Akai S612 - The first and best sampler Akai ever made - Demo/review/tutorial
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- čas přidán 13. 09. 2024
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When the Hi-Fi home system producer Akai entered the music tech/gear business with the Akai S612 sampler, and the Akai AX80 and AX60 back in 1985/86, no one new what to make of it. Not even Akai themselves. I don't think they knew how successfull their samplers would be in the years to come after this.
This was also the only sampler they'd ever produce that was in black.
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The 612, in essence 6 delay lines with sampling functions, was streamlined the year later with the grey S700.
Both have a analog filter, non resonant, but where the S700 is a menu driven sampler, the S612 uses knobs and faders for adjusting parameters and that is very, fast, intiutive and simple. No Akai sampler for many years after the S612 did this.
Unfortunately it does not comply to the "standard" Midi Sample Dump protocol so with a fawlty Quick Disk drive like most of these has today, you have to use some old Atari or MAC to transfer sounds to and back from a computer. Or fix your quick disk system.
The demo track I start off with (Tell Me) is made entirely of sounds coming out of the S612. I've multi tracked it of course and additional effects are being used.
It has that 12-bit, slightly gritty sound I love.
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Growing up I listened to so much synth-pop and it's only natural that my own music takes inspiration from many of the acts I loved back then. I still love them and listen to them!
Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Erasure, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, The Human League, Propaganda. FGTH, Ultravox, OMD, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Alphaville, A-ha as well as loads of artists doing what is now called Italo Disco. And many more great acts like Nik Kershaw, Spandau Ballet, Wham, Dire Straits ++
I found this in my parent's basement; it works perfectly! There was also an Oberheim Matrix-6R, and an Akai S1100 there. (Both in need of repairs, though)
I need to get myself a new set of parents.
Lucky bastard
Your parents sound pretty cool!
Your parents were musicians? Sounds like a South park episode!
Where u live . I got the guy can fix them all
My God... That awesome growl and warm, gritty, low-fi, full, rich sound... Absolutely amazing. I haven't heard anything nearly this good in today's sound.
Yes, it's quite awesome :)
HowlingMoonCinemas Morena move movie
@@shirleyedmond9420
What the hell is that???????
that editing functionality with the faders is so intuitive and straightforward, and covers so many scenarios with the least interaction possible 👍 something I really like in 80s stuff, especially japanese.. so many thoughts and adequate design before manufacturing.
Really enjoyed the overview and the demo. The "lo-fi" quality these vintage samplers give and their unique filters make them worth checking out!
Sweet :)
I love these. The fader Attack/Release is just brilliant and unique to this sampler - someone ought to replicate this with a controller for software samplers. The lowpass filter is AMAZING on anything. And to make this an unbeatable monster - find the KEYBOARD they made to go with it - the AX60. You can then assign the samples to be "oscillators" within the synth, used modulation and individual ADSR/Filtering etc. That combination is astounding, but rare!
What a wonderful demo and performance. Loved it!!! Congratulations!!!
Cheers!
Love the sound on the Terminator theme. Superb
Sweet! It's a great theme :)
Bought mine about 3 years ago for 50euro! still use it and love it!
hands down the best most fun and instantly satisfying sampling machine I've ever owned, should have never sold it... only thing i missed on it was a resonant side to the filter, however it sounded so good that you pretty much never missed it... absolute classic...
GREAT TOOL !!....like everything that was made in the 80 s !!!... great demo and explicit...!!
Thanks Marius! :)
@@EspenKraft Always...a pleasure !!
Funny how times are changing, a few years ago nobody wanted it to buy for 20 bucks and now more expensive than an S1000! :-)
Judged by sound and edit ergonomics the S1000 has nothing on this so only fair ;-)
:-) with that in mind i do not understand why anybody bought an S1000 back then! ;-) Do you have one for comparrison?
@@lab-by-the-sea Yes I do, but you must understand that when the S612 came out, analog was not in style, but still cheaper than digital so that's part of the equation. What really is the difference is that the S900 and S1000 after it set the new sampler standard which everyone else had to follow. The S1000 was a production work horse and many times more powerful than the early S612/700. Stereo, full bandwidth 44.1 khz was equalt to other digital high capacity formats and whole records was done one the S1000/1100. I myself has done several albums, commercials etc etc on the S1000 alone. Back then colorization of sound, grit, noise aliasing etc was NOT desired and we tried to avoid that more than anything. TODAY, however, thee things are nostalgia and that's why the samplers like S612 is in high demand. :)
Espen, i totally agree with you! That was what i meant we went from (maybe to) clean back to noisy, vinyl, tape, 12bit... My first sampler was the S10 back then about 2500 Euros!!!!
