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.

HOW TO: Upgrade to OS 4 your AKAI S900

If you want to upgrade to the new OS 4 do the following:

Download the floppy disk image from here.

Unzip it and transfer it to a blank disk as you would do with any other floppy image, following the instructions in this post.

Now put your floppy into the AKAI S900 and POWER it ON. The OS will load automatically from disk.



There are a few new features that at the moment I haven't been able to investigate. Nice to know there's still something to discover about my sampler :)

Warning: Programs saved under OS 4 ARE NOT compatible with older OS. This means that you have to load the new OS everytime you power the AKAI on before loading OS 4 programs.

The OS image has been linked from this great page: http://wiw.org/~meta/s2k.php

HOW TO: Load samples from AKAI S900 to computer

Save any samples to an AKAI floppy disk and proceed as described here to transfer the image of the disk to your computer. Remember: If you run OS 4 on the AKAI you must turn off SAMPLE COMPRESSION from the DISK menu, or you won't be able to access sample data later.

You should end up with a .IMG file on your computer.

Change extension of that file to .RAW and load it on Wavelab. You will be prompted to provide some information about data format. Behave as follows:

Mono, 44.100 Hz, 16 bit, Little endian.

If you use a different sample editor you may need to experiment a little with configurations, but shouldn't be too difficult to get the same results.

Now you have the floppy image data loaded as sample. The very first part usually will be some noise, as it's the interpretation of programs, disk format and other data different from samples. But the rest are your samples, one after the other. Simply cut and save them as 16bit MONO .WAV files.


This is the easiest and fastest way to transfer samples to a PC. I've been trying with MIDI dump but it seems like it works only in the other direction, PC->AKAI, as I will explain in a future post.

HOW TO: Use the AKAI S900 as an effect unit

Most of you are lazy, but still want the AKAI sound in your music. The solution is simple: run an external signal through the AKAI: LINE-IN -> MIX-OUT

Configure the frontal knobs as follows:


..and connect the MIX OUT to a channel on your mixer.


From now anything can be sampled into and played back from the AKAI in real time, giving its conversion character to any audio source you will feed and without the hassle to sample, edit, cut, program, save into floppies etc.

The beautiful is that you can still use the other 8 outputs for any other sample to be played back. Or you can feed one of this samples again into the AKAI-FX.

Not to mention feedbacks...

Enjoy :)

HOW TO: Transfer AKAI S900 floppies to PC

Ok this is an issue. If you scan the net most people is telling that you need AKAIDISK. And most people is telling one needs Win98 too

WRONG!

You can read/write Akai S900 disks with Omniflop, and it works flawlessly under XP. (actually ONLY XP is supported!) (EDIT 02/18/2010: Omniflop 2.2c has been reported to work with Vista)

WHAT YOU NEED:

1. PC with floppy drive (not USB!)
2. Registered Onmiflop program (it's free)
3. AKAI S900/s950
4. Floppies (Modern HDs work ok, just put some tape on the HD hole...)
5. Samples
6. Patience :)

WHAT TO DO:

First install Omniflop. Later on, when trying to read a disk it will ask for a key and if you don't have it already the wizard will ask to mail the author to get one. Mail him and get your key. (he's very kind and usually replies within 24h. EDIT: I see from the site that now registration is done via WWW...)

Get a floppy, if it's HD put some tape in the hole.


Format the taped disk in the S900 and save some samples on it.

If you are running OS 4 on your AKAI and want to access the samples later from the PC remember to disable "SAMPLE COMPRESSION" from the DISK menu. If you just plan to backup your floppies you can leave compression ON.

Fire up your Omniflop, do the free registration thing, and set it in READ DISK mode using its simple wizard. When it comes to select a format choose the following:

AKAI S-Series DD-disk 800Kb. This is very easy...

Now insert the AKAI floppy in the PC drive. and go "NEXT" REMEMBER TO WRITE PROTECT THE DISK AND PUT SOME TAPE ON THE HD HOLE! If you don't write protect it and something goes wrong you may lose you data. You've been warned...

Now save the file, use .img extension.

Your backup is done. You can write it back to a floppy at anytime, remembering to put some tape on the hole. The best is to format the floppy on the AKAI before writing back images on it.

With Omniflop you can also write back to floppy the new OS 4.0 and load it into the AKAI. Instruction will follow. Information about the new(er) OS 4

Next article: How to load samples from AKAI floppy disk images.