>>The most amazing thing though, is manual SECTION 13. Hello. It's
like the rosetta stone.<<
a few years ago, this list was a little under-subscribed, but quite a
few people had re-discovered the p2k/2k2's wonderful sounds.
some of them had 2nd-hand bargains, like yours (even with the 100%
markup, that's a good price!), but which came with no manuals.
to that end, a few of us managed to glue together the bits & pieces of
the files you can now find here. I have a 2000 (though sadly the
keyboard controller IC has died & WC don't have any) & a 2k2 with the
4.x software, expanded memory & eight outs.
so I had two manuals.
after a few weeks of programming, I knew where everything was anyway.
I heard stevie wonder was a big fan of the p2k... I'm guessing that
the akai s900 beat it out in sales because of price & the LCD display;
folks had stopped using their ears, in my opinion.
anyway, I sent my spare manual to tim, who may still be lurking here,
who'd offered to scan the whole thing & punt it up here. to him, we
owe a great deal.
>>I think mine might even be the coveted expanded beyond 512k-type of
memory. How would I ever really find out?<<
look inside- it's a daughter-board near the centre of the p2k,
half-tucked under the back of the keyboard. or, more simply, set the
size of a new sample with the machine empty, & see if it goes to 128
or "+56" (sic). I think that's right. there may be machines that go
bigger than this even- I have heard of a 1meg memory board, but that
might just be confusion, since the machine is essentially in two
halves. a full memory dump from my 2k2 fills a floppy, is all I know.
>>And how do I load more than one disc of samples into the machine,
and have access to them all?<<
the limited ram in these machines (more than compensated for by the
analogue processing, so that the smallest looped samples still sound
full of motion & texture) roughly corresponds to the size of one disc.
in the unexpanded machines, the data can be loaded from the first few
locations on each side of the disc, while the maxed-out machine loads
all of both sides. for this reason, the factory discs are created so
that either size of memory gets a useful keyboard range & an
uncompromised set of patches.
understanding the architecture of the machine is key to this sort of
optimisation. besides this, careful relooping & editing of samples can
help free up the precious ram. if you have the benefit of the later
software (4.1 I think) then the crossfade-looping is available. using
this to trim older factory samples, I was able to make more room in
the machine.
I also used the lowest sampling rate & sampled from a varispeed
tape-deck so that I could make absolutely sure of getting the maximum
durations into whatever memory was left.
then retuning the samples & futzing with both sound- & global- filter
settings (keyboard tracking &c) so that the shortcomings in their
fidelity were turned into timbral character somewhat akin to that of
my mellotron, in fact. seems appropriate.
with these techniques, I was able to make discs with the maximum (16)
useful samples & have several actual instrument sounds available from
each disc, a great help when using the machine on-stage.
hoe some of this helps.
duncan/r.m.i.
