The official AKAI S series thread

Sorry if this is a **** idiot of a thing to ask but i got a 2000xl and i wondered what would the benefit be if i picked up a s3000xl and used it in conjunction?

full fledged sampling
as in keygrounds and everything so like spreading a piano across all your pads or multisampling a piano so it sounds better..

boxcutter butta wrote:full fledged sampling
as in keygrounds and everything so like spreading a piano across all your pads or multisampling a piano so it sounds better..

Yup multilayering, more options to tweak your samples like envelopes, attack, release, filters, resonance, LFO etc......

Been perusing the forums for the past few days actually and I've been wanting to make a post... Since this is an Akai S series thread, I thought it would be a good opportunity to.

I've been on a here about a year now but I've read stuff for a while longer and I post every now and then. I think that you can get some dope info thanks to the educated heads on here for all things in the world of Akai hahaha.

I picked up an S950 not too long ago and it took me a while to source a bloody power cord for it, so I came on here for answers and got what I wanted sometime last week, cheers to who helped me out.

For the past week or so, I've used the S950 a lot, sampled some breaks and basslines in there, done all my chopping (with numbers!!! CRAZY!), ADSR, filtering, etc in there. Coming from the 2000, I love the friggin' sound of this! It's my new love, so punchy and fat!

Anyway, I was sequencing the S950 from my MPC2000 and I managed to lay down a nice boom bap drum pattern. Then I wanted to lay eight different, sampled bass notes down but the trouble is, how do I get the samples to cut each other of and not overlap? I know it'll be in Edit Program but I can't wrap my head around it? In the manual, it goes on about low keys and hi keys and I'm a little confused to how this works.

On my Classic, I would just hit Shift + Program and press Open Window on the Mono/Poly/Note Off and configure the notes to mute each other in order... I guess I haven't grasped the different menus just yet but I'm working on it!

Can anyone help out?

Cheers in advance and sorry for the long winded post.

Yo grublet, whats up with the 2000XL revelation you were on a couple weeks back? Nikkas still curious!

damn just cant let it go
it aint gunna happen plans fell through prolly

IllRhythm wrote:I picked up an S950 not too long ago and it took me a while to source a bloody power cord for it, so I came on here for answers and got what I wanted sometime last week, cheers to who helped me out.

glad to hear you solved it!

there might be a better way, but the individual outputs are monophonic, so by sending the bass to an individual out you would prevent them overlapping

@ IllRhythm

Go to EDIT PROGRAM>OUTPUT page (17) and make all the outputs to 1. The samples should cut each other off when you trigger it.

@Pastor: I will try that out very soon, got a nice bassline I'mma test, I'm guessing then, that because the individual outs are monophonic, meaning only one sound can be played at a time, it would cut off each note when another one starts. Guess I'm gonna have to try that. Will probs do that with my hi hats; open and closed too. I'm gonna need a mixing board soon!

@rebel_lion: Just seen your post before I submitted this one, nice man, I'mma give that a go soon, been tryna get my head around the outputs and program really, just a little different than my Classic but quite in depth...

Oh yeah, I've been doubling up my keygroups, i.e. a kick or bass note and putting one on the left output and the right output... Is doing this ok? I just like to have the sounds in both speakers. Not so much when editing, just when I'm sequencing or playing the beat.

As usual, thanks again haha.

Big tip for crunchy drums on the S-3000 series aka 3200, 3200XL, 2800 and so on...sample them at normal speed using the 10k setting instead of the normal the sampler samples at 20k..I am not referring to re-sampling; If you own these things you will know what I mean.
I found this sounded really nice, I tried 20k 45rpm +8, 10k 45rpm +8 and 10k normal speed
10k at 45RPM +8 and slowed down sounds well crunchy but at normal speed it's smooth but got some nice crisp

The revelation is in full effect... but I am trying not to blow my wad all over this site so people know whats up.

I know that if I want to make a buck, I should wait til its time.

Its pretty gangster though.


even working on a few newbies.


as far as the question I originally asked, is the keygroups on samples the way to assign only one sound to one key, so you can put a whole break on one program (6000).


i think this is it.

@IllRhythm:
Edit Program -> page 15 set one shot to 'off'. This is the same as the 'note off' param on your 2K. Your bass tones will play for as long as you hold the pad or key down.

If you want your sounds to cut off proper you'll have to assign them to the same 1-8 output as already mentioned.

In order to unlock the true power of the 950 an 8 channel studio mixer is a must. This gives you the power to eq all your drums differently and helps to bring out that vibe.

peace

I have a question. I have had my s2000 for ages. I recently read that it was 8 bit and want to experiment for fun. I can not find anything in the manual or on the machine that lets you change the bit rate. It is so easy to change the sample rate, before you record or if you resample, I just don't get how to change the bit rate. I can't find anything online either. Any help? I am beginning to think this is a typo.

didnt see anything about 8 bit
• Polyphony 32 voices
• A-D Conversion 16-bit stereo with 64-times oversampling
• Internal processing 28-bit accumulation
• D-A Conversion 18-bit with 8-times oversampling
• Sampling rates 44.1kHz/22.050kHz
• Phase locked stereo sampling and playback
• Internal memory 2Mbytes standard, expandable to 32Mbytes using SIMMs
• Sampling times 2Mbytes 22.28 seconds mono @ 44.1kHz
32Mbytes 5.94 minutes mono @ 44.1kHz
(Halve these times for stereo sampling)
• Inputs L/Mono and R jack inputs

boxcutter butta wrote:• A-D Conversion 16-bit stereo with 64-times oversampling
• Internal processing 28-bit accumulation
• D-A Conversion 18-bit with 8-times oversampling
• Sampling rates 44.1kHz/22.050kHz

That's the DAC, what matters for sampling is the ADC, which is 16bit.

As vinyl_junkie says above (nice tip, thanks!) you can adjust the sampling rate (44kHz or 22kHz) but that gives a different effect to adjusting bit depth. On my 3000xl the sample rate is set in the bandwidth field (bandwidth 10kHz samples at 22kHz and bandwidth 20kHz samples at 44kHz)