Akai S5000

Software is the latest version (download from akai website)
Well its a sampler, so no presets here.
Editing is an absolute breeze, thanks to the intuitive OS, or the phenomenal AKsys software which connects via USB.
I have the manual, but ive never needed to refer to it.

I think the polyphony is 64 notes as standard, although i understand you can plug in a board to increase this to 128 (why??). There are also a whole bunch of other expansion cards, hard drives, zip drives, CD roms etc etc. All easily available, and upgrading is a breeze - nice big chassis. A joy to work on.
Has 2x midi everything. No onboard sequencer/

Its a lovely sounding sampler. Maybe not as lovely as my s900, but lovely all the same with the distinctive Akai sound. Its a real workhorse and does everything i ask of it. I tend to use it for pianos/organs/synth samples. (i do dance music). Never used it for drums. i think its the kind of piece of gear that would work for any style of music/musician - especially ones that dont like fiddly difficult gear.

I can depend on this 100% the only problem is sometimes the usb link fails, but then i just restart aksys and it all works perfectly. I dont gig with it, but if i did id put a card reader or good hard drive in.

Only ever called Akai once in the uk, and they didnt know what they were talking about. I've gotten spares from VST service, who i rate as 10/10, very knowledgeable guys - they know their Akai.

Its definitely worth what i paid. I used to use an AKAI S2000 - which i tended not to use not to use more often than not, because editing was such a pain. I just love the immediate feedback from this machine and its simple complexity. It certainly helps me make sweet music. I wish it had a built in CD rom, cause my pc wont read AKAI discs easily. I would say, if you buy one of these the USB interface card is essential - both for sample transfer to and from the pc and for editing if you want to use AKsys. If you've got a hard drive/CD rom for it tho, you will be able to use it easily from the front panel.

I use version 2.4 something of the system software. This piece sounds great, though it requries some sort of external drive to store samples, as far as I can tell. It is super easy to edit patches either on the piece or through the USB connection(well worth the $). Menu system is logical and easy to find options you are looking for. The manual is thorough and easy to understand and follow.

As for polyphony, it's very good - 64 I think, probably upgradable - but I haven't needed all of the voices yet. This piece has some great sample editing features like time stretch, pitch shift, BPM match, fade, mix, join, EQ, etc. - very good for a hardware piece. I don't have the EBxxx effects board, but I imagine it would be a welcome addition. I got my unit with 128Mb + 8Mb, so it plows along really well - I imagine upgrading memory is a key player in performance. MIDI Is pretty cool on this guy too - you can play MIDI files(Type 0 only - search Google for free converters) as well as WAV files. It's cool to have 2 MIDI universes to work with, you have IN/OUT/THRU on both. Assigning MIDI keyranges isn't too bad if you follow the manual. It has only crashed on me once, and that was playing a corrupt MIDI file.

No synth built in for use with the MIDI files, but that's OK - it's a sampler not a synth. The sound quality is awesome as usual with AKAI hardware. This seems to be the perfect remix tool for the home producer. I got mine for fairly cheap and it's well worth the investment. It's super easy to control multi-patches through the USB connection if you have that feature. I highly recommend using it, as the AKAI ak.sys software is awesome and super convenient. The MIDI response is rediculous when tested on my Radium49 controller. I'm still learning on this guy, but I think you can control parameters with MIDI control knobs/faders too. Velocity is very good, but I don't know what aftertouch is so I couldn't comment. Very nice Dance music piece if you ask me.

It's a little less than portable, but it's meant to be a studio piece if anything. Very nice design, and you don't have to worry about the front panel at all if you have the USB connection - you can control it from on-screen on the comp. My unit is like a tank - I don't think normal use could break this thing. If you rackmount this in a case, it would work for gigging.

The guy I got it from bought it as non-functioning on eBay, and had to send it in for support. He said it took on average, a week, and only cost $175 from broken to bangin'. When he got it back, they had added 128MB ram and the USB interface, included in that $175. Super sweet. As far as I heard, he also ended up dating the receptionist at AKAI once or twice when he went out there for vacation. :-P

I am already thinking of buying another one of these, as they are rock solid and work great. It is totally worth the price I payed used. I own a bunch of hardware and this just ran to the top of the list above my MC-303 and my other synths. Compared to the MPC2000, this is a better value, with a little more technical of an interface. The features are comparable and the price is much better(especially used). I wish I had the EB effects board for it just to try it out or what, but this piece is pretty complete as it comes. This tool is a must-have for the DJ and mix communities. Very nice piece.