I think it had the same 2.8 inch disks, a sample on each side! All the best to you! (btw i was a big fan of neil Tennant too, since he wrote for smash hits when i was a kid!)
@@lab-by-the-sea Cool man! I remember Smash Hits and had some issues of it myself. I still have my own Roland S-10 and I love it dearly! Quick Disks on that too. Digital filter that requires commuting to that edit. Can't undo. It sounds nice though.
Very good sounds. Exactly what we love. Years 80's, we are come back ! your demo is just magical and full of nostalgia for these mythical sounds ! Very good works, thanks a lot for that !
Cool man, thanks! :)
I love you. you are an inspiration and i truly hope to achieve this level of skill, comfort and enjoyment in my craft.
Thanks for saying, I appreciate it! :)
@@EspenKraft naw man thanks for playing
Oh yeah baby! Now we're talking happy synth pop! I may have to steal some licks from you now! :D
Steal away my friend! I know you'll do everything by the book if doing so.. ;-) Thanks btww, synth-pop is our lives!
My local store was big into these Akai samplers. As a youing drummer, I marveled at a then new Yamaha PTT8 electronic kit MIDI’d up to this S612. Seemed like a dream setup at the time.
Finally snagged one of these babies!! Thanks for the tutorial! It got me up and running:)
There's nothing like the 80s sound. I'll always be a fan.
Just look how well built these things where real metal nice sturdy knobs and best of all durable! I had one a very very long time ago and thought nothing of it but after watching the video well......think its a great piece of vintage kit! Nice job Espen!
Thanks! :)
But you are forgetting the price back then.
I've never seen this one, it looks good and sounds nice n gritty I especially love that it has analog filter. Cool vid man you nailed that terminator theme.
Nice, thanks! :)
Dope !! The first real digital sampler I ever bought since the SK-1 Casio keyboard. Bought it at the pawn shop. The best buck I ever paid for it. Wish I never sold it back to them but was rough times for me back then.
I found my new groove to handle and adapt to anything in life. ANYTHING. :D
Thank You Espen Kraft! 😄🐼🎨📼 Good luck making your grooves still and don't let anyone get you at all. :D
I only do what I feel is a fun thing to do. ;-)
@@EspenKraft I love it Mr. Kraft. I love even using my S-550 with my Roland PC-200, CCTV monitor (I might mod it to take in Scart cables sometime someday), a VCR to go to the CCTV and I use floppy disks.
It is awesome having this sampler. I love running TurboSynth sounds and samples through it. I might have to mod it to rid the hiss with a three-pronger plug outlet. But I can't get enough using my 90s Compaq mouse with an adapter to my S-550.
I even got a Boss XT-2 stomp-box to go with my sampler and gear. I can't wait to start programming multiple samples onto my floppies! 💾😄
🐼🎨📼 Stay Groovie!
This is incredible! Very Dope. That TERMINATOR song gave me chills.
Excellent! :)
Yeah! As always, this is the best content I can find on CZcams, keep it goin'. That multi pin connnector is huge, I thought the largest connector was the good old Roland 24 pin cable for their vintage guitar synths, you learn new things everyday!
Thanks Roger! :)
Great demo - well done and loved the Terminator theme, too.
Thanks! :)
Great little sampler, you can’t beat hands-on control, so nice to work with 👍🏻
agree, but it ain't little. you can use it as a boat anchor too, its huge.
I love mine so much, Scored it for $8 mint condition.
How?!
Some sell it at 850 euros on italy LoL... You made a big deal...
I found one behind my place in the GARBAGE.
i got goosebumps! just wow! thanks
Sweet!
Sumptuous. This video stands out for me among your recent videos.
Hey, thanks for saying! :)
Damn this thing sounds amazing at 4Khz! Perfectly fit for the Terminator sound track! :D
You are so talented!
Thanks! :)
!!!!!!!!!!! amazing sound ! terminator's song make me cry ! it's like the sound on the 3D amiga demos of my childhood...
