loading samples in AKAI s3000xl

[Irisman]

Hi, I bought an akai s3000xl; it seems to works fine    First physical sampler here.

Iīd like to load some samples on it (...he...!).

Here I have several akai samples cd, but donīt have an external scsi cd-rom drive. I have a zip drive instead. I could connect the sampler to the macintosh via SCSI, and also install the MESA software.  I thought that maybe the mac will help me by reading the akai cdīs but that didnīt happen. I have windows machines also with the Cdxtract -used for kontakt-, so an option for me is conversion (or extracting) and move to the mac (with an usb stick, ie), and then load to the akai.

Totally sampler newbie question:  How do I send a sample "program" to the AKAI using macintosh SCSI?

[supernova777]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov01/articles/akaiaksys.asp

believe this is for s3000 to load via USB?

i can try to help research a bit more in a bit...;0

[Irisman]

hmmm... actually searching for the macintosh cdxtract version, that may help and make me easier the project.

[Irisman]

okay; thanks to Arjen midiaudio toast images I could install cdxtract; now I can read akai cdroms with the mac; but now I donīt know how to make them go to the akai via macintosh scsi... 

[supernova777]

did u try ak.sys?
http://www.hollowsun.com/gagnon/download/aks_dload.html

However, users of older Akai hardware might be disappointed to note that the facility to drag and drop S2000, S3000 and S3000XL files from the sampler and desktop drives (introduced in AKsys v1.5) has now been ditched due to problems with reimporting them. Instead you now have to load them into the S5000 or S6000's memory, where they are converted to S5/6000 format, and then move them to the computer desktop from there -- http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov01/articles/akaiaksys.asp

[Irisman]

did u try ak.sys?
http://www.hollowsun.com/gagnon/download/aks_dload.html

However, users of older Akai hardware might be disappointed to note that the facility to drag and drop S2000, S3000 and S3000XL files from the sampler and desktop drives (introduced in AKsys v1.5) has now been ditched due to problems with reimporting them. Instead you now have to load them into the S5000 or S6000's memory, where they are converted to S5/6000 format, and then move them to the computer desktop from there -- http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov01/articles/akaiaksys.asp

Nope, didnīt try because SOS says:

Minimum Hardware Requirements    
• Akai S5000 or S6000 with v2.00 OS or better (v2.1 for AKsys v1.7).

[supernova777]

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/121748-akai-s3000-xl-help.html

check this thread

Also, Recycle 1.7 could send samples and keygroups directly to the S3000XL, it was a nice companion to Peak for sample transmission.

do u have a scsi cable and adapter scsi pci card?

lets look back at that article once more tho

The development of AKsys has also seen improvements in other basic areas of file management. For example, originally the program had no facility to convert Mac AIFF files. Now you can simply drag such files directly from the Mac to the sampler. Another improvement is that you can choose to load an item with or without its dependents. That is, when you load a Multi, you now have the option of automatically loading the associated Programs and their samples along with it. Also worthy of a mention for anyone who has older files created with MESA (Akai's dedicated software editor for older machines — see SOS November '95) — is that these files can be simply dragged into AKsys. You can also nominate MESA as your preferred sample editor. However, users of older Akai hardware might be disappointed to note that the facility to drag and drop S2000, S3000 and S3000XL files from the sampler and desktop drives (introduced in AKsys v1.5) has now been ditched due to problems with reimporting them. Instead you now have to load them into the S5000 or S6000's memory, where they are converted to S5/6000 format, and then move them to the computer desktop from there.

u may need to find v1.5 but that article directs you to check the previous one: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/nov95/akais2000.html

hardware samplers
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=378.msg735

[Irisman]

ak.sys manual says: 

NOTE: Older Akai samplers such as the S1000 series, S2000 and S3000 series cannot be used with ak.Sys. However, it is possible to use the S5000 and/or S6000 with ak.Sys V2.00

So no luck for me with ak.sys program.
Actually investigating the existence of Chickensys Millennium.


http://www.chickensys.com/products/millennium/features.php?sw_name=Millennium

    Millennium can bind to a sample editor so that you can double-click on the samples inside your sampler and edit them with, say, sound-forge.
    Millennium can take a sample and chop it up, much like recycle, then send the result back to your sampler. Even with stereo samples!
    Millennium can automatically create drum-maps from a collection of stereo and mono samples.
    Millennium can read AKAI CD-ROMs from any CD-ROM drive (including IDE) and load their contents into your sampler, or export them onto hard disk, either file by file, volume by volume, or even whole CD's at a time. It can export both samples (.wav) and programs (.prg).
    Fast and reliable sample transfers.
    Intuitive, fast graphical interface.
    Full sample editor integration.
    Advanced editing features.

 

[Irisman]

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/121748-akai-s3000-xl-help.html

check this thread

Also, Recycle 1.7 could send samples and keygroups directly to the S3000XL, it was a nice companion to Peak for sample transmission.

do u have a scsi cable and adapter scsi pci card?

