My Akai S3000XL is hungry. Does this conversion software really work?

[Kola]

Hi, I really struggle to find Akai CDROMs. I seem to remember there being billions of them back in the day but now they have all vanished seemingly.

Theres no shortage of samples however for all the soft synths and the newer Akai S5000 series.

I noticed this software from Chickensys
http://www.chickensys.com/products/translator/translator_edition_akai.php

Apparently it will take samples from most other formats and transfer them into S1000 / S3000 format keeping looping and other setting perfectly set.

Well that sounds superb to me, but can this actually work?

Anyone got any experience of this or similar software?

[Zukan]

Chciken Systems, Awave Studio and even some current software will import different formats.

I use Kontakt 2 and it has imported my Akai and Emu libraries quite successfully.

I have used Awave Studio in the past and it worked fine.

[Kola]

Hi,

Not sure but I think you have this the wrong way around.

I want to trasfer other formats to my S3000xl and S1000 hardware samplers.

I would have thought Kontact 2 would support Akai format anyhow no?

[vinyl_junkie]

Wazzup Mickey it's Martin, couldn't be arsed putting this in an email.

This program will do what you need it to for sure!! >
http://www.cdxtract.com/cdxtract.php

It will take S5/6000 cd's or any other format and will sucesfully convert it to MESA format which you then load into your sampler, I have used the demo a fair bit to trial it with some 6000 sounds.

Check out this post here > http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showf ... t=1#711638

Also HollowSun is a legend mate lol He had a big hand in desiging the interface for these lovely beasts

Check it: http://www.hollowsun.com/history/index.html

And his S6000 sample cd's are the [ ****** ] if the audio examples are anything to go by

http://www.hollowsun.com/cds/fs1r_page.html

[Kola]

Hey mate - Small world.

Yeah I think Im going to get an S6000 then its done and sampling is sorted forever! Ill not need more than an S6000 ever.

Gonna take up most of my £500 budget though. Ah, well, until my next bursary comes through

[vinyl_junkie]

Hahah good choice!! I dont think you will need anything other than the 6k and may be a MPC (trust me it's fun's ville them things lol)
I'll get one (6k) when I see a cheap one.. Armed with my 3200xl and the mpc then soon i'll be able to take over the world hahah with my collection of over sized beige boxes

[Kola]

When you take over with your army of Samplers can I be in your gang with my fully loaded S6000?
We could be unbeatable. Samplers of mass destruction!!

First people to squash are VSTi lovers!

[vinyl_junkie]

Hahaha no probs mate.
Actualy I realy want a sampler I gave away back...you did hear right I gave it away for freeee lol

Sequential Prophet 2000, the sound is just unbelivable..the Curtis analogue filters are amazing on it, it only worked for about 1 hour though lol I got it for 5 quid down at a boot fair last year and gave it away to the dude who sold me his JX-3P

[Kola]

Gave it away??

[vinyl_junkie]

Hahah yes...I know i'm generous but some times I give too much away lol, it was broken right and I couldnt be bothered to get it fixed..the thing is massive and weighs about the same as a M1 so I thought if the guy wants it why not lol
The only thing that worked on it after it fizzeld was the analogue filters..everything else didn't make a sound and also the key trigering/envelopes were faulty/intermittent but hey man you could get the filters to self oscilate and create some cool sounds still which I sampled.
I tried to fix it but the schematics I had were a bit pants so I just gave up.

This is it > (Click the pic for larger size)


See what's next to my bed side lamp? lol I sleep next to it incase I want to make a beat quick hahah

[hollowsun]

Yeah I think Im going to get an S6000 then its done and sampling is sorted forever! Ill not need more than an S6000 ever.

Gonna take up most of my £500 budget though. Ah, well, until my next bursary comes through

Why not get an S5000?

They are identical in almost every way except for the removable panel (which is sexy). But internally, you can make the 5000 into a 6000 ... same outs, same polyphony, same memory

A lot cheaper too (I picked my replacement S5k for £100 when my original - a prototype! - packed in ... that was a particularly good deal though!). You can get 'em for a lot less than a 6000 though.

