AKAI's S1000 16-bit stereo sampler is fast becoming the "industry standard" much like its predecessor, the S900. This "industry" is the music industry. For musicians, many of the features of the S1000 will be regularly used and much appreciated. The radio producer, on the other hand, might cry "overkill" once deep into the S1000; but consider this: A few years ago, 8-track recorders in production were considered overkill. Today, 16 and even 24-track studios are popping up in radio stations. Likewise, what might seem an unnecessary feature of the S1000 to a radio producer, may well become that "extra track" you thought you'd never need. In other words, if you don't want any limitations from your sampler, take a look at the S1000.

A complete review of this unit, encompassing all of its many features, would take many pages. Therefore, for this review (which is intended for radio producers), we will not focus on many of the features that would make a musician drool. We will pick on a few, though. If you're interested in the S1000 from a musician's point of view, definitely check the reviews done in magazines targeted to musicians.

AKAI recently released version 2.0 of the software for the S1000 which introduced MANY new features. The unit used for this review includes the new software.

In radio production, there is one main question to ask about a sampler: How much sample time is there? Obviously, the more sample time you have, the more you can do with sound effects and voice tracks. The S1000 comes standard with 2 megabytes of RAM which can be expanded. Recording in stereo at full 20-20kHz bandwidth, it has about 12 seconds sampling time. Sampling in mono, the time doubles to nearly 24 seconds of full bandwidth audio. AKAI EXM005 memory expansion boards can be added to boost memory up to 8 megabytes. That translates to about 48 seconds of full bandwidth stereo sampling and over a minute and a half of full bandwidth mono sampling! With the standard 2 megabyte version, you can record in mono at 20-10kHz bandwidth and get 48 seconds of good quality voice tracks in RAM. Among other things, this much sample time comes in handy for assigning often used drops from your "sweeper guy" across the keyboard. You can fill up two floppy disks with your call letters, a few slogans, and whatever else you use on a regular basis. When time comes to produce some promos or sweepers, you simply load the disks, and your most used voice elements will be ready for use.

Previous to version 2.0 software, only two sampling rates were available on the S1000: 44.1kHz and 22.05kHz. This limited choice made conservation of memory (and available recording time) difficult. It didn't take much feedback from users for AKAI to realize that variable sampling is a big plus; so, version 2.0 addresses this. Though you can't set a variable sample rate prior to recording (as with the S900), you can set a totally variable "re-sampling" frequency. After recording a sample at either full or half-bandwidth, you can resample the audio at 2/3 or 3/4 the original sampling rate at the touch of a button. If this isn't satisfactory, place the cursor in the proper field and enter any sampling rate for the "re-sampling" process. You end up with the original sample and a new sample with the adjusted bandwidth. If the new sample sounds fine, you can delete the original and release that memory. Of course, if you use a sampler mainly for voice tracks, recording the original sample at 22.05kHz will get you decent 20-10kHz response -- adequate for voice work. While re-sampling is an added step, it nevertheless lets you use the S1000's memory conservatively.

The fact that the S1000 is a stereo sampler opens up many doors for stereo production. Looping a piece of music can be done easily, and it's done in stereo. This brings us to the editing and looping functions of the S1000. To begin with, the large LCD display on the front panel not only displays all pertinent information you need at any time, but also displays, graphically, the amplitude waveform of the audio you are recording or editing. This graphic representation of the volume of the audio makes finding edit and loop points a little faster since you can actually see the audio. As you rotate the large data knob to set sample start and end points, a vertical line moves across the waveform to show where you are in the sample. ZOOM IN and ZOOM OUT keys let you zoom in for a "microscopic" look at your edit points.

The looping functions of the S1000 are exceptional. In comparison to the S900, which offers only one set of loop points in a sample, the S1000 offers up to eight loops in any single sample. The owner's manual offers a good example of the power of having eight loops: You can record a voice track saying, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight," and set eight loop points that would result in the following playback: "One, two, two, three, three, three, four, four, four, four, five, five, five, five, five," etc. Now, use your imagination; Use these eight loops with a piece of music. Some VERY interesting long beds can be created using several loops on a simple six or seven second piece of music.

Like all samplers, the S1000 is designed for the musician first; and, as a result, the looping functions very nicely address the needs of the musician. When you push the LOOP function key to go into this part of the sample edit mode, the LCD display changes to show two separate windows, each displaying the amplitude waveform of the sample. On the left is a graphic representation of the entire sample with vertical lines showing where your loop points are set. On the right, you get a split-screen display that shows exactly how the waveform looks at the point where the loop begins. With this display, you can actually see how the amplitude waveforms align themselves at the loop point, and adjustments can be made visually to create a smoother loop. When sampling musical sounds, this feature is extra nice. "Auto-Looping" is also supported to find the best loop points in a sound automatically and much faster than by human trial and error.

