Akai S-3000XL

Well, all basic functions are really easy to learn without the manual. The knobs and buttons are pretty self-explanatory. I only had to consult the manual when creating loops but that seems pretty easy also.

Polyphony 32 voices is enough for me. Most of the time I use only 1 sample at a time so it's plenty. I don't have the effects board so opinion on that. MIDI cababilities are great. I haven't tested them all 'yet but I'm quite confident it'll perform well. I use my computer as a sequencer accepting notes from my master keyboard... then routed to this unit from comp. Works like a dream.

Well, I don't use patches or other's samples so no opinions on them. The sound of this unit is good, has better "tone" than most software samplers I've used (perhaps it's my soundcard that's crappy ;)

I think this unit works well for all kinds of music. Well except "real" rock maybe.. it requires a band! :D

I bought it used. It's about 12 years old at the time of writing and it still works like a dream. No froze-ups or anything like that. I wouldn't gig without a backup...

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Well it's hardware... it's more 'hands on' even if it's digital. Love the 8 assignable outputs, the sound quality (there are better samplers of course but this one is good enough for me). If it was lost, I would buy it if I found one somewhere. It's definetely worth what I paid for it.

I've been into electronic music since the year 2000, using mainly software but starting to collect hardware now. I chose this one because of it's legendary status, its sound quality, its durability...

I have a CDROM drive for it but planning on buying a hard drive (if I found a compatible one).

If you prefer hardware, classic stuff and easy to use sampler and can find this one at a cheap price, I'd say GO FOR IT!

Moderately easy to use, manauls not bad, just give your self a week to learn it and spend time with it.

Back in the mid late 90s this thign was top of the range. though it seem a little limited now in specs, it is still extremely useful fully loaded and it ounds great. the individuals outs and hardware are all quality.

Gives you whatever you give it. Very good converters

Very solid and reliable

a very solid, great sounding useful sampler. if you've ever had 32mb of samplers loaded, you have a pretty good palette. lots of samples available these days, and many CDs are cheap now too.

A great sampler that that you can pick up these days for an absolute steal. Get 32mb of Ram and the effects board and a zip drive and you're laughing.

The AKAI S3000XL midi stereo digital sampler is not very hard to use. but it isnt userfriendly neither. this big heavy ugly thing needs alot of configurations for some smal effect, and you are spending allot of time to search where everyting is. so easy but massy. the manual SUCKS!! i still didnt find all options.

this akai s3000xl does'nt have effects onboard. so you have to pay extra !!! optional is another filter and enviroment effects like an reverb and delay things. when you buy a new one (if you still can find it new) it doent have much memory.. so your sampler cost alot of money extra. it haves an midi player, but dont expect to much of that.

THe sound that you record is less bright then the original.. so you have to boost up your sound with EQ.

Can you depend on it? ...i want to get rid of it. stupit expencive big and heavy VCR !!!!!

i dont like that all the samplers are so expencive !!!!!

i recommend you to buy a sound card. its cheaper + have more effects (DX) + more channels + easyer ect. ect.

i called once to support in "The Netherlands" damn those jerks.
not nice at all. and didnt support.
im glad my akai s3000xl never breaks.. its made of steal !! (allmost)
and MESA software... to controll your akai is a MASS-A. damn RICHARD I HATE YOU ! (my akai get stuck with a message that i have to tell richard that i try to enter stage....) i dont remember.. anyway works like an VIRUS to me.

if it where lost or stolen i wouldnt buy a new AKAI. i've used it for 5 or 6 years(i guess) ITS MAD THAT THERE IS NOT A NEW MESA> i hope someone can make a better version of it!!! because AKAI dont want to continue with it now they have newer AKAI samplers.. so i'm out of the game ALLREADY !!!<br><BR>

PLEASE DONT BUY IT, USE A SOUND CARD !!!
WHAT A HUNK OF JUNK !!!

BUEEEENO, LA VERDAD ES QUE PATCHES, NO TIENE PORQUE.......
ES UN SAMPLA!!!!! KUTU KUTU

LE DA MIL VUELTAS A LOS S.O. DE LOS AMIGOS YAMAHA, EMU, ROLAND...