Excellent! Thank you very much for this upload man. I've been subbed for a month or so now, and enjoy your vid's very much mate. Been checking out some of your older stuff. 'Searching for the sounds of 88' is a personal fav. But this video.. from about 4.44 onwards. Just awesome man. I love the terminator soundtrack, and holy smokes you did a good job on this! Love that dark, gritty, atmospheric stuff. Keep it coming man : )
I have an MPC 1000 from Akai, but that's the only piece of kit i own from them. This sampler is just crazy how good it can sound in the right hands.
All the best buddy, Jay
Thanks Jay! I appreciate your thoughts and feedback. The S612 is so nice to work with and it sounds superb. :)
Excellent Synthpop Mr. Kraft, thank you very much!
My pleasure! :)
Keep up the good work please don't stop
Thanks! :)
After watching this video I bought one immediately of ebay. This thing is just gorgeous. Thank you so much for your well made video and making me discover this gem...by recording for example arpeggiated octaves or you can make super beautiful moving soundscapes since the arpeggiated speed of each note will come out different.
Hey, great to hear. Congrats!
That vocal akai s612 part gave me the chills, amazing
thanks for an awesome video
Cheers!
I'm so glad I found this video! I still have my gear buried in the basement in storage.. wish my wife would let me hook it all up again and actually have fun for once!
Just do it, now! ;-)
Well here's an update.. I broke down and went and bought a roland fa-6 without telling the wife. I also took out a couple of my old synths collecting dust. Now my goal is to find all my pa gear and get everything up and running! Epsen's vids got me all worked up about music again! :)
@@stevewallis661 Was it cause of Quarentine2020?
Love these things! I bought mine brand new and still have it. I just replaced the disc drive belt, which had gotten pretty bad. All the discs are still readable and writable, which is really cool given their age. Ironically, these days I use an Akai X7000 as a MIDI controller; the X7000 uses the same disc tech as the S612 (and can read S612 discs) but can store multiple samples at once. Beautiful machines.
The X7000 was my first sampler. I'm sure you've seen my S700 video? ;-)
This man is my man
Hi S Bencroft aka Espen Kraft. Yt cc always adds something extra. Great video as usual. God helg!
Hah ;) God helg! :)
I got the most realistic string sounds with that thing and they are still the most realistic and I've bought library after library of expensive samples. It's limited but for just backing strings on a singing record it can't be beat. I just used the stock violins and looped them so it would be continuous as long as a key was pressed.
I bought the Akai S612 in 1985. That was my first sampler. :)
that sampler has quality ....I usually bypass many samplers as just another recording...But not this..something special. It captures the spirit of the sound
the music you make is like the best 80's music ever
Hey, thanks for saying! :)
The terminator theme song is so beautiful and powerful.
Thanks Espen great review.
Thanks yourself! :)
One trick I've learned using mine - resampling in overdub mode. When you play MIDI notes whilst overdub is on (even if you do not add any new sound) they get recorded into the sample - but be careful as overload can happen fast.
Excellent comment, thanks! :)
Nicholas Bryant yes, and you can also do some really experimental resplicing stuff iirc. There are ways to splice in a new recording to a section of the original sample, while you can keep the rest of the original sample intact, some very John cage/tape music kinda stuff...
That sampler would make the perfect compliment to my Akai AX80:-) Beautiful
Lucky devil, having an AX80! Well done.
WOW my first sampler. Wish I still had it
DDDDDDDDDoooooooppppeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
The bassline is killer..!!! Make it a whole song Espen..It totally rocks!!! It seems that you're in a creativity mode lately..
Thanks my friend! I will probably expand this into a full track. Some day...
Flashback to the 80s, so that where these iconic sounds came from
4:58 - holy shit! The Terminator.
Made my eyes tear up! Fantastic sound
My favourite soundtrack, one of my favourite samplers.
Cmon bro.
Great 80s vibe! Not sure I agree that the s612 is the best sampler but you certainly know how to get the best out of it. Always thought the coolest feature of their early samplers was how you combine them with one of their analogue synths ( unfortunately never owned any of them but sounds like a great function to me). I’d love to see you get hold of one of the oddball Casio fz1 samplers one day- I’m sure you could do an awesome job with the it too!
Thanks! Yes. the FZs are great. I have my eyes set one one. I don't say the S612 is the best sampler, I say it's the best Akai sampler and I mean it :)
Look for a Roland S220. They are amazing.
Yes, I have the S-10 and I love it dearly.
Mamma Mia, the things we did not buy in the past. ❤️
I had one circa 1989. Bought it for dirt cheap. I gave it away a few years later.
That sound at 4:42. Holy shit. So much character.
