AKAI S5000 HARDWARE SAMPLER: Pure filth for the money!

[@pantov]

yo bizzy! what do ya think of polyend tracker?

[@TheBizzyBScience]

I don't to be fair, I prefer the real deal ( my MacBook pro and Renoise whilst on the move ) way cheaper and tons of features, I reached out to the polyend team for a loan machine to review, an they turned me down point-blank.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

@G Zeus 100% with you on that mate

[@baddriddimworkshop]

with an S5000 it would be splendid, i was just thinking about it before i read this comment.

[@ultrajayme]

@@TheBizzyBScience why would the deny you? ....cuz they knew the outcome?

[@jonathansoko1085]

@@ultrajayme Those smaller gear companies can be weird with who they give review stuff to. Tbh alot of it is political and personal, they tend to give them to people they know and like already because alot of them arent looking for objectivity. Im not accusing polyend but what i said happens often.

[@CannedFunkMusic]

I have an S5000 that I bought when it was new. I also bought the extra 8 outs for a total of 16, and the USB card (game changer!!!) I felt it was basically a PC dedicated to sampling. The software for your PC or Mac that allows you to both drag and drop wavs or even control the session from your Mac/PC made this thing bullet proof. I made so many songs with it and it was really smooth.

[@georgegeez8708]

Hey man, great video. I've always loved Akai samplers. I bought an MPC2000 and an S3000XL back in '97 when they came out for a great deal for buying both. I still have my MPC2000, 2 of them as a matter of fact. I got rid of the S3000XL in 2000. 2 years later I bought the S5000 for dirt cheap ($200 USD). Loved it. Then got rid of it a few years later. A few years ago, I ended finding and buying the S6000 for dirt cheap as well ($220 USD). That is what I always wanted. Still have it and love it. Nowadays those go for about 4 times what I bought. I would never ger rid of that one. I'm about to pull it out of storage and load her up to use it. Again, great video. Just became a sub. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Hi George, Thanks for reaching out its great to hear that your getting back in the fun, I am experimenting with the RASCSI and also the Zuluscsi, so look out for more vids on the way!

[@kvmoore1]

Nice tracks, man. Really nice tracks. I know this is on the drum & bass / jungle style. However, I used to listen to a lot of bass music back in the early and mid 90's growing up. This definitely reminds me of the bass music around '93-'94. Listening to your beats in this video felt like going back in time to that era. Excellent work, keep it up. I used to want an S5000 back in 2002 to upgrade from the E-MU ESI2000 I was using at the time (I still have the ESI too). I actually ordered one but it was on backorder and it took forever. So, I later lost my patience and cancelled the order for the S5000 and ended up getting a refurbished S3200XL for a good price instead and installed MESA on my Windows ME desktop I had at the time with the sampler connected via SCSI. This setup worked nicely for a while until my computer later clunked out on me (harddrive crashed!! It was time to upgrade anyway). After getting a new computer with Windows XP, I tried installing MESA. It wouldn't install. Since I couldn't get MESA to work on my new machine, that meant I no longer could import my favorite .WAV file samples into the S3200XL. Therefore, I eventually sold it. By then, I was done with proprietary format samplers and got into MPCs and was eventually able to get me an MPC4000. I still have it today as well as an E-MU E4XT Ultra along with lots of SCSI peripherals and some of the latest MPCs too. BTW, My E4XT Ultra was updated to EOS 4.7 which utilizes the FAT 32 DOS format. And yes, it can also import computer .WAV files as well as read and convert a bunch of other sampler formats. The same goes for my MPC4000 as well. I really enjoyed watching your video and it definitely brings back memories. Thanks!!!

[@NachtSchreck13]

Killer tracks! I was heavily into Jungle and DnB from 93 to the early 2000's (my favorite years being 94-96). This sounds totally on point as an emulation of the 94 sound.

[@gcoudert]

This was the best sampler I ever owned and I've had a few.

