(The following article is reprinted with permission of the publishers from the December 1986 issue of Electronic Musician magazine. For more information on Electronic Musician, or for on- line subscriptions, check out the "magazines" area of PAN's Synth & MIDI section.) Getting the Most out of the Akai S900 BY STEVEN COX The arrival of affordable samplers has opened up previously unavailable sound textures to musicians, and Akai's recent offering--the S900 Professional MIDI Digital Sampler--is a cost- effective rack-mount expander module (retail $2999.95) for the musician who wants to jump on the sampling bandwagon without blowing the budget. The S900 is a beautifully designed machine; its level of sophistication demands spending a little time in study and experimentation in order to get the most out of your investment. Good habits, in the form of proper computer and recording procedures, will make it easier to develop a library of samples that are as personal as your own fingerprints. This article assumes you already own an S900 and have started to understand its possibilities via the operations guide disk and practical examples in the manual. However, those who don't own S900s can nonetheless apply some of these tips to any sampler. If you are already familiar with personal computers in general, so much the better; to a certain extent, all computers are similar in concept and design. The S900 is simply a *dedicated computer* designed to perform the task of digital manipulation of sound (and related tasking). Like all computers, the S900 has an *operating system* that ties together all the system elements, and understanding how this operating system works will give you maximum control of the instrument. THE VERSION GAME After power-up, the S900 dutifully identifies itself and gives the version number of the operating system ROMs (read only memory) installed within. When this article was written, 1.2 was the current version; there's a revised manual to go along with this version. If you do not have version 1.2 software, then by all means obtain it from your dealer. The earlier version, 1.0, is missing some vital features (such as being able to turn MIDI program changes on or off). Version 1.2 also displays the audio bandwidth of existing samples in memory, something you had no way of knowing before; and when switching from program to program, version 1.2 can sustain one program while switching to another (up to the limits of the 8 voices). After having to put up with the "klunk" that many synthesizers make when you change patches, it is wonderful to hear one program gently fade into (or sustain under) the next without "glitches." By far the biggest new feature is the S900's newly acquired ability to be played from drum machines. The note duration of most, if not all, drum machines is much too short to allow the attack, sustain, decay, release (ADSR) curve of the S900's envelopes to "kick in." The new One Shot Mode, on page 14 of the edit program section, insures that the sampler will respond to a trigger of *any* duration by playing the entire length of the sample (including ADSR, filter, warp, and so on). Thus, the S900 can now be triggered from virtually any MIDI device. SAMPLING SAFARI (OR, BAGGING THE BIG SOUNDS) Of all the electronic instruments you will ever play, the sampler alone offers a grip on reality. It can not only sound like a string section but in a very real sense it *is* those strings. It is a near-perfect aural imitator and modifier--the ultimate parrot. The ability to recognize a good potential sample when you hear it is a technique that improves rapidly with practice. Take the time to experiment with gathering new samples; this will teach you more about the nature and structure of sound as well as expand your library. When on a sampling safari, always try to capture more sound length than you need, then edit later by using the S900's ability to discard unwanted portions of a sample. It is also a good idea to *save your memory to disk* before making drastic or irreversible changes to programs and samples. As you forge ahead and experiment, you don't want to burn your bridges behind you. One way to get started is to take samples from existing recordings. This may not be the most original route, but it provides excellent training in the art of sampling. While the CD player is the medium of choice due to both sound quality and ease of cueing, phonograph records or even high quality cassette tapes will do almost as well. The libraries of most colleges and large metropolitan areas carry a selection of classical music CDs and phonograph records that are available for rental at very modest fees. (Note: the copyright implications of sampling from existing recordings are not clear; *EM* does not endorse sampling or recording any copyrighted material. You should consider the moral and ethical implications of taking sounds from others' recordings regardless of whether or not you apply creative input to them.) When sampling complex sounds such as loud, full orchestral textures from pre-recorded material, the quality of the playback medium is not so important. However, delicate textures (such as light strings, oboes, etc.) almost *require* that the actual instruments be played directly to the sampler, or sampled from a CD, due to the inherent noise levels of tape and vinyl. When it's time to hook your system's stereo output to the S900's mono line input, adjust your mixer or balance controls for a 3 dB (or greater) difference between the left and right channels. This prevents phase cancellation from messing around with your high end and/or hollowing out the bottom. Also, watch your recording level very closely. If your meter reaches those six dots at the far right of the LCD record display, you have introduced digital distortion into the signal. You may not notice anything amiss at first; however, if you listen to the sample played an octave or more below its original frequency, the "garbage" will become evident. I've found the best single instruments to sample are those with a fairly linear and consistent attack and decay envelope. The amplitude envelope for a flute or piano doesn't have to change with every note to still sound natural to the ear, even in a solo. But guitars or saxes exhibit a high degree of fluctuation in sound, especially in their attack, and they tend to sound much less natural when played from a sampler--especially