Akai S612 - The first and best sampler Akai ever made - Demo/review/tutorial

Published on Dec 14, 2018 Espen Kraft

"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.

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."