[@CannedFunkMusic]

I agree!!!

[@poorboybmx2511]

Oh man, I brought one of these brand new and only used it for a couple of hours. circumstances meant I had to pack the studio gear and this machine never came out of its box, it's out now, has usb card, expanded memory and two scsi 250 zip drives. Thanks for the kick up the arse 👍 I have akai.sys too, using on an old xp machine

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Sounds slick man, nice one!!

[@AnalogDude_]

the same happened to my AKAI CD3000XL, it still has the foil on the LCD in it's box.

[@TheBroDotTV]

Wow great video. I remember when the S5000 and 6000 came out they were highly desirable but like you say at the same time software samplers were beginning to take over.

[@yamyite]

Man’s put in the work getting that up to code! 👍🏻

[@MrNote365]

Nice to get knowledge about this, i mainly do boom bap, but i love the samplers world, and the s5000/6000 always were a huge beast that i don't know where to start with. Waiting for the hardware and software era change vid. Cheers

[@stewarthamilton1185]

Love the videos on the s5000, Bizzy! Quick question, I picked up mine with some sample CDs. They seem to be for the s3000, will they only work with the 3k range? I am getting a 'SCSI Error' when trying to load programs/samples.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

As far as I know it should support it I will double check asap

[@RoofLight00]

Yup, I got one of these a Roland VP9000 and an EMU E4X turbo. My Akai came with a hard drive memory upgrade USB card and extra outs all of em I got a few years ago when they were being given away for cheap. All of these machines are different and really unique in sound due to filters and converters.

[@museum1401]

Nice to see a solid video about this as there aren't many around. I'd love to see your take on that time period when computers started to take over. I remember when all my favourite artists were using expensive Akai samplers that I couldn't afford while I was just figuring out Octamed and Protracker on my Amiga lol

[@dougbolt7458]

I picked up an S5000 a few years ago. First thing I did was replace the front disk drive with a SCSI2SD. I'm pretty sure it's a V.5. Hot swapping works fine and I don't recall ever having the S5000 lock up taking the card out or putting it back in with new samples. Loading samples is now as easy as putting the SD card in the PC and dropping the .wav files onto the card. Pop the card back into the front of the sampler and load up the new samples. Super simple. I have the USB card as well, and while I've messed a bit with the software on the PC I found that it's a lot faster to do your programs from the front face of the sampler.

[@JurajKavka]

bizzy those demos are insane man ! :)

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Thanks

[@artem34901]

Thank you Bizzy B 4 these videos, there's always something to learn.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Glad you like them!

[@homecoils599]

Damn, did i saw octamed tracker on Amiga ? 😍🤩thks 4 video man 💪

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Yes yes it's octamed

[@edmx]

What's up Brian? Spotted the prince jazzbo sample "forward ever backward never!"

[@TacoCrisma]

Trying to understand hardware samplers but came here to say your drops are absolutely filthy. I love this era of jungle and dnb.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

thank you sir

[@fanusamurai]

I bought one (again) earlier this year...loving it

[@TheBizzyBScience]

nice !!! Was it fully loaded?

[@aza.ak1ra]

That beat has that MTV Amp, early 2000s, late 90s vibe to it and I love it :D

[@Strafuzz]

Lucky enough to own fully loaded 5 and 6000. Record a break in on the “mic” setting then layer under the original break. Adjust volume to taste. Best parallel distortion I ever heard. Also if your sound card has an optical in and out you can connect direct to DAW digitally. So I guess you can record high fidelity sound as you’ll be bypassing the AD converters. I use mine with an octatrack as the sequencer/sound mangler and the Akai as the backing track.

