Akai S3000 (1993)

Name: Akai S3000
Brand: Akai

Not much is documented about the Akai S3000 as a standalone model. Most of what survives comes through the S3000XL, the later and better-documented revision, and through references in other Akai manuals. What the record does show: the S3000 was a 16-bit stereo sampler with 32-voice polyphony and 2 MB of internal memory standard, expandable to 32 MB via SIMMs. It had a 40×6 character backlit LCD with graphic waveform editing. Sampling rates were 44.1 kHz and 22.05 kHz, with phase-locked stereo sampling and playback. It had stereo jack inputs, stereo L/R outputs, eight assignable individual outputs, a stereo headphone jack, and SPDIF digital I/O on RCA phonos.

The S3000 came from the same generation as the S2800 and S3200, and it introduced Assignable Program Modulation (APM). APM lets you route LFOs, envelopes, and MIDI controllers to destinations like pitch, amplitude, and filter cutoff. Akai's own manual for the S3000XL notes that APM "was first introduced on the Akai S2800, S3000 and S3200," which is one of the few direct acknowledgments of the S3000's place in the lineup. The S3000 also supported an optional IB304F filter board, which added a second bank of multi-mode resonant filters and a third envelope generator. Another option was the EB16 multi-effects processor with four channels of effects.

The S3000's sound library was compatible with the S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S2800, S3200, and later the S2000 and S3200XL. Data could be stored on floppy disk, hard disk, Syquest removable cartridges, and magneto-optical disks. The S3000XL manual notes that S3000 sample and program data can be used on the S3000XL with no special software. The reverse, reading S3000XL data on an S3000, is not directly supported without a software update. The S3000XL also added a MULTI mode for multi-timbral sequencing and layering, which the S3000 lacked.

Period coverage of the S3000 specifically is thin. Mix (February 1995, p.149) ran an Akai S-Series family advertisement that positioned the range as "professional sampling options" for budgets "small or large," but the S3000 itself is not singled out in the surviving text. EQ (April 1998, p.50) mentions the S3000 in passing in a sampling techniques piece, noting that producer Maserati used one in his setup alongside Steinberg's ReCycle. That is a rare concrete reference to the model in contemporary print. Beyond that, most of what's recorded about the S3000 comes from its role as the foundation for the S3000XL, and from the compatibility notes in Akai's own manuals.

Known specifications, drawn from the S3000XL manual's references to the S3000 series and from the MPC3000 manual's compatibility notes:

16-bit stereo sampling, 44.1 kHz / 22.05 kHz
32-voice polyphony
2 MB internal memory standard, expandable to 32 MB via SIMMs
40×6 character backlit LCD with waveform editing
Stereo jack inputs, stereo L/R outputs, 8 assignable individual outputs, stereo headphone jack
SPDIF digital I/O on RCA phonos
Optional IB304F filter board (multi-mode resonant filters, third envelope)
Optional EB16 multi-effects processor (4 channels: distortion, EQ, ring mod, modulation, delay, reverb)
Assignable Program Modulation (APM)
Storage: floppy, hard disk, Syquest, magneto-optical
Sound library compatible with S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S2800, S3200, S2000, S3200XL