The official AKAI S series thread

I am still waiting for my back-lights to arrive from the UK.

as soon as I get everything up & running, I will post photos on my blog

Akai S2000 Sampler IB304F filter 8 Outs Max Memory
$175

worth it for the filter board alone









http://cgi.ebay.com/Akai-S2000-Sampler- ... 3cb2867324

scored another s2800 for only $15

^
cool find

my s series inventory
s3000xl
s2000 with 8 outs and 1b 304f
s2800 with scsi digi outs & 4mb
s3200 xl


another s2800 that is parted out

i recently bought an old laptop for $60 [just to get an old pc with a floppy drive]... i installed OmniFlop on it last night and can now backup S-900 diskettes onto the laptop [and vice-versa of course]... i've only used it for creating an OS4 disk so far, but it's working like a charm... i'm stoked! i won't have to be as worried about my diskettes going bad now.

i simply followed the instructions & links from the S900 blog here:

http://akai-s900.blogspot.com/search/label/HOW%20TO


just keep in mind that it has to be an old internal floppy drive for omniflop to work [won't work with a USB floppy drive].

crossings wrote:i recently bought an old laptop for $60 [just to get an old pc with a floppy drive]... i installed OmniFlop on it last night and can now backup S-900 diskettes onto the laptop [and vice-versa of course]... i've only used it for creating an OS4 disk so far, but it's working like a charm... i'm stoked! i won't have to be as worried about my diskettes going bad now.

i simply followed the instructions & links from the S900 blog here:

http://akai-s900.blogspot.com/search/label/HOW%20TO


just keep in mind that it has to be an old internal floppy drive for omniflop to work [won't work with a USB floppy drive].

congrats. I know how you feel. I felt the same
peace

I have a s900 with the upgraded OS 4.0 which I have heard makes it closer to the s950. I have always wanted a s950 Is there a huge difference in sound going from the s900 to the s950? Basically what Im asking is what are the main differences between the s900 and the s950? thanks in advance Abrakadabra

backtothelab wrote:I have a s900 with the upgraded OS 4.0 which I have heard makes it closer to the s950. I have always wanted a s950 Is there a huge difference in sound going from the s900 to the s950? Basically what Im asking is what are the main differences between the s900 and the s950? thanks in advance Abrakadabra

the sound is almost identical... the main difference between the 2 is simply that the S950 can have it's memory upgraded, whereas the S900 can not. i used to have a s950 without the upgrades and i ended up selling it for enough to buy 2 separate S900's... upgrading the S950 to it's full potential will cost an additional $200... and since i wasn't willing to pay that & really had no need for more memory [since i mainly only use these samplers for drum hits] getting the S900 for cheaper was logical for me. the s900 is also a little grittier since the maximum sample rate is 40khz, whereas it's 48khz on the s950... but i don't use these for sampling in high quality, so again i have no need for that either...

so just to recap...

AKAI S900:

-DD diskettes only
-non-upgradeable memory
-40 khz maximum sampling quality
-time-stretch only available if upgraded to OS 4.0



AKAI S950:

-uses HD diskettes
-memory can be upgraded
-48 khz maximum sampling quality
-time-stretch [and filters] by default.

oh nice post... I didn't know that about the time stretch

AKAI S900:

-DD diskettes only
-non-upgradeable memory
-40 khz maximum sampling quality
-time-stretch only available if upgraded to OS 4.0



AKAI S950:

-uses HD diskettes

my s900 can read and write both diskettes DD and HD.
I bought it used and I dont think its the original disk drive theres a little gap above the disk drive that i got covered with tape so dust wont get in. Another dope thing about my s900 is that whoever had it before me installed XLR ins and outs on the back with a ground. Do they all have the green ground connector on the back or is it just on mine Im just curious as to why you would need to ground it if you are using XLR connections?

backtothelab wrote:

AKAI S900:

-DD diskettes only
-non-upgradeable memory
-40 khz maximum sampling quality
-time-stretch only available if upgraded to OS 4.0



AKAI S950:

-uses HD diskettes

my s900 can read and write both diskettes DD and HD.
I bought it used and I dont think its the original disk drive theres a little gap above the disk drive that i got covered with tape so dust wont get in. Another dope thing about my s900 is that whoever had it before me installed XLR ins and outs on the back with a ground. Do they all have the green ground connector on the back or is it just on mine Im just curious as to why you would need to ground it if you are using XLR connections?

pin one is grounded to the case?

or do you mean pin 2 is green?

another difference:
s900: 8in triggerboard can be installed. It can't be installed in the s950

s950: SCSI board can be installed. AFAIK it can't be installed in the s900

peace

What a great & positive thread this turned out to be.
full of valuable information.

backtothelab wrote:

AKAI S900:

-DD diskettes only
-non-upgradeable memory
-40 khz maximum sampling quality
-time-stretch only available if upgraded to OS 4.0



AKAI S950:

-uses HD diskettes

my s900 can read and write both diskettes DD and HD.
I bought it used and I dont think its the original disk drive theres a little gap above the disk drive that i got covered with tape so dust wont get in. Another dope thing about my s900 is that whoever had it before me installed XLR ins and outs on the back with a ground. Do they all have the green ground connector on the back or is it just on mine Im just curious as to why you would need to ground it if you are using XLR connections?

do you have to put tape over the hole on the diskette in order to get the HD ones to work?? because if that's the case, you're converting the disk from HD into DD, so it's really the same thing. that trick should work on all S900s. but since the s900 has to format the disk in the first place, i believe it would format a HD disk as just a 720k blank "image" either way... so there's no way to get additional saving space to my knowledge.

regardless, it sounds like your floppy drive was replaced at some point if it doesn't have the bezel around the disk slot. out of my two S900s, one of them has a dead drive, so i recently did a bunch of research on which models are compatible with the s900 and how to replace it [without dishing out over 20 bucks total since i refuse to support those dudes trying to charge $120 on ebay for a 3.5 floppy drive] and it looks like any old floppy drive with two sets of jumpers on the back of the drive will work. i placed an order for an old floppy drive with jumpers, so if i can get it to work properly, i'll be sure to post detailed instructions for you all.

and to answer your question... i don't see any ground connector [or anything green in color for that matter] on the back of either of my S900s


just for reference, the back of the average S900 looks like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rScBRKlTdoE/T ... G_9785.jpg