[@Strafuzz]

@@Rainersherwood yeah with an s5000 you can sequence it or the s5000 itself can be used as a sequencer

[@Strafuzz]

@@Rainersherwood the s5/6000 don’t have that classic time stretch sound, you can get that from s2/3000 ranges

[@Strafuzz]

@@Rainersherwood You have loads of options in terms of the unit itself, try and get one maxed out with all the add ons. Having said that they are not necessary. I have it set up to recieve midi from my DAW but thanks to my midi interface (motu XT) I can use it with and without my DAW. When I go DAWless I use the octatrack as the sequencer. The only thing to remember is that when you're importing files it can read only 16BIT or lower, although it can record up to 24BIT.

[@chillwalker]

Every time I saw this an a Studio I "tried" to heat something in it and asked "Where does this F*cking Microwace has its Door?" Never got old! ;-)

[@mikebailey783]

Man these samplers were absolute behemoths - I want to get my s6000 down from the loft!

[@LadyO_333]

Let me know if you decide to sell😛

[@mindcontrolbsm9046]

Love to see you Legend at work

[@fozbeeMusic]

Who thumbs down this...beyond words. Akai are quality but I no longer have patience to use my s3000..

[@bontempo1271]

Lmao, i love how Bizzy can put together proper tracks like it's nothing. Yea, the S5000 and 6000, are full sampling workstations really. You can build your whole track on there. But, with the numerous filters, filter and amp envelopes, LFO, modulation assignment etc, you literally have a synth at your disposal aswell. The USB card and Aksyn software is what does it for me. I can do everything from the software, drag and drop from my pc, use all functions with the mouse, makes it so much quicker. And it does have a sound. It can be perfectly clean up to 16bit 48khz, or you can play with settings to downsample, or use the mic input setting to get some distortion going. I was comparing it to straight software, and what i found is that it does something with the highs, but weirdly, it massages out a drum loop to make it more musical. What i mean by that, is that i had a drum loop which sounded a bit off, groove wise. Felt a bit clanky or jarring, not flowing enough. The Akai sort of filled in the gaps, smoothing it out, and that made it groove better, more musical. I will say that the software had more defined drum hits, more transient, but the Akai kind of smoothed everything out and it just sits better, grooves better, rolls/flows, more musical. I did this testing with top notch calibrated monitoring. Makes a world of difference to what you can hear.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Thanks for sharing, yes I agree that all of these samplers have a cool sound

[@anthonyyoung286]

Sounds like it doubles as an auto groove-quantize machine . . .

[@AmigaJunglism]

Been using my s5000 with OctaMED recently. It’s nice to be able to control the filters with the mod wheel command 440-47F.

[@MattFay23]

Yeah, there was Halion, but eventually there was Native Instrument's Kontakt. Kontakt was a game changer with it's KSP programming language. Big library ROM developers started ditching AKAI format and started making either sample CDs or Kontakt instruments. I remember the S5000 from the front page of Sound on Sound around the time I got into producing. I was in awe, the specs were better than most PCs at the time. Always wanted one.

[@Arc.hitectureMusic]

Recycle 2.0 generates an Akai AKP file which should be able to be read by the S5000. I don’t have an S5000 to try it with yet but I could send over an akp file to try this out with. In theory it should be as simple as drag and dropping that file to your SD card used for the S5000.

[@ukgaragetapepacks]

You want original sound of your own, you need to sample, Akai my number one choice.

[@SwetStet]

Hey Bizzy did you get the usb add on in the end, would love to see a updated video on this.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

I did and its wicked, sorry I think I need to put that on the list

[@SwetStet]

Its okay no need to apologise, i know your really busy my man.

[@rhkavli]

I have a S6000 with software version 2.14, 256MB RAM and a SD2SCSI version 6. Transfer through the SD2SCSI works absolutely brilliant. Actually I have a RaspberryPi stuck inside the S6000, so I can just log in to the S6000 and copy files to and from the SD-card. That makes it very easy to edit samples using Audacity and then transfer them to the S6000. I have the Akai USB interface and it's complete and utter garbage. If you're lucky enough to have a machine that can run AkSys, that is. If not it's not only garbage, but also utterly useless.

