The official AKAI S series thread

ok I see. didnt realize that it's the xl The fuse looks exactly like the one in the MPC2000. I replaced it with a new one but also installed a socket so I dont need to take out the motherboard the next time it happens.
I see in your case you would have to take out the 8out board etc so that xtra fuseholder is a great idea. For me the hole in the case would be the hardest part. I wouldn't like to have a case with scratches, dents or bumps (Dont have good drills BTW)

peace

you dont have to put it in the case.

you could find a place to mount it inside the case, instead of the capsule type holder you could use a clip type holder

while it may not look that great, i was able to successfully replace the broken floppy drive on my S900 for a total of just under $20... the white filler around the drive is just adhesive foam from a craft store [similar to the adhesive tape that you would use for insulation on old windows]... i needed something to fill in the gap, so i just put materials i already had around the house to good use.

the floppy drive i bought was this one here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0476358660

that ebay seller accepted my best offer of $4.28... so i would advise that you do the same rather than pay the original asking price of $9.99... the drive itself works like a charm and is less noisy than the original... no complaints at all so far.

Great. Didnt know that drive but its on my "repair parts" list right now (although I didnt need one atm)

I forget to post a pic of the chinon drive I mentioned before so here it is. The one in my hand is a standard sized drive for PC.




peace

here's the secret to getting almost any old floppy drive to work in the S900...

the floppy drive MUST have jumpers on the back... there are numerous different drives out there with jumpers, but later floppy drive models would just solder the jumper settings to where you couldn't configure them any differently [without soldering skills].. so you need an old drive with manual jumper settings for it to work...

the way to configure the drive is:

-the DS [Drive Select] setting must be DS0
-set the RC/RY option to RY


from there on it's plug & play... the hardest part is opening up the S900 and removing the old drive, but all in all you can have it done in less than an hour...

i'm sure there are even cheaper compatible floppy drives than the one i posted, but the reason i went with that auction is because the seller actually posted photos of the back, where i could make sure that it did in fact have the 2 sets of needed jumpers...

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/sho ... 0&format=0


so in a nutshell, all the compatible floppy drives out there are simply just drives that are set to DS0 and RY by default.

and just FYI, all this info i'm posting is relevant to the S900 only... i can't confirm any of this for the S950.

I got a question about the s950 filter. Whenever I assign the value of it to around 30 and below it adds a type of high pitch noise to the sample. Was wondering if this is normal? Couldn't find much info on it.

peace

Funkologist wrote:I got a question about the s950 filter. Whenever I assign the value of it to around 30 and below it adds a type of high pitch noise to the sample. Was wondering if this is normal? Couldn't find much info on it.

peace

Yes that's a normal sound if I can remember correctly,sounds like an old Tv right?

Lord Toranaga wrote:Is anyone out there use the dat back-up / restore feature?

The scsi fuse is blown on my s3200xl and my s3000xl

I will be experimenting with using this feature to save my work, rather than a zip drive or cf drive.
no drive at all, just record another track in your DAW or in your 2-track software.


the only draw back I can think of. is you cannot just load one sound out of a multi, or one sample out of a program.

I will report back later with the results,
until I can afford the repair to the motherboards

I need to do this to back up my ZIP disks, I bet it takes forever to do lol

My friend just picked up a S-5000 after playing about with my 3200XL and man now is the time to get them..he got it cheaper than what you pick up the old ones for. 100GBP and 90 something meg of ram and all the outs.
Funny thing is I still prefer the 3k and 1k series to the 5/6k, I found the OS a bit annoying coming from these old beasts..what annoyed me the most though was the lack of up/down cursor buttons, only L&R. They sound a lot better than the 3k series but I'm not selling mine in a hurry, in fact I want a S-1000 or 1100 at the moment heheh

I started recently to make a big synth sample collection with all my old synths and friends gear...very sweet

IMNICE wrote:

Funkologist wrote:I got a question about the s950 filter. Whenever I assign the value of it to around 30 and below it adds a type of high pitch noise to the sample. Was wondering if this is normal? Couldn't find much info on it.

peace

Yes that's a normal sound if I can remember correctly,sounds like an old Tv right?

Aiiht cool thx dude

Looking for a hardware sampler to use as a sound module with my MPC3000
A Sampler that can support 16 parts multitimbral programs
like (Rhodes, Piano, Bass, Strings, Synths, pads,etc ) + multiple sample zones
( up to 4 )on each Keygroup for programming extra realistic instruments with velocity samples switching.

Have noticed that S3000/3000XL and S5000/6000 and Z4/Z8 got all the features i need
but differ in some specs : memory, etc, computer connectivity, probably sound difference, etc.



Need your help to decide between the three :
Is S5000/6000 better allrounder than S3000/3000XL or Z4/Z8 or not and why in your opinion ?

thanks in advance for any ideas

I got the s6000, and I like it.

I stuffed a 72 gig hard drive inside it, and switched to a zip in the front panel.


USB connectivity is a plus and works well with AKsys sofrware.


But I am kinda partial to the detachable screen, you can set it right by your turntables and go to town.

never used the 3k series, but I think the amount you can see on the 5k-6k and actually graphically understand is pretty sweet.

not super deep into programming it at this point, but i use it for pre-sampling into some times, and for archiving.... its normalize function is one of the crispiest ways to get super hard drums... adds a realllllly nice crack/snap to drums.


my 2cents

The Grublet wrote:
But I am kinda partial to the detachable screen

you best get the s5000 too just to play it safe


isn't that the nature of the sport? haha



I am a total idiot and missed a big s6000 auction with no reserve price ... the dude had a spelling error or something because I found it and it didn't appear in the regular sections... that was about a year or two ago. I wasn't home in time to grab it (figuring it would get sniped I didn't bid) and the closing bid was a buck.

mr_debauch wrote: I wasn't home in time to grab it (figuring it would get sniped I didn't bid) and the closing bid was a buck.

shoulda bid ... so what if you get sniped? bid whatever small amount you're willing to pay, if someone snipes you then they snipe you, it costs you nothing. if they don't, you get it cheap

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:

mr_debauch wrote: I wasn't home in time to grab it (figuring it would get sniped I didn't bid) and the closing bid was a buck.

shoulda bid ... so what if you get sniped? bid whatever small amount you're willing to pay, if someone snipes you then they snipe you, it costs you nothing. if they don't, you get it cheap

yeah i know...

the thing came with every damn thing you could connect to the sampler... haha and a carrying bag rack.

Imo the Z series is a step back from the 5/6000k racks, the 5/6k's are great but being a 3k man for so long I honestly wouldn't switch.

I have a friend with a 5k and I have a 3200XL...I find working on the latter a lot easier and quicker but then I guess it comes down to which machine you are used to, also why on earth has the 5k only have left/right cursors?! That's annoying