Akai S2000 User reviews -Page 1

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Average rating: 4.3 out of 5

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Lou a professional user from Netherlands writes:

HI, Make music sinds 1985. Had more then 70 synth's and samplers. Now I make computermusic with only one piece of hardware: the S2000 sampler

Bought one for 75 Euro's with a 250 mb Zip and 16 megawords (32mb). Its the best sounding sampler I owned. Its price is amazing low and operation is user friendly, even without MESA. Making click-free loops takes a half minut or so. It boots up a floppy in a few seconds complete with operating system and sounds. Thats is the time a state of the art synt also take to boot up. So I think the S2000 is quite a modern piece of equiptment.

I dumpt the Akai S5000 because of the less sounding hardware, terrible filters and AKSYS that hang when I loaded big libraries, the Yamaha A4000 because of the complicated,slow and weird operation system and small characters in the display, the Roland W30 because of the small polyfony and only basic soundeditting, the Korg Triton because of the lack of crossfade looping and the quality of the sampled sound, the E4000's are good but too analoge sounding.... to thin sounding in higher regions.

For big full orchestral sounds I use Halion sampler. The soft synth's are good but can not match the S2K soundquality.

I sampled my old analog samples that a dumped 10 years ago on audio cd and anything comes out audentical and crispy sounding. What more could I want.

I think the S2000 is higly underrated. The synth engine in the S2000 is just fine. Not spectaculair. You can do weird things with its and nearly always sounds great. Only drawback is that the Akai can't read WAV-files. That would make the S2K the ulimate sampler around.

If someone could make a OS-system program that could read Wav.... hmmmm.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Dec-30-088 at 04:55

Joseph Gross El (Moor) a hobbyist user from Al-Moroc (america) writes:

Islam! It's 2008, I've been making beats with samplers since 1996. I started with a Emu SP12 (phat), S2800, MPC60, Ensoniq EPS, MPC2000XL. I got my S2000 off ebay like a month ago with a Zip 100mb drive & 10 disk for under $150 including s+h! As they say in Chicago.."That's A Lick!!". I agree that the sound of the S2000 is clean/thin sounding when compared to the Emu or Ensoniq. However this isn't really a downside if you're using a computer sample editor to process your samples. I always like to have the cleanest sounding sample to begin with as you can always "dirty" it up with sample rate reduction etc. Me personally I have a single cpu G4 350mhz with 1GB of ram, a Digidesign Audiomedia III PCI audio interface, Reason 2.5, Akai's MESA II software, Peak LE 3, and Pro ToolsLe 5. I use this G4 to sample, edit, transfer audio, and sequence my S2000 with Pro Tools Le. I also have a dual cpu G4 with 2GB, a Digi 001, and Peak 4 which I use as my main recorder. The way that I have my system set-up is as follows>>>> The S2000 is connected via SCSI to the SP G4 (for sample transfers to & from the sampler using MESA II, though I mostly edit using Peak), the S2000's stereo outs are plugged into inputs 3-4 on the Digi 001, the SP G4's outs are in 5-6, and the Audiomedia is connected via SPDIF I/O to the Digi 001 (for transferring audio to/from the PT LE systems). I use the Sp G4's Pro Tools Le to track the beat which is produced with the S2000 mostly, tho' sometimes I'll load my custom samples into Reason. I'll submix the beat down to about 10 tracks and send it over to the Digi 001 via SPDIF. (By the way the PT's systems are synced with coaxial , and MTC). I then use the DP G4 to add vocal's, or whatever. This system is really stable and I love the ability to controll everything from my mix position. (I feel like Kirk or some shit!) The only complaint I have in regards to the S2000 is that MESA II was buggin out when I first tried to use it (under os 9.2 by the way) But after I resolved some extension conflicts, and booted my S2000 first...everything is All Well. The S2000 is a solid piece which has the same sampling engine as the more expensive MPC2000(xl), all you'll probaly need is a MPD/triggerfinger to get back to banging pads! I hate using a keyboard to program drums! You'd be wise if you are in the market for a hardware sampler to pick any one of the Akai S3000 series samplers up used off ebay for the "low low", just today prior to posting this I saw a S3000xl (which comes standard with the 8 out option for $140!!!) That's wild!!! They wuz like 300-500 used a few years back. Bottom line if these samplers made tracks that ones bobbed they head to back then, in the right hands these are still very capable machines in this "Computer Love" age of beat making.

Peace & Love

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Sep-16-088 at 13:24

mark pugh a part-time user from Brighton UK writes:

I have a more than basic home studio (DAW) running Cubase etc. I'm a guitarist so record audio via Roland cube head, DI'd into mixer into my PC. Most writing is done using guitars but using my keyboard more these days. I've a very basic Evolution Midi keyboard and want to get a syth with weight and touch sensitive keys. A Juno would be nice. My midi drum programming is rubbish and I'd ideally like a small midi elctro drum kit as I can play drums a bit, which I can then enhance and add in cubase via midi.

I'm looking at some 2nd hand equipment in the local free paper and come across a couple of Akai S2000 samplers for Â£20 - Â£25 and thinking of getting one. I'm not yet sure whether it's going to help in anyway at all as reveiews talk about how good it is with drums etc. I know it's one of those bits of equipment all studios seem to have somewhere, and still in use. I'm assuming that the new MPC 500 is the latest of this kind of equip from Akai.

