Using Akai S1000

[Jacob Ashcroft]

Hi, I've got an Akai S1000 that I'm using mainly for drum sounds and I'm trying to figure out how best to record them through my Mackie desk to my Tascam TSR8. Should I record different drum sounds to different tape tracks so that some can be sent through reverb on the mixer aux sends and others not (ie. bass drum might be dry and snare wet) or should I sample the sounds with reverb or other effects to begin with. How many tracks should the drums take up on the tape recorder generally and what would go on which track, btw I'm making electronic techno sort of music with samples of drum machines and such like. This is probably different for different people and quite a subjective area... What do you suggest?

[hle144]

Sorry to say, but don't waste precious brain power on that S1000. By the time you figure out a good method for what you want it to do, you could of learned one of the many soft synth samplers they have going on now. Mach 5, Esq-24, Contact, Reason to name a few. They can convert all your S1000 library.

The S1000 has gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Don't bother learning something outdated or nobody else uses.

[Jacob Ashcroft]

Well I want to use it, I'm not using computers for anything anymore, that's just the way I'm working and I like it so far I don't want to spoil the analogness of my studio with looking at a computer screen. Each to their own.

[richardswag]

Originally Posted by Jacob Ashcroft

What do you suggest?

Experiment.

That's probably a glib response, but if you're going down the 'alternative' route of making electronic music by recording to 8 track tape and shunning computers then you need to find your own way of working.

[The Architecture]

I have an S-950, but I never use it because its such a pain in the rear to work with. I don't know how people made complete songs using loops on these things, its boggles my mind. If you want 12 bit, get a S-612, and sample that into a software sampler of some kind.

I wanted an S-1000 along time ago, when I was going through my hardware synth phase. Now I have come to terms with software like Reason, and like not having to turn everything on and trying to figure out how im gonna route all of that gear to my daw and what not. Its nice to just being able to tweak something if it doesn't sound right vs rerecording a whole freaking song.

Maybe I should bust out my hardware again and track it all to my Teac A-3340S.

[nofi]

Originally Posted by hle144

Wooly Mammoth. Don't bother learning something outdated or nobody else uses.

yeah... cause, like.... god forbid you might actually use an instrument that doesn't sound or work identical to the same stolen software all the kidz are using.....


As far as the best way to drive an S1000 goes, just start to use it - you'll be up and running with your own way of working that suits you and your sound best, in no time.

[BenJah]

persevere..

I've started using an s3000 for drums and I much prefer it to using a computer. No latentcy, no distractions and a great sound.

[moskvitch]

I'm using the S5000. Love the big screen.

The only software sampler that actually sound good is Kontakt. But it still lack the special vibe you get from old Akai-hardware.

[hle144]

Originally Posted by Jacob Ashcroft

I don't want to spoil the analogness of my studio with looking at a computer screen.

Join the 21st century like the rest of us. An Akai sampler is not analogness.

The Akai S-1000 was my main sampler many, many, moons ago.

I sold my last one (whcih was an S-1100) for $100 because it was taking up too much rack space.

[Fredrik]

Originally Posted by The Architecture

I have an S-950, but I never use it because its such a pain in the rear to work with. I don't know how people made complete songs using loops on these things, its boggles my mind.

Dj premier does that.

[Hossegor]

i love my Emax 1

[jude]

Originally Posted by hle144

Sorry to say, but don't waste precious brain power on that S1000. By the time you figure out a good method for what you want it to do, you could of learned one of the many soft synth samplers they have going on now. Mach 5, Esq-24, Contact, Reason to name a few. They can convert all your S1000 library.

The S1000 has gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Don't bother learning something outdated or nobody else uses.

you are a twit, arnt you?


the old gear has a "sound" you can not get from software. yet everyone still trys. why do you think bitcrusher is so popular?

while it take a lot longer to actually set up programs etc in the hardware enviroment it sure as hell pays off on stage. at the end of the day hardware will always be more stable than vst/au/etc plugins

as for the "nobody else uses" well you really are showing your ignorance therefuuck

[adamcal]

The original poster didnt say what sequencer he was using, but if it has a SMPTE in/out on the back, he could record TC on one track of the 8 track, and run his samples live into the desk, saving the last 7 tracks for other things.

or record a stereo mix onto 2 tracks, while in sync, if you dont like the mix later you can redo it and it will still all be in sync.

Atari/Unitor/S1000, ah those were the days!!

[jude]

another aussie who digs the atari!

[lampmeister]

Yes, Atari Stacey 4/40 with Notator SL. Many happy years of crash free, rock solid, sequencing.

[Stitch333]

Originally Posted by hle144

The S1000 has gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Don't bother learning something outdated or nobody else uses.

