BACKROUND
Akai has made a long line classic samplers of high quality. The first one came 1986: Akai S612, a very simple 12 bit sampler that could have just one sample in the memory (no multisampling). Then came the popular Akai 900 and the upgraded Akai 950, also 12 bits samplers . 1988 came the millstone with the "incredible" 16 bit stereo sampler S1000 that hit knock out for all the older giant samplers at that time such Emulator II, Kurzweil, PPG, Fairlight and Synclavier, with it's "low" price and high performance in CD quality. At once Akai has became the industry standard for samplers, and today two of the most common sample formats are Akai S1000 format and Akai S3000 format.
DESCRIPTION
1995 Akai released the S3000XL and was one of the last major hardware samplers before the software samplers came and made history of all hardware samplers. Akai S3000XL is a sampler, but can work as a synthesizer as well, with subtractive synthesis, in the same way as an analog synthesizers
- 16 bits stereo sampling
- Up to 32Mb RAM
-
Standard MIDI File player
- Compatible with E-mu and Roland sound library
- Stereo mix outputs + 8 individual outputs
- S/PDIF digital I/O
- Direct-to-disk recording
- SCSI
And can be expanded with:
- EB16 (SampleVerb in North america) 4-channel, studio-quality, multi-effects board
- IB304F (ProFilter in North america) DSP board for extended filters + EQ
- Up to 16MB non-volatile Flash Memory
-
SCSI-media, for instance harddisk, CD or ZIP-drive
THE FRONT
The knobs functions
| Power Switch | Turn on/off |
| Arrow keys | Navigate in the display |
| Data Entry Encoder & Numeric Keypad | Enter data |
| Mark & Jump Keys | These two knobs is used together with 'mark' and 'jump' to fast access to a recently used page |
| Name | Give name to your sounds. Up to twelve 12 letters |
| Ent/Play | Dual functions/mode: 1. When giving names on samples etc this button finish the process. 2. Playing the active sound. Set pitch, velocity and MIDI-channel in Global Mode |
| LCD Contrast | Adjust the right LCD contrast. If the knob is pressed down it works as on/off for the display |
| Record Level | Adjust the input level when sampling |
| Main Volume | Adjust the output signal for Main Out and Phones out. It doesn't affect the signal for S/PDIF out |
Operation Mode
| Single | Playing individual sounds, for instance in live situations |
| Multi | Playing up to 16 sounds ("program") at once, with for instance a sequencer or stack sounds |
| Sample | Sampling |
| Effects | Just if the 16 multi-effects processor is installed. If so, adjust the effects in multi-mode |
| Edit | Edit mode for Single-, Multi-, Sample- and Effect mode |
| Global | Adjustments for the whole machine, such MIDI-channel, SCSI ID, Output level, Overall tuning etc |
| Save | Save data to a floppy drive, harddisk or zip drive (if it's connected) |
| Load | Load data to the S3000XL |
These 8 knobs, placed below the floppy drive, are for selecting the S3000XL's Operation Mode
S3000XL MANUAL
REVIEWS
SOUNDS TO AKAI S3000XL
Sounds Akai-CDs is common and can be bought in many music stores, special the larger stores. You can find free Akai-sounds at many places, for instance on Akai's homepage. If you would like to expand your sample library more with classic sample sounds from a good sample CD you can order this CD and sample on your Akai S3000XL (or any sampler/computer): The Fairlight IIx Sample Library contains many of the classic 80's samples used by artist such The Art Of Noise, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Peter Gabriel, Jean Michael Jarre etc. The samples are recorded directly from the Fairlight digitally to preserve the right 8 bit LoFi sound from this classic sampler. Format: CD Audio
Price, including worldwide S/H: $25/€25
Order info at the Order & Payment Page
EDIT PROGRAMS
Commercial Programs
- Emagic Sounddiver. Unfortunately discontinued, but can be found at Ebay etc.
- Millennium- edit
- ReCycle - send loops from the sampler to the computer. Edit them, and return them to the sampler again
- CdXtract - transforms different sampler-format. It has also library function
- Translator - transforms different sampler-format
Shareware Programs
- Akai.inf. Shareware. Fix the yellow mark in Windows (properties for the system) when Akai S3000XL is connected to the computer via SCSI.
- Akaidisk-2.2.zip. Shareware. Write and read files between Akai and PC
- Teledisk.zip. Shareware. Makes it possible to send Akai-files via Internet.
- Disk2File. Shareware. Read all SCSI data from Akai, Emu, Roland and Yamaha samplers and writes to ISO-image file (for CD-burning)
OPERATING SYSTEM
The operating system file included is an executable file that is only supported in PC compatible computers. To copy the OS file to floppy, double-click on the file and follow the on-screen directions.
Then insert the floppy disk into the floppy drive and turn the samplers power on. There is no way to permanently update the sampler from floppy disk, so this must be done each time you power up the sampler. If you would like to permanently install the update you must contact an authorized service facility to replace the OS EPROM installed in the sampler.
LINKS