Akai's S01 Midi Digital Sampler. It seems almost obsolete these days. Released in 1993, this 2-space rack unit offered 8-voices of polyphony, and 1 MB (expandable to 2 MB) of sample memory for about 15 to 30 seconds of sample time. Yeah, it's pretty weak, but for the time it was an excellent entry-level sampler or even as an addition to your S-1000, S-1100 or MPC2000. Sampling specs are 16-bit and 32 kHz (not cd-quality). The sampler only records samples in mono. Built-in 3.5 floppy disk drive lets you store your samples or load from libraries (it has no SCSI interface).

The eight trigger buttons on the front correspond to each of the 8 samples you can have and can be used to trigger them. You can truncate your samples, transpose and loop and even reverse them. The S01 features two MIDI inputs, which can be switched with a switch on the front panel. There's one mono sample input, one mono output and one headphone output at the front panel and one mono output at the back. Playback and sampling can be controlled with an additional foot-switch.

GearfetishUK

December 11, 2011 @ 2:13 am

I agree with other readers how simple it is, I find it concerning without scsi how useful it will be when it's floppy finnaly dies.The plus though,it's operating sysmtem is built in. And i recently discovered i can load a sample pack of s900 - s950 disks of classic drum machine beats i got off ebay on it, which i orignally intended for my s2000, but mapping was a pain. Taking accord i got the machine for £20including delievery, the same as my disks, i now have a s900 drum module lol. Also unlike other basic samplers s20 ms1 su10, it's not got rca connectors, and sounds good and strong on miX

bluedome

September 29, 2011 @ 5:45 am

My S01 has spent 10 years in a flight case in my garage, relegated by a lack of space and the purchase of Reason. I brought it in to the house and switched it on yesterday and it still works beautifully! It represents a whole generation of us who saved up our meagre wages to build bedroom studios and make the music we loved. By today's standards its specs are laughable. But it made anything an instrument and to us it was worth it's (not inconsiderable) weight in gold. Here's to you S01!

The Ghoul

June 2, 2011 @ 7:31 am

Just got one of these (with the expansion) for my collection.

To be honest, all samplers outside of a live DJ environment are fairly obsolete if you run a laptop as I do..

Lo-fi..yes but I forgot how much fun this sort of thing is..

For what I do (Industrial & soundtracks) and how cheap this is, it's Perfect!!

DJ TRICKS

April 30, 2011 @ 4:44 pm

Don't knock this box, before i upgraded to the S3000 xl...I produced a whole album using the S01 AND THE BASS STATION KEYBOARD back in 1994...don't laugh,just google "A CAT CALLED SCAMP" by ENGLISH HOUSE (FUNHOUSE) .."The VSE rating was funny "...;)

bebe2blue

March 16, 2011 @ 2:52 am

Daft punk releleased their song "One More time" using one of these!

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