[@danielortizdecaracas]

I LOVE THIS SAMPLER

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Nice piece of kit

[@TheDaydreamSound]

Thanks for posting this Bruv!!!

[@RC-nj1by]

I am using the ZuluSCSI and I also had my S5000 hang when hot swapping the SD card. The problem is that the S5000 rescans the whole drive bus when you remove the SD, and it is looking for the floppy (which is no longer be there if you internally mounted the SD reader in your floppy bay).....Since it can't find it it just infinitely sits on the "scanning...." screen. I mounted my floppy in the HD bay right next to the floppy bay which my SD card was now taking up. The floppy drive may be inaccessible from the front panel, but at least it's there to stop the S5000 absolutely crapping itself when you pop out your SD card. After that you can easily hot swap the SD card.....you may just need to "rescan" from the menu, but it goes thru with no issues.

[@adamsansom4822]

Can this be controlled by mesa? Also, how do you link two samplers together with one disk drive and a computer?

[@youcantno3963]

Quick tip- Buy an old apple G4 MacBook with OSX 10.4 (mine cost £30 off the ‘bay) and get a USB card for your Akai then you can run Aksys software and dump and edit samples, edit outputs and all sorts of crazy stuff like there’s no tomorrow! 👍🏼 I absolutely love my S5000. I have a couple of EMUs as well (an Ultra and an older E4, I love them as well but they’re much warmer and softer) and tha Akai smokes em both for punch and cutting through a mix. I use it for my drums a LOT!

[@alphabeets]

First rule before using a piece of gear… update the OS to the latest version before complaining. There is a reason why firmware updates exist.

[@Richard_P_James]

Sounding fantastic!

[@tristate0mind]

Ill vid Bizzy. Def do a vid on Hard to Soft ware. We appreciate ur dedication to the culture.

[@ultrajayme]

When jungle gets under your skin it takes hold of you. Junglist here since 96 and it's for life

[@RC-nj1by]

hearing someone call it a ...wav....rather than just saying "wave". Mind blown...first time ever hearing that.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Lol, .wav or .wave

[@rorz999]

Damn what a beast of a sampler

[@jonathansoko1085]

I assumed that the prices for these would be on the moon, but it seems the hipsters havent gotten to the rack samplers yet (cross your fingers). When i get a job im gonna have to finally pick one up, ive always wanted one

[@sammadden5540]

IDK dude Pete Cannon put the prices of those classic Akais up after the sound on sound video 😅

[@christophermatthias3327]

I still use my Z4 and Z8 together unrivalled sound quality

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Any tricks on there? A few people keep mentioning the z4

[@groovethief711]

Z4?

[@pauloespadinha2754]

Hi, Yes this is an beast ! Could you please tell us if (as the s950 and s1000 ) the akai midi prtocol transfert/receive works also with the s5000 from to s950 s1000 s3000 ? Thanks

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Not sure what you mean, but with the usb card you can drop samples from your pc to your sampler

[@readventurekids]

You're a mine of knowledge, sir!

[@joee6014]

Any real time sample mangling allowed with the s5000/6000??

[@sonfx]

Cool video. Does it have the same noisy fan as the s6000?

[@oldfatbastad6053]

you can invert the display so it shows as white text on blue, easier on the eye :)

[@HarryLoveTV]

rah the 6000 screen kinda looks like it could be repurposed as a kinda mpc. I wonder if someone will one day do some JJOS style OS hacks to unleash modern potential of these machines. Seems such a shame that all the incredible engineering that went into these things often falls by the wayside in favour of cheap plastic stuff that falls apart within 5 years when we see how much of that tech has received a whole new lease of life simply by replacing the mechanical drives and sometimes boosting the processing capacity. if the newer gear exceeded the abilities, features & sonics of the older stuff then it would be slightly less tragic but wouldn't reduce the current landfill fodder. Anyway, thanks again for your valuable info. Rarer than rocking horse dooodooooooo

[@AnalogDude_]

what is this often repeating sound you hear alot from 14m25? Many (hardcore) techno tracks in the 90ties used this sound aswell.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

its a time-stretched snare , done in an akai s950

[@AnalogDude_]

@@TheBizzyBScience ah, thanks.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

@@AnalogDude_ its an amen snare timestretched

[@LightBlazeMC]

insanely good video!!

