My circuit bent vintage sampler - Akai S2000. (Glitch FX monster)

One of my music studio's secret weapons for noise and interesting glitchy sounds. The Akai S2000.
If you're interested in finding out more about wonderful circuit bent devices like the Akai S2000, check out CircuitBenders.co.uk.
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I post all of the music I make, including WAV stems; sample packs; Dirtywave M8 song bundles; collections of video textures; early access to videos; and a whole pile of other stuff on Patreon. I know I know, I hate doing this as well, but if you like what I do and want to get more of it, while also helping me offset some of my ludicrous gear purchases, this is the best place to do it:
/ allmyfriendsaresynths
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If you just want individual sample packs or downloads of video footage to use in your own projects, get them on Gumroad here: gumroad.com/allmyfriends
If you're in the market for new gear, my favourite place to find new and interesting synthesizers and other electronic music gear is Signal Sounds. They are based in Glasgow, but ship all over the place and often have stuff nobody else does. Find them at www.signalsounds.com/
and a whole pile of other stuff...
Instagram: / allmyfriendsaresynths
My main photo and video art blog: allmyfriendsarejpegs.com
The band I play guitar and sing in: closetorgan.bandcamp.com
The band I play bass and sing in: hogwyld.bandcamp.com
My DIY tape label, Cow Tongue Taco Records: cowtonguetacorecords.bandcamp...
My occasional music blog: unexpectedbowtie.com
Get in touch for possible collabs/offers of large sums of money, etc: allmyfas at gmail

[@wingoshack]

I still have an S2800 that was my main instrument during most of the '90s. I expanded the RAM to 16mb which I thought was massive at the time. The best part was how it took like 10 minutes to load up all my samples from like 9 floppies before a gig.

[@variousdispositions]

What a fantastic ”idea generator” some lovely sounds in there! Thanks for showing!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks for watching!!

[@MDJ5]

i especially enjoy the little stickers you can get from circuitbenders. they made me giggle

[@StephenMcLeod]

Drink petrol for Jesus!

[@morpho87]

Really cool stuff! Interesting and inspiring, thank you!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks!!

[@sammadden5540]

Dude that's hype, would go really hard in a liveset

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's pretty awesome. Unpredictable though, so recording the glitches and then re-sampling them is the best way!!

[@thegreatbigmulp]

I've been looking forward to this one since you'd mentioned it previously! My best friend bent a few S20s and and I'm still kicking myself for not buying one of them from him a decade ago when I had the chance. Those old Akai samplers are great for bending and generate some fantastic sounds.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks for sticking around! I hope it was worth the wait. I love all the bends you can do on the old Akais. I have to resist getting a bunch of them purely for this ha.

[@LabRatWarfare]

An ultimate upload to start the year! This thing is crazy man, a total workhorse! 🌎The glitchy stuff with the "all around the world" sample was out of this world! haha ✏ The research and developement section was also quite pleasing, as I always enjoy watching your process. Succsessful lab results indeed!! 😁🐀

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot LRW! It's a beauty. I think that sample was one I got from you actually...

[@LabRatWarfare]

@@StephenMcLeod 😎 So awesome to hear it put it good use!

[@corticallarvae]

They hit interpolation and all sorts of brilliant bends

[@StephenMcLeod]

Lotsa good stuff in there.

[@I.O.M.]

Very musical circuit bending on this one 👍

[@StephenMcLeod]

They did a great job!!

[@DetroitMicroSound]

My first professional sampler was the S900. It was a few years old, when I got it. I didn't do anything cool like this with it, but it could do cool stuff, with a good sequencer. My first sampler ever, was the Yamaha VSS-30, when it was brand-new in 1987. The first thing I ever did with sampling, was make up nonsense words that sound the same, regardless of the direction you play the sample.😄 Some of the sound these mods make, feel a little like messing around with the granular module in ZOIA. 11:27 👍 nice

[@StephenMcLeod]

Love it! I'd like to get my hands on an S900 at some point...

[@TomMadisonSoundsLewis]

Awww damn, that's all the right kind of "cronch"

[@StephenMcLeod]

SCCREEEUOOOCROOONNNCHHHH

[@MartinYamMoller]

Great vid👏

[@StephenMcLeod]

Gotta add one to yer arsenal!!

[@AT-eh2eo]

Definitely go over that sampler that glitches Audio coming in!

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's on the list!!

[@allanroney]

I’m watching this, eating a McDonalds breakfast. Both New Year’s resolutions broken.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I don't want to guess what the second resolution was!

