Ha, I got an S5000 to replace my 2 x S3000XL (An Atari running Creator or Cubase with 2 x S3000XL in the 90s was basically my DAW. I still use my Atari/Creator and S5000 to this day.)
Call me nostalgic, but there really seemed to be something extra special about the samplers of that era. It's as if they weren't "spot on", and thus had their own personality.
I took a redundantly pay off in 1989 to buy my akai s950 and made a living out of making dance music for 9 years thereafter,Loved my sampler and still have it in my loft.still preferred it to the k2000 I eventually bought
Eisenhower303 It was a great time but I do everything on the iPad now it's amazing what it can do just have a listen on soundcloud search Russ8889 and stuff done with the Akai search scr. You may find the link from the Russ8889 account if your are interested.
Man, you must not have gotten your head around the Kurzweil K2000. That thing is a BEAST. Beyond the ridiculously dope synthesizer engine, the sampler sounds every bit as raw as the S950 and the filters kick the S950's ass, IMO. Plus, you can have multiple filters per voice, with (self-oscillating) resonance, gain, distortion, waveshaping, notch and bandpass width adjustment/ modulation. Add to that very advanced pitch and time stretching for it's time (1991), complex wave editing and resynthesis functions, merging the samples with the synthesizer engine, etc. etc I used to rock my K2000 with an EMU sampler, so I could sample and resample back and forth (the K2000 doesn't resample itself, although the K2500 onward do). The K2000 sampler has a similar sound to the S1000 - early 16-bit, which existed somewhere between 12-bit and later 16-and-24-bit samplers. It has a grit like 12-bit samplers, but the clarity and detail of 16-bits.
exactly the type of video I wanted. This thing has been used on so many great albums. Squarepusher can make this thing go ham. The revamping feature with lower bit rates/depth sounds nice and crunchy. You can hear that technique all over Boards Of Canada’s discography.
this is awesome, im looking at other folks complaining about the new mpc one (jan 2020), which is only $700, not $4000...... and they still have gripes.... if you want to make music you will find a way.. thanks for the video
coinhawk crypto absolutely! I took this into a school I teach at, and showed the kids. All of them laughed at it, until they heard it and it’s possibilities.....
Nice! I made whole tracks on my S900 with an Alesia MMT-8 and a toy Yamaha PSS680. The 90’s were great times to make music! The S950 was a beast though!
I need to get an S950, not only because of the crunchy sound you get when you record something at a nice low bandwidth, but because of the grainy, metallic timestretch you can get, and the lovely filter which sounds wonderful, and has that distinctive ringing when you filter it enough.
Homeboy had one of these in the nineties, he would work miracles on it and i couldnt fathom the workings. Much less the guys using trackers, thats was like like watching guys summon beats out of raw matrix code
When I was in college my music producer class I had a sp 1200 and this akai and a mpc .I just wanted to use the mpc didn't know how good the other was for music and hip hop
S950 my first and only HW Sampler. Connected a mic and trying to sample something... After hours, it works. Who the f*** needs a manual. Forget to sleep that night :)
I could bite my ass everytime I see a S950. When I was a teenager (25 years ago) I found one of these at the recycling center and got it for free. Never appreciated it cause it was so complicated and slow compared to Fruity Loops. Sold it for cheap... now I want one so badly but just cant justify the hefty price anymore lol
Dan Baker, 12bit keeps the true analog sound, when you start going up to 24 bit and 32bit it is more of a digital sound cold like ice which would take filters envelopes etc. to warm it up...
All those "lo-fi" wankers out there just unaware of Z8 is capable to re-sample audio to any resolution from 8bit to 24bit and any sampling rate from 4KHz to 96KHz with 1 Hz increment. So in other words with use of Z8 anyone can bring any Hi-Fi sound down to the exact degree of crap what they like.
MAybe someone could help me. i got an s900 and i wanted to loop a bass note. if adjust my start and endpoints and press the P.B Button it work find. But if i press the Pad on the SP1200 to trigger the sound nothing happens.
d&b breaks dont sound the same anymore going through the digital domain there is alot to be said for a break being fed through a digital to analogue converter on akai or emu sampler it imparts a quality in to the sound you cant get in the box this is why artist such as blame said one time d&b has lost its magic so much of the sound quality has been lost and degraded since going to the digital domain
wait... does the S950 adjusting the length of the different notes automatically??? Because normally when you sample a note, all the notes have a different length. The lower the slower (longer) and the higher the faster (shorter). But here in the video it sounds like every note is the same length, which would be incredible! Can the S6000 also do that?
