Akai S900
The 12-bit sampler that became the de facto standard for an entire generation of sample libraries.
Overview
The S900 is a 12-bit digital sampler with a frequency range up to 20kHz, according to Akai's own advertising in Studio Sound (January 1987, p.55). The same ad claimed up to 63 seconds of sampling time, 32 multisample points and 756k of memory. It could be multitimbral, controlling eight different voices at once. With the optional trigger card, it could be played from drum pads. The 3.5-inch disk drive was described as fast and reliable, and each disk held one megabyte of sound and performance data.
Mix (February 1987, p.39) ran advertising that positioned the S900 as bringing "the most exciting and realistic form of digital synthesis in the history of modern civilization" to "the common man" — marketing hyperbole, certainly, but the pitch was clear: this was affordable sampling with crystal-clear frequency response, capable of capturing every nuance of a concert grand piano and every vibration of a priceless violin. Whether it delivered on that promise depended on what you fed it, but the 12-bit conversion gave the S900 a characteristic grit that later 16-bit machines smoothed away.
The S900's successor, the S950, was described by Akai in Studio Sound (March 1989, p.11) as offering "a whole range of extra features - at a lower price," including expandable memory and a 48kHz sampling frequency. So Akai undercut the S900's price and added features at the same time.
The S900 doesn't have the expanded feature set of its successors. The S950 added the higher sampling rate and memory expansion.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.