Funniest Reviews from the SonicState Archives: AKAI pt1.

The Golden Era of classic hardware samplers lasted from approximately 1984 to 1992. AKAI were a huge part of this era and are remembered fondly to this day. Many musicians cut their teeth on classic samplers like the S612 or S1000 and a number of them left reviews on our synth site. That site is now a legacy page of hot-takes and quips, etched in timeless silicon - lets excavate!

AKAI S612

Hell of a quirky machine, the S612. In 1985, Akai's penchant for beige hadn't quite taken hold so instead; a black unit with Dayglo green & blue knobs, brimming with quirk. There's front panel LFO, filter & start/end point controls to tweak - making for a very performative instrument and Akai's unique, 13-pin cable - this interfaces with an AX60, 73 or VX90, three CEM3394 based polysynths that can bring in the S612 (or S700/900/950) as a second oscillator!

The 12-bit S612 is highly sought-after today, despite it's 2.8" Quick Disk drive, 128KB RAM and mono-timbrality - units can cost upwards of £500. This is quite a lot more than it's younger, more powerful sibling, the S700. I think those front panel controls are why - the S700 has far fewer.

The evidence agrees, most users mention how fun the S612 is:

"For the $50 I paid for it, I'm really getting a serious bang for the buck. I know the s-950 can't mangle loops like the s-612. You can adjust the start/end points of your samples MANUALLY while the sample is playing.

The easiest way I can explain it would be to play your cd, and hit the forward/rewind functions wile the music is playing. You can d__r__a__g a sound slowly/fast (via the faders) or skip points in the loop. You can start at the end, play the beginning, and end at the start of a sample (this is just an example). The low pass filter is aaight..but realtime (unlike the mpc's) and the tune (more like fine tune) is a cool addition also.

No stereo outputs and only a mic and line input. It's old, so don't expect the world. As far as sound quality, it's dirty. Nice and dirty. 12-bit mode is short, but adds a nice touch to your samples. Crunchy with a touch of resonance. 8-bit mode is flat out grime-time. There is nothing nice about 8-bit on this machine (I love it).

Crunchy like corn flakes with no milk. The record level knob is touchy, so you may have to keep it low. Play around with the setting to get a nice signal going into, and out of it, and you will be rewarded. You simply can't buy any other sampler for this price and get the same results. Flat out. And I'm not just saying this because I own it."

People used to just talk different, didn't they? I think flat out grime-time needs to become a tshirt.

This one reads like poetry:

Wacky, Tacky outputs,
Easy to use flashback to the days when electronic music was fun,
New and exciting to make,
Better than an Ensoniq Mirage even though i like my Mirage for sound reasons,
The 612 is just like playing a cartridge for your Atari 2600 are you old enough to remember those days my friend???

I am, my friend, barely. Right, back to earth - let's have a sensible appraisal.

This thing's ok, but really a HUGE waste of space in your set-up considering what it does. ALSO consider the fact that the 2.8 disks are almost impossible to find...and if you do find them, they are probably corrupt or no good by now. This baby has seen its better days. I would strongly recommend that you save the $ for something a little more modern. Heck even an Akai S0-1 would be a far better choice than this old tanker....at least you'd have more than like one second of sampling (heheh) or even better, the 900 or 950 would be only $200 or $300. Sampling has come a long long way since the 612....so much so, that this puppy is pretty much an antique now.

Always love seeing those dirt cheap prices, an S950 for $300! - why didn't I just buy everything I saw at the time!? Ahem, it's interesting to see the S612 in its "not an expensive classic" phase - a time where it was just an old, obsolete piece of tech. This last guy really didn't like it, and even - bonus points - insulted the intelligence of the entire review thread, fantastic!

Picked up one of these based on the reviews here. I won't do that again. Those who sit here and harp on about the charm and the grime of this wonderful machine are in fact talking utter drivel and have probably never finished a tune in their lives. This sampler just sounds bad, its a hassle to use with the disks, and is a total one trick pony. There is no charm to it, you could get the same effect sticking any sampler through a piggy amp. The reviewers here have clearly never heard what a true 8 bit or 12 bit sampler sounds like. I half expected the charm of something like the Ensoniq Mirage. How wrong was I! Nothing I put in to this would fit in to the mix. Kick drums, claps, snares, hats; nothing would work. Believe me I get it, I was NOT looking for 24bit 192khz quality. The real trick with low-bit samplers is they add a character to your vibe, they're musical etc. This is not. It sounds like crap, just exactly what it is,.

The intended market for this sampler was the local circus (seriously). When you get the disk called Elephants Cry you will know what I mean. It was a gimmick and it still is, but sadly its not even an interesting gimmick.

They will say "yeah its hard to get disks" (impossible, more like!), "yeah, it fails" (sure it does!), "yeah, its limited" (thats an understatement!) "but hey you can move the start and end point in real time!" Oh yeah, how cool...You can do that with almost any stomp pedal sampler, there's a lot to choose from and they all blow this thing out of the water.

I sound a little irritated, perhaps. But I dont like to see fantasists trying to brainwash people about this sampler. It was never, and will never ever be given a classic tag, although I can see they're really trying to rewrite history with this one.

Do yourselves a favour and steer clear of this rubbish. Not all old gear was good you know...."

I'd love to hear this person's take on current S612 prices! Right, I'm off to finish a tune...see you next time for more Akai fun, including a plea for help that has gone ignored for 20 years!

Akai Social

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• Akai MPC LIVE III Is Out - Full Demo 02-Oct-25