Welcome to my AKAI S900 blog!

Here we go. It was a while ago that came to me this idea to put all the knowledge I have about this fantastic sampler together in a sort of site/blog/page.

AKAI S900 12bit oldschool sampler

Since it is quite difficult to gather CORRECT information about this device I decided to try to make life of other users easier. I use the AKAI in a modern studio and I've managed to interface it in a quite productive way.

Basically I also hope to meet more enthusiasts to share whatever can be shared about my favorite sampler.

See you soon.

51 commenti:

Anonimo ha detto...

does the AKAI S900 come with spell check?

KONEY ha detto...

NO, and not even italians....;)

Here's a very first example of help needed...

Regend ha detto...

http://xfader.com/akai

have fun!

.:Analog_ID_ ha detto...

is it possible to format a floppy w/ a prophet2002, and use these samples??

g.p.macklin ha detto...

Great! It's good to see that these older machines aren't getting lost in the attic. They still have so much potential.

Unknown ha detto...

wow! such a great blog I LOVE IT!!!!

Anonimo ha detto...

Great initiative!! Strange that for a sampler that is discussed and used so much, so little is to be found on the net.

Josh ha detto...

Good stuff. I just got one off of Craig's list for $50 and am pretty excited to put it to work.

cevasco ha detto...

hi
bless you for this blog!
...do you know if I can connect the s-950 with a serial zip drive by the rs 232 port?

Unknown ha detto...

hi, i just found this great blog and i was wondering if you could do a step by step guide to how to sample on the s900. that would really help me out!

bresk ha detto...

Grande !
complimenti per il blog, info chiare ed essenziali.

meenkia complimenti anche per lo studio, quel soundcraft deve suonare da panico.

ciao

KONEY ha detto...

Thanx all for your comments! One reply for everybody:

No way for prophet floppies, only AKAI S900's are read.

I don't know if it's possible to connect a ZIP to the serial port but I see it quite difficult. Actually the port has near no employ exept for sample dump (which I never managed to have it working). But if you manage to, tell me! The blog would love to report such a nice information :)

Sorry but I'm not going to make a sample tutorial, this is the most basic operation and can be learned from the manual, which is easily found by googling a bit. Instead, I will in the future document and show some examples of the uses I do with it!

SI IL SOUNDCRAFT SUONA DA STRAPPARSI I CAPELLI! Grazie mille del commento :)

Anonimo ha detto...

Ciao!
Grande! io ho un 900 e una linn 9000, violenza vintageeeee!!!!!
Raffa

Unknown ha detto...

Hey RAFFA, potremmo swapparci un po' di floppy!

Anonimo ha detto...

Hi, does anyone here own the OS 1.2 for the Akai S950 sampler? If so can you post it please! Thanks alot

Chewo ha detto...

GREAT BLOG! Can i go with it even i only owe a 950?) Just kidding - greates sampler ever!

Paul Barton ha detto...

thought I'd add a link to the Akaizer blog...

http://akaizer.blogspot.com/2009/05/v131.html

Keep up the good work!

lanebrain ha detto...

just got the akia s900 on the weekend with a bit of teachin, i'll come back around when i have some hands on questions,

pnats ha detto...

can the S900 only use the DS/DD floppies? if so, can it be fitted to use modern floppy drive and disks?

Regend ha detto...

DS/DD floppies only, unless someone has created a new floppy controller I don't know about.

-regend

http://xfader.com/akai

オテモヤン ha detto...
Questo commento è stato eliminato da un amministratore del blog.
matia ha detto...

Hello, maybe this is the apropriate spot to ask this question. I bought an S900 recently and it has some serious problems: when sending it MIDI notes it basically adds notes, changes decay times, plays back notes completely differently. I know there is no problem with my MIDI set up which is why I am very baffled by this. Second, when I attempt to trim the sample (discard before start and after end point) a lot of noise gets imprinted onto the sample itself. Like the data is corrupted. It also happens when I perform a reverse of the sample. Has anyone at all had these issues on their S900. Any feedback is much appreciated.

-matia

Regend ha detto...

What OS is your s900 booting up with? I think the on board OS (eprom) boots up with 1.2 Anything below that and the S900 is pretty much an early version that needed an eprom upgrade. If you have ver. 1.2 you can boot from floppy OS 2.0 or OS 4.0 These are the only known OS's that I'm aware of.

boris fornetti ha detto...

Heya!
I just bought S950, and seller also give me some disks (i think its real akai floppys) with some cool sounds
Just in case somebody need some pianos/marimba/voices/basses stuff, is it possible to rip that floppy disks and share it with others? Maybe we`re all should do this?

