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 S1000 is a very good precursor to the advanced S3000 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 S1000KB 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 S1000PB playback-only unit and the S1000HD with its built-in 40MB hard disk.

Following the S1000 came the S1100 (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.

Olvus Really?

February 20, 2011 @ 6:48 pm

Olvus, Really!? outdated?!?

well seeing as this is V I N T A G E synth explorer what else must be outdated, what else constitutes too old??

The current model must be the MPC5000, Really?
You mean the one made by Numarc.
The S1000 is a sampler not a Midi Production Centre.
The converters in this unit are great.
The filters are lush, sounding smoother than a lot of the software I have to use.
Give me one of these a beautifully outdated e6400 and a Obsolete MPC60 anyday day of the decade over that Beta test in progress they call the mpc5000.

I know what sounds warmer.

fornetti

February 12, 2011 @ 6:38 am

olvus
That's also point a view, ind i'm glad that its not only yours! Thank you, cos if all people thought only about vintage good sounding samplers with nice sounding converters, we could not buy high quallity audio gear at a price of $ 100

olvus

February 9, 2011 @ 2:06 pm

This equipment has become outdated. AFAIK, the latest model - MPC 5000

Mats D.

December 12, 2010 @ 10:58 am

I did a thorough comparison between the Akai S1000(HD version) and S3000XL, and found that the S1000 sounds a lot better especially when playing back low frequency samples. Seems like the S3000XL retains the full spectrum of the sound (highly digital and utterly clean!) over the entire range; enhancing the low-freq noise in the lower fields, whereas the S1000 makes it more "muddy", dark and brooding; discarding the low-freq noise, and thus performs more "analogish" than its successor. Absolutely wonderful!

Takashi Watanabe

November 3, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

For this machine, it's useless to say "It is also used by.. ".
Anyone produced electric music in this age must have used this machine at least once, it is hard to believe if someone says he/she didn't.

<87654321>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

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.

I have read and understand the posting rules.