Nice track and vid!
WOW! I almost bought this unit back in the early 90’s as my first MIDI sampler. It was going for $450 bucks in my local music shop. The music store had just gotten the budget Akai SO1 sampler in so the salesman talked me into that.
Thanks! Never trust a salesman! ;-)
Espen Kraft LOL! Yeah, I was 21, fresh out of college and missing my buddy’s EPS-12 to make tracks. The SO1 served it’s purpose though and later on I got an S900 and an MPC3000. I ended up giving the SO1 to a young protege and keeping the S900 and MPC3000 which I still have.
Totally agree on best sounding Akai sampler ever made. My MPC60 and S950 can't compete sonically with the S612's warmth. Still need to fix my MD280. Found mine on a geosites website, paid via COD for 60 bucks in 2004. First synth was the Akai AX60.
How did the Japanese get such great sound by massively downsampling?!? Golden age of engineering. The functionality was well thought out and the sound is staggeringly good.
Someday, I suppose somebody will have the ability to crack this open and build a nearly-identical emulator that maintains the magical Akai sound. . .or at least try.
Behringer? :)
@@tdc026 yes, Behringer should make a modern 12 bit sampler with analogue filters!
Six voices one tuning. S612.
This machine actually reminds me of playing piano with a metronome.
Very nice video. In '85, my only exposure to samplers was seeing a Mirage at my local music store. This is cooler than a Mirage. Having the ability to manually set start/end points or adjust the filter/LFO on the fly is so very cool. I'll bet these were expensive! My ESQ-1 is well suited to these kinds of low bit sampled sounds. A nice analog filter gives everything such a sound warm sound. Are there mods available for these old units so you can do saves? I imagine Quick Disks are pretty rare, expensive, and degrading fast.
Thanks! Yes, the Mirage is awesome, I have one of these as well. The QD drives usually breaks down and after 30+ years the belts disintegrates. It can be fixed though. Sadly the first Akais didn't comply to the MIDI sample dump standard so you'll have to go through old computers and Sound designer to transfer sounds. There a some other options as well, but it depends somewhat on different factors if they work.
Think of it more as an instrument and sample what you need, it's so fast anyways, and record that sound in a track and move on! :)
This was my first sampler in the 80’s
after i heard you sing, i realized how much talented is Neil Tennant 😁
Managed to buy a S612 again recently after foolishly selling my old one several years ago. Got a couple of spare MD280s for peanuts, just in case! Going to try and connect up my VX90 to the S612 so I can use the VX90s filters and other editing features on my samples.
Nice man, the VX90 is stellar! :)
Hi Espen, thanks for your great channel. Really inspiring. I was more into the early 80s up to 1983/4 but you've managed to make me enjoy some of the later gear produced in the mid 80s as well. I have a dilemma which could use your expertise. I've been looking for a vintage sampler to get that gritty lo-fi sound with an analog filter and now I've got 2 options: 1) the S612 in good working condition WITH a broken MD280 for 750 euros, or 2) the S700 in good working condition for 300 euros. What do you reckon? Cheers! PS: I also had in mind the EMAX but I think I'm running out of space in my studio, but I'd be happy to hear your opinion on S612 vs EMAX, 2 samplers, same era but probably 2 different approaches so not necessarily comparable.
Well, I'd go for the S700 if you're not very keen on the "hands on" approach by the S612. They sound the same, but the S700 has the advantage of being able to have more samples in memory at the same time. The S612 can have only one.
The S700 is also a lot cheaper. The S612 has a great preamp on the way in though, that when overdriven can really bring out some good stuff. Pros and cons, but I'd go for the S700 of the two.
The Emax is a totally different thing though, so can't really compare them much. The Emax can do so much more. But the raw sound is great on them all.
Good luck! :)
@@EspenKraft Thank you so much. I never thought you'd have time to reply to my question. Much appreciated. I wish you all the best for 2021. Have fun with the Emulator II ! Looking forward to an updated studio tour. PS: btw, what is the brand of your rack stands which hold your samplers and synths racks?
Thanks! Those are 19" rack units from Gear4music. Just go to their website and search for them and they'll pop up. I've had at least 50 people ask me about them.
I was given one of these with a (broken) disc drive many years ago. I love it immensely, but I honestly thought they were worthless until I saw one pop up in my fb group for $1000. now I'm finding out there's some crazy mods out there for it, and I'm having my mind blown.