Regend ha detto...

Hey Boris!
Yes there is a way to copy those sounds using. here's the current link. http://mda.smartelectronix.com/akai

if it is the Akai libray i think the Akai Sampler e-mail list may have links to the disk images for people to download but if you'd like to post up what you have i'm sure people will be grateful. here's my link of Akai resources.
http://xfader.com/akai

iloveanalogue ha detto...

This is a great blog and it's really helped me know and <3 my Akai S900.
Once I figured out the looping and resampling section, I am off to the races, and now that I figured out keygroups, I am ready to go!
Thanks for the wonderful samples and help getting me started. It's a good thing I have hundreds of ds/dd discs at my disposal. I have a lot of work to do! Here's my article about the S900 from my blog.
http://iloveanalogue.blogspot.com/2010/05/akai-s900-makes-me-love-samples-again.html

tIB ha detto...

hurrah for this blog! Been incredibly helpful in my search to replace a duff drive.
At the minute my s900 is a massive trigger to midi converter... need to get this thing saving!

Jason Hockman ha detto...

Nice blog! I use the s900 in just about each tune I make:

http://soundcloud.com/jason-os

I'm missing a floppy drive on my unit so I just end up using it for sound processing then sample the sampler :P

KONEY ha detto...

My unit now works only for processing too :(

Anonimo ha detto...

http://akaisampler.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-akai-s900.html

...looking for feedback on the S900etc.
Would you recommend the S900 etc.

garcias

-_-_-_-_-_- ha detto...

Do you know where to get spare parts for the S900? The tact switch for one of my number buttons are broken, I need to get a new one.

Anonimo ha detto...

Scusate ho instalalto l'os 4.0 sull' akai s900 ma dove lo trovo il timestretching???

LASCIMMIABEAT ha detto...

salve a tutti e complimenti x il blog...
ho provato il programma s900dump su 2 pc ma niente non parte...
consigli?

LASCIMMIABEAT ha detto...

si vede un attimo nella schermata poi sparisce

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

Ciao Nicola, ho installato un vecchio floppy disk drive dell'amiga 500 che avevo in giro per casa e FUNZIONA con l's900: permette di usare anche dischetti moderni tipo HD.
Giusto per tua referenza, ecc

LASCIMMIABEAT ha detto...

Pensate che andra bene anche x il 950..

KONEY ha detto...

OTTIMA NOTIZIA, questo significa poter usare anke un GOTEK...

per il 950 dovrebbe funzionare tutto

LASCIMMIABEAT ha detto...

A me basterebbe gia riuscire a caricare i sample che gia ho sui floppy

KONEY ha detto...

Magari e il tuo floppydrive ke ha problemi...

LASCIMMIABEAT ha detto...

No il lettore funziona bene..
Non mi sono spiegato..
Se li registro e li taglio dal sampler e salvo tutto ok vorrei riuscire a importarli direttamente da pc con il tuo metodo ce ne un altro sul tubo (sempre di un ragazzo italiano) che e molto piu laborioso e serve omniflop ed emxp

KONEY ha detto...

ah skusa, e' ke parlavi di karikare sample da floppy e pensavo intendessi questo :)

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

Ho provato per prima cosa con un gotek, ma devi flasharlo col firmware di hxc. Siccome sono già flashato di mio, e sono allergico ai computer, son andato in archivio a prendermi un drive amiga e via, lo butti dentro e funziona. A merdaviglia tra l'altro.

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

Omniflop teoricamente legge tutti i formati non più alla moda..

KONEY ha detto...

Ottimo. Omniflop anke li skrive ma il problema e' kreare un immagine coi samples. Io ero riuscito a fare qualcosa con lo script PHP ke si trova in giro ma non mi rikordo nulla...

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

I anni passa anca par ti.. ;)

KONEY ha detto...

ki ti xe?? :)

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...
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END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

Ahahah tuo coetaneo, stesse scuole fino alle medie poi son andato in giù, son tornato ecc ma faccio musiche che tu definiresti soft. Anni fa ci siamo guardati male perchè avevamo tutti e due na maglietta con su scritto COMMODORE. ;)

KONEY ha detto...

uhm non mi viene proprio in mente :)

END OF THE LIGHT ha detto...

Vabon, la prossima volta che ti vedo mi faró avanti io.. sentimi una cosa, ma il filtro che si ottiene con l'aggiornamento dell's900 è una sorta di easter egg dell'akai oppure è un add on di terze parti? Sto aggiornamento è ufficiale?

Anonimo ha detto...

Finalmente sei tornato!