Akai S950 Operator's Manual

S9500 - BASIC SAMPLING ARCHITECTURE Before we explore the workings of the S950, let us first see how it functions as there are n few things you nee

WHAT IS MIDI? Back in the early days of synthesizers, a system known as voltage control was used. Basically, when you played a note on the keyboard,

81 FIG. 1. Simplified layout of a typical synth or sampler But there !s more to MIDI than dust layering synths and samplers together. For example

FIG. 2a Connecting a MIDI sequencer to MIDI synths using MIDI THRU 82 But why have 16 MIDI channels? Well, the real power of MIDI is in sequencing.

FIG. 2b Connecting a MIDI sequences to MIDI synths using the Akal ME30PIl But there is even more to MIDI than that. At its simplest level, you can

ADDENDUM FOR S950 MANUAL The 5950 is not capable of recognizing sounds that were defined as soft samples on an 5950 (i.e. any samples that have the

ADDENDUM TO THE OWNER'S MANUAL AKAI S900 DIGITAL SAMPLER INITIATING SAMPLE DUMP FROM THE FRONT PANEL OF THE S900 A feature of the S900 which

USING THE S950 - THE BASICS There ere 8 basic modes on the S950 which are selected using the 8 buttons that run underneath the display. These are PL

GETTING ROUND THE S950 Behind the deceptively simple control panel of the S950 lies a wealth of features. As we have seen, the main functions of the

Of course, there's more to it than that and so we will take you through each mode, control and function in greater detail so that by the time y

USING THIS-MANUAL This manual has been written to provide you with all the information you need to fully exploit the facilities on your S950. The s

ENTERING NAMES You will need to name samples and programs when you begin to create your own sounds. The S950 allows you to name sounds of up to 10 u

PLAY MODE This is probably the easiest mode to get to know and as good a point to start as any. Basically, it is the mode where you can see what pro

TROUBLESHOOTING There can be occasions where something you do on the S950 does not select the required program. This can be for a number of reasons.

SAMPLING ON THE S950 - USING THE RECORD FUNCTION This is the mode where you actually sample your own sounds into the S950. Many people are frighten

The default setting for this page is 1 - Analogue input (l. e. the MIC or LINE input socket on the front panel of the S950). If you are using the IBI

WARNING Power requirements Power requirements for electrical equipment differ from area to area. Please ensure that your machine meets the power r

You can now change this parameter if you wish by simply pressing the appropriate note on the connected MIDI keyboard or controller. You can also use

You will have noticed from all this that most of the pages are set up with the most sensible option as the default setting. You always have to give a

5. If the sound is distorted, check that it wasn't overloading the S950. This can be done by returning to the functions that dealt with level se

EDIT SAMPLE The next button along is marked EDIT SAMPLE and. not surprisingly, this is the mode in which you edit your samples and where you can cha

Move to the next page using the 'page down' button. It will display: >03 #Loudness #Nom pitch #Fine pitch +00 C3 60 +00 This pag

To select the mode, move the cursor one position right using the 'cursor >' button and make your selection using the CONTROL knob or the

Assuming you have edited the start point to your satisfaction (remember, however, that it is not obligatory to change the start point - if the sample

The art of looping is to find two points in the sample which ere of a similar level so that the end of the loop and the start of the loop are match

CROSSFADE LOOPING allows you to fade out the glitches that may be present In a loop. Basically, when you employ crossfade looping, the sound plays

The various functions in Page 08 are as follows: 'Coarse' allows you to set a rough loop length and 'Fine' allows you to set a f

AKAI S950 SAMPLER MANUAL - INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Akai S950 Digital Sampler. This versatile instrument provides the flexibility associated with

Note: Because the crossfade loop function requires that you create a new sample, if the S950 already has a memory full of samples, this may not alway

You can now move to the next page which displays: >12 #Splice crossfade time, (points) (0 - 0> 1000 This allows you to set (in sample poin

Move to Page 14 using the 'page down' button and the display will read: >14 STRETCH #New name NEW SAMPLE #200% D-time 1000 #Auto D_ 4Mo

That concludes our examination of EDIT SAMPLE. As always, the default settings in this mode have been well chosen and it is probable that, in the maj

EDIT PROGRAM Once you have your sample(s) In the S950, you will want to organize them so that they are properly laid out across the keyboard. All th

When you hit the EDIT PROGRAM button, the first page displayed reads: >01 #Select, Copy ########## PROGRAM #Rename, Delete(-) ########## w

out resulting in a more consistent tonal change between keygroups. To switch positional crossfade on, move the cursor to where it says OFF end press

To copy a keygroup, simply move the cursor to 'Copy (+>, Delete <->' using the 'cursor )' button and press the ON(+) but

Note: A setting of 128 will only play the soft sample since 1t is not possible to play a herd sample with a velocity value of more than 128. Simila

There are a variety of options available for the S950 which are discussed later. To fit these, please take your instrument to your local Akai dealer

In this way, you could, for example, transpose the whole program up an octave or any other interval or you could fine tune the program so that it is i

Variations on those should be experimented with for a wide range of filter effects. Let us now move to Page 10, the amplitude envelope settings. Thi

Furthermore, most, if not all acoustic instruments exhibit tonal envelope changes where the tone varies during the course of a note. By providing a s