[@antfactor]

fantastic! 🙂

[@StephenMcLeod]

Such a weirdo piece of gear!!

[@SonicVibe]

😮 amazing

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thaaaanks!

[@avrilcadabra]

Sounds so good, usually not that into circuit bent sounds. You have so much cool stuff, just look at that pencil (no one look at the beautiful RSD behind the hapax)

[@StephenMcLeod]

Yeah, I'm not either, but some of these units are great. The pencil was a rando Christmas present from last year!!

[@cnfuzz]

The final switch combi seems to give a wavetable like effect , fun for hours this one

[@StephenMcLeod]

Yeah! I think at some point the audio gets so mashed up it effectively becomes like that.

[@dillipphunbar7924]

glitch joy. nice mod. wish i could put one of those usb drives in my akai dsp12 digital recorder

[@StephenMcLeod]

What does the Akai DSP12 take?!

[@oscarvilaperez665]

Thank you very much for showing that sex machine, I have a 2000s akai and I still have to install everything again midi connection panel etc. Greetings from Spain Galicia. Take care

[@StephenMcLeod]

I do love a sex machine. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!!

[@audiolego]

A whatttt❤? Holy smokes. That is cool

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's awesome! Check out their site: circuitbenders.co.uk

[@gameon2000]

Love yer scottish accent (Shetland / Orkney?) Those AKAI sounds wicked too.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks! Though I'm a Glaswegian :D

[@leftmono1016]

I've got an Akai S01 which I circuit bent, every RAM pin soldered to a patch bay so you have access to every glitch possible (thanks to Morgan Hendry). You get some very strange results, especially with a few different samples loaded, it sometimes combines samples and glitches them together. Funnily enough the Akai and the patch bay sit next to a D-110.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Akai D-110 brothers!!!

[@Twelve50TV]

Was looking for a video on an Actual bend on an s2000, sorry mate but really let me down here !! just kidden dropped a sub man !

[@StephenMcLeod]

Goddangit! That market was already covered!!

[@MrTom-Songwriter-Composer]

At Time Mark 1:19 . almost sounds like NiN - Head like a Hole. I really like that Akai sampler.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Just had a listen to that track and I see the similarity! Glitches and all.

[@MrTom-Songwriter-Composer]

@@StephenMcLeod Maybe you were in that Trent Reznor mindset 🙂 ? Looks like they used the E-mu EMAX for samples back in the day on that album. Cheers!

[@corticallarvae]

Someone hit the buffer

[@GavinLyonsCreates]

Guess you could put an Arduino board inside the Akai to do the switching and add a Midi interface to the Arduino and then control whole thing by your Midi Controller. Cool video, perfect for vocals!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Ohhh I wish I had the understanding of how to do that. That's be real smart.

[@cooksoni.a]

love this shit

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thaaaanks

[@mapache_al_ataque]

Big ups to Bizzy B. Jungalist mastermind and keeping the vintage Akai 19" rackmount sampler life alive. Love my S2000. Tried getting 2 different floppy drive emulators with all their software and stuff installed in many different configurations and no dice. Therefore, I am still rocking the floppy drive but at least its connected via SCSI to a PC running Win XP and Akai Mesa V2.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Oh dang, sorry to hear the USB Gotek never worked. I want to stick a SCSI Hard Drive in there, but they are so expensive...

[@mapache_al_ataque]

@@StephenMcLeod They make an external SCSI2SD that I am tempted to get.

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@mapache_al_ataque Ohhh. I have an internal SCSI connection but it's too expensy for the SCSI2SD at the mo. Maybe one day...

[@towerrunner4675]

Destruction at RAM is the most brutal hack I've ever seen. I would prefer MIDI hacks.

[@StephenMcLeod]

What kinda MIDI hacks?!

[@maxmatson1578]

Is that zoom 1201 multi-effect rack in your video circuit bent too? I noticed the switches is on it I have one myself I would love to see a video on what circuit bend's you've done for it 🎛️🎧👌

[@StephenMcLeod]

It is indeed! Bent by the same folks at circuitbenders. I'll do a video on it at some point!

