S900 - This made Akai the KINGS of sampling

video upload by Espen Kraft

"The Akai S900 from 1986. A 12-bit sampler, 63 sec sampling time and a very (for the time) easy and fast operating system. The S900 made Akai the kings of sampling and soon total domination.

00:00 Intro and demo music
01:00 History of Akai samplers in the 80s
05:38 Sampling (REC)
07:24 Edit Sample
09:26 Edit program
11:58 Disk format and saving
13:38 Outputs
16:30 Voice out
17:03 Misc.

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The easy and fast (compared to other models form other companies) operating system, a very favorable price around £1699 and lots of other features made this the object of desire for a lot of people.
The S900 (and 950) has a massive cult status today and people are still using these for their sound, especially for their grungy time-stretching abilities, resampling and manipulations.
In the mid 80s, this was also used for glossy pop as the S900 had 8 individual outputs so it was a perfect drum sampler. With a growing popularity it soon dominated the world of sampling and Akai would continue their climb to the throne. Any other brand getting in on the sampling market lived in the shadow of Akai as Akai was the sampling standard anyone else had to obey. Those who didn't would soon quit the sampling business all together.

The demo track is made using only samples from the S900 of course. Many of the sounds are sampled from my own synths and drum machines."