RELEASE: This allows you to control release time using keyboard velocity. A setting of +00 will have no effect whilst settings of +50 will give the ef

DEPTH: This sets the amount of LFO sweep. 0 = no effect with modulation depth increasing with higher numeric values. With any value higher than 1, the

3

The ONE-SHOT function caters for use of the 5950 with certain drum machines whose note on message is so fast, it cannot trigger samples in the 5950 pr

Using this page, it is possible to set up whole multi-timbral configurations and these can be saved to disk for instant retrieval. You can also have

MIDI FUNCTIONS Next to the EDIT PROGRAM button is the MIDI button and here you can set the basic 'global' MIDI parameters for the 5950. To

controllers MIDI channel, she 'Key' field will display the note played and the 'Velocity' field will display the velocity value w

The next page is concerned with the 5950's ability to be controlled using the RS232 muitipin port found on the rear of the unit. This allows the

If the 5950 is not responding to program change over MIDI, check that it is set to respond to this on Page 04. I f i t is not, switch i t to ON. I f

4 FIG. 1 Connecting the S950 Making sure that the amplifiers volume control is right down and the S950 is switched off, insert one of the disks su

UTILITY MODE This button allows access to programming the Akni ME35T Audi-MIDI converter which allows you trigger samples from audio sources or dru

V-Curve: This allows you to choose from between 8 velocity response curves to match your own playing technique to the ME35T's triggering functi

50 DISK LOADING AND SAVING - THE DISK DRIVE This is a very important part of the Akai 5950 as it allows you to load sounds for playback and editing.

Note 3: The 5950 loads ell programs first. If you use en S1000 disk, it could be that the 5950 will load all the programs but the samples relating to

The next page allows you to load either an individual program or an individual program with its relevant samples. Press the 'page down' butt

This page also allows you to load all the samples on a disk into memory but without the program information. To do this, move the cursor one more posi

It is also possible to erase samples or programs off disk and this is done on Page 08. >08 ERASE FROM *Sample Vol VOLUME (ENT) *Progrm ~~at~R~

In any of the pages 05 to 10, when you try to save anything onto a disk or format a disk that has been write-protected the display will read: OOPS!

5 CAUTION: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MUST YOU REMOVE THE DISK WHILE THE RED LIGHT IS ON AS YOU MAY DAMAGE THE DISK OR THE DRIVE. NEITHER MUST YOU TURN

DISK HANDLING Disks are very important pieces of equipment for anyone who owns a sampler and they represent many hours of work. As a result, it is i

57 Note: If your disk is damaged in any way and the disk drive is unable to load the data, the 5950 will display: OOPS! Bed data from disk ...

APPENDIX

5950 - K4IIKREF PROCEDURE CHART. As we have seen throughout this manual, every mode within the 5950 has a default value. All of these have been sen

FOR MORE SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS IN ALL THESE MODES, PLEASE REFER TO THE RELEVANT SECTION OF THIS MANUAL 62

5950 - OPTIMUM BANDWIDTH KWIKREF CHART The 5950 has a continously variable bandwidth. As a result, it is possible to sample each and every sound wi

You will note that these bandwidth figures are approximate. Of course, you may require higher or lower bandwidths than those shown for certain instru

ADVANCED APPLICATIONS We have now covered the basic operation procedures on the 5950 but there is so much more that we can do with samples and progra

S950 - AN OVERVIEW The S950 is a digital sampler that has 16-bit processing and 12-bit sampling with a maximum sampling rate of 48kHz. As well as al

For example, with a simple string program with gust one keygroup, to thicken the sound, simply make a copy of that keygroup in Page 03 and then detune

For example, say you have a sample but the loop is not that good and, despite your attempts to improve it, you still can't get rid of a slight gl

Fig. 1 Fading out noise using the envelope generators Did you know that you can control revert time using the envelope generators. By sampling a d

This technique can be extended by layering the same sample on top of itself and then transposing one sample up two octaves and setting the transposed

Of course, you may not have access to a mixer and so you will want to use the MIX output. If this is the case. you can mix the various instruments and

USING MIDI VOLUME CONTROL ON THE S950 There exists in the MIDI specification a special MIDI control code number 07 which allows you to remotely contr

The most important thing about the S950 is that, despite the incredible versatility of the instrument, it is very easy to use and won't interfe

Note: before you can do this, the program has to have been created and the sample name used in REC or the sample currently selected for editing has to

You can also edit the end point on looped sounds without affecting the loop in some cases. Let us say that you are editing a sample and have effecti

5950 - SPECIFICATIONS System: Digital sampling (12-bit sampling/16-bit processing) Sampling rate: 7.5kHz - 48.OkHz (continuously variable) Bandwid

MIDI DIGITAL SAMPLER J Nodes 5950 MIDI Implementation Chart Transmitted Recognized Remarks Function ... Basic Default ~ X 1 without

WHAT IS SAMPLING' Sampling is a method of digital recording but, unlike digital tape recorders, a sampler can only record a short amount of so

FIG. 2. Digitising an analogue waveform with a low sampling rate But this needn't concern you too much because you can rest safe in the know

FIG. 3. Looping a sound We do have another problem though: 78 So, once those numbers are in the sampler, you can EDIT the sample. Here, you can i

You will notice that as you transpose the sample more than a few semitones up or down, the tonal characteristic starts to sound, well.. weird! This