Once your samples are recorded, you then write the "program" to span the samples across the keyboard. One nice feature of version 2.0 is the ability to set SPAN points by simply touching the low and high keys of the keyboard that you wish your sample to span across. As you hit the two keys to indicate span points, a small, graphic representation of your keyboard is displayed on the LCD screen, and a line is drawn across the keys selected for that sample. The process is quick, and the graphic display makes it easy to see what is where. Programs can be assigned the same number, and by activating that number, several programs can play at once. Let it suffice to say that the "Program Edit" section of the S1000 is incredibly versatile. The available parameters and features go well beyond the needs of any radio production situation. Imagine what you'd like a program to do, and the AKAI S1000 can probably do it.

Before continuing, a moment must be taken to pat AKAI on the back for the great job done on the owner's manual. It is very "friendly" and guides the user through all the functions of the S1000 in a way that even a novice can understand. The manual even goes beyond explaining the functions of the S1000 and comes off many times like a tutorial on samplers in general. This same approach to "friendliness" is taken with the front panel layout and the software in the unit as well. Eight computer-type "function" keys are laid out to make movement through the various functions of the S1000 simple. The large LCD display allows for a lot of text to be displayed, thereby providing a lot of information on one screen. This makes it easy to see what you're doing and where you're at. The graphic capabilities of the display add to ease of use on several of the "pages" of the software. As complex and powerful as this machine is, a moderately experienced user can get to work with very little reference to the owner's manual.

Now, back to the fun stuff. Another feature added with the new version 2.0 software is "sample merging." This takes two samples (occupying two areas of memory) and re-records them as one sample (basically reducing memory usage by one-half). Samples can also be spliced together with the "JOIN" function. Both merging and "joining" are fairly effortless. By the way, the S1000 processes up to 200 samples and 100 programs, or a combination of up to 400 samples, programs, and keygroups. In radio production, this means there are NO limitations here.

Another added feature with the version 2.0 software is "Timestretch." This result of this function is equivalent to slowing down or speeding up a segment of audio and using a pitch transposer to bring it back to its normal pitch. The big difference here is that the S1000 does this by analyzing the audio and filling in the gaps (when stretching the sample) with "copies" of the audio around the gaps. When "shrinking" a sample, the S1000 deletes bits of the sample, making it shorter while maintaining pitch. This is most handy for creating "multi-samples" of a single musical sound. For radio production, it's faster and more practical to use a pitch shifter and vari-speed on a reel to do the shrinking or stretching.

What else do you get? Musician types especially will appreciate the S1000's ability to assign up to four samples to one keygroup, or one key. Each sample can then be assigned its own "velocity zone," and these zones (or ranges) can overlap. The S1000 features 16-voice polyphony. Again, this may be overkill in radio production; however, any of you who use samplers for musical purposes will know the advantage of being able to play 16 voices at the same exact moment. There's the option to hook up hard disks to the unit using an Atari hard disk interface or a SCSI interface. A hard disk is the way to go in production (if you've got the budget); loading samples and programs is much faster, and storage space is increased dramatically. Version 2.0 also now supports hard disks larger than 60 meg, including Sony's optical disk.

Other features include two envelopes in the Sample Edit section, one for the amplitude, the other for a low pass filter. A digital interface is also available for recording samples digitally. It will interest S900 owners to know that the S1000 is compatible with S900 disks in that it will read the samples. Version 2.0 reads samples and programs.

Several little features were included to speed up small tasks. For example, when naming a program or sample, many samplers (like many digital signal processors) have you turn a knob or press a cursor button to skim through the characters of the alphabet. Then you have to hit "enter" or something else to assign that letter or number. Pressing the "NAME" key on the S1000 switches the 28 buttons on the front panel to an alpha-numeric keypad. Entering a name is as fast as typing with one finger. Also, if you're working on one page in one section of the sampler, you can "MARK" that page and go off to an entirely different section of the sampler. When you're through messing around there, you just hit "JUMP" and you're back where you started. There are several other little features that reduce button pushing and save time throughout the unit. On the back panel you'll find a mono effect send with stereo returns. Of course, there are the stereo outputs plus eight assignable outputs for a total of ten available outs. The effect send can be used as an eleventh output if desired. You get a jack for stereo headphones, a foot switch, and your basic MIDI connections. Inputs are on the front panel and you get a choice of balanced XLR's and 1/4 inch jacks.

What does this beauty cost? List price on the S1000 is $6000. The S1000HD (with internal hard disk) is $7000. The S1000PB (playback only) is $3600. The S1000KB (keyboard version) is $6700, and the EXM005 memory expansion boards are $1350 each. For the production person using samplers just for voice work, the S1000 may be more than you need, unless you want a sampler with plenty of creative headroom. If you mess with producing your own music beds, sweetening existing beds, or plan to in the future, check out the S1000. This unit will be around for a long time. AKAI designed the S1000 to be easily updated as new program options become available, and the option to expand memory up to 8 meg helps make the S1000 a sampler to last for years. For more info on the S1000, contact AKAI in Ft. Worth at 817-336-5114.

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