Wow so cool :) Fatboy Slim used this sampler. I loved his Right here right now song :) One question when you played the one note from the guitar through the input that one note when played chromatically does the sample length change?
+OG Gallery Crew Leeds Thanks for your reply. But how the heck does it pitch the other notes to proper tone if the sounds were never recorded to the other 6 notes in that scale?
Had one of the original S900 samplers and still loads of FD disks.. - there was a "start-up S950" disk which meant you had crossfade... If you didn't load it up on startup you were screwed! Happy days..
I've had a S950 for a few years, but during a move I lost the power cord. It has a 2 pin connection I've never managed to find. I was going to replace with a standard IEC connector but looking for advice if this is the best way to go! Thanks!
Using one of those, naming the files was vital. As was a notebook, not the laptop type thing... A real notebook with paper in it, needing a pen. So you note down what samples were on disc. Because the labels are stupid tiny on floppy discs - so it was easier to note down a disc name/number so you could find them afterwards. A pain, but needed if you wanted to find samples after a few weeks/days went by...
Yeah notebooks and file cards in a box were a thing. Even if you were using an Atari ST where you could catalogue and search for samples by category chances are you wouldn't be running that app at the same time as your MIDI sequencer.
The mirage did but it was the s1000 that made any 16bit rival redundant although i think eps16 and roland s770 were a lot better than s1000 , you can pick out all records made with s1000 , this mettalic cd overtones , the 950 sounded a lot more organic and uses its clock to pitch samples while s1000 was an algorithm
thats the only sampler where i can sample prophet 5 bass and midbass, and it will sit better in the mix then the real prophet 5, not doable with emu or akai 3000
Akai sampler addict here. Gots me 2 S3000XL’s and an S5000 - all fully loaded!
I love’em. Such beautiful pieces of gear ❤️
Ha, I got an S5000 to replace my 2 x S3000XL (An Atari running Creator or Cubase with 2 x S3000XL in the 90s was basically my DAW. I still use my Atari/Creator and S5000 to this day.)
Call me nostalgic, but there really seemed to be something extra special about the samplers of that era. It's as if they weren't "spot on", and thus had their own personality.
kb420ps yes, quite! A character of its own, certainly...
@Knox Omari I'm just trying to figure out what that has to do with the S950?????
This is one of the worst artifacts of DAW music. There is no artifacts. Every single production sounds the same. Yawwwwn.
This is one of the most informative gear reviews I've ever watched.
You are great at explaining... and play quite good
Great 👍🏽 video! Showing how all functions work. Amazing.
I took a redundantly pay off in 1989 to buy my akai s950 and made a living out of making dance music for 9 years thereafter,Loved my sampler and still have it in my loft.still preferred it to the k2000 I eventually bought
Who did you record under back in the day I might own yer vinyl !
Man I’m jealous. I wish I could have been in that scene in that era
OG Gallery Crew Leeds scr (south circular recordings)on soundcloud under scr
Eisenhower303 It was a great time but I do everything on the iPad now it's amazing what it can do just have a listen on soundcloud search Russ8889 and stuff done with the Akai search scr. You may find the link from the Russ8889 account if your are interested.
Man, you must not have gotten your head around the Kurzweil K2000. That thing is a BEAST. Beyond the ridiculously dope synthesizer engine, the sampler sounds every bit as raw as the S950 and the filters kick the S950's ass, IMO. Plus, you can have multiple filters per voice, with (self-oscillating) resonance, gain, distortion, waveshaping, notch and bandpass width adjustment/ modulation. Add to that very advanced pitch and time stretching for it's time (1991), complex wave editing and resynthesis functions, merging the samples with the synthesizer engine, etc. etc
I used to rock my K2000 with an EMU sampler, so I could sample and resample back and forth (the K2000 doesn't resample itself, although the K2500 onward do). The K2000 sampler has a similar sound to the S1000 - early 16-bit, which existed somewhere between 12-bit and later 16-and-24-bit samplers. It has a grit like 12-bit samplers, but the clarity and detail of 16-bits.
Lovely video brought back the old days 👍
Excellent demo
Excellent review you did here
Dan is the man. Love your stuff m8
Incredible video.
Cheers from Kerala, India.
exactly the type of video I wanted. This thing has been used on so many great albums. Squarepusher can make this thing go ham. The revamping feature with lower bit rates/depth sounds nice and crunchy. You can hear that technique all over Boards Of Canada’s discography.
