Creating Programs on the S2000

One of the most commonly asked questions heard from new users of Akai’s S-2000 sampler is
“Once I’ve got my samples recorded, how do I get them to appear in a Program?” In this guide
we’ll define the various elements of a Program and provide a step-by-step example of building a
basic program.

Before getting started, however, we’ll need to cover a few basics. First, with Akai samples,
samples and programs are completely separate entities. Samples are the individual
sounds that are either recorded or loaded from disk. Programs, on the other hand, determine
things like how and from where the samples will be played back. Midi channels, output
settings, and key spans are examples of Program parameters. Once you get the samples into
your sampler (either by recording or loading from disk), the samples will not automatically
appear in a Program. You must specifically assign your samples to a Program in order to play
them back in the SINGLE mode, where normal playback is done. Otherwise, you will only be
able to access your samples in the SAMPLE mode, which can really limit the musical
possibilities.

Program Structure

Since Akai introduced the S1000, the program structure has basically remained unchanged.
While there have been many new features and enhancements added to the various models over
the years, the basic structure has remained the same. Programs are built from Keygroups.
Keygroups are just what the name implies, a group of keys where samples are assigned. There
are many parameters that can be adjusted within a keygroup, such as filter settings, envelope
settings, MIDI channels, audio output assignments, and so on. Information on all of these
parameters is beyond the scope of this document and can be found in the Operator’s Manual.
This document will cover just the basics of setting up a program.

There are four screens in the SINGLE EDIT mode that are essential in creating programs.
These are NAME, NO OF KGRPS, SPAN, and ZONE 1 Assign. The parameters on these screens
will be set on every program that you create. Of course, there are many other parameters that
can be adjusted as part of a program, but these four screens contain the minimum
requirements for creating a program.

NAME: New programs are created here by either renaming an existing program or by copying
an existing program. You can also delete programs from memory here, but note that you
cannot delete a program if it is the only one in memory.

NO OF KGRPS: On this screen you assign the number of Keygroups for your program. In
most programs you will need a Keygroup for each one of your samples, although it is possible
to have up to four samples in a single Keygroup.

SPAN: This is where you set up the note ranges for each Keygroup in your program.

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ZONE1 Assign: This is the Sample Assign screen. This is where the samples in memory are
assigned to the Keygroups that you have created.

Example Program

The best way to learn about creating Programs is to actually create one. In the following
example we will create a Program consisting of several drum samples assigned to the keyboard
as follows:

Step #1: Loading the samples into memory

Before we can start building a Program, we need to get the sounds we want to use into the
sampler. This can be accomplished by: a) recording the samples through either the analog or
digital (if you have them) inputs, or; b) loading samples from disk. You may need to refer to
the appropriate sections of the Operator’s Manual for information regarding recording and
loading procedures.

In this example we will be working with the following sounds: Kick Drum, Snare, Hi-Hat Closed,
Hi-Hat Open, Tom, and Crash Cymbal. Once the samples are in memory, we can begin setting
up the Program.

Step #2: Naming the Program

Press the SINGLE and EDIT buttons. This takes you to the name screen of the SINGLE EDIT
mode. There are four things that can be done on this screen. You can: Select a program for
editing; Copy Programs; Rename Programs; and Delete Programs. Creating a new program is
done by either renaming an existing program, or by copying an existing program. For this
example, we will assume that the only Program in memory is the Test Program (which is there
by default when the sampler operating system is loaded).

Now, we could make a copy of the Test Program and edit the copy (instead of the original), but
in this example there isn’t any reason to do that. So, we’ll just rename the Test Program to
reflect the types of sounds we are using:

1. Press F2 (NAME).
2. Use the Data Wheel on the front panel to enter the name “DRUM KIT 1”.
3. When the name has been entered correctly, press F1 (RENAME).

Step #3: Changing the number of Keygroups

Proceed to the NO OF KGRPS screen by pressing the page down button seventeen (17) times.
This is where we can change the number of Keygroups in a Program. In most programs you

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will need a Keygroup for each one of your samples. There may be situations later on where
you want more than one sample per Keygroup, but that is not required for this example. So for
this drum program, since we have six samples, we will need six Keygroups.

For our example Program, you need to press the F2 (copy) button until you have six
Keygroups.

Step #4: Setting the Keyspan for each Keygroup

Next, proceed to the SPAN screen by pressing the page down button once. This is where you
set up the note ranges for each Keygroup in your program. Adjusting each Keygroups note
range is done by changing the values in the LOW and HIGH fields. These two fields show the
lowest and highest notes for each Keygroup. Use the Data wheel to change the low and high
note values, and the Select wheel to change the Keygroup being edited.

To set the note ranges for our example, use the following settings:

KG LOW HIGH
1 C1 C1
2 E1 E1
3 C2 C2
4 D2 D2
5 F2 F3
6 F4 F4

These settings will assign the key ranges shown in the example. As you can see, all of the
drum sounds are assigned to only one key except the Tom, which can be played over a one-
octave range. This gives you multiple tuned Toms from only one sample.

Step #5: Assigning samples to the Keygroups

The final step in creating a Program is to assign the samples to the Keygroups we’ve created.
This is done on the ZONE1 Assign screen.

To assign a sample to a Keygroup, first select the desired Keygroup by using the Select wheel.
Select the sample to assign to the current Keygroup by using the Data wheel. After selecting
the sample, select the next Keygroup and repeat all of the steps for this screen. This must be
done for each Keygroup in the Program.

Basically, that’s it – you now have a Program ready to play. As you can see, all of the drum
sounds are assigned to only one key except for the Tom, which can be played over a one
octave range in order to get multiple tuned Toms from only one sample. Now you should go to
the DISK mode and save the new Program and its samples to disk.

Of course, if you wish to do any further Program editing, you can certainly proceed from here,
and there are several other pages in the SINGLE EDIT mode to check out. For example, you
can add filtering to each Keygroup, adjust the envelopes, create velocity splits, and so forth.
Remember to always save your work to disk if you make any changes that you want to make
permanent.