Do I NEED an AKAI S3200 sampler ?

hey guys !!!

I've been think of getting an akai s series sampler for a couple of years now.

I mainly work with Maschine and load 909 and 808 banks on it from Wave Alchemy if you are familiar.the 909 and 808 are well sampled and the library is near 6gb ! so I have full control like a real 909 and 808 .

Usually I send the drums through a tape saturation from UHE Satin if you know it and I achieve nice results with punch and charachter.

I have a friend of mine who is using the MPC3000 and he played me some of his tracks the other day and the drums were really direct and had a unique and punchy presence in the mix something that I am not sure if I can get with my equipment and also told me that this result is with no special treatment on the drums just recording the master output.So I thought to start checking for an S series sampler since I don't need the pads and the sequencing options.I have an option to get an S3200 and would like to have your thoughts,ideas,suggestions on this one from your experience.I know that the workflow on the S is not the same like with modern gear but if I can get such a good result so easy then I dont have a problem going throught it.

thank you guys !

If I remember correctly, S3200 doesn't have the exact same AD/DA-converters as MPC3000 (DA-chip is PCM69AP). If You want that MPC3000 sound, I suggest you to get S3000XL made in JAPAN version. Luckily I got it, I did the research when I bought it, It's hooked up to my MPC1000 via spdif to get THE sound

thanks for your input man,I searched around about this MPC3000 sound and which of the S series have this sound and to be honest I got confused but at the same time I can not understand why the dont sound the same since the belong to the 3xxx series ? other people on the same forum clearly state that the sound is the same between MPC3000 and S3200 and S3000 and S3000XL.

but the most importan thing is will I benefit from it's sound,whats your experience with working ITB and working with an Akai sampler either MPC or S "SOUND WISE" not workflow

will have to make a deeper research regarding the S3000XL and S3000 I guess

This isn't gonna really help u answer ure questions so further research will b necessary but i thought id throw my cents in the pot. What I ve heard is that the s3000 xl is the one made in China as opposed to the s3000 which is supposedly the better one (thIs is strictly word of mouth tho). I regularly c s3000 xl sell here locally for just over 100 bucks. Regardless of w/e if u live in a large city id suggest tryin to buy locally, the prices on ebay can b pretty jacked for those samplers. One of the good things about the 3200 is that it has the eb efx board as stock. The same efx board that goes with the mpc2000 and 2000xl. Now I rarely c the 3200 sell locally. But if u were able to get one and u didn't end up using the efx board, they sell for quite expensive so the resell value on just the board is pretty worth it.
Oh yah and this isn't to say that the other dude is wrong but if we r talking about the punchy drums part of that sound comes from driving the analog inputs hard when sampling which is something u wouldnt really b able to do using the digital ins and outs. Workflow wise depending on what u wanna do u may b adding extra time consuming steps ie sampling into it and then having to go back in the cpu. U may b able to save time by not resampling into the cpu and just sequencing the 3000 with the cpu but ud have to track eventually.

You can't go wrong with the S1000 , S1100 , S3200, and S3000 because they have that Akai "punch" people talk about.

The S5000 and S6000 also have an Akai "Punch" but a more modernized way. I really can't vouch for those models, but from what I hear on youtube demos and from the owners they sound great.

You don't always need an MPC 3000 to get the drums the way you like. The Akai S series has amazing AD /DA conversion with nice stereo width. When I get lazy I sample a 10 second loop into my S1000 then record back into Ableton and slice away with my Push. Even on cheapo PC speakers the drums sound better. I don't need to use additional compressors, I just mix away in live.

Can anyone clarify the S3000XL made in China/Taiwan / Japan issue? I'm interested to get a straight answer on it too.

The question of which s series give the mpc3000 sound has been discussed to death.

S3000 & S3200, non XL.

nothing more to add here except use the search function, before posting!

dr4track wrote:What I ve heard is that the s3000 xl is the one made in China as opposed to the s3000 which is supposedly the better one

Some of the S3000XL are made in China, but some of them are made in Japan. The ones made in China are build from cheaper components so the converters are different than in Japan version and won't sound as good.
From the link below you might find some useful info
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=48158

breakz wrote:but the most important thing is will I benefit from it's sound,whats your experience with working ITB and working with an Akai sampler either MPC or S "SOUND WISE" not workflow

Here's couple of sound examples I made about difference of the sound between S3000XL(Japan) and MPC1000, I hope it helps you to solve the benefit matter. I personally love the sound, especially on drums
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=174387&start=15

Yes, get it for the sound. It sounds **** great.
S3200 is definitely of the older range, not the cheaper China-made range.
Here's some reading: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=48158

And here's two soundfiles to let you hear the sound of my s3200XL (Japan-made…its insides look like those of a s3200 rather than s3000XL…it's not nothing in common with the latter).

ORIGINAL BREAK: http://fanumusic.com/audio/break%20-%20original.wav
RECORDED INTO s3200XL: http://fanumusic.com/audio/break%20-%20s3200xl.wav

It's only recorded in hot – no EQ or any other processing was used.
Listen to the size of the kicks, for example.

I have an S3000xl if you're interested, just thought I'd throw that out there. Feel free to PM if you'd like to pick it up or trade for some gear.

Immature, sexist comments deleted.

We don't need that here.