I have the built in macintosh scsi DB25pins in the powerpc 7600, not an scsi card on it; SCSI cable is connected to the sampler, they communicate without problems.

What I try to do is to send "programs" to the akai, not only sample send. Sample send is a task that MESA software does here, but I want to load "programs" that are on the AKAI Cds, without purchasing a second hand SCSI cdrom unit.

[supernova777]

ANOTHER FINE MESA? -- http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/nov95/akais2000.html

Bundled with the S2000 and S3000 is a software package called MESA. Currently available for Mac only, MESA provides a more visual means of organising samples into keygroups and sorting out envelopes and filter settings, as well as zones, modulation, pan and so on. MESA also allows you to load AIFF or Sound Designer II files for use as samples, and a zoomable graphic waveform display helps you find the best sample loop points. Sadly, MESA doesn't let you do your crossfade looping on the computer, and you can't splice bits together from different samples or even remove a chunk from the middle of an existing sample.

Overall, MESA is probably far too powerful in areas you're never likely to need, and noticeably underpowered in the sample editing department, though its graphics are attractive and fairly clear. The operating system is more than a touch cryptic, and though the on-line help does a reasonable job of guiding you through it, my initial impression was that it made about as much sense as Morris dancing!

Initially, I expected to see a nice friendly box saying 'load sample from sampler', but no, that's too easy. Instead, you have to open something called the Toolbox, which shows you a postage stamp-sized picture of a computer and a sampler. You then have to interrogate the sampler to get a list of samples and programs up on the screen. Then (and this is the good bit) you have to open the sample edit window, go back to the sample list window, grab the sample you want to work on, drag it to a letter box icon on the sample edit page, and post it!

Once you've done this, the sample finally comes up in the computer window. It's rather like finding your way around one of those mindless adventure games where you come across a sheer brick wall, only to be told that you can't go any further because your troll isn't carrying the right type of fish to trade in for a magic anti-gravity belt! When you finally do sort out your loop points, you have to post the result back into the original sample list to send it back to the sampler before you can deal with any crossfading. What's more, I couldn't find any means of using my MIDI keyboard via the computer to check out the results of my editing. There is a floating window containing play and stop controls which lets you hear the sample at its original pitch, but you really need to know how things sound at different pitches, or when played as chords.

During my tour of MESA, I found countless references to something called 'scripting', and on trying to open some of the scripts provided, I was told that I needed AppleScript. At first, I wondered whether this might be some form of elven calligraphy performed on fruit that needs to be picked up earlier in the game! However, it turned out to be an extension (pre-installed on all System 7.5 Macs, but also available separately to Macs with earlier system versions) which allows you to automate tasks you perform regularly. However, I saw little point in being able to construct my own faders and buttons (which is part of what 'scripting' is all about) when what I really wanted was for the program to be a damn sight simpler and to help me sort out my crossfades. At this point, I sheathed my magic sword and headed for home.

If you have access to AIFF or SDII files, then MESA will be useful in transferring these to your sampler, and I'm sure the program creation features will be wonderful when you finally get used to them, but if you want to do serious sample editing, then you still need a dedicated program to do the job for you. In MESA's favour, because samples are transferred back and forth using SCSI rather than MIDI, the sound you're working on is still likely to be in fashion by the time you get it loaded. Transferring samples via MIDI is about as slow as trying to back up a digital recording by writing the 1s and 0s on a sheet of paper by hand!

[Irisman]

Finally got the solution with the help of the winxp machine: Chickensys Translator installed on the winxp, reads the akai CD (or image); it also reads the akai formatted ZIP disk. Within Translator you can copy an AKAI program to the ZIP disk (including the samples, etc...) with simple drag and drop. After the work is done, I get the zip disk from the winxp machine and load into the scsi zip unit connected to the Akai. Akai loads the program and voilá 

For this task helps that I have two zip units, one parallel (on winxp) and one SCSI (on AKAI). 

I am sure that MESA is a really interesting tool for editing, but actually Iīm too lazy for 

[supernova777]

LOL

[Irisman]

Ahem... I have to say that I plan to use MESA to easy program the BCR 2000 (midi learn function) and tweak the AKAI filters with rotary knobs... he 

[supernova777]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct02/articles/cdxtract4.asp
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul02/articles/akaiz8.asp

[supernova777]

What is SMDI?
http://peavey.com/support/technotes/midi/smdi.cfm

[supernova777]

check this out
http://martin78.com/samplers/smdi-sample-transfer-over-midi/

This software can upload wav and aiff samples to ANY hardware sampler that supports SMDI transfer protocol by MIDI cable! Designed for Elektron.se hardware machines but works with old samplers also!
I tested it with Yamaha A5000 and it works great! It uploads all selected samples one by one!
I’m sure that this utility will work with Akai, EMU or other hardware samplers.

