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Looper's Delight
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I was out. Coming back I browsed through the list and saw this question about cheap samplers not being really answered. So, I'm late but better late than never? I have an Akai s20, I can comment it (although it is the one and only sampler I have ever used...). The s20 is a good little machine for its price (I bought it second hand for 2500 French Francs, that's 40% below the shop price... that means about 400 Euro or 420 US dollars). But it has some major flaws. Below I list the good and bad stuff about the Akai. More details on my s20 website (http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~plionnet/FreezerMan/musique.html) but sorry folks: only in FRENCH (that's what I am...). Good stuff: - cheap - with the 16 Mbit SIMM card (you NEED IT) you can store as much as 3-4 minutes of music total in 16 bit mono at 36 Mhz. (less in stereo...) without the card you have only 1Mbit (that's like 10-15 secs of music...). - 8 voice polyphony (that's good for the size: you can play 8 samples together...) - 16 banks (usual low-end samplers have only 8-101 banks). - good for live playing: you can record and loop quite easily in real time (but you can't record a sample while playing a bank!). - MIDI compatible (MIDI OUT IN and THRU) - looks good (personal opinion, some of my friends think its crappy, but then these are those that think the SP 303 looks good... which I personnally disagree with, aah! taste, taste... : it comes in all shapes and forms). - rather small (20cm x 35 cm x9 cm approx) - 4 tracks very basic (super- duper- ultra-basic) sequencer: In short the 'sequencer' is able to record as much as 30.000 steps (I THINK) oin four separate tracks (but you can't playback the tracks one by one....) but no editing of the sequence once its done. At least not with the built-in sequencer. But hey, that's already something. - *easy* looping functions (once you understand how the software works...) - standard save on 3.5 floppy disks. - crisp sound (but then, I read the thread on the SP808 sound... this is my own non-professional user opinion...) some phrases sound even better once sampled than originally. - you can use standard akai sample libraries (I've never used them, but so have I been told). Bad stuff: - diskette drive for saves fully unsufficient (I suggest you buy the SCSI interface, then you can have all your samples on ZIP which is better) - there are NO (repeat: NO) internal save capacities. This is a MAJOR drawback. - cryptic user interface: the display is a 4 digit numerical led display... the information is not easy to understand, read or input... also I have no clue on the unit sued to maesure usal parameters... for instance it measures the *sample length* without using a common time measures (like seconds or clocks). this is still a mystery to me. - limited edit capacities: you can cut at the beginning, at the end of your sample, but you can't cut in the middle. you can alter pitch (but this will alter tempo as well: no time stretching...) there are no filters at all. The sample will sound as you recorded it, no playing on the sound... (except through resampling at 8 bit and 4 bit. There you get a radical change in sound towards the lo-fi...). The coolest edit part is the '*reverse* mode. - shitty manual (at least in French: the grammar is fully approximative...) - you cannot name samples, they are given sequential numbers, if you save on 3.5 floppies you are most likely to see ALL your samples named S 1... cool isn't it? (BTW I don't know how the problem is addressed through SCSI. What can I add: I like the s20, I use it a lot and it serves me right. But I have bought an external sequencer to control it because if you control it manually you are limited. BUT i have the sequencer since one week and there is no way that I undersatnd how I can have it control the s20. This is rough. I know it can be done and I believe help will come soon. Another thing (again!) I have an s20 homepage where I explain how it works for all basic functions which are badly explained in the manual BUT.... I am French and the pafge is French. So you can go and check it out if you can read French. The address is: http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~plionnet/FreezerMan/musique.html If there are specific questions on the s20 I may try to answer them here on the list or personnaly (if they are not relevant to everybody). Bye you all. PiR (aka FreezerMan...)