Why the Akai S5000 is the GOAT (AK.SYS USB)

[@ceounicom]

s5000 plus an Yamaha 01V was the basis of my production rig in the late 90s. it was a pretty slick setup and way ahead of its time. For the most part the PC just did midi sequencing/arranging, and then recording full mixdowns. in theory I could run individual tracks out of sampler, into the mixer, and then separately into the PC via adat card (w/ the old frontier designs dakota), but the nice thing about the hardware was you could pretty much just set up any mix as presets (a multi in the akai, and a scene in the mixer) and endlessly tweak it until your complete arrangement was done and then just record the finished mix. what killed it was windows updates - by either 7 or 8, both the Ak.sys software and the frontier designs sound card drivers were no longer being supported, and it just made it too much of a hassle to swap samples between the computer and sampler manually. It was kind of a dark period of the late 2000s early 2010s, When 90s hardware was being treated as obsolete and at the same time a lot of the DAWs and VSTs were kind of buggy and unstable on windows, though I think everything improved quickly after ~2012-2014. i've been wanting to get the sampler up and running again now that I use eurorack system a lot - it would be fun to design polyphonic patches using the eurorack for sound design, but I still haven't taking the time to set up a virtual machine and install Windows XP and see if I can get the ak.sys software running again. some day!

[@Thought-Forms]

Awesome!!! A digital mixer & the s5000 in the late 90s, would have been a king. Shame the S5000 and subsequent Akai's didn't seem to do as well with computers becoming viable for production. Also kind of funny how popular this stuff is becoming again. No better time to get everything back out and running! Highly recommend a SCSI2SD in place of the drive - even with pure XP hardware, I was constantly having issues with things disconnecting. Nice to have a little SD card you can flop back and forth easily. cheers!

[@1000ciels]

Useful video, thanks!

[@XBASS247]

had mine 8 years brought off ebay back in the day for £120 maxed out and usb and all running well on windows 11 in 2023 with the help of virtual box

[@Thought-Forms]

sweet!!! that's an insane deal. crazy to see how much some of these things go for now. glad to hear all is running smooth in virtual box too

[@VilnisTukums]

Amazing review!

[@Thought-Forms]

Cheers!

[@phillypainting303]

Love my s5000 found it for $110 got a rascsi with a rasberry pi and it is better than Akai could have ever imagined. Definately would recommend rascsi

[@Thought-Forms]

Wow, that is an insane deal!!! I've looked into rascsi, definitely on my list of potential upgrades

[@saren6538]

what does rasberry pi do ?

[@DavidMorley]

I still love my S6000. I agree it’s the pinnacle of AKAI hardware samplers. The good old days of cheap hardware samples is gone now in reality due to the many options of adding SD or CF cards. But I still prefer working on a hardware sampler through a mixing table than in the box

[@Thought-Forms]

cheers david! the s6000 was a beast, massive unit - really the pinnacle of all samplers before the switch to the "ITB" age. i sadly sold my s5000 and went all in on E-MU E4's - but find myself missing that large screen lately. nothing like working on hardware

[@DavidMorley]

Nothing wrong with EMU. I still have an original EIII@@Thought-Forms

[@zorancalic65]

I have s5000 and s3000xl, but I do not use tham long time. I just wonder, what today would be benefit to use s5000 instead sample one in Studio one DAW? For me, it is much easier to sample, i have unlimited number of tracks, lines, instruments, i can save 1000 sounds.. I onestly wonder why should I connect again s5000?

[@drgoodusername]

You don't need AK.sys and an old 32 bit PC... the software has been reborn. Check out S56Sys screen...

[@mufti-day]

Can you send a link 🎉

[@hearmenow909]

@@mufti-day Google?

[@orlandeuce6567]

I COULD HAVE GOTTEN THIS BACK IN THE 90'S BUT MY MONEY SAID NO GET THE S2000

[@Thought-Forms]

Man that S2000 could still put in work though, just a pain with that tiny screen LOL

[@saschapreisig5592]

Hey folks, love these S5000 machines!!!! make a lot of tracks back in the day with ONLY this Monster..... But now, i fully maxed out everything, incl. the usb card, BUT in need DRIVERS for win xp. Does anyone have it? Please i need it! Also, i work with the mpc4000 with ak.sys. Because of that it makes definately sense to connect the s5000 and transferring back and forth between the two AKAIS. Anyone? Thanxxxxxxxx!

[@saschapreisig5592]

Problem solved! I get the drivers from a client of me, many thanks anyway!

[@Thought-Forms]

@@saschapreisig5592 sorry sascha, saw this comment a bit late, but glad you were able to find them. for anyone else who is curious, you can find them on archive.org as well. waybackmachine has an archive of the old akai website and the files are still hosted

[@GeneralDead1978]

aksys working on win7 x32 with my Z4

[@XBASS247]

allso work on 64bit windows any with virtual box

[@DS-fj8fh]

Can USB output send audio via usb? How about with 16 channels?

[@Thought-Forms]

Negative, USB wont transmit audio, would need to use the analog or adat outs

[@_P_M_]

Nice video. Why this over the Z8?

[@Thought-Forms]

Thanks! Main reason for me was the big ass screen on the 5000. It's really nice and lately I find myself using it more than ak.sys. If you go deeper, I believe the S5000 can have more voices through expansion (128 vs 64 in the z8) and more individual outs (16 with expansion vs 8 or 10 I think on the z8)

[@GeneralDead1978]

@@Thought-Forms but Z4\8 can load 24\96 samples, have 512mb ram and internal IDE interface (can install cheap ssd), Q-link knobs and onboard usb (not rare and expensive).

[@straighttalk2069]

Really like my Z4 it's got 512MB ram, the Adat board fitted, S/PDIF, dual external facing internal SSD drive-bay and I'm about to fit a new LED display, to replace the old LCD.

[@hearmenow909]

Better workflow.

[@audiolego]

Better than the Z8?

[@RoofLight00]

There’s no ‘better’ really just differences in sound, operation build etc

[@scottmcdiarmid8196]

AKAI Z4 and Z8 samplers are better imho

[@1000ciels]

I agree, especially if you plan to use a computer to edit samples, programs etc. I have the Z8 and it's sweet but the screen is too small for my old eyes. I prefer the front panel of the S5000.

[@Harzurner]

Wrong the S950 is the GOAT