HOW TO: Upload samples from PC to AKAI S900

I've been trying different solutions both floppy or MIDI dump based.

The floppy one was not possible under XP as AKAIDISK don't work with that operating system. MIDI sample dump was the most obvious option but the standard is not that supported by sample editors.

The only working system is S900 Dump 1.0. It's a simple command run from CMD that sends a file to a sample slot thru a MIDI channel using a MIDI device...


This is the homepage of the program, it contains and updated version.

IMPORTANT: only MONO 16 bit files are allowed. Don't try with STEREO, they won't work.
Samples will be truncated to 12 bit automatically.

ALSO IMPORTANT: Be aware that the AKAI S900 samplers need to "handshake" so the MIDI IN and the MIDI OUT need BOTH to be connected to the computer.

Transfer is a little slow, patience. Better save them to floppy as soon as they're uploaded on the AKAI...

If you experience losses on name files or weirdness in sample start/end try uploading the sample just after having switched the AKAI on and save the sample immediately to disk. This way you just upload->save, upload->save and you don't lose any data. Entering sample names with the rotary encoder is quite a long task!

You can make your life MUCH easier by configuring the Windows contextual menu as the following:


Five different entries have been created (for sample slot 1-5) into the registry keys found in HKEYS_CLASSES_ROOT>*>SHELL>MIDI DUMP CH#1>command and inserting this value "C:\AUDIO\SAMPLES\s900dump.exe "%1" -m 2 -n 1"

Use your own path to the executable and configure arguments to suite your MIDI device. To do that correctly check the following list of options:

S900DUMP v1.0 - (c) 2001 Juan Carlos Rodrigo Garcia.

Use: s900dump wavefile [-m|-midiport midiPort] [-n|-number smpNumber]
[-a|-name "samplename"] [-r|-replay O|L|A] [-v|-reverse no|yes]
[-s|-start smpStart] [-e|-end smpEnd] [-l|-loop smpLoop]
[-o|-loud smpLoudness] [-p|-pitch smpPitch] [-c|-crossfade no|yes]

Options:
wavefile : Path to wave file. 16bit-mono
-m|-midiport : Midi out port. Choose one from this list:
(0) Sint. SW Microsoft GS Wavetable
(1) MPU-401
(2) Delta 1010LT MIDI
-n|-number : Current number of samples in your S900/S950.
-a|-name : AKAI sample name. Max 10 characters.
-r|-replay : Replay mode. (O)ne shot | (L)ooping | (A)lternating.
-v|-reverse : Sample reversed. no|yes.
-s|-start : Sample start point. Measured in samples.
-e|-end : Sample end point. Measured in samples.
-l|-loop : Sample loop-length. Measured in samples.
-o|-loud : Sample loudness. Range: -50 to 50.
-p|-pitch : Pitch, in 1/16 semitones (960=C3). Range: 384 to 1536.
-c|-crossfade : Velocity crossfade sample. no|yes.
-?|-h|-help : Show this help.

This is more difficult to explain than to do, but at the end you can upload samples directly from the sample directory without the need to type anything in the CMD prompt.

ADDENDUM: Here's a ready registry key to add a contextual menu voice under Windows XP (valid for sample slot 1). You'll need to edit the path to the .EXE and ID of your MIDI device and you can copy and modify it also for other slots easlily.