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Synth Site: Akai: S20: User reviews Add review

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Gas Station topic: Akai
Average rating: 4.2 out of 5
page 4 of 7:   <<<  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  >>>
Kyran a part-time user from UK writes:
Just wanted to say that this machine has a lot more midi flexibility than it is given credit for, including in the manual. I use it far more for sequencing than for any of the auto-looping functions that were supposedly its selling point.

Just don't use the note-assign mode for sequencing - because you can't use velocity or pitch and the response speed is very bad. But set each sample up with a channel & note number (& use 'constant pitch' if you don't want it to pitch up or down.) & it works great.

Sound quality is excellent - you get out what you put in.

Clicks ARE a problem - but can be edited out - I couldn't trust it with live sampling for this reason. The tap is always off by a few beats (I triggered it over midi to test it).

Not the best live sampling machine but excellent for sequencing samples on a budget.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Thursday-Dec-14-00 at 08:23
Gareth Morris a part-time user from England writes:
I needed a portable sampler for some live work and my project studio. The S20 sits neatly in between these two extremes and is totally cool taking around with you to sample things. Also its really cheap second hand - 250 quid. 16Mb of RAM make me truly wish it had SCSI. I know the max sampling rate is 32kHz - but it sounds a hell of a lot better than my AWE64 sound card. Quality, cheap, versatile and easy to use - absolutely lovely. IF ONLY IT HAD SCSI!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Oct-25-00 at 10:45
a part-time user writes:
i hate leaving reviews but i feel inclined to.

this thing kicks but. i used to have (2) sp-202's sold them becuase smart media sucks. floppies are the way forward for my sound library.

at first i really liked the funky shit that the sp-202's did. but it got really old. all those effects are cheese, and they are not really worth it (as your bulk of samplers.) i desided to sell them to get an upraded akai s20 and a s01.

this thing sounds so good, i cant even begin. its built like a tank, it doest click, the editing kicks butt. and it does a bunch off stuff i know nothing about (more fun for later.)

this thing is great. if you want a sampler, to reproduce exsactly what you put into it, get this. its does what i want it to. iv been changing what i got a lot lately, but i feel the s20 is here to stay.

i can see why they discontinued this. it was in a wierd price range. kindove like "well if i save a couple hundred more i can get a pro rackmount" well now it kicks but on the used market. i hate peoples reaction as this as a first sampler, just becuase its a tabletop item. i bet if they made it rackmount, and put a little screen on it, the people that think they need super pro stuff would eat this up.

all in all i really like it.

did i mention the s01, s1000, s1100 play samples created on the s20. seems like the s01 ($200) and the s20 are a match made it deal heaven.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Saturday-Jun-10-00 at 15:58
yul Emirali a professional user from London writes:
I needed a drum machine quick for a project I was working on but also somehting that I could use as another sound source. The S20 has served this purpose well. Also since this was my first venture into sampling what could have been better than such a user friendly model.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Monday-Dec-20-99 at 10:11
BN a hobbyist user from lala land writes:
Its fun and it does what its supposed to do (and very well I might add). No SCSI port is kind of a downer, but you pay for what you get.I would have gladly payed an extra couple hundred for a Zip drive and a few extra features, but I guess you just end up with an MPC2000. You will, of course, need to get the memory expanded. Tap button is a great freature for easy rolls.This thing beats the pants off ANY other budget phrase sampler (e.g. sp-202,what the hell is Roland thinking?!? ), dont waste your time with that crap. Dont listen to anyone when they say this is a good first sampler, buy what you want. If you want a studio sampler as your first, then buy one! Maybe save a little longer for an ESI4000, its an amazing sampler.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Nov-24-99 at 00:09
page 4 of 7:   <<<  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  >>>

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