Very interesting!!
Great finger work very talented you made it look so easy
Cool machine.
Mad props for referring skinny puppy in the biopic brAp On!
thank you for this explanation!
Excellent. Software is great but hardware has its charm...
this is awesome, im looking at other folks complaining about the new mpc one (jan 2020), which is only $700, not $4000...... and they still have gripes.... if you want to make music you will find a way.. thanks for the video
coinhawk crypto absolutely! I took this into a school I teach at, and showed the kids. All of them laughed at it, until they heard it and it’s possibilities.....
thank you my good teacher
Nice! I made whole tracks on my S900 with an Alesia MMT-8 and a toy Yamaha PSS680. The 90’s were great times to make music!
The S950 was a beast though!
Nice familiar sounding machines!
Great video. I luv my S900 and S950. I like to midi them with my mpc 60ll. New tech is convenient for sure but nothing beats good old hardware
thats my setup, and the workflow and sound is just butter :D
This takes me back to my early production days and combined with my Roland DJ70.
I still have my Roland DJ70 haven’t turned it on in years
2019 and I still use my Akai s950 everyday!!!!
i love my s900
Great vid! thanks!
I need to get an S950, not only because of the crunchy sound you get when you record something at a nice low bandwidth, but because of the grainy, metallic timestretch you can get, and the lovely filter which sounds wonderful, and has that distinctive ringing when you filter it enough.
3 months later, I now have one in my posession. Yay!
Hardware samplers in the 80s and 90s just did it better...pure magic. My favorite are classic Ensoniq samplers.
It's one of the primary reasons I've still got and still use my E5000. Even thinking about getting the Zip disc / SD mod for it.
i can get an ESP16+ for 220 dollars or so, is that a good buy???
@@AnalogFlava if it's good condition yessss
S950 ... reverse sample ... classic ... D&B ... those were the days!
Homeboy had one of these in the nineties, he would work miracles on it and i couldnt fathom the workings. Much less the guys using trackers, thats was like like watching guys summon beats out of raw matrix code
Thank you, sir.
A pleasure!
When I was in college my music producer class I had a sp 1200 and this akai and a mpc .I just wanted to use the mpc didn't know how good the other was for music and hip hop
Sick
love the sound of it but the work you have to put in is just overwhelming haha! cheers
It certainly is more labour intensive than nowadays...
@@DanBakerMusic haha thanks for the video:)
thank you
S950 my first and only HW Sampler.
Connected a mic and trying to sample something...
After hours, it works. Who the f*** needs a manual.
Forget to sleep that night :)
The LPF on the s900 and s950 is one of the best sounding LPF ever made, next to the MPC 3000
FACTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even compared to a Moog Diode Ladder?! Or Roland Filters?!
Surely you mean on this type of Gear?
analog right?
And the filters on the EMAX 1 😜💥
My takeaway is I need a good reverb unit even the old ones brings sounds to life
Valhalla DSP Vintage Verb is really accurate to that 70s/80s digital sound. It’s great stuff, check it out
I like your studio man! I don't have the space any more so everything's in storage😕
I could bite my ass everytime I see a S950. When I was a teenager (25 years ago) I found one of these at the recycling center and got it for free. Never appreciated it cause it was so complicated and slow compared to Fruity Loops. Sold it for cheap... now I want one so badly but just cant justify the hefty price anymore lol
The memorie: Ouch! But it worked so well in 80s/90s!
I used the hell out of my Akai S612, one specific "vocal-ish" pad sample I used on literally everything I recorded in some amount or another!
Nice - that is a great Sampler...
Dan Baker, 12bit keeps the true analog sound, when you start going up to 24 bit and 32bit it is more of a digital sound cold like ice which would take filters envelopes etc. to warm it up...
I wish you'd have turned up the gain on yer mixer channel for some tasty square waves! Acted like a classic waveshaper that way.. 😀
Wow I have a whole sampler on my iPhone .. how things changed
Would love one these even tho have iPad samplers and ko but still I would love one of these
Lol my same setup
AKAI S-950 = THE ORIGINAL TIME STRETCH MACHINE
briiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggg thhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee nnnooooooooooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssseeeeeeee :)
How do you format and record samples to floppy Cheers , More Vids Like This m8
cool angle
Nice vid! Are you going to upgrade the screen with a new alien green one?
great intro oon the akai s950. Six yrs later do you still sample with it ??
still the best sounding akai sampler
Nah, the best AKAI sampler is still Z8.
