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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 With its high fidelity and large screen, it superseded the Akai S900 to become ubiquitous in electronic music studios.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.

A seldom talked about feature of the S1000 is that each note's velocity can offset the start of its sample, so quieter notes can skip the louder initial part of the sound, allowing a more expressive use of single-note samples.

Much like the TX81Z, it supports different tuning systems. While most people will just stick with twelve-tone equal temperament, it's certainly nice to have this level of flexibility.

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".

S1000HD

The S1000HD contained a SCSI card as standard,^[4] and included an internal 40 MB hard disk drive.

S1000PB

The S1000PB (short for playback) has no sampling capabilities, making it essentially a rompler without the built-in ROM. If you only wanted to use other people's sample libraries, it was considerably cheaper than the fully fledged S1000.

S1000KB

Akai released the S1000KB in 1990.

Perhaps a little too ambitious (not to mention big, heavy, and expensive), Akai managed to stuff an entire S1000 into a keyboard. To complete this opulent package, they added a SyQuest hard drive for swapping out 45 MB removable hard disk platters in caddies.^[5]

This was not as popular as the regular rackmount version.

Accessories

RAM

• EXM005 2 MB RAM^[6][4] (£499^[3])

There's understandably conflicting information online about whether the S1000 supports up to 8 MB or 32 MB of RAM, so let's clear that up. The S1000 came with 2 MB of RAM, in the form of a single EXM005 2 MB RAM board in one of its four slots. Originally, it could be expanded to a total of 8 MB of RAM, by buying three more EXM005 boards. Akai noted this in their literature at the time.

Shortly before the S1100's release, they released the EXM008 8 MB RAM board, allowing the S1100 and the S1000 to be expanded to a total of 32 MB of RAM.^[2] However, this apparently requires the S1000's motherboard to be slightly modified, and the S1100's DIP switches to be set differently. So while the S1000 can be made to accept 32 MB of RAM, it requires a modification that's not for the faint of heart. Out of the box, it can only accept up to 8 MB.

Interface boards

• IB-102 ACSI interface^[6][4]
• IB-103 up to 512 MB SCSI interface^[6][4]
• IB-104 AES/EBU digital audio interface^[6][4]

Quotes

S1000

Another instrument that I like very much is the Akai S1000, because I think it's probably the most direct sampler at present. You just plug your microphone into the front panel and you can instantly start recording your sounds.

— Jean-Michel Jarre, 1990^[7]

The S1000 and S1100 are probably the only pieces of equipment that I'm almost entirely satisfied with. I think they're probably the most beautiful invention in music ever. They're more fundamentally important than piano or guitar. To me they are like time machines. H.G. Wells would have had a heart attack if he'd seen them.

— Youth, 1993^[8]

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^[9]

Notable users

S1000

• Apollo 440^[10] (×2)
• Coldcut^[11][12] (with 8 MB of RAM and 44 MB removable Syquest hard drive)
• The Future Sound of London^[13][14]
• Garbage^[15][16][17] (×2)
• Jean-Michel Jarre^[7][18]
• Leftfield^[19]
• Clint Mansell^[20]
• Man Machine^[21]
• Meat Beat Manifesto^[22][23]
• Moby^[24][25]
• More Rockers^[26]
• Alanis Morissette^[27]
• Gary Numan^[28]
• Mr. Oizo^[29]
• The Orb^[30][31] (×2)
• William Orbit^[32][33] (×2, both with 8 MB of RAM, one with 44 MB hard drive)
• Pet Shop Boys^[34] ("several")
• Pop Will Eat Itself^[35]
• Kevin Saunderson^[36] (×2)
• Snap!^[37] (×2)
• Soul II Soul^[38]
• Stereo MCs^[39] (×2, both with 8 MB of RAM and 44 MB hard drives)
• System 7^[40][41] (×2, with 44 MB removable Syquest hard drive)
• Youth^[8]

S1000HD

• The Shamen^[42] (×2)

