Akai S1000 / MPC noob question - roughly how many samples ca

Apologies for the noobish question. Im thinking about incorporating an S1000 or an MPC2000xl into my DAW based system.

Being used to having thousands of drum hits on demand - Im actually thinking it would be quite cool to just have a smaller select bunch to work from - but that have that extra akai punch which I like...but I think Id need 10 kicks, 10 hats etc...

So my question is - can anyone tell me roughly how many drum samples I can have on a machine...? You have to load up on disks right? But they are only 1.4Mb which would only mean perhaps 10 individual hits? Or if you upgrade the mem of the machine - to 32Mb you have to stuff in a load of disks to load that level of samples - or sample in...

Thanks for any thoughts...

In the S1000 you can have a lot of samples loaded but if you're using floppy disks it'll take ages to fill up it's memory anyway so you'll want to keep em short and sweet due to loading/saving times, especially if you're using stereo samples.

If you're just using it for drums then yeah, I guess you can get away with using floppies because drums are usually small-sized samples.

If you're only using it for drums though, then you might want to consider a mono sampler like the S950.

Sample in to the S1000 hot for extra punch and bite.
It's a really good-sounding stereo sampler, built with quality technology that the later Akai rack samplers don't have.
It aint got a worthwhile filter though... but it's sound makes up for it.

Once you start using the S1000 for full projects, the floppies start turning into mountains around your room.
I personally use a SCSI CF card reader with my S1000, which loads and saves in seconds.

SWAN808 wrote:- can anyone tell me roughly how many drum samples I can have on a machine...?

I believe you can have up to 200 samples on the S1000 at any one time, depending of course on amount of ram, samplerate and length of samples.

I would suggest you download the manual to see if it's the machine for you - although bear in mind there is an updated OS (It's version 4. point something) that you can load from floppy every time you start up.

Thanks guys

Jimmi - is it complicated to install/use the SCSI CF reader? It would be great to load up the s1000 and have access to a decent source to load...can you set it up to autoload a load of samples on start-up?

It sounds like I can indeed get a decent load of samples in the S1000 for drums - I do need stereo for nice wide claps and other Perc...also I found in S950 samples it was a bit bright sounding...plus they seem to be more expensive now...

cheers!

SWAN808 wrote:Jimmi - is it complicated to install/use the SCSI CF reader?

A CF Reader is expensive.
You need a SCSI -> IDE bridge, the Acard 7720U and then you need the CF reader. If you don't need hotswap then any CF reader will do probably, but for hotswap you need a Delock 91640.
OR you can just use an external SCSI hard drive for cheap.

You need the S1000 to have a scsi card fitted.
Then if you want to use an internally-mounted scsi drive, does the scsi card have an internal header connection?
If not, then you can solder one on... like I did with mine.

or you could just get an S1000HD with internal HD built in.

SWAN808 wrote:It would be great to load up the s1000 and have access to a decent source to load...can you set it up to autoload a load of samples on start-up?

Don't think so, but with a scsi drive it takes seconds to load up whichever volume full of samples and programs you want.
You can only have up to 128 samples per volume in a partition. A partition can hold a lot of volumes. I have 13 partitions on each of my disks. I can't remember the exact numbers that the S1000 allows you to have but it does nicely.

SWAN808 wrote:..also I found in S950 samples it was a bit bright sounding..

Have you actually used an S950?
You can get your samples to sound as bright or as dull as you like. You are in full control of that.
You can sample at any sample rate that you desire between 3000Hz and 19200Hz!
The S950 gives you an eq bump around about the frequency that you sample at. It's one of the great things about it. So, if you sample at 13000Hz then you don't get all the air that you would if you'd have sampled at 19000Hz, but you do get a different kind of slight eq boost at a lower frequency!
But yeah, they are a lot more expensive than S1000's now... and S1000's are fast becoming non-cheap too.

Hi - no Ive not used a S950 its true...Im sure it could do the job - but considering I need stereo it seems the S1000 is up to the job...and it can also do mono?

S1000HD sounds like a good option for a starter - I dont think Im ready to faff about soldering SCSI interfaces...40MB hard drive seems pretty small - but I guess you can fit quite a few drum hits in there which is mainly what I want...

jimmie wrote:You need the S1000 to have a scsi card fitted.
Then if you want to use an internally-mounted scsi drive, does the scsi card have an internal header connection?
If not, then you can solder one on... like I did with mine.

or you could just get an S1000HD with internal HD built in.

or you could use one from an s1100 which has the internal header connection just like the s1000 hd which in my opinion are quite harder to find.

cheers

soundtech wrote:

jimmie wrote:You need the S1000 to have a scsi card fitted.
Then if you want to use an internally-mounted scsi drive, does the scsi card have an internal header connection?
If not, then you can solder one on... like I did with mine.

or you could just get an S1000HD with internal HD built in.

or you could use one from an s1100 which has the internal header connection just like the s1000 hd which in my opinion are quite harder to find.

cheers

thanks yeah ( heard the 1000HD has a fan in it thats quite loud which is a bit of a turn off...so if I found a 1100 then I could put in a CF reader as above...benefit of the fx also...I think it comes with 32MB also?

the s1100 has four ram card slots in it just like the s1000. either of those can host a 2Mb or 8Mb card for a maximum of 32 ram. so it can only have a board for 2 ram in it as well when you buy it.

you can max it to 32 if that is what you want and you find the ram. usually the best way to do that is to buy a fully expanded one. some sellers do not even advertise what the ram in the sampler is so you can get lucky

regarding the s1100 i owned one and sold it even before i had an s1000. it sounded too bright for my taste. they do not sound the same. the s1100 also has some effects out of which the delay is the winner and reverb is standard but usable. you may like it but like i said to me it sounds brighter in a way i did not want so went for the 1000 and kept it. oh, the s1100 also has some louder outputs if you need to know.