I can list all I have in my studio and how I have it wired and although I know where the obvoius weeknesses are, perhaps you could give me some advice.

Best Wishes

Mark Pugh

Rating: 0 out of 5 posted Friday-Sep-05-088 at 03:46

Straight a hobbyist user from Hungary writes:

I been producing hiphop beats on PC for about 7 years now. I was never satisfied with my beats, I felt like that headnodding is missing from them, my drums and other instruments weren't punchy enough.

I wanted to buy an MPC but never had the money so I bought an old S2000. I don't know what it does to the sound but I love it. I used to think it's just placebo, but everytime I hear it again I realise it's not.

Sounds coming from the S2000 have some atmosphere or something. If you get a simple drum shot out of it maybe you won't hear any diffrence from software samplers, but when you make a drumbeat, or make a complete song when the sounds coming from the 2000 you will hear what I'm talking about.

Anyway, don't believe anybody who says you won't be able to use it because of the little LCD, it's all good very simple and useable. Maybe naming the samples is not too easy but who cares.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Nov-06-077 at 14:49

DONNIE a professional user from BROOKLYN NY writes:

MY FIRST PURCHASED SAMPLER, MY FIRST PIECE OF RACK GEAR WHICH I PURCHASED IN THE BRONX IN 1994 FOR APPROX $250.00 U.S.D. I STORED IT IN WAREHOUSES WHILE HOUSING WAS A ISSUE. I WAS HOMELESS YET HAD THIS ONE PIECE OF GEAR. NOT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT SAMPLING OR MIDI OR RACKS OR RECORDING. I HAD HEARD OF THIS SAMPLER AND SCROUNGED TO PURCHASE IT. GRADUATED FROM FILM SCHOOL IN NEW YORK, FILMED A MOVIE AND BEGAN MY STUDIO IN BROOKLYN. HAVING NO OP SYSTEM I NEVER EVEN FIRED THE SAMPLER UP. IN 2001 YEARS AFTER DRAGGING THIS MACHINE AROUND, THOUGH KEPT IN MINT CONDITION I WAS A GURU ON MACS, PC,S, SOFTWARE, SAMPLING. I PURCHASED SEVERAL ITEMS. TODAY MY STUDIO STILL HAS A S-550 ROLAND WITH EVERY OPTION KNOWN TO MAN, A MPC 2000, A S2000, YAMAHA,S SOLD OFF AS WELL AS S900 WHICH I REGRET, SU700..GARBAGE. MY S2000 GOT OUTFITTED WITH 8 OUTS, MESA, SOUND FORGE, RECYCLE..I MAINLY RUN PC,S TO MY YAMAHA 2404 ANALOG BOARD. RACKED WITH EQ,S, COMPRESSORS, AND A SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE DSP 128. A TASCAM 32, XP10, KORG DSS 1 AND SEVERAL OTHER PIECES OF GEAR. MY NAME APPEARS IN SEVERAL MOVIES CREDITS. MY S2000 IS PRICELESS, AFTER SO MUCH MISUNDERSTANDING IT WAS RACKED, NO BLEMS, FIRED UP, EQUIPPED WITH 8 OUTS, FULLY EXPANDED..IT CONTAINS THE SAME SYNTHESIS ENGINE AS THE MPC 2000, PRICELESS TO THE POINT EVEN THE MPC HAS TAKEN A BACKSEAT, AND TO THINK I DO MOSTLY R N B AND HIP HOP. A DURABLE POWER HOUSE, YES SOMETIMES PC SOFTWARE BLINKS..ITS THE SCSI CARD OR PC SOFTWARE AND NOT THE S2000. WHEN NEW JERSEY ALLOWS PEOPLE TO MARRY THEIR ELECTRONICS, WELL BE HITCHED..IT,S 2007-HOW POWERFUL IS THAT..AND ITS STILL RACKED AND SPITTING OUT TRACKS THAT MAKE PEOPLE SAY--HE USES PRO TOOLS, HE MUST--I HAVE IT, BUT MOSTLY A STEINBERG FAN.TIP#1..ITS NOT WHAT YOU USE..I KNOW PURE ROCK TIGHT PRO TOOLS STUDIOS WHO ASK ME WHAT DID YOU MAKE THAT ON..I SMILE..WHY PRO TOOLS OF COURSE..SOMETIMES IT,S GOOD TO FEED THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR..HOWEVER FOR THOSE READING THIS..THE SECRET IS NO LONGER..THE S2000 STANDS UP AGAINST ANYTHING. EVEN MUSICAL IGNORANCE.IN MY STUDIO IVE TAPED OVER ALL MY INSTRUMENT NAMES WITH ELECTRICAL TAPE..IF THEY ONLY KNEW.ITS A PURE SOUNDING BEAST OF A SAMPLER WHO,S ENGINEERS I WOULD BUY DINNER TILL THIS DAY..GREAT WORK GUYS N TECHS..HUH DID HE SAY HE USES IT IN 2007, WITH A MPC 2000 IN THE CORNER..YES I DID SAY THAT..PUMP UP THE VOLUME, NOW DANCE WITH THE SPEAKER TILL YOU HEAR IT POP. 3 MIC PRODUCTIONS , BROOKLYN NY..RESPECTIVELY

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Mar-02-077 at 09:41

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