See also

• S1000 guide
• S1000 page map

References

1. "Music Village" Music Village (Vendor), Sound On Sound, Oct 1992, pp. 36—37
2. "Akai S1100" Paul Wiffen, Sound On Sound, Dec 1990, pp. 26—34
3. "Turnkey" Turnkey (Vendor), Sound On Sound, Nov 1989, p. 85
4. "Akai Professional Sampler Catalogue 1989" Akai, 1989, p. 4
5. "Perfect Partners" Paul Wiffen, Sound On Sound, Nov 1990, pp. 56—58
6. "Akai Professional Musical Instruments Catalogue 1988-1989" Akai, 1988, p. 7
7. "The Synthetic Realism Of Jean-Michel Jarre" Richard Buskin, Sound On Sound, May 1990, pp. 24—28
8. "Musical Youth" Paul Tingen, Sound On Sound, Jan 1993, pp. 64—69
9. "Northern Exposure" Ken Micallef, Remix, Jul 2002
10. "Apollo Four Forty: Ad Astra" Sam Molineaux, Sound On Sound, Nov 1999
11. "What's That Noise?" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, Aug 1990, pp. 30—34
12. "The HEX Guide To Multimedia" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Oct 1993, pp. 36—38
13. "Past, Present and Future" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Aug 1992, pp. 61—66
14. "Future Talk" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Jan 1994, pp. 16—18
15. "Butch Vig: Nevermind the Garbage" Richard Buskin, Sound On Sound, Mar 1997
16. "Butch Vig: 'Contrary to Popular Belief, Nirvana Were Not Slackers'" Steven Rosen, Ultimate Guitar, 2016
17. "Butch Vig: Behind the Music" Paul Watson, Headliner Magazine
18. "Sound And Vision" Phil Ward, Music Technology, Aug 1993, pp. 50—54
19. "What instruments were used on Leftfield's Leftism?" Entropy, Gear Space, Nov 2007
20. "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." @iamclintmansell Twitter, Apr 2020
21. "Machine Head" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Jul 1991, pp. 56—62
22. "Meet the Beat" Steve Cogan, Music Technology, Jan 1991, pp. 54—58
23. "Message In A Sample" Phil Ward, Music Technology, May 1993, pp. 36—42
24. Everything Is Wrong Moby, 1995
25. "Recording Moby's 'Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?'" Tom Flint, Sound On Sound, Feb 2000
26. "Earth beats" Roger Brown, The Mix, Apr 1995, pp. 76—80
27. "Breaking Down Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill With Engineer/Mixer Chris Fogel" Produce Like a Pro, Jun 2020
28. "Gary Numan: A New Flame" Jonathan Miller, Sound On Sound, Jul 1996
29. "Key 1999 Tracks: Mr. Oizo — 'Flat Beat'" Chal Ravens, 2019
30. "Tune In, Turn On, Chill Out" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, Jun 1991, pp. 42—48
31. "The Orb" Mark Prendergast, Sound On Sound, May 1993, pp. 28—34
32. "The Heart Of The Bass" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, Nov 1990, pp. 52—56
33. "William Orbit" Paul Tingen, Sound On Sound, Oct 1991, pp. 58—64
34. "Pet Sounds" Ian Masterson, Music Technology, Dec 1993, pp. 46—50
35. "Second Course" Future Music, Oct 1993
36. "Inner Space" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Jun 1992, pp. 44—50
37. "SNAP! to tomorrow" Roger Brown, The Mix, Nov 1994, pp. 84—88
38. "Soul Searching" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, Jun 1989, pp. 42—47
39. "Stereo Speakers" Phil Ward, Music Technology, Apr 1993, pp. 40—45
40. "All Systems Go" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Oct 1991, pp. 36—42
41. "Electric gypsy" Tim Barr, The Mix, Mar 1995, pp. 88—92
42. "Live Tech Intelligence" Richard Wentk, Future Music, Apr 1993, pp. 17—20

External links

Reviews

S1000

• "The New Standard?" David Mellor, Sound On Sound, Nov 1988, pp. 48—52
• "Akai S1000" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Dec 1988, pp. 32—36

S1000PB

• "Action Replay" Paul Ireson, Sound On Sound, Apr 1989, pp. 86—88

S1000KB

• "Perfect Partners" Paul Wiffen, Sound On Sound, Nov 1990, pp. 56—58

Tips

• "Making the Most of your Akai S1000 Sampler" Steve Howell, Sound On Sound, May 1989, pp. 68—71
• "Making the Most of your Akai S1000 Sampler" Steve Howell, Sound On Sound, Jun 1989, pp. 66—68
• "Making the Most of your Akai S1000 Sampler" Steve Howell, Sound On Sound, Jul 1989, pp. 38—40
• "Hands On: Akai S1000 Sampler" David Mellor, Sound On Sound, Feb 1992, pp. 64—70

Deep dives

• "Akai sampler disk and file formats" Paul Kellett, 2000
• "Akai S1000 SysEx communication" Frank Neumann, 2002

Downloads

Documentation

Various

• "Akai Professional Sampler Catalogue 1989" Akai, 1989, p. 4

S1000HD

• "S1000HD manual" Akai
• "S1000HD service notes" Akai, Apr 1989

Akai: ASQ10 | S612 | S900 | S950 | S1000 | S1000 guide | S1000 page map | S1100

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