Akai s5000

[betelgeuse]

I'vw found an Akai s5000 sampler for about $900. I've been saving to get an MPC1000, but I'm really thinking about getting the s5000 now and get the MPC in a few months ...

Anyone have experience or opinions about this sampler. My goal has been to eventually get an mpc and a hardware sampler. I do a lot of sequencing from Cakewalk so the sequencer isn't improtant immediately. (I do like the idea of eventually using the MPC sequencer as a 2nd option). Since the s5000 is available now for the taking, I'm thinking about getting it now. It would seem in the short term, I could also use it for drums - yes, I know, no pads, but I'll deal with that in the short term - create them in Cakewalk.

I am tending to go the hardware route, rather than the software route since I'm going to eventually get the sound to a vs1680 ...

Appreciate any replies ...

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OK, I did a search after I originally posted this ... seems like there's enough info to help me decide ...

I'm inclined to get the s5000, although I'll add I think that the asking price is a little too high - $800 seems to be a better price ...

 

[betelgeuse]

Ok, I went back to look at it tonight and I couldn't pass it up. The price was down to $800 and it has the optional extra 8 outs, the digital i/o, the usb out, 128 polyphony, 192 meg of memory, and the effects card - pretty loaded.

It was in very good condition - It seemed like too good of a deal to pass up so I got it.

I'm now broke and will be a while figuring this thing out!!!

 

[Beta Virus]

Yeah i was gonna say, if you were gonna get an S5000, look for a cheaper one...but you already did

i got mine for about $600, tho it was pretty much stock

youve made a great purchase, the S5000 is a kick a$$ sampler.

 

[betelgeuse]

Appreciate the response. Maybe you or someone else could help me out and answer a few of my questions. I’ve got the s5000 set up and downloaded some samples from Hollow Sun and loaded them into it via floppy drive and played the sounds. It’s obvious that many samples will exceed the capacity of the floppy. I’ve downloaded everything available from the akaipro site in the way of manuals, software updates, etc…

It has software version 2.0 loaded on it. I want to upgrade to 2.14 so that I can access it from aksys 1.7 from my pc. I want to save the current os to floppy prior to upgrading. I’m not sure where the "save os" function on the utilities menu went. It’s at the bottom right of the utilites menu on versions earlier than 2.0 – None of the manual addendums after 1.4 refer to it.

From what I think I read, I would put the s56v214.bin and Osload100.exe files on a floppy and then turn on the s5000. I’m not too clear on this.

My s5000 currently only has a floppy drive – I’m not clear if it is possible to add an internal hard drive – it does not appear, based on many reviews that I have read, that I can on an s5000 although the FAQs at Jon Katz’s s5000 (website.lineone.net/~jonkatz/) site seem to indicate so – a Fujitsu MPE… or MPF … with the IB-ID2SC SCSI- IDE adapter.

I have a Plextor PX-W1210TSE external SCSI which would appear to work – I’m assuming that I can burn samples to the CD from my PC (internal CDRW) and put it in the Plextor for the s5000 to read – or do I need a SCSI card in the PC connected to the Plextor (and I understand not connected to the s5000 at the same time …) in order to burn CDs.

Is anyone using the ACARD box, which is a SCSI box but allows you to put an internal IDE hard drive inside of it? There are owners of Roland vs recorders which use this to connect the recorder’s SCSI port.

I thought that once I got Aksys going, according to some reviews I read that I could drag files from the PC to the s5000 via Aksys and USB but the Aksys manual seems to imply that I still need a SCSI hard drive, CDRW, etc. - that I can't drag samples from the PC via USB to the s5000....

Thanks for any help and replies ….

 

[Beta Virus]

sorry, im not gonna be much help here.

mine is pretty much stock and i use it that way.
no fancy computer connections for me.

the only thing im even thinking about adding is a cd drive.

and i havent had to upgrade OS yet so i havent even looked into it