Bwahahahahaha!!!!! thats frickin hilarious...this is the type'o dude who was throwing pultecs in the dumpster when everything went solid state...

I use a S5K all the time. With Aksys and USB, its almost quicker than reason. I believe the S1K has SCSI which is real easy to setup direct to the DAW as well...

Heres the analogy I give about my impressions between software samplers and hardware samplers (especially if you have a great record chain for them):

A software sampler is like looking at a picture hanging on a wall of a window looking on a landscape.
The hardware sampler is an actual window looking on the landscape...

I'll look out the window everytime, personally.

[Jacob Ashcroft]

Thanks for all the posts, but the main question of my post was how do I set it up so I have different sounds going to different effects, like bass drum dry, snare drum reverb, hi-hats flanged maybe? etc... If I trigger the drums live to the mixer with time code adamcal they'll all have to have the same effects. How many tracks should drums take up on the tape machine? Someone asked what sequencer I'm using, well I've just bought a Yamaha QY700 which is on the way. Any thoughts?

[jude]

you will either need the 8 output board or the effects board.

personally id expand the outputs, and use a decent effect unit thru a mixer

[shreddoggie]

dude - I am so sorry that everyone has decided to hijack your thread and turn it into a discussion of the pros and cons of various methods which you are not interested in - this makes me wonder....why the axe to grind? why not just help this guy BY ANSWERING THE QUESTION HE ASKED?

the glib pop culture reply is 'get a life' I believe.

I am sure there is a thread somewhere where we can can all get really angry and opinionated about the pros and cons of software vs hardware for sampling.

my answer: the s1000 has 8 outs. I'd go kik, snare, stereo 'kit' = 4
if you have some special fx type sounds (old fashion 'samples') you might like to give them their own track. the conventional wisdom says to record without fx - I (as a MUSICIAN) advocate making exactly the sound you WANT if you have a clear idea of what that is, fx or not. sometimes you will paint yourself into a corner and thus LEARN SOMETHING.

also: heres my comment for all you haters "music is about PERFORMANCES by MUSICIANS using various INSTRUMENTS even DJ's and soft synth players can qualify - if you want actual human feeling, look for someone who can sing in tune and clap their hands in time using an actual instrument with all its flaws and limitations - many many times (not all) this modern 'all-in-the-box' stuff is a second rate crutch for people who couldn't do the latter if their life depended on it.

you s1000 is fine - if anything I'd gripe about the HORRIBLE screen and not enough ram..

[Tibbon]

How does the S-1000 not 'destroy the analogueness' of your studio vs a computer?

Anyways, if you're hell bent on the sound of the S-1000, then just run through it's convertors (I don't have one, but I haven't ever seen an Akai without Digi i/o). If you're really wanting to use a hardware samplers, get an S-5000/6000 and just run the audio through the S-1000.

I'm not convinced that Akai was trying to make a 'warm' sampler with the S-1000. They were trying the best they could have at the time. There was no magic voodoo. It's all ICs and resistors, etc...

I dont' think an S-1000 (in thinking of a cost-benefit analysis type way) is really a good idea. It's too much trouble, kills a workflow due to slowness, and doesn't give out enough extra. If I were a client, i wouldn't want to pay for someone monkeying around on an anchient sampler just to 'dirty it up'.

To me this seems like trying to do vocal pitch correction with an old Eventide 910.

[jude]

you guys just dont get it do you?

[bogeyeater]

Originally Posted by hle144

The S1000 has gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. Don't bother learning something outdated or nobody else uses.

he. i use an s3000xl fully loaded 2nd filter + fx and it's so so cool. granted, i've been flying the thing for almost 10 years so it's like 2nd nature. it's had hard heavy use, been gigged round the world and has crashed on me ONCE in a whole decade (at home).

i adjust a value AND THE SOUND CHANGES IN REAL TIME!!!! get that!

i've never quite got on with software samplers. it's like the difference between moulding raw clay with your bare hands or trying to sculpt something using chopsticks

16 bit maybe, but it sounds fatass, it comes up in the DAW on spdif, no cpu hit - what's not to love??

[Muser]

unsurprisingly samplers are best geared towards sampling. if you think old samplers aren't that creative as tools, I would have to disagree. in many ways they are more creative imo. They make you manipulate the Audio itself to make effects and not rely on plug-in FX processors. often this turns out really well, 9 times out of 10.

Madonna's Ray of Light was made using 2 Akai 3200 XL.
a lot of the most interesting sounds in that work are the Akai Filter resonances making the percussion Ring.

and Tricky used an ONLY an S1000 and creative use of sampling.



to the OP's Q. with 8 tracks you only have a few options I guess.
I would record 4 tracks. then you can Mix (ANY one) through the desk and bounce it to a new track.

so under that condition, you could bounce
TRK1 to TRK4
TRK5 to TRK8

if you want to EQ and effect TRK4 (again) you could then bounce that back and overwrite the original TRK1.

so that scheme is parallel. you always know TRK5 (must) go to TRK8 &
TRK8 (must) go to TRK5. That scheme has a certain amount of Logic to it. unless you have a SMPTE code to account for. then you should maybe think about 3 Tracks X2 to go through for the creative stage.

