Also many DI's can have a flattering effect on drums/bass etc that you run through them. Many people like to run their drums for example through good class A DI's to give them some flavor. An S950 will still sound good tracked without a DI. I tracked for years from S950- great river mp2nv DI. I liked the tone and the way transients sounded. The Akai S950 - the second in the S series samplers (after the S900). A fantastic piece of equipment that changed the way music was produced. A 30 year-old d.
Ok this is an issue. If you scan the net most people is telling that you need AKAIDISK. And most people is telling one needs Win98 too
Akai S950 Tone Programming
WRONG!Avoid using spray type insecticide near the Akai S950. It can damage the finish and might ignite suddenly. To avoid damaging the finish, never use denaturated alcohol, paint thinner or other similar chemicals to clean the Akai S950. Place the Akai 5950 on a flat and solid surface. To enjoy the Akai S950 for long time, please read this operator. AKAI S950 Owner's Manual. With this manual You'll learn how to set up and use Your AKAI S950. The manual describes functions of S950, tells how to use it correctly and includes instructions on maintanance. Perhaps more resourcefully, Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) uses a transposed S950 Tone Program mixed in with an Oberheim Matrix-1000 for many of his sub-bass sounds. S950 drum loops, grainy and grungy in all their 12-bit glory are particularly hip in hip-hop. A vast range of Akai and third-party sounds are available for the S950.
You can read/write Akai S900 disks with Omniflop, and it works flawlessly under XP. (actually ONLY XP is supported!) (EDIT 02/18/2010: Omniflop 2.2c has been reported to work with Vista)WHAT YOU NEED:
- PC with floppy drive (not USB!)
- Registered Onmiflop program (it's free)
- AKAI S900/s950
- Floppies (Modern HDs work ok, just put some tape on the HD hole...)
- Samples
- Patience :)
Akai S950 Tone Programmer
WHAT TO DO:First install Omniflop. Later on, when trying to read a disk it will ask for a key and if you don't have it already the wizard will ask to mail the author to get one. Mail him and get your key. (he's very kind and usually replies within 24h. EDIT: I see from the site that now registration is done via WWW...)
Get a floppy, if it's HD put some tape in the hole.
Format the taped disk in the S900 and save some samples on it.
If you are running OS 4 on your AKAI and want to access the samples later from the PC remember to disable 'SAMPLE COMPRESSION' from the DISK menu. If you just plan to backup your floppies you can leave compression ON.
Fire up your Omniflop, do the free registration thing, and set it in READ DISK mode using its simple wizard. When it comes to select a format choose the following:
Now insert the AKAI floppy in the PC drive. and go 'NEXT'
REMEMBER TO WRITE PROTECT THE DISK AND PUT SOME TAPE ON THE HD HOLE! If you don't write protect it and something goes wrong you may lose you data. You've been warned...Now save the file, use .img extension.
Your backup is done. You can write it back to a floppy at anytime, remembering to put some tape on the hole. The best is to format the floppy on the AKAI before writing back images on it.
With Omniflop you can also write back to floppy the new OS 4.0 and load it into the AKAI. Instruction will follow. Information about the new(er) OS 4
Next article: How to load samples from AKAI floppy disk images.