MSM5500 he said best “sounding” z8 has no character at all, same with the mpc 4000
Which parameter does define presence of that "character" in AKAI S950?
i like both, have a 4000 myself, 950 is softer/ fatter, z8 is punchy/ high def especially at 96k
All those "lo-fi" wankers out there just unaware of Z8 is capable to re-sample audio to any resolution from 8bit to 24bit and any sampling rate from 4KHz to 96KHz with 1 Hz increment. So in other words with use of Z8 anyone can bring any Hi-Fi sound down to the exact degree of crap what they like.
Can i connect the S950 to a MPC5000 that the Drums and Samples get an Oldschool, Crunchy Sound?
MAybe someone could help me.
i got an s900 and i wanted to loop a bass note. if adjust my start and endpoints and press the P.B Button it work find.
But if i press the Pad on the SP1200 to trigger the sound nothing happens.
d&b breaks dont sound
the same anymore going through the digital domain there is alot to be said for a break being fed through a digital to analogue converter
on akai or emu sampler it imparts a quality in to the sound you cant get in the box this is why artist such as blame said one time d&b has lost its magic
so much of the sound quality has been lost and degraded since going to the digital domain
Totally!
It's so hard to find these for sale anywhere
wait... does the S950 adjusting the length of the different notes automatically??? Because normally when you sample a note, all the notes have a different length. The lower the slower (longer) and the higher the faster (shorter). But here in the video it sounds like every note is the same length, which would be incredible! Can the S6000 also do that?
Mate, what's your cologne of choice?
Well. I know what I want Dec. 25th XD
Wow so cool :) Fatboy Slim used this sampler. I loved his Right here right now song :) One question when you played the one note from the guitar through the input that one note when played chromatically does the sample length change?
No, Till You Time Stretch It !
+OG Gallery Crew Leeds
Thanks for your reply. But how the heck does it pitch the other notes to proper tone if the sounds were never recorded to the other 6 notes in that scale?
Had one of the original S900 samplers and still loads of FD disks.. - there was a "start-up S950" disk which meant you had crossfade... If you didn't load it up on startup you were screwed! Happy days..
MWH happy days indeed. Luckily, mine has cross fade. I keep meaning to do a timestretch video....
I've had a S950 for a few years, but during a move I lost the power cord. It has a 2 pin connection I've never managed to find. I was going to replace with a standard IEC connector but looking for advice if this is the best way to go! Thanks!
I think the 2 pin connectors are no longer legal so that be why. I'm not 100% sure on that though.
Do you have the 100v Japanese version?
Using one of those, naming the files was vital. As was a notebook, not the laptop type thing... A real notebook with paper in it, needing a pen.
So you note down what samples were on disc.
Because the labels are stupid tiny on floppy discs - so it was easier to note down a disc name/number so you could find them afterwards.
A pain, but needed if you wanted to find samples after a few weeks/days went by...
Yeah notebooks and file cards in a box were a thing. Even if you were using an Atari ST where you could catalogue and search for samples by category chances are you wouldn't be running that app at the same time as your MIDI sequencer.
7:36 sounds like an arcade videogame intro.
can you TIME STRETCH MACHINE in real time on this machine ???
30 years wow Omnisphere & kontakt
Is an s950 worth it to pair with a MPC2000xl setup?
No
I'm doing this, I use the 2000xl as a midi controller for the S950 which I prefer the sound of. So yes!
for the 12 bit and LPF I'd say fuck yes....Nothing can match or come close to that 12 bit sound with it's native LPF, Hands down the best ever made.
Of course it is 👌
Great tutorial, but a massive learning curve on this sampler back in the 80-90’s. Quite uninspiring initially
Looking at Ebay.... 3 hrs left.... crap.
This is what killed off fairlight and synclivier
The mirage did but it was the s1000 that made any 16bit rival redundant although i think eps16 and roland s770 were a lot better than s1000 , you can pick out all records made with s1000 , this mettalic cd overtones , the 950 sounded a lot more organic and uses its clock to pitch samples while s1000 was an algorithm
Thank god for better technology!!!!
If We Haddent Have Had That Technology We Wouldn't Be Were We Are Now With Technology !
OG Gallery Crew Leeds hell! I couldn't afford it anyway
thats the only sampler where i can sample prophet 5 bass and midbass, and it will sit better in the mix then the real prophet 5, not doable with emu or akai 3000
Jonny BGood Silver ???