I'm sure there are a few Logical schemes. I would actually like to hear some more. Limitations always force the use of interesting patterns.

[Yoozer]

Before everyone starts chewing out the guy who replied first:

this thread is over three years old. The original poster hasn't been here for 2 years.

This was a public service announcement from the Thread Necromancy Foundation.

[ResonantMind]

Originally Posted by Muser

unsurprisingly samplers are best geared towards sampling. if you think old samplers aren't that creative as tools, I would have to disagree. in many ways they are more creative imo. They make you manipulate the Audio itself to make effects and not rely on plug-in FX processors. often this turns out really well, 9 times out of 10.

Madonna's Ray of Light was made using 2 Akai 3200 XL.
a lot of the most interesting sounds in that work are the Akai Filter resonances making the percussion Ring.

and Tricky used an ONLY an S1000 and creative use of sampling.



to the OP's Q. with 8 tracks you only have a few options I guess.
I would record 4 tracks. then you can Mix (ANY one) through the desk and bounce it to a new track.

so under that condition, you could bounce
TRK1 to TRK4
TRK5 to TRK8

if you want to EQ and effect TRK4 (again) you could then bounce that back and overwrite the original TRK1.

so that scheme is parallel. you always know TRK5 (must) go to TRK8 &
TRK8 (must) go to TRK5. That scheme has a certain amount of Logic to it. unless you have a SMPTE code to account for. then you should maybe think about 3 Tracks X2 to go through for the creative stage.

I'm sure there are a few Logical schemes. I would actually like to hear some more. Limitations always force the use of interesting patterns.

Love the sounds of that Tricky track, so glad I'm getting one of these as a trade for studio time.

[Martin78]

old akai samplers are great
i have s1100 s3000xl and s5000

i'm in love

[duggabax]

hahahaha - totally wouldn't have noticed that, yoozer.

well I'm going to post my advice anyway since I use a very similar hardware sampler/tape multitracker setup.

I just dedicate one tape track to the kick because I eq it differently from the other drums, then usually just one other track for hats, cymbals, snare, other perc...so that's two tracks for drums. this mainly out of necessity cause with one track carrying smpte, I only have seven to work with...one is dedicated delay, so that leaves four other tracks for non-drum samples and synths.

I'm an emu man though. No akais over here, just my e6400 ultra...which I am slowly upgrading into a totally bitching machine...RAM, rfx, analog i/o...

[Acid Mitch]

Originally Posted by duggabax

hahahaha - totally wouldn't have noticed that, yoozer.
...

It's even funnier that Yoozers post is over a year old . lol. This thread will never die. Makes me wunder how many years it'll sit inactive for before being bumped again.

[3phase]

Originally Posted by adamcal

The original poster didnt say what sequencer he was using, but if it has a SMPTE in/out on the back, he could record TC on one track of the 8 track, and run his samples live into the desk, saving the last 7 tracks for other things.

or record a stereo mix onto 2 tracks, while in sync, if you dont like the mix later you can redo it and it will still all be in sync.

Atari/Unitor/S1000, ah those were the days!!

+1

the trick with te samplers was that you havent recorded them on tape..smpte is your friend..as an atair with smpte interface is.. a mega st is a rather friendly and silent computer.. i got 3 for free because nobody wnts them anymore.. one is running permanently in my studio to catch spontanious midi events in a 1200 bar loop.. it is running since 2 years permannetly without a crash..just when the electricity blows i ve to restart... In the same time Ableton L8 gave me a few hundred crashes... inkl data loss....

you can bounce to tape when you re arrangement ist finished.

The S900 has fantastic quality for deep bass sounds thanks to its 36 db filter.. i think i need one again..

[skyshooter]

Originally Posted by adamcal

The original poster didnt say what sequencer he was using, but if it has a SMPTE in/out on the back, he could record TC on one track of the 8 track, and run his samples live into the desk, saving the last 7 tracks for other things.

or record a stereo mix onto 2 tracks, while in sync, if you dont like the mix later you can redo it and it will still all be in sync.

Atari/Unitor/S1000, ah those were the days!!

That's how I run my samplers and Alesis D4 module. All triggered from MIDI each sampler has outputs going to a submixer, with a couple of EFX units hooked into the sends, where any needed effects will be added. Once the song is ready I record a pass to the computer.

Good on you for using old vintage gear!