Vintage Synth Explorer

Akai • S-1000

An oldie but a goodie. Akai's great sampler of the late eighties! It actually still stacks up pretty well even today! A 16-bit, 22kHz to 44.1kHz sampler with 2MB to 32MB of RAM. Editing and programming the S-1000 is a very good precursor to the advanced S-3000 series. There are lots of advanced edit capabilities for looping, truncating, sample merging, time comp/exp, tuning and even analog-like parameters to control its filters and envelopes. Individual outputs for each of the 16 voices, stereo mix out, stereo input, MIDI, and trigger inputs round out this machine as a professional vintage-status sampler that still proves to be very useful even today! It is used by Moby, The Chemical Brothers, SkyLab, Scanner, Fluke, Nick Rhodes, Fatboy Slim, LTJ Bukem, Mr. Oizo, Crystal Method, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan, Future Sound of London, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Mouse on Mars, and Apollo 440.

The S-1000KB was a nice big keyboard version of this mega-sampler. It featured a 61-note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch sensitivity and room for an 80MB hard disk. SCSI and digital interfaces were available on both keyboard and rack versions. Other variations include the S-1000PB playback-only unit and the S-1000HD with its built-in 40MB hard disk.

Following the S-1000 came the S-1100 (1990) which boasted up to 32MB of sampling with 24-bit internal processing! Also on-board were a SCSI interface, digital effects, AES/EBU digital output, SMPTE reader/gen, and optional hard-disk recording.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Smud

Posted 44 days ago

Soul Coughing pic can be found here:

http://www.100xr.com/100_XR/Artists/S/Soul_Coughing/Sou l_Coughing-band-1994.jpg

The Beatmarket

Posted 61 days ago

If yours has a high pitch squeal coming from the unit when it powers on -- you need to replace the backlight. It's a simple fix and you can get the part easily on ebay.

Love that it reads my S900 and S950 disks.

Richard

Posted 109 days ago

Also used by The Avalanches, who reference it and the S-700 in Run DNA.

channelstepper

Posted 209 days ago

This machine was also used by Cabaret Voltaire and Richard H Kirk.

UF

Posted 218 days ago

S1000kb has been used by Klaus Schulze.

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