The official AKAI S series thread

I just bought a 3000xl, not entirely sure why though. haha

@blipmode: Yeah man, thanks. I've been considering buying a mixing board for a good while now... Unsure of which way to go really, I think I want a 10-12 channel and I've been looking at the Mackies, I have a DJ friend who's warned me of them things though: Like saying that you get what you pay for... He thinks the sound quality of them isn't too good. Probably cuz he rocks a Rane TTM56 which sounds pretty immense for a Battle mixer. Damn sexy mixer that haha. Any ideas?

On topic and @Don Blake: Haha, my mate bought an S3000XL also to use with his 2000XL MCD for no apparent reason, it was most likely an impulse buy considering it was maxed out for £60! Nowadays the sampler lurks underneath his bed gathering dust, I think he should utilise it more. I bet it has better filters than the XL and enveloping and all that stuff. Hmmm, might snatch it off him LOL.

An old scan from Future Music mag...must be around 2000 or early 2001
I used to drool at this page looking at rack samplers I couldn't afford cos back then they were still pretty much studio standards.

That's fresh... Anyone ever used the S700? It's got an overdub button on the front, and what it allows you to do is layer multiple samples together without taking up any additional RAM. That's a great feature, and I've always wondered how it sounded in practice...

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote: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)

Yeah, I don't know where it was originally posted but once 8 bit got on vintage synth, it gets linked all over. I have racked my brain on this many of times, I figured it does not do 8 bit.


Also, you can change the bit depth much more "crazily" than that if you resample. You can pick anything from 4000-65000 at any interval. You can do 8932 for example. Fun to mess around with, you have to resample to do it.

dr.tadwinslow wrote:That's fresh... Anyone ever used the S700? It's got an overdub button on the front, and what it allows you to do is layer multiple samples together without taking up any additional RAM. That's a great feature, and I've always wondered how it sounded in practice...

i seen a guy posted an add for the s700... he has a few of them and he wants 60 bucks each... or maybe it's 60 for all 3 of them (the add if a bit old now though) I dont think I will grab them because they have around 1/3 of a meg of ram standard and are upgradable to around 3/4 of a meg with the expansion. Not only that but the machine can hold maximum 6 samples and the ram is devided into 6... so even if you only want to use it for one sound... it wont let you take more then 1/6 of the total sample ram. that is why I am guessing that you need that layering feature.

@ Ill Rhythm:
As for a studio mixer - get whatever you can afford. Mackie, Behringer, whatever. You might as well be making some music while you're saving up for that 120,000 SSL desk! Once you get on the "more $$ = better sound" train it's hard to get off. Just make sure it has enough inputs to handle all your current gear, plus a few extras. It should also have at least one subgroup for recording out into you DAW or whatever. Direct outs are nice but not necessary.

DJ and studio mixers are such completely different animals that they should not share the name 'mixer'... The Rane is a nice mixer and it sounds OK, but is completely inadequate for recording work. They're nice if you're a working hiphop DJ, otherwise, meh... I've used one and to be honest I prefer the sound and ergonomics of my Vestax.

Good Luck!

blipmode wrote:You might as well be making some music while you're saving up for that 120,000 SSL desk!

you recently missed out on this one, formerly of Olympic Studios:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

I've had an s2000 sitting around for years but never really used it. It's not worth selling these days so I might get it up and running again. Are there any compatibility problems with PC scsi cards or will any scsi card work with it. If I'm gonna use it I need a decent way to store samples, can't be messing with floppys or zips.

Anyone know if the mesa II program runs on XP. When I last looked into this, many years ago, I kept hearing that mesa II wouldn't work with XP, was this ever fixed.

Also are there many decent quality multisampled instrument libraries (real instruments rather than synths) still available that come with programs already created (hey, I'm busy ) and don't cost the earth?

answers to both questions can be found at http://akaiscsifaq.digidude.net/

I would like to know how the s2000 CAN sound. I think it can sample at 22kHz. Would be interesting to hear a comparison of some sounds (Original (CD Rip) , sampled at 44, sampled at 22, both rates but with the speed up method, and last but not least everything again but now with an overdriven input stage).

If you need some source material

http://www.divshare.com/download/8580543-81f




Hm. It would also be cool if someone with a 3000 and/or 3000xl and/or s1000 could do this.


peace

I was going to do this and still might...Can even compare my 3200XL to the 2000XL

The S-2000 is a 3000XL in sheep clothing, it's the same thing bar the OS chip and crappy user interface...costs had to be cut to offer people an affordable solution from a brand they could trust and it was actually Akai's most popular sampler surprisingly!

I have used MESA on my XP Pro PC with a SCSI card and it worked ok on my 3200XL, also used Re-Cycle

what would you like me to do peter piper
id have no problem doing that with my 2
gimme a list of what you want to hear and how it should be sampled

boxcutter butta wrote:what would you like me to do peter piper
id have no problem doing that with my 2
gimme a list of what you want to hear and how it should be sampled

Now thats nice!
I think everything should be clear if you read the PDF that is included in the zip with the WAVs.
In the PDF I explained how I did it and it would be nice if you do it the same way to come as close as possible to a real A/B comparison.
If you having fun doin this you can also do it again with an overdriven rec gain to see how the sampler handle this.

I already did this (with the exception of the "overdrive") with my s950, MPC2000, and FZ1. I will also do it on the TX16W.
And if you decide to do the overdrive test as well I will do it on these samplers too to complete it.

Any other samplers would be nice too. EPS, MPC60 and 3000, SP12/1200, MPC2500,4000,1000,500 it doesnt matter. Just make sure to use analog direct connection to and from the sampler to the DAW to avoid coloring of a mixer or something like that.

I think when we're done here its time for me to create a Website with the files and infos about the samplers. Would be a hard task cause I dont know much about creating websites. But I would really like to see a site where interested people can gain some knowledge and can get meaningful soundfiles.

There is much misinformations on the net. For example: I often read that the MPC2000 can sample at 44,1 and at 22,05 kHz. I've read that on ebay and on infosites about synths/gear.

peace and thank you for your help

alright sounds good
sample mono or stereo?
and ill get to it when i have time prolly monday or so next week
seeing as how i got paid today and wont be home all weekend