The S612 was one of Akai's first professional rack-mount samplers, released back in 1985. Some of its features included 12-bit sampling from 4 to 32kHz with loop and truncate functions, an overdub function and mic or line input jacks. Internal memory is only 128KB which gives a maximum of 8 seconds sampling time at the lowest sampling rate available. An optional disk drive that features the quick disk (QD) 2.8 inch format is needed for permanent storage of samples. Only one sample is stored to each side of the disk.

You won't be able to do much with the S612 these days. However it bears some classic traits that may still be of interest. It features classic high and low pass filtering and an LFO for modulating and giving your sample an animated edge. It's also fairly simple and straight forward to operate, responds to external triggering and is still very well suited to any MIDI studio applications. It's definitely a limited sampler, but it makes a cheap back-up instrument that may come in handy for lo-fi sounds or triggered effects. It was Future Sound of London's first sampler.

Seg

June 22, 2011 @ 11:26 pm

My dad bought one of these second hand in the early 90s. Note that you *can* transfer samples via MIDI sysex. He had a sample editor/librarian for his Atari ST, though he also had the disk drive. Loading off the disk drive was quite a bit faster than a sysex transfer...

I remember you could move the loop points with the faders on the front while a sample was playing and it would make this loud clicking noise, kind of like a ratchet wrench...

XTENS

June 6, 2011 @ 10:24 pm

I have S612, S900 and S950. This sounds completely different from S900/950. Very interesting, especially when acoustic sounds are sampled. Slider and overdub is very cool feature. It can produce very interesting contemporary digital texture without MAX/MSP madness.

I connect this with Eurorack. I've found this is the best sampler for muffwigglers for sure. Super easy to use.

Stefan Tiedje

May 5, 2011 @ 5:03 am

I had a S-612 back then, and the most interesting part was the ability to move the start and end point with two faders which were close together, so that you could move them at the same time. I made some very nice granular synthesis back then by triggering the sample ultra fast via Midi (this was before Curtis Roads published the method). I would record a sentence live into the Sampler and then play it back slowed down, by this simple trick.
Nowadys I'd do it in Max/MSP on my laptop, but there is still no other hardware which would allow this until today. An example: http://bit.ly/jEkTr5

Robin Sutcliffe

December 3, 2010 @ 11:19 pm

Pat, I have some QDs spare, and also a 13pin DIN connector too (not cable, just the connector, but you can build a cable) If you are interested email me ultimatesoundclash@gmail.com

Lenny

November 10, 2010 @ 12:16 pm

I believe it uses the same 13 pin as Roland's guitar synths. I think I got a knock-off cable (Hosa or somesuch) as Roland's price is very high. Still available, as Roland is still using this cable.

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