The instrument
The Akai S900, the company's first sampler tailored to the professional studio environment, was released in 1986. After 15,000 units had been sold, Akai launched the completely redeveloped S1000 and its slightly improved successor, the S950, in 1988. It had expandable memory, a SCSI option, a higher maximum sample rate and more operating system functions, such as the time-stretching effect. It can also read and write HD discs. Otherwise, both devices are identical.
Details
The Akai S950 is equipped with 8 voices, each of which has two envelopes, a filter, LFO and individual output. As is typical for Akai, the programmes are organised in keygroups, which can be assigned to a MIDI channel and/or individual output if required, in addition to all filter, envelope, etc. settings. settings can also be assigned to a MIDI channel and/or individual output. The assignment of a ‘Loud’ and ‘Soft’ sample in a keygroup enables elementary velocity switching. The ‘Warp’ function, an additional pitch envelope, can be used to make attacks crisper or to create flange effects when layering. It was the last Akai sampler with analogue filters. (Source: Amazona)