The S5000 is very easy for me to use. I have the Miroslav Vitous orchestral collection, and I make up multis like "String Quintet" and "Brass Quartet" and save them to a hard drive for quick setups. I also have a folder for each song on the hard drive, and I keep the multis in there. It is a well oiled machine in my studio and works great!

I have a SCSI hard drive, CD-ROM, 256mb of RAM, 16 analog outs, and the extra 64 voice polyphony bringing it to 128 voices. This is an excellent system for small orchestral work. A SCSI hard drive is highly recommended and very cheap.

It all comes down to what samples you use. I have made my own sample sets and they turn out really nice. You can do sooooo many things with a device like this, and your creativity and willingness to program it is the only limitation.

Mine has been very solid, but it stays in a rack all the time. I would not use it on a gig, because if you lost power, it'd take a while to get back up. A UPS would solve that problem, however.

Never tried it. There's info on the net, just hit Google.

I rely on this piece of equipment. If someone stole it, I would replace it with another S5000. I got mine pretty cheap for a new one, and I have gotten my use out of it. I use it primarly for doing film scoring, with orchestral sounds (Miroslav Vitous, Peter Siedckezk, Michael Pinder's Mellotron, some others, some homemade samples)

I like the AKAI interface a lot. I wish it supported more RAM. The new AKAIs do, but I'd rather have two of these for 1/3 of the price of one of those new. The S5000 doesn't look as slick, but I like it a LOT.

I recommend this machine to anyone interested in a good sampler, especially for doing scores.

If you have questions, email me!

Using Software V 2.12. I bought the 5000 for live sampling triggered from a Roland SPD 20 percussiion pad in a band. It's certainly not easy implementing the samples with the pads. There's a lot more coming at you than you thought, and you have to put some time in it. Really makes the difference in editing-ease. Laptop, and you're flexible. This sampler edit's the samples in no time. Makes experimenting a breeze, in seconds the sampler calculates it down. Manual is standard Akai.
Big screen that's logical, easy to read in all situations and the menu's are also easy and logical

Had a S1000PB with a scsi MO drive but the memory was too low and it took too long to load a new set of patches between songs. But I loved it, still do. But for twice the price for upgrading the S1000 with that ridicilously expensive AKAI memory, I got the 5000. Also got an S2000 at home but it's not the live tank as the 1000 and 5000.
Build in a case with the same MO drive, works 100%. It came with 64+8 Mb RAM and in fact I download my whole set and can play the whole gig without changing. But with every new song it get's more loaded so I will jam it to the max 256 Mb. Also gonna put in an HD, allready got the interface that allows me to build in an normal IDE-HD, but take note of the special list with suitable HD's.
Also came with an fx board, rarely using it. Also an USB board and THAT one's very handy. Were the 8 outputs standard? My S1000 has 10!
Using the outputs to route special samples to different channels on my also built in mixer.

Very clean. Powerful. I use everything, many short, percussive sounds but also long samples and special FX and I can judge my sounds over an PA system every week, so I KNOW it kicks, but knew that from the S1000 already. Percussion sounds must trigger really fast, well they do. Also using velocity, but if you crank the sound up too much sometimes you use midicontrol of volume from the Roland SPD pad. Haven't figured that out yet.
Also have an extended library of over 80 CD's in WAV or AKAI format, so I have all the sound/loops/fx I could ever need.

The S1000 I would give a 10. That thing really never misses a heartbeat, not even the software.
And everybody knows that liveperfomances will always point out your equipments weak spots the fastest.
The S5000 I'll give a 9.5 I toured abroad 2 tours, played on beaches, travelled on bad roads and the airport guys really threw the equipent around. Nothing happened to the 5000. Keyboards broke, even lost knobs inside the case from rough handling, guitarfx pedals in the band needed to be screwed apart and back on, even my flightcase lost some screws and was bended inside, but the tank kept on playing.
Only the fact that sometimes the USB link freezed, prevents this machine from getting a 10...
In other words, this is truly truly very ruggedly build. I was planning for a Z8 after this but now I'm not so sure...
We'll see what they say about the Z's...

Well when I bought the S2000 long long time ago I was promised some software for easy editing that never came. I never called Akai after my S1000 and 5000.
They can't help you, every bit of information or upgrade you have to get by your favorite music shop or internet.