[Kola]

Don't know when you bought your S5K HS but there around £250 at the mo. An S6K is around £450. To buy all the extras as cards would cost more than the difference ie £200 ish.

Sounds like you got a great deal there. Don't tell Vinyl Junkie you got it for a ton

[hollowsun]

About a year os so ago - but it was a VERY good deal I grant you ... maybe a lucky one-off

I take your point about adding the extras. I'll say this though...

You might not need them in practice...

The onboard FX are ok and handy to have

Not so sure about the polyphony expansion

Not so sure about the output expansion (unless you have a good size mixer with lots of spare channels)

Maxing out the RAM is a given

The USB board is highly recommended - opens things up ENORMOUSLY. Plus it gives you a 'virtual' remote panel (same as S6000) so...! It integrates very well with your 'puter and wave editors and is great for organising your sound library, making back-ups, etc.. And with the Program Editor, it's like having a s/w sampler but with external hardware (although I should add that programming from the LCD is equally quick and easy).

With either a 5 or 6000, you'd notice a BIG difference with what you can do compared with your 3000XL

[Kola]

Im really looking forward to getting it.

Can you clarify something for me. Whatever I get will have the USB card.

So if I get any WAV CDROM does that mean it will load into my PC and onto my akai complete with loop points and other settings you cant get with audio only samples?

Is a wav file to a S5/6K pretty much the same as an Akai S5/6K format?

Or is one better than the other and if so why?

If you can bounce wavs to the akai via your PC will I not need a SCSI CD drive then?

[vinyl_junkie]

100 for a S-5000 huh, man you got lucky all right..
The 5k is great if it's in reach but I love the idea of sitting down and having the 6000's front panel on your lap as you work or sample..thats the big selling point to me.

Even if I had the 6000 I would still have to have my 3200 lol I dont know why I'm so attatched to it, probs cos years ago I always wanted that model but I agree the 5/6k is better in pretty much every way.
It can even re-sample it's own outputs, how cool is that!
I'm very happy with the 3200XL though and i'm such an old fart that I still most of the time use it in single mode hahah even though when I had a S2800 years ago I always wanted multi mode lol mad eh?

I'v been having all sorts of fun sampling my Juno or JX-3P
Been pumping whole tunes out of it hah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcDhCeuaAk8&feature=channel_page

Is it sad to collect samplers? lol if I had the cash I would probs get the whole old S and MPC line (60, 3000, 4000)
Ohh ohh and EMU's, Roland's and the Sequential lot

[hollowsun]

Can you clarify something for me. Whatever I get will have the USB card.

So if I get any WAV CDROM does that mean it will load into my PC and onto my akai complete with loop points and other settings you cant get with audio only samples?

Pretty much, yes. However....

Different wave editors, etc., do things differently so depending on which one was used to make the WAVs, the loop points SHOULD make it through but might not ... or the loop points are there but looping needs to be switched ON on the S5/6000. Or not. Or maybe looping will be switched ON but the loop points aren't stored in the right place in the data header for the S5/6k to make sense of!

That's pretty uncommon but can happen. I wouldn't fret over it.

Is a wav file to a S5/6K pretty much the same as an Akai S5/6K format?

Or is one better than the other and if so why?

The S5/6k doesn't have a 'format' to speak of. Disk format is DOS and file format is .WAV (and/or AIFF if you use ak.Sys on a Mac).

If you can bounce wavs to the akai via your PC will I not need a SCSI CD drive then?

Errrmmm... yes and no.

If all you're going to use is WAVs then no you won't need a SCSI CD drive. If you want to use old Akai S1/2/3k formats, you will because your 'puter will spit those out as an unrecognised (disk) format. I keep a SCSI CD attached for those.

Also, you will need a SCSI CD to read Emu and Roland format library (which the 5/6k can read) for the same reasons.

Once they're in the S5/6k, however, they can then be saved as standard WAVs (drag and drop 'em over to your 'puter's desktop).