[@BrockMcLellan]

At about 8:45 into your video you mention saving content. Of course there is the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, on 2 different types of media, with 1 stored externally. With today's excursion into ancient audio technology, you are using 3.5" floppy disks, that hold a massive 1.44 MB of data. They only date from about 1982. Prior to that, 5.25" floppies first appeared in 1976. These started off holding about 80 kB, but soon expanded to 1.12 MB. For assorted reasons, I have some content stored on 8" floppy disks, yes plural, each holding 80 kB of data. These were first available commercially in 1971, making the earliest ones about 52 years old. The problem that even younger viewers will probably face, is that standards can change quickly, and not everyone is prepared for transitions. It was not possible for me to copy 8" floppy content over to something more modern digitally, because a) this was before people owned their own computers, and b) the school I transferred to, to do graduate studies, only had 5.25" floppies, not 8". In music LPs, 45s, cassettes, 8-tracks and CDs are all outdated, despite what the vinyl enthusiasts say, and people with content they have made using any of those media, should be seriously trying to find ways to preserve their content, by transferring it over to more modern storage media on servers and external hard drives. Happy New Year, Stephen, and everyone else!

[@mastercylinder1939]

The Boring One, had one, couldn’t gel with it and sold it, if only I’d seen your video then.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I've sold so many things and had regrets later!

[@mastercylinder1939]

You’ve bent my Wookiee.........

[@mb2776]

Sooo, I guess I got lucky getting one of these with the 8out card allready installed. Just saw someone on the local classifieds here selling the card for around 150 euro so I keep mine. I don't use the s2000 that much, I'd rather enjoy either my s950 or s3000xl. Both of them fitted with newer screens. Btw, using an old laptop with scsi to control the sampler with MESA is something I have in my mind for some time now. I allready own an old pc on which I installed scsi, drivers and stuff myself to get MESA to work so I'm familiar with that.

[@StephenMcLeod]

You definitely got lucky! Me too. They often command much higher prices with the output boards in them. The boards alone go for about £160 here! I'd love to try out an S950 or S3000XL sometime... I'm curious about the old laptop idea as well. I would need to get a SCSI adapter thing though and I hate Windows soooooooooooo. Maybe one day.

[@mb2776]

@@StephenMcLeod u can still use an old g3 apple laptop, those had a scsi card installed. it's also not that hard to find recycle and mesa for mac. I like my s3000xl but tbh, the s950 is just magic. it's not that obivous compared to a space echo for example, but s950 amen breaks are soo hard hitting. and the filter...damn. I was lucky to get mine for a reasonable price even with rack ears^^

[@blakeronan]

Hamster Powerr......

[@corticallarvae]

9:36 sounds like the Neuman back in the day with better recording ....

[@StephenMcLeod]

As in Gary? High praise indeed!

[@corticallarvae]

@@StephenMcLeod as huge a huge fan of Gary Neuman and tubeway army .... whatever studio setup you have and timing and scale and layed yes... that was 1,000 percent at that moment..obviously it turns into a COIL AUTECHRE SAMPLE BRAIN CONCEPTUAL DEVICE OF IMMENSE POWER...( to be honest I don't complement many people unless I see something profound) ... if you cant see in profile pic its a tachyons plus cv bend.. so I grew circuit bending and am entrenched with the Logan and drew hagiography... but started with audio bending as tween in the early 90s..90 91 92... so wouldn't compare your origional sequence and voice to Gary Neumans post punk efforts or new wave without knowing his catalog... you should check out the video for dust Logan did with him.... its not the primary video but he's present and it's 10× the official video

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@corticallarvae Amazing! I've seen that video already actually. It's awesome. I've got an OptiGlitch from Logan that I use a lot for my video art. Thanks for the kind words!

[@corticallarvae]

Who cares if it's destructive it's awesome

[@user-tw8yh9ew9l]

Are circuit bender still doing this mod ?

[@StephenMcLeod]

I believe so, yes.

[@InternalMind]

Greet, ye can mek et sond lik ye samples ah comen frum ah rusty ben 😂

[@StephenMcLeod]

I think you've just managed a brilliant Peterhead accent ;)

[@mastercylinder1939]

It’s music Jim, but not as we know it!

[@christianvandalstrom8337]

Sounds like autechre did this in the 90's.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I'm actually not that familiar with autechre so will have to check them out!

[@christianvandalstrom8337]

@@StephenMcLeod Ok. I know they did a lot of circuit bending 90 - 2000 something.

[@towerrunner4675]

He handles that device like Aphex Twin. It ain't yours till modification.

[@els1f]

Incoming pearl-clutchers "How DARE you do something interesting with an old piece of equipment! 😤 It is to be preserved in its original packaging and never altered!🧐" Lol

[@StephenMcLeod]

Nobody wants these things anyway!!!

[@els1f]

@@StephenMcLeod oh I know lol 😋 It's just a sentiment that's usually present in any circuit bending/modifying video

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@els1f thankfully I've managed to avoid most of that so far!!

[@SirSybian]

Lol wtf hahahahah

[@StephenMcLeod]

Indeed.