This 5000 I bought used from a DJ. A rich kid who was bored with his toy. I heard from everybody this was the best sampler. Roland didn't cut it for me cuz it never had the features I wanted and Emu was expensive and less available second hand here in Holland.
This thing get's me all kinds of stares on stage, it's great! It also always works, that's even greater. I play a lot, never the 1000 or 5000 let me down.
It has a few bugs in the editing software if you hook it up by USB, that's one of the very few minor details.
But it does and have exactly what I want. This is truly a well developed and thought over machine by Akai

Easy.... well I had an s3000xl before so you don't even need the manual. Editing is straight forward, thanks to the large display and the logically arranged submenus (if of course you speak the allmighty akai-language:). Haven't looked at the manual for more then 5 minutes.
The OS should be the latest available.

Features are tight.
64 poly (upgradble to 128 max)
mine came with built in effectboard which costs about 400$.... but I have to admit the effects - considering the price are not worth a lot!
problem with a lot of akai products is, that they often contain just the basics and then you need to consider spending some more on additional boards etc. (I'm about to buy the USB-board for convenience.)
MIDI 2xI,2Through,2Out and the timing is SOLID (that's rock-solid for you!)
no onboard sequencer

It's a sampler, basically what you put in you get out. Although I have to admit that the sampler sounds "clean", recorded drums sound clean and hard (what I like about a sampler)

never had a SINGLE problems with it, had a z4 for a brief moment and had to return it because it caused nothing but problems!

US(international?) support is weak, didn't respond after z4-problems-inquiry.
local support was excellent replied within 24 hours and were very friendly and helpful!

If it were stolen I'd definitly try to get one again (paid a quite low price, so it would be a bit difficult I guess). It's sound is fantastic, it's reliable, it's probably the item I work most with composing a new track! more or less switched from a Synth&groovebox to a sampling-composer because of it !

I use the latest software version V2.14 (solid as a rock).
I just have little time to use the beast but editing is easy enough (don't have the USB-board). Its almost as easy as the Yamaha A3000 I once owned.

I bought it as new with 256 MB, VOX64, harddisk and EB20 effects installed. The effects (reverb) are not the best around so I bought the M-one and M-two from TC wich are great. Most of the time I record effected sounds and grooves from softsynth's, my SW1000XG and my good old Pulse. So the sampler is well feeded.

Midi timing is super. Compared to my Halion softsampler the AKAI is a god. I only use the Halion for very big piano-samples (filters are very crappppppy mr. Steinberg!!)

I don't need a onboard sequencer. Use a softsequencer. Don't need more features. Its good as it is. More is less. Make the resonance-scope 1-127 and you get a big 10

The S5000 sound very realistic. The cleanest of all samplers I used. And I used a lot of them. It does what a sampler has to do.

solid. It never let me down.

I compared the S5000 with other software sampler (kontakt, Halion) and hardwaresamplers Yamaha A3000, S2000, EMU's. but this is realy the best piece to own. The rest is cheaper, but your sound is too.

I would send you George Bush to make war with you if you stole mine.

V2.0 software is very similar to the OS in my old S3000XL. Easy upgrade path from my point of view. Manual is Akai standard (make of that what you will) but you honestly don't need it.

Mine has 64 poly, no built in EFX. What is there is 136Mb RAM and the USB board. With the USB connection; you do all of the effects in Saound Forge and dump stuf back and forth in a matter of seconds. None of theSCSI headaches which plagued my S3000XL days.

S5000 will take up to 32 midi channels (2 ins, 2 outs, 2 thrus).

The most used feature is the wide selection of filters (anyone else getting bored of LPF sweeps?!). LPF, PKG, HPF, BPF, combination, vowelisers, peak, notch, phasers. I only wish that resonance went from 0-127 instead of 0-15.

Akai = clean. What you put in is what you hear & this is why I like it. All expressivness is up to the composer/programmer.

I use it through CakeWalk with a little Yamaha controller KB and this works a treat.

As for the Akai EFX board; if you are on a bit of a budget, just get the USB board a a copy of Sound Forge. You can't go wrong.

Reliable as mustard. No crashes or hiccups.

Akai has been alright in e-mail communication. But I've heard that 'phone support sucks.