[@ollieroks]

Great stuff

[@Planetugm]

Sick drop! Takes me right back to 95 14:33

[@treangle]

Proper chune Bizzy!

[@rocznik83]

I it possible to fit a SCSI ZIP drive in this? I know that it is possible with 2000XL.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Great review.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@albionpatterns3986]

You get one with the USB card mate? I'm looking at getting a 5000 so this is really interesting video, nice wannn!! PS Show us the 5000 filters!

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Unfortunately, my usb card is yet to obtain from ebay LOL , I will keep an eye out! I am using the filters in the demo at the end of the vid, what did you think?

[@albionpatterns3986]

@@TheBizzyBScience In the little jam you did? I must have missed it but so far im very impressed, I didnt know it had different filter types. I'll look forward to more S5000 content dude, I love it!!!

[@wax494]

Yes yes Bizzy... you can use recycle with the S5000... just Export as .AKP

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Thats a good one man, thanks for tip Bb

[@D84D]

does akai make the v2 update a free download?

[@XBASS247]

sorry you showed in this vid i was just dig in out ya videos sorry for the question my bruda ive had to put away my 3000xl because of space so ive got s50000 here going try master the time stretching right now as its my day off thank you bizzy i think you will like the programming side of usb you can make some dark basslines ya know through usb

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Thanks for watching and digging through my videos! No need to apologize for the question, I'm here to help. Good luck with mastering the time stretching on your s50000, and enjoy your day off!

[@analogrich]

madness mate... i need one

[@XBASS247]

👊🏽bizzy how u doing the time scratching so good on the s5000 please show my bruda

[@XBASS247]

sorry you showed in this vid i was just dig in out ya videos sorry for the question my bruda ive had to put away my 3000xl because of space so ive got s50000 here going try master the time stretching right now as its my day off thank you bizzy i think you will like the programming side of usb you can make some dark basslines ya know through usb

[@CannedFunkMusic]

I just didn’t like that they limited the converters to 18 bit instead of 24.

[@davidpetersonharvey]

I used a SCSI Zip drive with mine. Yes, it does sound different than an S950. This is 16 bit. I still have mine. It works. I need to do the floppy replacement.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Scsi 2 sd or rascsi are fun with this and work nice

[@Basedboomerchadbear]

Does this add the lofi grunge to breaks??? …or is the s950 the only way to go…

[@TheBizzyBScience]

this has a 16 bit sound, clean. the 950 has a retro old skool sound

[@TZZHZZ]

TheBizzyBScience ,It's nice, but you're confused, but can't you use the studio technique

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

Tuned in for the sampler, stayed for the dope flat top haircut. Grow it taller!

[@awkwardtom]

Sold mine long time ago it was a beast for sure. Usb was handy but underutilised really. Had an extenal 230mb MO drive which was cool but it went pop when I went to install in the spare bay oops....!

[@joetrojan2568]

super easy to use and have high quality interpolation.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Respect, Thanks for the support

[@oldfatbastad6053]

better to buy a vgc machine that needs upgrading that a poor condition one thats fully loaded and looks like its had the crap beaten out of it. i picked up a new old stock s6000(mint, factory box) from emusamplerspares(great bloke Andy :) ) earlier this year 😇

[@mccodebreaker]

wicked video.. want the 9 items one!! tune its baddd!!!! o/

[@audiolego]

Nice

[@danielortizdecaracas]

how maximum RAM is possible??

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Up to 256Mb of standard computer RAM can be fitted (that's over 25 minutes of full‑bandwidth stereo sampling) and the polyphony is a generous 128 voices as standard on the S6000, or 64 voices upgradable to 128 on the S5000.

