. I assume the S2000xl is very similar to the MPC.

I have an issue where I get a horrible distortion in my samples. Usually when I sweep the filter up/down.
Sometimes turning the output volume down a notch or two helps eliminate it, but then the signal is weak in the mix.

If I play something smooth and mellow, it wont do it.. only when I get a nice sharp and powerful sound thru it is when it distorts. Like a sawtooth lead with resonance at about 12 and dipping down in the filter using a mod wheel just about gets distortion every time.. sucks


I will be checking things mentioned in this thread..

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=163913

but thought I'd ask in my own since that thread never mentioned the filter sweeping distortion I experience.


This soundcloud upload I did gives examples of what I am referring to. A few samples played. First I play it w/out it distorting, then make it distort when I sweep the filter.

User avatar
By Harmoncj Sat May 25, 2013 6:57 pm
I have to say you have that filter sounding a lot better than whatever the filter is in the mpc2000! But yes if it does work in the same way, (max resonance being 15 right?) in general if I have resonance over 10 with the mpc2000, and filter cutoff also around 15 sounds tend to get internally distorted. It also depends on what the sample is. Maybe if you have the EB16, you might get away with either using the compressor as a limiter, or putting an EQ notch cleverly cut out the frequency that will distort.
By Synthetech Sat May 25, 2013 10:46 pm
Harmoncj wrote:I have to say you have that filter sounding a lot better than whatever the filter is in the mpc2000! But yes if it does work in the same way, (max resonance being 15 right?) in general if I have resonance over 10 with the mpc2000, and filter cutoff also around 15 sounds tend to get internally distorted. It also depends on what the sample is. Maybe if you have the EB16, you might get away with either using the compressor as a limiter, or putting an EQ notch cleverly cut out the frequency that will distort.


this is helpful to know that you experience the same thing when the filter is at high resonance and low filter. You say on a MPC2000? I think the engines are very similar. Filter values are the same..

I had a bad feeling it was an inherent problem/limitation of the Akai.
I think if I record at lower volumes, that helps.. but again I have a weak signal to work with.. which adds hiss/noise.