This box stepped in to replace my S3000XL which rarely gets pushed these days (apart to resample stuff coming out of the S5000). The enormous RAM available allows me to use it as a psuedo-HDR to sample loops from my monosynths etc.

It is worth every penny and we couldn't live without it in the studio. This sampler should see us right for at *least* another 3-4 years if not longer.

2.0

I didn't have any limitations yet
It's a great tool

It's Akai wich means =>very clear
Best sounding machine I've got and a got A LOT

It only crashed once on searching discs (its linked to a cdrom player, a 8.2 gig harddisc & to my computer

I got 2 updates 1.3 and recently version 2.0

works better all the time

If I lost it I would buy it again the same day. Its the best!

This is my fist sampler, and it was VERY easy to learn. Acessing parameters is a breeze with the massive screen
and numerous buttons. The manual is not what I would consider "in-depth", but it is sufficient.

I just downloaded V.2.0 from the akaipro site and it works beautifully (so far). Latest features include
new layouts (Multi page, keygroup zones, keyspan...), a MIDI song file player, PORTAMENTO & mono legato,
and a number of improvements (better SysEx, faster redraw, faster saves, usb support, disk formatting....).
Each of the previous upgrades have delivered useful improvements and features (esp. 1.3).

The standard 64 voices have been more than enough for my needs, but it can be expanded to 128 for about $300.
I bought the effects card for it (eb-20) and have found it quite nice, although it eats up 2 of the 8 outs (I've ordered
the 8 out exp. already). No on-board sequencer (yet), but I use Cubase anyways.

The handy .WAV format makes finding and creating samples easy and limitless, and the variety of inputs make it an
all-in-one digital recorder (optical inputs great for DVD/CD sampling). Editing samples can easily be done within the
sampler with the large waveform display. The filters are clean and versatile, and DO NOTpale in comparison to the
EMU's (far superior for drums, in fact- but not as warm-sounding for bass). The recent addition of a MIDI-sync for
the 2nd LFO is extremely useful. Overall, a very clean-sounding sampler.

Home studio use only... but I would feel safe about using it without a backup in a live setting.

Need some work here, Akai....

Overall, I would definitely recommend the S5k. In fact, I have told people to go ahead and get the S6k since they
will eventually want to fully expand it. Although most of my friends are devout EMU users, I feel that the Akai is the
best sampler on the market at the moment. I don't work for them or anything- I'm just a humble bedroom-studio
producer trying to start a D&B label. The S5k is the centerpeice of my studio, which consists of a 24/4 Allen&Heath gl2200,
Yamaha CS-1x, Ensoniq DP-4, Lexicon LXP-1, PreSonus ACP88, Spirit Absolute Zero's, HHB proCD recorder, MOTU 8i/o MTP,
and CubaseVST24 for Mac. Buy it... you won't regret it.

Extremely easy to use once through the learning curve because the manual is more what it can do instead of how to do it. Sounds are good and I've been able to find tons of wave samples to use in it. Used in combination with Sound Forge and Awave there is no edit you can't use in it.

No On-Board sequencer but I use it with a complete MIDI setup and that doesn't matter as a studio musician. Confused about all of the people with SCSI problems. Maybe because I have it chained as a second device behind my CD recorder which means it shows up on my PC as a drive by itself. Installed a SCSI hard drive in it and it shows up just like another hard drive on my screen which I can drag & Drop files or open and edit right in S. Forge and save directly to it. It has also been stable. Flexibilty Problems?. . .C'Mon. and I haven't even updated to the latest software yet.

Wish the the velocity sens. was a little more responsive. Sounds as good as any other.

Not used Live but you can't beat it for Studio use. Recommend installing an internal SCSI drive for both Speed and reliability. A half a GIG is okay to store frequently used programs. Save quickly externally when you finish your project to regain space.

The only time I had to call was for them to explain something in that "Stupid Manual" when I first got it. I own 3 Akai Samplers and have upgraded 2 by myself without problems.

Lot of complaints out there about bugs; etc. Maybe I got the plum in the barrel full of prunes. If it was used as it was intended to be used as a Midi interfaced Sampling Sound module there would be a lot less gripes. I do not work for Akai but own and operate a production Studio an it's an extremely efficient tool. You just have to know how to marry the Sampler with the PC and MIDI options to get the most use from it and it's extremely Fast. The versatility is great. I also do Bump music for Television News and can pull together a spot in no time flat. It was not an unwise investment for me.