Akai S950 Operator's Manual page 8

S950 - AN OVERVIEW
The S950 is a digital sampler that has 16-bit processing and 12-bit sampling
with a maximum sampling rate of 48kHz. As well as allowing you to use any of
the large library of S900 sounds you can also use sounds from the S1000 sample
library and double density or high density disks can be used for storing
samples. The S950 enables you to sample and play sounds with astonishing
clarity and dynamic range and because the bandwidth is variable up to 19.2kHz,
you can be sure that high frequencies are faithfully reproduced.
The basic memory is 750K (which is expandable to 2.25Meg) and the basic
sampling time is variable between over a minute at reduced bandwidth to ,lust
over nine seconds
variable allowing you to squeeze as much sampling time as possible out of your
S950.
The S950 also has 8 individual monophonic audio outputs which can be used with
drums. and percussion and other instruments for separate processing, EQ and
balancing of individual sounds on a mixer. There are also left and right
outputs for pseudo stereo effects.
The maximum number of samples you can have in memory at ones is 99 but that
depends on how long the samples are of course. You can also have as many as
198 programs.
No sampler would be complete without extensive editing facilities and the S950
is no exception. As-well as the usual looping facilities, the S950 has an
effective AUTOLOOP facility to take the drudgery out of looping end it also
has CROSSFADE LOOPING for obtaining smooth, glitchless loops. There are also
splicing facilities for merging two or more samples together and double speed
MIDI increases the communication speed of sample dumping over MIDI which is
invaluable if you feel the need to use a computer for visual editing of
samples.
There are- also extensive program editing facilities such as envelope shaping,
filtering; pitch sweep and LFO effects as well as a two positional velocity
switch function and positional crossfade functions.
Several new features include a 'load while play' function on the disk drive so
that you can be loading new sounds from disk whilst you play. The S950 is also
the first sampler in its price range to feature TIMESTRETCH which enables you
to lengthen or shorten s sample by as much as 999% without any change in
pitch.
Other features include PRETRIGGER RECORDING which allows you to sample sounds
without losing the all important initial attack transients and the AUTOMATIC
LOCATING OF START POINT function allows easier editing of a samples start
point.
Several options are also available for the S950 including an ATARI/SUPRA and
CD/DAT INTERFACE BOARD (IB105) which allows larger storage and faster disk
access and also enables sampling to and from a CD or RDAT machine for
increased audio fidelity. The internal memory can also be increased using up
to two MEMORY EXPANSION BOARDS (EXM006) which allow maximum internal memory
capacity of 2.25 Meg giving you a maximum sampling time of nearly 30 seconds
at full bandwidth and over three minutes of sampling at the lowest bandwidth
setting.
at full bandwidth. Furthermore, bandwidth
6
is totally