[@storehausholdingllc406]

I have 2 of them! I have a 750GB SSD in mine

[@Rhythmattica]

The original E4 III/IV before the GChip, would have to be the dogs bollocks.. But I Still prefer a K2000 fully loaded that an Akai... ImHO

[@baddriddimworkshop]

I cant believe the price these are sold, unless spending 2k, i'd rather have this than any VA synth, and the converters... this world is crazy, all that chinese plastic consumer crap sold to end up in the garbage after five years....

[@alianshampoprisioners7056]

Nice music... 😎😎😎

[@rd-cv4vm]

❤‍🔥

[@sammadden5540]

We're those time stretches from the s5000?¿?

[@TheBizzyBScience]

They were samples from my s3000xl

[@sammadden5540]

@@TheBizzyBScience I was going to say sounded pretty close to the classic S series for me 😅 I've been eyeing one off, how easy do you reckon running midi from a DAW to control it is?

[@Takepowers]

0:23 Hahah, is that Serafina from Fijit?

[@darrenmcintosh8471]

hardware samplers are such a ball ache to use in comparison to soft samplers by which you can do things quicker and do alot more

[@TheBizzyBScience]

For me its Fun, passion, processing and unique sound

[@darrenmcintosh8471]

@@TheBizzyBScience fair play fella

[@DJFAmenHeavy]

Boom 14:24

[@christiantorma2440]

😎🤘😎🤘😎🤘

[@MrDigimal]

Whopper tunes. Proper jungle bikinis!!

[@Statementdogorginal]

Sold mine loong time ago...lol🤤

[@leewightman8619]

Looks like a piece of hospital equipment

[@Harzurner]

Cool but I dont need all these features lol, just give an S950 or S1000. I just want to sample breakbeats from vinyl. That's all, 😂.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Who needs all those fancy features when all you want to do is sample breakbeats? Keep it simple, right?

[@CC-fi3pp]

Give me an S950 over this any day.

[@TheBizzyBScience]

There kind of like bbq sause or ketchup I like the s5000 for features and remastering my old stuff , but the s950 sounds great and will give you some propper unique akai stretches and sound artifacts.

[@orlandeuce6567]

I GOT AN AKAI S2000

[@Jonny_Does_Breaks]

Your gonna need more rack space or stay away from ebay. 😃👍

[@TheBizzyBScience]

NOOOO! its sad man

[@jasontorres3834]

Boff waff fies. Lulz.

[@WARDISWARD]

lpb 4 is for noobs LPB 12-24 is the real deal

[@XBASS247]

im late very late but about time you picked up one i need the master to see if theirs anything ive missed I use recycle wiv the s5000 Just chop export as a akai ,akp program file Save in any folder Then I start up virtual box runing windows xp in windows 11 Start the program ak. Sys/akais5000 Program in usb mode in windows xp That’s the program for the akais5000 Then load them up Transfers ready to us just like akais3000xl Allso all you akai messa programs work on the s5000 It’s All about the usb 👊🏽 The usb only works in 32 bit So you need virtual box runing 32 bit program of windows , that’s gets rid of 2 computers that tune a badnesss 14:09

[@bontempo1271]

omg, thats a big tip there Xbass. I had no idea a virtual box would work with that old software and interface with the old equipment. But can you still use Windows 10, the usb connection and your DAW software at the same time as running Virtual box ? At the moment i'm using an old laptop to run old software. I even have some Win95 software i need to use !

[@XBASS247]

@@bontempo1271 sorry late but the answer is yes

[@bontempo1271]

@@XBASS247 lol, a year late is better than never. Thanks for the answer !

[@alexalbaneive7015]

Anche io ho questo campionatore. e' una bellissima macchina e molto semplice da usare!!! il display e' molto grande e semplice da controllare!!

[@TheBizzyBScience]

Sì Boom foot, grazie per il tuo commento e supporto, è un buon campionatore