when used "up front" in a mix. It can be amazing how much a perfectly sampled recording of a sax can sound just like an accordion when you try to work with it on some ranges of the keyboard. That effect could be good, but only if you're after an accordion sound! (What works for me is to record the guitar or sax sound as "straight" as possible--no pitch bend or vibrato--then add modulation and pitch-bending with real time controls such as wheels--Ed.) For great orchestral samples, check the point of climax in a phrase or section of music. Endings are also excellent places to find chords and "hits." Besides classical selections, soundtrack recordings are often ripe with musical textures that sample well and loop easily. And keep in mind that students of traditional instruments at nearby colleges and universities are often available for sampling sessions; sometimes all you need to do is put a notice on a music department bulletin board. There are no rules on where to look, only suggestions. Drums and related percussion samples are everywhere! Beyond the obvious capability of sampling traditional drum sounds, practically *anything* can be used percussively if handled creatively. For example, sampling the sound of a screwdriver tapping a table with gated reverb produces an incredible explosive punch. Played an octave or so below the sampled pitch, the effect sounds huge! Coughs, chair squeaks, firecrackers, door slams, grunts, animal noises and even laughter can effectively "dress up" an otherwise routine drum kit. (Incidentally, a gated reverb effect is simplicity itself: sample the drum sound with reverb, then truncate the end to suit--Ed.) With the 11.878 seconds of memory available at its maximum bandwidth of 16 kHz, the S900 can even be used for simple manipulation of vocal or instrumental parts within a song. Just sing or play that difficult phrase into memory and "presto," from then on you perform the entire phrase at the press of a single key whenever you need it in the song. Totally acceptable guitar samples can also be made with the bandwidth narrowed to around 9 or 10 kHz, thus providing over 21 seconds of sampling time. CONCERNING THE DISK DRIVE AND RELATED COMMANDS First and foremost, *be very careful!* The S900 (version 1.2) has no "double checking" to see if you really want to erase that file, memory, or disk, and that could spell trouble if you push buttons first and ask questions later. The advantage, of course, is that veteran samplers can save time by not having to answer those "Are You Sure?"-type questions. But always think before you act, since many pages in the S900 put you just one keystroke away from some form of annihilation. You *can* avoid most serious mishaps by getting into the practice of consistently making backup disks of your most treasured samples, and write-protecting your "keeper" disks. Remember, a disk never fails until the most important session or performance of your life--so keep backups handy. Another S900 disk operation quirk concerns the "return to home" error response. For example, if an error occurs when trying to save to a write-protected disk, the machine "locks up," blinks all its LEDs, and tells you the problem (and its solution) with a cute little message "OOPS! Disk is write protected. Take it out and close the switch in the corner." What the LCD *doesn't* mention is that upon recovering from the error by pressing the Disk button to unfreeze the machine, you are now in the Load From Disk option on page 1 (the exact opposite of what you wanted). Pressing the enter key at this point would cause the unit to *erase its memory* and attempt to load from the disk, thus throwing your hard work from memory into data oblivion! Always check that you have selected the right function before attempting to re-save. Also note that in version 1.2, the S900 does not verify data after writing to the disk. If by chance you do save to a defective disk, you have no way of knowing that until you try unsuccessfully to load it back into memory at some later time. Hopefully, a verify feature will be available as a later upgrade (hint, hint), but meanwhile, once again the solution is to make a backup any time you dump memory to disk. The odds against two bad disks in a row are pretty great, unless you spilled coke on them or something equally as devastating! Speaking of devastating, I recommend that you don't even think about using Single Sided/Double Density (SS/DD) disks! They mess up regularly--and when you least expect it--when used in a double-sided disk drive like the S900. You are not saving money by buying SS/DD disks, you are buying aggravation and frustration. Use *only* Double Sided/Double Density disks (DS/DD). The S900 allows up to ten characters for program and sample filenames. Take advantage of this and give your samples descriptive names; this will make it much easier to locate them and swap sounds around from disk to disk. Naming the original sample pitch within the filename (e.g. FLUTE D3, TAH DAH C1, etc.) can also be a big help, especially when constructing multiple samples of the same instrument. It makes it much easier to assign the split points later when working within the program edit section, and also gives the sample an identity independent of the program that plays it. LEARNING FROM THE COMPETITION Akai was faced with the traditional "cart before the horse" quandry when they made the big decision to release the S900 *before* developing their own extensive library of sampled sounds. However, the factory collection already has some breathtaking selections and it is still growing. Get in touch with your dealer every now and then, because new factory disks are expected to be released periodically. I feel software support is very important. In fact, I attribute much of the staying power of E-mu's famous Emulator line of samplers to the vast amount of user-generated samples generated by the factory, and also by their very active users group. E-mu's support of their users goes so far as sponsoring sound swap parties. In my opinion, if the Akai S900 Digital Sampler is to thrive in today's hyper-competitive "here today and gone tommorrow" electronic music marketplace, it will need the support of its own users group actively backed by none other than Akai itself. Meanwhile, the S900 is quite a machine--especially once you learn its operating system well enough for it to do your bidding.