I like to 'play' the sample start/stop sliders live while a sequencer triggers the machine. you can do some real ghostly shit that way.
It's actually a well-known sysex dump. AKAI publishes most of their sysex proudly.
I really enjoyed your review of this vintage equipment, so let me start with Thank You!! ;-) I wanted to ask if you've tinkered with Akai's MPC One and if yes, have you found any way to mimic the user interface of the S612 using the MPC's interface? Specifically getting the Qlink knobs mapped to replicate the linear sliders functionality on the S612? I loved the way the S612's linear faders worked to move loop start/end points including REVERSING the loops... that was so cool. Anywhoo... thanks again for the great demo!
Thanks! No, I never had any interest in the MPCs and as such I never used them.
Samplers are magic.
They sure are! :)
Why the art of sampling has been so disregarded in the last couple of decades? I don't get it.
@@llnn5112 90s sampling = all the best dance music.
@@sirgashmbe_nwa5397 Yep
@@llnn5112 Partially because the esoteric knowledge of sampling was never really passed down to the current generation. Most people today think that sampling just means sample playback. For me, sampling is synthesis with any sound of your choice as the initial signal.
12:10
Its the Sickest!
Fully Sick Bro!
Samplers rule, and your song rules so much!
Sweet, thanks! :)
i'd buy it just for that filter alone, niiiiice.
LOVE ME SOME TERMINATOR
I'll be back!
BRILLIANT song,
Thanks! :)
Beautiful unit
Another excellent video! Very informative!
My first sampler!
Somepeople told about the magic of old samplers, you also show it...
I was just talking to a guy who says that all the samplers were replaced by romplers? I told him that today it's not the case. I have akai samplers and I lve them and I use them alongside my romplers and I dont see an issue. This s612 is highly coveted. ❤
That first sample fit straight into Bladerunner. What a sampler!
Hello Espen. Great interesting tutorial. Thanks. Have a wonderful day. Greetings Adam 😎
Thanks Adam! :)
I had one. It was my very first sampler. QuickDisk was a serious pain in the butt, but other than that it was fantastic. I still have many of the sounds I sampled on it. I was able to use the original Digidesign Sound Designer to suck them out of the S612 into SDII files and I have kept them updated over the years by converting them to different formats. Somewhere around here I still have the QuickDisks themselves. 😀 Of course they don’t really sound as good without those filters.
Love it, man. Good tune.
Thanks Matt! :)
I so loved it, my first album was the 612, sold it an hated myself for it..
Your videos are great!
Thanks! :)
was my first ever sampler :)
15 years or so ago, i was fortunate enough to get 2 full racks of equipment from a studio gone bankrupt, there was one of these with drive, about 60 disks and it looked like new, there was also a S950, S1000, S1100 and all the standard midi verbs and a JV1080, JV2080, and 2 other 1 unit JV's a Promix01, TX81z, patchbays etc... Sadly i sold most of it off very cheap to save space.. Have regretted it since the last piece was picked up.
I've done some crazy selling myself, in the late 90s. :|
Very nice.
Thanks! :)
Great informative video thanks
Here’s a fact. The vintage gear will never go away. We will replicate the originals forever. But technology has improved work flow in some areas. It blows my mind that we pay for lofi dirty raspy plugins when back in the day we were fighting to get rid of that noise lolol. Now all of a sudden oh it’s so warm... etc etc
Nostalgia, but you can't have the real 80s nostalgia without having lived in the 80s so for those that didn't, emulations work. For me they do not.
Love this Song
Very nice ! That terminator sdtrk part brought tears to my eyes!!! Now S612s will double in price on Ebay! :)
Thanks! :)
I'll be back.
Epic sampler!
Holy cow. Reverse crash cymbal was a thing way before computer audio editing... no wait. I think they ran tapes in reverse. But reversing samples and making stuttering rhythms seems so fast and easy on this kind of a sampler now when I look at software samplers.
My first sampler!!! And now its doing Pet Shop Boys!! :)
Awesome! Very enjoy ur music!
Thanks man! :)
Samples can be stored/edited with Sample Wrench for windows, currently available free from Dissidents.com. Commodore Datasette also works for storage. The page is missing in my manual which would document it, but there is a removable cover on the back of my S612 which hides the connector.
Had to look up the name, there was also a freeware Atari ST editor by Harald Plontke which I used with the STEEM Atari emulator on my Windows 7 laptop.
Goddamn that sounded amazing
Nice :)
nice PSB impression !