But otherwise no - you won't really need one unless you're going to want to use older, proprietary stuff.

[Kola]

@ Vinyl Junkie

100 for a S-5000 huh, man you got lucky all right..
The 5k is great if it's in reach but I love the idea of sitting down and having the 6000's front panel on your lap as you work or sample..thats the big selling point to me.

Mad isnt it how one thing appeals to one. I dont really care about the screen coming off, just care it goes back on.

Even if I had the 6000 I would still have to have my 3200 lol I dont know why I'm so attached to it, probs cos years ago I always wanted that model but I agree the 5/6k is better in pretty much every way.

I can totally see your point here mate.

When I started out in the very early 90's my mate had an s1000. I was around 18 and paying £2500 or whatever for the industry standard sampler was not an option. I always seemed to be around £2499 short

I loved the S1100 also (but cosmeticly didn't like the black front at all. AKais are meant to be Beige. THants how in Kola's world the Z series dont count!

I had no interest in the S3000 series at all. Didn't think they were a good enough upgrade to warrant my attention and preferred the S1000/1100 series but even in 1993 I still could afford neither second hand or otherwise.

Then the superb S3000XL came out! Oh, to die for!! Akai had done it again for me. A machine as worthy as the S1000/1100.

So, I totally understand how you feel when you see these classics being sold for £100 on Ebay. I now have the chance to own them all, back in the day this was unthinkable.

I hear people say to me "yeah but there obsolete." Dint stop people making superb tunes on them back in the day though. And if you could make such great music back then they still can today. All the functions are there, just hidden behind SCSI and hard to find software editors etc.

Is it sad to collect samplers? lol if I had the cash I would probs get the whole old S and MPC line (60, 3000, 4000)

I would say definitely not however we live in a world where if you do something in a slightly different way you can be seen as such. Yet its OK to poison your lungs and harden your arteries by smoking, thats not sad????

In the world according to Mickey/Kola's handbook one of the rules state quite clearly "If your not harming other people or animals and your having fun, do it ofter!!"

Personally Martian, the day you pack in loving your classic S3000XL series sampler will be a very sad day for me. You hold a light to a sacred machine to me and it gives me great pleasure watching your Youtube vids. And by the comments you get I am not alone in this!

[Kola]

@ Hollowsun

Pretty much, yes. However....

Different wave editors, etc., do things differently so depending on which one was used to make the WAVs, the loop points SHOULD make it through but might not ... or the loop points are there but looping needs to be switched ON on the S5/6000. Or not. Or maybe looping will be switched ON but the loop points aren't stored in the right place in the data header for the S5/6k to make sense of!

That's pretty uncommon but can happen. I wouldn't fret over it.

This is something I would fret over though. If I pay for a wav CD (so much more than an audio CD) unless it comes with all the trimmings I am setting myself up for extra time consuming work. For example an old CD id love is Vince Clarke - Lucky Bastard. Audio its £20, .wav is £60!!

So, if I buy any specific Akai format S1000 - S5000 CD ROM these loop points are more or less guaranteed making it more like a rompler synth?

[hollowsun]

So, if I buy any specific Akai format S1000 - S5000 CD ROM these loop points are more or less guaranteed making it more like a rompler synth?

If you buy a specific format S1/2/3/5k format CD, they'll be ok.

There just MAY be a few others that are troublesome because of the non-standard way that SOME deal with loops, etc..

[Kola]

And if I bought your Akai S5000 cd roms they would work flawlessly im guessing because you produced them in native Akai S5000 format. IE all loop points ect would be perfect.

To summarize then any Akai format via CDROM is fine. Wav is a gamble. Is that correct HS?

[hollowsun]

And if I bought your Akai S5000 cd roms they would work flawlessly im guessing because you produced them in native Akai S5000 format. IE all loop points ect would be perfect.

Yes

To summarize then any Akai format via CDROM is fine. Wav is a gamble. Is that correct HS?

Yes ... but WAV stuff wouldn't be THAT much of a gamble and maybe I have alarmed you too much about this.