Akai! S20 vs. S1000

[poplar]

I'm trying to decide between these samplers. I like bitcrushed samples, multiple outputs, midi control, and filter options [envelope, lfo, etc.]. Any help is welcome!

[Stab Frenzy]

I like bitcrushed samples, multiple outputs, midi control, and filter options [envelope, lfo, etc.]. Any help is welcome!

I'd say you should be looking at software then, neither of those are particularly good at that kind of stuff.

[toadmanxtro]

S1000. My one year old daughter keeps turning the knobs and pressing the buttons. It keeps her occupied fo r about 5 minutes. Its built like a tank.

Cheers

[KLAXON]

The S20 is perfect for live perfomances. The S1000 more for studio work. (For simple samples and sequences though. For the bitcrushing, filters, etc. you should probably look elsewhere)

[tallowwaters]

run samples through alesis ineko in sampling phase

play sampler through ineko in playing phase.

[poplar]

I cannot find any information on the Alesis Ineko. And thank you all for your input, I will most likely go with the s1000. Mainly because I can get one easily.

edit: I found some stuff on the Ineko. Does it have a bitcrush signal processor?

[tallowwaters]

yes.




i bought the ineko for its ability as an on the fly live knob tweaking unit. i am an effects junky, and this thing has all many of weird effects and normal effects...

ease of use -
couldnt be easier. scroll down and right through the effects chart. cant scroll up or to the left. doesnt bother me... no patch memory, though i dont need it. if you do, buy an akira.

each effect has the list of parameters assigned to the knobs under the name of the effect

in 3 words? easy as pie.

features...sounds...well...

the first row is reverb. your typical halls/drum rooms/gated and reverse. i am a verb junky. the "space" and "trash can" settings are fabulous for those singular drones and 1/4 note 60 bpm leads. your sounds can actually get completely washed out and lost in the space setting. trash can is...trashy and metallic, nice for drums. the verbs in general are slightly noisey, but not enough to detract from their greatness. i would put them on par with a digitech reverb, quite a bit above boss reverb in their general non digital warmth (boss and line 6 pods being too digital for me).

overall grade? A

next is the delay section. the delays are rather nice, though my dan-echo has me spoiled (sounds beautiful).
the bpf delay is a lot of fun, good for the last stage of a sound mangling chain. the dynamic reverb is great. it has nice tracking and is very expressive, especially on an already expressive instrument.

i will give it a B+ nearing a B

next is your modulation section. truthfully, i never use phasers or flangers. there are 2 however, and both are very good, especially the first one with tweakable regeneration. the 2 flangers the can be quite subtle or go straight into metallic wooshing. transpose is self explanatory. the detune is cool enough. i love processing vocal samples through some massive detuning. one chorus setting? yeah i was a bit disappointed that they only had one, but what a chorus it is. it trumps boss, digitech, and the small clone in a single twist. nice and cool and emulates that nice edgy distant sound superbly. and a vibrato patch, but i have a wheel for that.

grade? A+ just for the chorus and dynamic verb

next is the filters. this is easily my favorite section. band limit gives that instant lo fi, crappy radio sound.
the lp/hp/bp can get nice and harsh with its Q parameter. the lfo low pass can actually get rather snappy, but sound best ultra slow. autowah is...dont really know. formant is my cup of tea. almost a little too strong, it can actually start popping if the input signal is too loud. i like to set a slow speed, middle to high range, and sweep through the vowels (ahh, uhh, ehh) which have very little to no stepping (and just a tiny amount of artifact noise if you listen very very closely) sampled band pass...great for vocal samples, or just putting some sputtering bleeps and bloops in a sound. cant us it on everything for the sake of tastefullness though. resonator - very resonant. digital, you aint going to full nobody, but it still sounds good.

A+ i even tried to give it a lower rating...

next up is random effects part 1. ring mod is great. really, i cant do it justice. it does a better job than my microkorg. decimator is amazing and has me lusting for a bitrman...it can get pleasantly nasty. frequncy shifter, rms limiter-subtle effects, i dont use them much. voco bend effect is useless c**p to me. it basically does what the name says...why put this on an effect? the vocoder is nice for drums, and the sibilant control is nice feature for articulation. grinder (the picture says stereo trix...? prototype picture i guess) is, at first, scary, then annoying, then you start to like it. be very wary of this setting. if you happen to scroll over it slow enough it will send out a tweeter/speaker destroying tweet. i cant really explain what it does. kind of like fuzz, eq, compression, and some signal hacking. i have started to warm up to it...sub bass - self explanatory.

A. would have been a plus for the ring mod, decimator, and grinder, but voco bend didnt help

effect 2 section. auto pan, tremelo - nice but i rarely use them. record noise adds surface dust, ticks, and pops like vinage vinyl. gimmicky as h**l, but i use it for some vocal samples. tape saturation is nice, especially for those of us that play with 4 tracks and tape recording. nice warm overdrive/tone saturation, tape noise and a little mid-low end boost. fuzz is another killer. at first i expected it to be failry useless, but it is actually a very nice fuzz tone with controls for low and high. lots of actually fuziness, rather than crappy digital clipping that you get with some more expensive pedals. garage is compression, reverb, and some tone saturation/overdrive. another one of those that sounds good on every drum beat, but you have to limit yourself in the name of tastefullness. last 2 are pitch/reverb (not very useful) and vibrowobble - tremelo and vibrato. things get pretty weird with that.

B. the fuzz and tape saturation are amazing. things start getting a bit gimmicky though with vibro, pitch/verb, and record noise...

there you go. i use my ineko live everywhere we go. i process most all my samples through it an into the emax. i think i need 2 more for the drum machine and my vocals.

it even has an input volume knob and stereo inputs (as well as outputs, duh). only compaint? cant daisy chain it. this thing sucks up about 800 milliamps (as opposed to normal 300ish). one thing that might sound inane - the led's are bright as f**k. in a dark room they actually start to hurt your eyes if you stare too long...

reliability? its plastic, but none of us are probably your typical "stomp everything" guitar player...i bet it could survive at least one fall...

[Headphones.40]

The Akai S20 never had any effects, and as most people point out, was a smaller version of the Remix16 dj sampler. But the only thing I can really do with it is pitch samples up/down, and play samples backward. Other than that, it's not really a deep sampler with tons of filters, lfos, or anything to really mutate the samples.

[Stab Frenzy]

I guessing seeing as nobody has posted in this thread for SEVEN YEARS they've already decided what they want to buy.

[ninja6485]

SEVEN YEARS
Epic zombie thread!

[Headphones.40]

Yeah, I like to find old posts, and zip them up to the top sometimes. Gives me something to do....

[Stab Frenzy]

Yeah, I like to find old posts, and zip them up to the top sometimes. Gives me something to do....

I'd recommend you don't, it annoys everyone else who uses the forum.

[tamla]

haha, seven years

The S20s seem to be having a resurgence in price in recent months. A mate sold his for £90 the other week, and I swear they were only going for 30-40 notes tops not that long ago. Saying that, TR505s have gone up a lot in the last year, I paid £50 15 months ago, flipped it for nearly double at the start of August. Madness.
I know there are some excellent mods for the S20 - i.e. http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/S20.html , makes it a very interesting project for those that way inclined.

[nuketifromorbit]

God this thread makes me feel old.

[meatballfulton]

TR505s have gone up a lot in the last year, I paid £50 15 months ago, flipped it for nearly double at the start of August. Madness.

Especially since £50 was already too much

At some point no matter how cheap something is, it's still too expensive