While NeonXSZ is taking off on Steam, I'll update this blog with a review of a new synthesizer I acquired for a bit: the Akai S-1000PB.
In 1988, after their success with the 12-bit S-900 and S-950, Akai Professional entered the world of 16-bit stereo sampling alongside the Fairlight Series III and the Synclavier PSMT. Unlike the other two, however, Akai's competitor was extremely affordable because it did not require an additional computer, it offered no additional means of synthesis, and, with the exception of the S1000KB, all the power was in a 3U rackmount unit.
The S1000PB was Akai's attempts at getting their S1000 samplers to the tightest budgets for the time. Unfortunately, like the additional letters suggest, the reason this was relatively affordable was that it was meant strictly for sample playback: one cannot actually record and sample with it.
However, despite the drawbacks, I don't consider it that god-awful at all for a sampler. Its method of sample interpolation is practically unique among hardware samplers: eight-point windowed sinc interpolation, which results in much less aliasing than otherwise inevitable with transposing a sample, especially for the time. Why even the later Akai samplers did without this technology is beyond me...
Regardless, it's also a bit of a stretch to say that the S1000PB is merely a playback unit. In actuality, you can do some of the bare essentials of sample editing once the samples are imported either via floppy, SCSI, or Sample Dump Standard: changing the root key, specifying how the sample loops (though seemingly not the loop points themselves), and the names of the samples, in addition to the complete editing functions of the programs that make use of the samples.
Like the others in the S1000/1100 range, the 1000PB, while shipped with only 2 MB of RAM, can be expanded to a whopping 32 MB, a size unprecedented for its time in the relatively-affordable sampler market. Maximum hard disk formatting capacity was also increased to 512 MB, a size that continued to be used by Akai for external storage up until their S-5000 and S-6000 samplers a whopping decade later.
As I write this entry, I'm testing out the sinc interpolation of samples, which I do approve of in the way of controlled aliasing, and I will definitely find the time to see how many of my 90s-era sample libraries will work effectively on it. Which I imagine will be most of them, as the S1000 series resulted in Akai monopolizing the sampler market in the 90s to the point that most sample library developers had their work formatted for the S1000.
In 1988, after their success with the 12-bit S-900 and S-950, Akai Professional entered the world of 16-bit stereo sampling alongside the Fairlight Series III and the Synclavier PSMT. Unlike the other two, however, Akai's competitor was extremely affordable because it did not require an additional computer, it offered no additional means of synthesis, and, with the exception of the S1000KB, all the power was in a 3U rackmount unit.
The S1000PB was Akai's attempts at getting their S1000 samplers to the tightest budgets for the time. Unfortunately, like the additional letters suggest, the reason this was relatively affordable was that it was meant strictly for sample playback: one cannot actually record and sample with it.
However, despite the drawbacks, I don't consider it that god-awful at all for a sampler. Its method of sample interpolation is practically unique among hardware samplers: eight-point windowed sinc interpolation, which results in much less aliasing than otherwise inevitable with transposing a sample, especially for the time. Why even the later Akai samplers did without this technology is beyond me...
Regardless, it's also a bit of a stretch to say that the S1000PB is merely a playback unit. In actuality, you can do some of the bare essentials of sample editing once the samples are imported either via floppy, SCSI, or Sample Dump Standard: changing the root key, specifying how the sample loops (though seemingly not the loop points themselves), and the names of the samples, in addition to the complete editing functions of the programs that make use of the samples.
Like the others in the S1000/1100 range, the 1000PB, while shipped with only 2 MB of RAM, can be expanded to a whopping 32 MB, a size unprecedented for its time in the relatively-affordable sampler market. Maximum hard disk formatting capacity was also increased to 512 MB, a size that continued to be used by Akai for external storage up until their S-5000 and S-6000 samplers a whopping decade later.
As I write this entry, I'm testing out the sinc interpolation of samples, which I do approve of in the way of controlled aliasing, and I will definitely find the time to see how many of my 90s-era sample libraries will work effectively on it. Which I imagine will be most of them, as the S1000 series resulted in Akai monopolizing the sampler market in the 90s to the point that most sample library developers had their work formatted for the S1000.
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