Name: S950
Brand: Akai Professional
SKU: 629
Rating: 4.5 (13 reviews)

FP User

Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00

Not exactly a full featured sampler but it does make a wicked drum module.

Price paid

$200.00

UTILIZATION

Super easy to use. I'm a newbie and I downloaded the manual from akai and mastered the thing shorty after.

Very big and heavy. Seems to be built very solid.

SOUNDS

Best part about this puppy. Old school grit and raw. 12 bit!

OVERALL OPINION

Might give it up for the right price but probably not. Love it.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown ( 5-, 2002)

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FP User

Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00

The features were a 10 when it was released, but with computer's in the market. The features don't hold up for these days.

Price paid

$250

UTILIZATION

Simple, real simple.

This thing is a tank. I'm afraid to drop it, not in fear of breaking it. But in fear of damaging my floor or my foot.

SOUNDS

12-bit sound sounds great. I run almost all my samples through this machine to my computer.

OVERALL OPINION

I love this thing. Nothing beats the sound from this thing.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: dwells ( 5-, 2005)…

The features were a 10 when it was released, but with computer's in the market. The features don't hold up for these days.

Price paid

$250

UTILIZATION

Simple, real simple.

This thing is a tank. I'm afraid to drop it, not in fear of breaking it. But in fear of damaging my floor or my foot.

SOUNDS

12-bit sound sounds great. I run almost all my samples through this machine to my computer.

OVERALL OPINION

I love this thing. Nothing beats the sound from this thing.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: dwells ( 5-, 2005)

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FP User

Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00

As only alone sampler it wouldn't suit with todays needs. It does have a timestrech feature (the S900 does not). The memory is limited to a max of 2.25Mb that includes the expensive memory-upgrade, but as a drumsampler the original amount is definitely sufficient. polyphony is very limited, but thanks to it's 8 outputs you can manage to route each drumsound to a different output.

UTILIZATION

It's very intuitive and simple to use, even without reading the manual, even though i would definitely recommend using the manual.

It's very heavy and strong built.

SOUNDS

I use it as a drum module only. Its 12-bit sound makes the drums dirty and that's exactly what i wanted.

OVERALL OPINION

As only alone sampler it wouldn't suit with todays needs. It does have a timestrech feature (the S900 does not). The memory is limited to a max of 2.25Mb that includes the expensive memory-upgrade, but as a drumsampler the original amount is definitely sufficient. polyphony is very limited, but thanks to it's 8 outputs you can manage to route each drumsound to a different output.

UTILIZATION

It's very intuitive and simple to use, even without reading the manual, even though i would definitely recommend using the manual.

It's very heavy and strong built.

SOUNDS

I use it as a drum module only. Its 12-bit sound makes the drums dirty and that's exactly what i wanted.

OVERALL OPINION

You love dirty drums? you'll love the s950

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: baggysound ( 6-, 2005)

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FP User

Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00

Honestly, I never use anything other than one-shot samples, tuning, and the occasional time-stretch, and this has all of them. Supporting modern-day 1.44 MB diskettes is nice too.

Price paid: $259.99 USD

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use, once you get the hang of the menus. I really enjoy editing samples on it with the knob. It is also very flexible as you can lay out every sound you need in a song on one MIDI program, and assign different sounds to different outputs on the back of the unit. So you can technically play every part of your song on one keyboard, while still using multiple outs.

SOUNDS

Its actually quite transparent sounding. Like the SP-12, I find a lot of its charm comes...…

Honestly, I never use anything other than one-shot samples, tuning, and the occasional time-stretch, and this has all of them. Supporting modern-day 1.44 MB diskettes is nice too.

Price paid: $259.99 USD

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use, once you get the hang of the menus. I really enjoy editing samples on it with the knob. It is also very flexible as you can lay out every sound you need in a song on one MIDI program, and assign different sounds to different outputs on the back of the unit. So you can technically play every part of your song on one keyboard, while still using multiple outs.

SOUNDS

Its actually quite transparent sounding. Like the SP-12, I find a lot of its charm comes from sampling in fast and tuning the samples down (for drums, anyway). It has a VERY different sound than the SP-12 though. I use it for all my drum loops, or anything that I want to be a bit lo-fi and is too long to sample into my SP-12.

OVERALL OPINION

Built like a tank. When I first got mine, it needed some connections resoldered but it was nothing major. New equipment isn't built this solidly.

I'll never get rid of it, and if it broke, I would buy a new one. It, like the SP-12, has a special place in my studio, alongside my computer running Cubase and HALion as a software sampler.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: BigRyan ( 7-, 2005)

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Read the 13 user reviews on the Akai Professional S950