Zoë Blade\'s notebook

Akai S1000

Akai S1000
Akai S1000

The Akai S1000 was a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz sampler, released by Akai in 1988. With its high fidelity and large screen, it superseded the Akai S900 to become ubiquitous in electronic music studios. Many bedroom producers made music using little more than an S1000 and an Atari ST to sequence it. Certainly in the UK, this combination was a popular way of producing music in genres from jungle to speed garage.

Version 2.0 of the S1000's operating system introduced primitive timestretching, allowing a sound's pitch and length to be altered independently of one another. Far from seamless, this distinctive sound became popular in its own right, featured on songs such as Josh Wink's Higher State of Consciousness and Double 99's RipGroove.

Quotes

We have five or six samplers, but my favorite by far is still the Akai S1000. It's an old tank now, and the screen has faded so that I almost can't read it, but I know it inside out. It's the most spontaneous thing for making up little tunes.

— Michael Sandison, Boards of Canada, 2002[1]

Notable users

See also

References

  1. Northern Exposure Remix, Jul 2002
  2. Past, Present and Future Music Technology, Aug 1992
  3. Future Talk Music Technology, Jan 1994
  4. @iamclintmansell Twitter, Apr 2020 "Headache music..my rig was MC-303, with AKAI S1000, an Atari 1040 running Creator which would become Logic. As far gear went this was my set up, & a Roland JV 880. I’d had a Nord Lead too but it got burned out when lightning hit our building & I couldn’t afford to get it fixed."

Reviews

Tips

Hardware: Akai S1000 | Alesis ADAT | Atari ST | Behringer 100 Series | Doepfer A-100 | Doepfer MCV-24 | Novation DrumStation | Roland System-100M | Roland TR-606 | Roland TR-808 | Roland TR-909