Sounds similar to my mpc 60. This wins because it’s portable. Plus this would be good at the begging of the chain. And the boum at the end for a little sizzle. I’m lusting after the boum too.
Thanks for posting.
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Picked up an s900 a few weeks ago, I did get lucky, price was very reasonable and the machine is mint condition functionally speaking. I absolutely love love the sound. It’s so much fun to take a patch off a synth, sample a note, stretch it across the keyboard and run it through the s900 filter and adsr. Especially fun to sample monosynths! Unlike the Digitakt, the S series are polyphonic. Using keygroups you can essentially make it multitimbral as well. If you have the money, I’d look for an s3000/s3200 (non xl). Has a great sound and much more RAM and polyphony. S950 prices are nutty these days…good luck. Between DT, S900 and Ableton, I have my sampler bases covered (until I find that ASR-10 for cheap)
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Yeah, you are right, the BIM should go before the BOUM. BOUMs distortion into BIM creates a weird/unwanted modulation fx.
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12 bit mojo is where it’s at. I’m a 12 bit fanatic and run SP1200, Emax keys, SP202, ST224, and an S950. Highly recommend any of those. Don’t be afraid to beef things up before or after resampling with EQ etc.
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I own S1100, cool machine with its character and 90th vibes=))
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Reviving this older, but still relevant thread as I have been developing an obsession with old Akai samplers, and thought I’d share some thoughts etc for other folks searching (like I was!).
I have an Akai S2000, with the 8 analog output board installed. These are expensive to find on their own, as they can also be used in the MPC2000/2000XL I believe, and they are cannabalised for parts. They take floppy disks, and you can replace that with a GoTek USB, or use an external SCSI2SD device. There is an internal SCSI space, but you need to do some modification to make it work (it isn’t installed by default). Mine has been circuit bent by circuitbenders.co.uk which really facks up the samples in RAM to a delicious degree. I did a video demoing that here:
These things are cool, but if you want to do anything complex with keygroups, they’re a bit of a pain. They also don’t handle WAV files, and converting stuff isn’t all that easy. So…
I decided to get an Akai S6000. This is the last hardware rack sampler Akai made, I believe - in 1999. It has 16 analogue outputs (!!), as well as a host of other connectivity. It has a beautiful big screen on the front that you can detach and use as a kind of remote control. Programming it is really straightforward, and… it supports WAV files natively (!). I’ve installed a ZULUSCSI in mine to have virtual hard drives on SD card, and it’s amazing. I love it. I talked a bit about it in this video:
The S6000 is basically the same as the S5000 at its core, but with the souped up features pre-installed, and the S5000 does not have the detachable screen - that alone makes the S6000 far more valuable for me.
Lots of folks say the S6000 is ‘clean’ and doesn’t impart any character into your sound like the old 12 bit samplers in the S range, like the S900, S950, S1000, etc - but that isn’t my main concern.
That said, if I could find an S950 for a reasonable price I would pick one up. 
Instead of the S2000, an S3000 or S3000XL might be reasonable, as it’s similar to the S2000, but has a much bigger screen, so should in theory be easier to program.
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I liked your video mate. Makes me want to pull my S1000 from storage and start playing
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You definitely should! The S1000 is meant to be a beauty.
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had an S2000 in the 90s as it was all i could afford. it’s very utilitarian and does the bare minimum. it’s possible to do some sound design w/it. the filters are shit imo. the AD input for sampling also is like throwing a blanket on sounds and dulls the fuck out of them. there’s tricks to make it sound better but i used the MESA software and would get samples into it that way as the emagic audiowerk8 card i was using sounded a lot better. anyway… it eventually died and i sold it for parts after selling the FX card and the 8 output board.
it’s really the most vanilla sounding of all the akai samplers of that era. it’s pretty bland and boring. i got a yamaha a4000 after that which was full of personality. then eventually sold that and didn’t buy another sampler until some years ago where i got an e6400 for a good deal and that thing sounds absolutely beautiful. i was never able to afford one when it was new so wanted to try it out now that i could get one so cheap. it didn’t disappoint. really so musical and great filters and modulation. just a whole different world and easy to see how people made so many records using those things. top tier converters imo. lush af.
i sold it recently after mega downsizing the studio over the last few years.
if anyone is going to get a vintage sampler i’d go emu or kurzwiel. you get a lot more for your money and the sound design abilities are pretty deep.
though the akai Z8 and S6000 are probably great. S6000 is what squarepusher did a lot of go Plastic with and it’s all over that… also, Z8 is what autechre was heavily using for Draft 7.30
just my 2 cents… ymmv of course… but i wouldn’t buy an s2000 to use as a doorstop.
I recently got rid of my 2x akai s6000s. They were really powerful for a long time, but now it is easier to just use a nice interface with good converters and a daw. I don’t miss the sound or workflow too much (although the interface on the s6000 was really good!).
I have though about getting an s612 or s950 off and on, but I think once the isla instruments s2400 gets the analog filter expansion board my gas will be totally gone for old samplers.
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Yeah, I often crave that old s950 sound, but then think about how painful it would be to get things done on it. Plus the prices have really gone up on those… Not long ago people were basically giving them away.
The sound is awesome (to me). Reminds me of all the stuff I liked in the early/mid 90s
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The s5000’s numerous filters and the routing possibilities opened up by the 2 LFOs and 3 envelopes make it a mainstay from a sonic perspective. It might be “clean” compared to a 12-bit sampler with an analog filter, but the sound design options are huge—especially when coupled with the sheer complexity of programs and multis, one can make a lot of evolving sounds using one single key press.
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