Update on 19 Dec: I just tested it with akai s3000xl and it works in Turbo x8 mode. It seems that this tool sends data to akai even faster than to yamaha a5000 because there is no significant delay after transfer is complete.

oh wait. midi cable??? WTF? who would wanna do that!
http://martin78.com/sample-page/ this site looks like its got some tricks up its sleeve tho

[Irisman]

Many thanks for help, Chris 

[supernova777]

Many thanks for help, Chris 

i want to have a hardware sampler myself
i have an s950 but this one doesnt hook up to the mac,
i wish i could trade it for one that would connect via scsi to the adapter 2906 card i have
(s1000, s2000, s3000)

[supernova777]

im trying to find an external scsi cd for my s2000 to use with akai sample cds..
does anyone know if theres a max speed of cd read speed that will be supported by the akai s series ?

[supernova777]

SUCCESS!!

this morning when i woke up i had no scsi cdrom..
i went to a hock shop (buy + sell) and i was asking this guy if he had any scsi cdroms and he immediately said no.. then i was chatting it up with the guy for a bit
and he was from australia.. so i was asking why he wanted to live in canada instead of aus its much warmer down there and he was bitching about how cold it is... and then i asked him if he had any zip drives. he finds me a bunch of zip disks and said i could have them (8 x 100mb zip) and then he says hold on, he goes into the back of his truck and pulls out 2 yamaha CDRW SCSI external drives.. is this what u are after? i said YES!!! i was a bit worried because it was a different scsi connector - he said i could have them all for free i insisted on buying him lunch at least so i tossed him 10$ cash - got home - realized i had a castlewood orb scsi cable that diehard had sent me last year.. (at the time i was wondering why he would send me that cable as i thought i would never need it)
i came home thinking i would have no way of hooking it up and then got the cable + set it all up and had no success getting it tload from a burned akai cd that i burned on my imac... i thought the disk was messed but then i finally checked the model number of the unit (yamaha CRW3200SX) and got the correct manual and checked the scsi ids.. set it to the right scsi id (5) and IT WORKS!!! i can load kits from the cd!!!!
amazing;)

thanks to diehard and the noname Australian hockshop dude

i actually was given two of the same yamaha drives.. so i have a backup or one to use with another sampler if + when.. amazing !!

i also learned that the akai s2000 can load EIIIX cds
my first akai cd was called mega drums (i think by best service?) and it sounds great!

ive attached the manual for this specific scsi cdrom external device.. as it was hard for me to find!

setting the scsi id to 5 and terminator (4th dipswitch) to on worked for me!

whats great is this drive is 24x read.. and it seems to load sample programs in no time flat!

[supernova777]

Hi, I bought an akai s3000xl; it seems to works fine    First physical sampler here.

probably a really good buy considering the s3000XL has built in effects + all outputs + digital i/o as standard! (these are all upgrade options on the S2000) i wish i had a s3000XL!!!


(the s2000 has a small ass screen compared to the s3000XL... which has a full size LCD

check out my page on the s series
http://www.oldschooldaw.com/forums/index.php?topic=805.msg835#msg835

[supernova777]

the scsi cdrom that i got. it was the yamaha crw3200sx.. well i actually had two of them.. and only one external power supply so i thought id open up the 2nd one.. and use it internally connected to a scsi card in a g4..
well..  i opened it up. and its IDE!!! so if u can find one of these Yamaha CRW3200SX drives.. if u open it up inside.. im pretty sure u could attach a faster/better CD/DVD drive to it... and have it work just the same.. the drive inside was jumpered to the "slave" setting on the IDE jumpers.. i havent tested this myself but i plan on testing it soon.

so inside the "Scsi" cdrom - its actually an IDE drive.. with SCSI-IDE bridge... i didnt think they had the technology to convert IDE to SCSI back in 2002!! but apparently they did

only trouble is finding a proper power supply for this thing (Connection seen top right on this diagram:)

[nsputnik]

I seem to remember mounting Akai CD-ROMS from the Mac's CD-ROM drive on my S3000XL connected via SCSI.  You just have to set the sampler to the right SCSI ID to mount it.  On the Mac it will display a message that the drive is not formatted.  Just ignore this message (and you can't do anything else on the Mac until your done loading your samples).  Then, assuming you have a Zip drive in between, switch IDs on the sampler again to mount and then save the samples/patches/volume to the Zips disc.  But I will say having a dedicated CDROM drive for loading the samples is a lot easier.

MESA and Recycle were great too.  I used them for 10+ years.  Once I got Ableton Live for my MBP running 10.8.5 I used MESA to get out all of the samples from memory as AIFF files using a PM9600, sent them over the network to the MBP while running 10.6 (since 10.7 killed OSX to Classic networking capabilities), and then set them up in Sampler and Simpler in Live.  I had to remap and everything.

Sweeping the filter via sysex is not possible in the S3000XL, as this was not a realtime control.  You would need to assign the filter to the mod wheel or another CC and then you can do that.

[Irisman]

Sweeping the filter via sysex is not possible in the S3000XL, as this was not a realtime control.  You would need to assign the filter to the mod wheel or another CC and then you can do that.

Ouch...      But its possible to assign whatelse midi message in the BCR2000  so... cool!!