LA VERDAD ES QUE NO SE QUE HAGO AQUI RELLENANDO CAMPOS SIN SENTIDO.
LO UNICO QUE QUERIA ES FELICITARME POR TAN ESTUPENDA COMPRA.
ME ENCANTA EL AKAI.ES FAAAACIL. HE TENIDO OTROS SAMPLERS MAS POTENTES PERO ERA COMO TENER UN COCHE DE 300CV Y QUE TUVIERA EL VOLANTE CUADRADO.POTENCIA SIN CONTROL, NAAADA DE NAAAADA.

OS 2.0
Editing is always tough on the Akai samplers, but when you're used to it, It's easy. I've got this sampler for 5 months now, it is my second sampler. Had an PCI EMU berfore this. The software (MESA) rules! It has though many bugs. You have to watch out what you can do and what you can't be doing at the same time. But control is awsome, and quality is superb. Manual is ok. Akai has a not very clever menu system.

32 poly. Keyboard action is fine. I have the FX expansion board and it's a well choice! Full of warmth effects and you can route it in many ways! Definitely a good choice! 4 stero enignes. Too bad you can't assign the output of the eniges to particualar outputs. I have 32 MB memory, suits ME fine. The A/D converter is awsome! Midi capabilities are good for me. I assign everything to my mod wheel or pitch. (filter cutoff, resonance). No onboard sequencer, yeah something for drum trickering but I don't use that.

Yeap yyeap yeap! Talking about quality, this thing rocks! Nothing to say, it does what it has to do. Nice 10 outputs. You can assign everything. Though the FX engine doesn't work on 100% so you click single and then back to multie, and it works again.

Well, like I said, you can crash this baby easily. Use mesa and the sampler at the same time. Sometimes effects aren't working on full potential. What's defitely bad is the way to backup things! Dudes watch out! The first weeks, you are making your own programs (patches) but it it devised in samples en programs. Well, if you have 100 programs, all kind of drums things and some leads, then you will notice that the list of programs isn't alphabettaically sorted. So if you have you hihat samples:
hh-cl1
hh-cl2
hh-cl3
op-9091
op-9092

etc..

Then it's all mixed up.
To bad you can't have subfolders inside your programs.
you can do that on you hd, or cd, but not in the memory.
Switching betwee diferent hihats, will break your ears because offen there's some loud intrumnet between 2 hihats programs.

Backing up goes fine on a hd or zip. If you do it on your harddsik of your computer, it can cause some errors.. you will notice.
My samples are on my computer which I impoert as WAV to my 3000Xl. My programs are on a floppy disk. Yeah it's 2001 and I still have to use it... shame!

N/A

I wouldn't buy it again for $1000. But buy a new Roland sampler for $800. menus are easily, and it's all USB probably and exporting and importing are better than akai. I paid too much for this thing. Second hand, try to stay under $900 (fully expanded).
I own Yamaha AN1x, EMU pci sampler card, some effects units. That's it. Soon probably more :)

I didn't compare it with other product. I was dumm and just bought an akai because every phpoto in the sound on sound, has an akai :)
The sound is great, but the control is not THAT good. and the way of exporting or importing and backing up[ things sux. It cost a lot of time.. I suggest you check out what roland or emu has too before buying anything.

I wish it had folders inside the memory, so you can see the difference between drum hihats, and some strings. And the program list HAS TO BE SORTED!

Yes, it though make music making easieler, but to import a wav file, is a real job... making a program, and search the sample over 100 other loaded samples in a list which isn't sorted! yippie yeah!

Oh yeah, the size of this baby is huge, too huge, it sticks out on the back very much :) and it's heavy, but I like that.
The noise is absolutely 0.1 or so. Nothing! really, fantastic!
I am sure the usb akai5000, 6000 has a better system wilt folder and sorted listed. Too bad they aren't updating this baby anymore.

When you look in recording mags and see studio after studio with akai samplers racked in the room it says somthing. This sampler has a large display and runs on ver2.0 software available for download at akai's website. Also you can download the operator's manual(which is essential for understanding the depth of this unit) and Mesa II which is a sampling editor which connects to your scsi port or your midi interface
and works with either mac or PC. Getting around the 3kxl is great because it uses a menu at the bottom of the screen with soft buttons that move you from page to page, and if your familiar with sampler jargon you will have no problem navigating this ship.

