circuitbenders.co.uk Circuit Bent AKAI S01 with 'Bend Bus' Switching Matrix

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via this auction

Audio demos at the auction and further below.

"For over a decade we have been creating and supplying aural havoc with rewired childrens toys, modified drum machines, abused samplers and audio insanity machines. Our instuments have featured in both DJ magazine and Future Music cover CD and we have supplied and modified custom machines for:

The Chemical Brothers, Factory Floor, Pedigree Cuts, Raiden (renegade hardware / Off Key records), The Plump DJ's, Jacknife Lee, Bloc Party, Twisted Records (Hallucinogen, Shpongle, OTT, Younger Brother etc), Howie Miura (Island / Def Jam), matrix22 (12 Inch Thumpers, Brick records), Groove Criminals, Sweet Noise, Noise Inc and many many more.

TODAYS VICTIM: AKAI S01 SAMPLE GRINDER

The fact that the Akai S01 exists at all is fairly baffling fact as to all intents and purposes it was obsolete before it was even released. A 16 bit mono sampler with 1MB of memory as standard expandable to a massive 2MB maximum, sampling at a maximum bandwidth of 32khz, with no storage options other than a floppy drive, with only one output and only a 3 figure numerical display to edit with. Even the rather odd addition of 2 MIDI in's doesn't save it from being a rather cofusing addition to the Akai range. EMU and Ensoniq must have been pissing themselves laughing when Akai released the S01 for £999 in 1993 (yes you did read that right - £999), but the S01 has the last laugh as our mods have taken its sound mangling possibilities way beyond any other rackmount sampler ever produced.


As you can see, the most immediate feature you'll notice about this machine is the external rackmounted switch matrix connected to the main unit by a 25 way cable. The cable connects to a 25 way socket we've mounted on the rear of the Akai itself, and a corresponding socket on the back of the patchbay rack case. With the external switch matrix detached or with no switches activated the S01 functions as it normally would.

The 'bend bus' switching matrix is a simple concept. When a switch is activated it connects a bend point that creates certain sample effect or audio mangling process, to the common point, or bend bus. If you then use another switch to connect another bend point to the bend bus, these two effects will interact with each other to create some of the most bizarre and extreme audio mangling effects you'll ever hear.

Each bend point has a different effect and will also sometimes change its effect depending on which other points its connected to at the time. Effects ranging from comb filters, sample splicing, sample chopping, ring modulation, bit crushing, distortion, bizarre time stretching, EQ, and what can only be described as audio smearing™ are usually produced. You need to have two or more switches activated for any effect to be applied.

With 25 switches in the switch matrix, you have the ability to connect up to 25 different bend points together via the bend bus at any one time, in literally thousands of different combinations. The S01 is very good at producing insane sample chopping effects where sections of your sound are sliced and rearranged as if they have been through some advanced beat chopping session in the hands of a crazed lunatic. 90% of the time your samples are not permanently affected when you deactivate any switches, although if you sample another sound with switches activated you often find that the new sound is spliced into the old sound in all kinds on unexpected ways. If you have several sounds in memory at the same time they will interact with each other to create new and completely unheard of sounds. The switches can be activated and deactivated at any time.

You will receive the modified S01 itself, the rackmounted switch matrix, the connecting cable, and an S01 manual. We actually have two of these units for sale, this one here on ebay and one in the shop on our website. If we were to suggest that the one on our website was slightly cheaper theres every possibility that ebay might take this listing down, so thats absolutely not what we are suggesting, oh good lord no! ;-)


Click on the demos below to hear kind of sounds that this thing can now produce. There is no external effects processing on these demos.

The first two demos are random sounds and loops. The third demo shows what happens when you have several sounds in memory at the same time. Here there are 8 sounds in memory which are played one after the other at the start. The sounds are then triggered from the front panel and processed with the patchbay causing them to be spliced and morphed together in all kinds of unlikely ways."