Akai s5000 - basic questions for newbie

[benswain1]

i am soon to be getting one of these (i am new to samplers) and i have a few silly questions so please bare with me!!it has the usb board fitted also.

 

ok, so say i sample a synth with it does it store it internally or does it vanish when i turn it off?it has no hard drives etc just 256mb RAM.if it does go, does that mean i have to manually upload them via USB just to be able to use the sampler for anything meaningful?

 

many thanks in advance

[soundxplorer]

You are correct, in that anything loaded into the RAM of the sampler will go away as soon as you power down. So you need to save your samples and programs to a disk (hard drive, whatever). The 5000/6000 were the first Akai samplers to have USB, so that is a plus.

 

The Ak.Sys software should let you save all of your samples and programs on your computer, but you'll need to load them into the sampler each time you want to play one.

 

If you don't have the manual or the software, it is still available on the Akai website.

[benswain1]

 

You are correct, in that anything loaded into the RAM of the sampler will go away as soon as you power down. So you need to save your samples and programs to a disk (hard drive, whatever). The 5000/6000 were the first Akai samplers to have USB, so that is a plus. The Ak.Sys software should let you save all of your samples and programs on your computer, but you'll need to load them into the sampler each time you want to play one. If you don't have the manual or the software, it is still available on the Akai website .

 

 

thanks for your reply.i take it one keypress can trigger many samples to play at once?will this software know stuff like that when i transfer data?i just know so little about how these things work and real life applications for the sampler.i simply bought it because it was cheap and id eventually find a use for it

[soundxplorer]

 

i take it one keypress can trigger many samples to play at once?

 

 

Sure.

There really is WAY too much to explain here though, so I'd suggest digging into that manual. You've bought a very DEEP piece of gear. Expect to read a lot. The software should make it easier though. I learned on an S3000XL. Didn't have software.

[benswain1]

 

Sure. There really is WAY too much to explain here though, so I'd suggest digging into that manual. You've bought a very DEEP piece of gear. Expect to read a lot. The software should make it easier though. I learned on an S3000XL. Didn't have software.

 

 

thanks again.you dont happen to know if hard drives are easy to fit do you?for instance the power and other connector plugs already being inside?

ive just thought, i have an emu e6400 ultra that ive never used (my macbook wont detect it), could i rip out the iomega zip drive and fit it in the akai?

[zeronyne]

 

thanks again.you dont happen to know if hard drives are easy to fit do you?for instance the power and other connector plugs already being inside? ive just thought, i have an emu e6400 ultra that ive never used (my macbook wont detect it), could i rip out the iomega zip drive and fit it in the akai?

 

 

First of all, make sure it has the USB card...they did NOT come standard.

 

The original kit had the wiring for a SCSI drive internally. You could buy a kit to install an IDE drive in its place. It is NOT easy to install a drive internally. The space is very tight and the ribbon cables are very short.

 

If you have a USB card, you can store samples via ak.Sys to a folder or drive on your computer. This is fairly seamless, but the USB was an afterthought, so it's REALLY slow.

 

The best option that I've seen, and I'm going to utilize it shortly, is in the SCSI for Samplers website. They have a SCSI card reader, so an 8 gigabyte card and this reader will be the most efficient solution and can still be controlled via ak.Sys:

 

http://scsiforsamplers.com/cfcard_ext.asp

 

They have other viable options as well. Just keep in mind that anything over 9 gigabytes on a single drive is a waste. The guys at scsiforsamplers.com can answer more of your questions.

 

The S5000 is my all time favorite sampler. I don't use it much, but I will never get rid of it. The user interface, developed by Hollow Sun, is the easiest of all samplers, IMO.

[benswain1]

 

First of all, make sure it has the USB card...they did NOT come standard. The original kit had the wiring for a SCSI drive internally. You could buy a kit to install an IDE drive in its place. It is NOT easy to install a drive internally. The space is very tight and the ribbon cables are very short. If you have a USB card, you can store samples via ak.Sys to a folder or drive on your computer. This is fairly seamless, but the USB was an afterthought, so it's REALLY slow. The best option that I've seen, and I'm going to utilize it shortly, is in the SCSI for Samplers website. They have a SCSI card reader, so an 8 gigabyte card and this reader will be the most efficient solution and can still be controlled via ak.Sys: http://scsiforsamplers.com/cfcard_ext.asp They have other viable options as well. Just keep in mind that anything over 9 gigabytes on a single drive is a waste. The guys at scsiforsamplers.com can answer more of your questions. The S5000 is my all time favorite sampler. I don't use it much, but I will never get rid of it. The user interface, developed by Hollow Sun, is the easiest of all samplers, IMO.

 

 

oh right cheers for that.there is a few refurb scsi hard drives but i dunno if they are compatible or how i'd get the cables/wires

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SCSI-9GB-10K-ULTRA2-3-5-SUN-540-3869_W0QQitemZ300409640216QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_HardDrives_RL?hash=item45f1cf5518