Akai and the joy of lo-fi sampling

[nigel]

Wow.. well, just picked up an Akai s700 in pretty good shape.. disk drive doesn't seem to be working though, but I have a quick disk. When i try to load from disk, it just hangs and makes a loud noise... ah well.

Anyways, was never able to get a direct demo of that low-fi crunch before buying it.. But now that I have the thing I thought i'd pass something along. This is a track (Jay-Roc - Never Let You Down (B-Boy Remix) sampled by the S700: 12 bit, 1.6khz (YAH, that low!)

http://www.nigelgoodfellow.com/temp/s700.mp3

Would love to hear how other lo-fi gritty samplers sound, so please post some mp3s!!



p.s. you can hear some background noise from the machine. I EQed some of it out.. is there any way I can clean that up so the machine isnt so noisy in the first place?

[hageir]

AWESOME!

oh I have one of the s700's!
found it in the junkyard!

I don't have a quikdisk, so I just sample some stuff and then resample it back to my computer (sort of using it as an fx device)

It's in my best friend's basement somewhere tucked away, I'm gonna have to go back and pick it up!

More demos?

[nigel]

Wow, the junkyard!

Here's another bit of messing around... love the alternate looping
http://www.nigelgoodfellow.com/temp/s700_2.mp3

[hageir]

Wow, the junkyard!

Here's another bit of messing around... love the alternate looping
http://www.nigelgoodfellow.com/temp/s700_2.mp3

yeah the junkyard, I guess it's that old
the quickdisks aren't really worth it (they're only 128kb or something)

but that demo was awesome!
isn't that the back+forth (pendulum) looping?

I just tried it in "full" quality, how many samples can you get on there with that lo-fi quality on?
oh wait:

Maximum Samples 6 / 16 (optional ASK-70 board)
Remark:the length of each sample is limited by 8 seconds; the memory used on one sample does not affect the available memory for the rest.

there's also a special output to connect it (basically individual outs) to filters and for further processing,
in the manual there's a diagram of the cable that's needed, you can create it yourself..

Also on the back panel are the standard MIDI In, Out and Thru ports, a contrast knob for the LCD display and a 'Program Up' jack, which allows you to advance through programs incrementally by pressing another optional footswitch. More interestingly, there's a 13-pin DIN socket, which can be used to output the S700's six voices independently. The original purpose of this was to feed audio via an optional cable to one of Akai's older synthesizers (the AX60, AX73 or VX90), so that samples from the S700 could be processed with the synth's filters and envelope generators.

If you don't happen to own one of the above-mentioned synths, this DIN output might still potentially be of some use. The S700 manual includes a wiring diagram of the relevant pins, and it probably wouldn't take too much skill with a soldering iron to knock up some kind of custom cable to channel the six signals to independent phono or jack plugs -- although I must stress that I haven't tried this, I have no intention of trying this, and I am not available to offer advice or technical support to anybody who decides to try this!

[hageir]

ps.
here's the manual:
http://www.dompselaar.org/Akai/S700manual.pdf

[novielo]

hmm, i need to find a free file downloader or somthing for all of these links to put here...

i got a s612 and no quickdisk... so i do like heiger and use it like he does. sampling on the s612 and resampling the result in the s5000.

i also use the s612 as a guitar preamp (you can hear it myspace page, all guitars where recorded with this chain of gear: guit - s612 - paia tubehead)

[nigel]

Okay... that brings me to a question:

What do I get from running audio through the s700, and having it output, without sampling. Its not like the sampler downsamples it on the fly. Is it like a clear line right through the device, or does it grunge it up some?

[nigel]

but that demo was awesome!
isn't that the back+forth (pendulum) looping?

YAh! called alternate looping

[novielo]

Okay... that brings me to a question:

What do I get from running audio through the s700, and having it output, without sampling. Its not like the sampler downsamples it on the fly. Is it like a clear line right through the device, or does it grunge it up some?

yes it does grunge it up, like you say. could be say as a colored preamp?

use the record level to set it as close you can from the red in the record meter (do you have one?) and monitor for the output. you won't be able to use the filer thou. you don't get the 12bit feel, also. as i said very useful to bring a low output guit to a line level output. try also to put the record level to make it cut/distord/clipping/??? it's sounds very good for some application. try it! it's so easy at worst it's a 2 cable mess!!

i forgot also to say in the chain diagram, that my guitar is a lipstick coil (single) and that i use the tube head twice: out of the channel one to the input of channel two.

[hageir]

Okay... that brings me to a question:

What do I get from running audio through the s700, and having it output, without sampling. Its not like the sampler downsamples it on the fly. Is it like a clear line right through the device, or does it grunge it up some?

no, no, no, sampling into it then resampling that (because it's 12bit)
not acutally saving the samples on the s700 to QuickDisks (because the s700 doesn't save anything in the memory)
But I guess you can MIDI-dump some samples if you want..

but that demo was awesome!
isn't that the back+forth (pendulum) looping?

YAh! called alternate looping

ah that's it
I have to dig up that old s700 and try it out again
I've got a s1100 and a Yamaha a3000.. I have to get more into sampling!

[balma]

I have been looking for one of those, since I have an AKAI AX 80 analog synthesizer. It belongs to the days of the Roland Juno series, and it has as Minidin entrance to hook up an Akai lo fi sampler.

I haven't been able to get one of those, in order to process samplers throught real analog filters.

[novielo]

I have been looking for one of those, since I have an AKAI AX 80 analog synthesizer. It belongs to the days of the Roland Juno series, and it has as Minidin entrance to hook up an Akai lo fi sampler.

I haven't been able to get one of those, in order to process samplers throught real analog filters.

... and i've been looking for a ax60 since i got one