The 3kxl is loaded with features fit for a multi track recording enviroment: True phased-locked stereo sampling, 10 out;L+R+8 indivdual. SPDIF rca digital interface, L+R 1/4" input for sampling, 32voice, 16part mutitimbral. SCSI interface (will work with iomega zip drive + most mac compatible CD-rom drives) Will read Roland S-760 CD-libraries+ Emu EIIIx-CD libraries(I use the e3x libraries alot they are 8meg files at the largest and work great for saving memory for other samples). Also on a minor note there is a switch on the display contrast adjust that you push in to shut off the display. Get into the habit of keeping your display OFF WHEN YOU DO NOT USE IT! This will save the cost of replacing it down the road when it fails.

This is a great sounding sampler! The filters are not analog but mimic analog as well as I have ever heard. If I were to rate the fiters I would give them a 7. Otherwise, if you intend to use the unit for drums
you will be satisfied!

This is a studio sampler. It is not perfect. Now and then it will freeze up when you are trying to get it going. But it sounds so good you wont care!!!

You can get help from these people by e-mail. They respond and will help to fix your problem, even if you are not a registered owner.

Overall I would say I would go for the Roland s-760 if I had the money.
But I dont! If you can find one of these units for around $500w/32meg like the other guy that wrote a review you will be doing good!

Using OS version 2.0 ... the thing is rock-solid. SCSI transfers to and from my PC is what it's all about!!! Never once cracked the manual. MESA II PC or Millenium is all you need to control this wonderful beast!

Others have already covered this area, so I'll just say that 32 voices is nice, I've maxed it out a few times, but it handles that gracefully. MIDI sync & responsiveness are top-notch. Using a computer-based editor makes this thing such a versatile instrument and so easy to use.

AKAI's reputation lives on here. What you put into this sampler is exactly what you get out. I don't have the FX expansion board, but am curious to hear it.

I bought this unit used, and it sometimes hangs on boot-up. Opening it up and removing the RAM, turning it on, letting it boot, turning it off, and replacing the RAM clears up the problem.

Never called AKAI.

Since I probably wouldn't be able to find a fully RAM expanded S3000XL for $500 again, I'd probably spend the extra grand and get the S5000 or S6000. But for what I paid, I can't imagine a higher-quality, better-sounding sampler. A larger, brighter display would make this unit nicer. The S3000XL was the first piece of "real" music gear that I bought, and I use it for everything I make now. The word is versatility.

software rev. 1.5
Akai's interface is relatively intuitive for a sampler, the OS is rock solid and has only crashed on me once (when doing a SCSI transfer). It took me a few short days to get up to speed on the OS after migrating from an older Emax II sampler. The large, easy to read display is nice.
Mesa II (akai's computer based editor for the S series samplers) is a big improvement over the first version both in terms of layout and reliability.

32 voice polyphony, no keyboard or built in effects. Two expansion cards are available, one is a four channel multi-effects card and one is a second filter card with band pass, hi-pass and low pass filters plus an additional envelope. Memory can be expanded to 32 Megs. Includes all of the basic sample editing functions: trim, loop, reverse, normalize, rescale, time stretch etc. Comes standard with 8 outputs plus a stereo pair and a coaxial digital I/O.
Good, flexible modulation routings (even better with the second filter card). Excellent MIDI timing, SCSI interface is definitely a plus if you use a computer based sample editor. The looping functions are a little weird, instead of start and end point, you specify an end point and loop length. This took me a little while to get used to, though I do like being able to set up four loops for each sample.

The sound quality of Akai samplers is superb and the modulation possibilities make it easy to really warp a sample. This sampler's weak point is the filter, which is very cold, brittle and utterly digital sounding. This sound may just fine for some genres (ie drum and bass) but I tend to prefer a warmer sound.

Rock solid.

Never dealt with Akai other than sending them an email suggesting they engineer another filter card with an analog filter. I got a response back saying there was only one filter card available. duh.

With the newer 5000 and 6000 samplers coming out, the S3000xl is dropping in price drastically. I would recommend this sampler to anyone looking for one that is very reliable and studio-oriented. I know several people who make tracks with little more than this one sampler.

Once you get it down, the interface is pretty easy. The manual is good.

Good specs. Very pro. No sequencer. Good MIDI implementation.

Great sounding unit. All types of music. It has a very responsive MIDI implementation.

sure.

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See, I wanted more of a real-time performance sampler. I would argue that the Akai is a studio sampler, and a great one at that. The hard-disk recording section is cool. For studio, buy it. For performance, be careful!