Yamaha A3000 Sampler

This machine IS easy to use! The manual gives a very good description of the overall layout. I've had it for just a week and I've already completed three tracks, and I'm not talking about simplistic stuff. The knobs are what make this machine so easy to use. As far as I'm concerned, having a software editor wouldn't make operation much faster. I find the front panel so intuitive that using a mouse would actually slow me down!
Sometimes, if you turn a knob too fast back and forth, it gets confused and changes the parameter in the wrong direction! This is initially very annoying but you soon learn how to control it. But it's nowhere near as bad as some people make out.
Then there's the infamous SCSI issue. I have mine connected to a Zip100 drive and yes, it can be slow if you use big samples. I tend to work with lots of smaller samples and it's totally acceptable for me.

Polyphony is 64 voices, which I find to be more than enough for even complex tracks, remember you can resample very easily. The onboard FX are mostly very good, as good as any mid-price stand alone multi-FX unit. Most really need to be worked on before they sound good though. Again, with resampling you can really make the most of these.
I have the output expansion board but I haven't made use of it yet.
Er, forget the sequencer. If you're serious (or even sane!) you'll use a software sequencer like Cubase or Logic.

The sound quality is utterly great. In fact I often find it TOO good! I regularly use the lower bandwidth sample rates to make things a bit dirtier. In fact, sampling at 5khz through the Exciter and 3-band EQ, you can get a very respectable high quality sound!
The filters are fantastic. There are 16 types (I think) from basic low and high pass to dual filters. They can be utterly evil or warm, whatever you want.
I would say it can do any kind of sample duty you would want it too, but for big samples the SCSI might put you off.
If you like Warp records and similar stuff, you'll really love this machine.

No problems so far. Only had it for a week.

Never dealt with them. They have a bit of a bad rep though.

I would buy one again without doubt. I use it with an AN1x and it's all I need! The only "bad" things are - the knob response, the slow SCSI.
I think if you use a lot of big, realistic piano and string multisamples then this isn't the sampler for you. It can do these things as well as any other sampler, but the slow loading/saving would become very frustrating. However, if like me you use a sampler to make totally original, unheard-of sounds and you like to be creative and inventive, you will totally love this instrument.

I got this thing very soon after it came out (about 2 or 3 months) so I had to buy the ROM chip ($150!!!!) to upgrade to V2 software. not good on yamahas part. but really, I don't know how anyone says this thing is hard to use!!! I think it's very logically laid out, it's just different from other samplers out there. I've only glanced at the manual a couple times in almost 4 years!!

64 notes poly, but gets cut in half with stereo samples. the FX are acually pretty decent but what's great about them is the routing. there's 3 independent blocks and you can connect them together in every possible manner. very nice. comes standard with 4 outs but you can and 6 more plus optical and RCA (both stereo S/PDIF) on one card that costs around $150 or so I think (I can't really remmember). every one complains about the level of the aux outs, but really it's not that much of a problem if your mixer has quiet mic preamps. SCSI is slow but managable. it's a world faster than the akai s950 though, and we lived with that for 5 years didn't we?

well it is a yamaha, so it does sound a little thin. but that can be fixed with tube or analog FX/dynamics processing. it does have a fair amount of crispness and punch to it though. the filters are pretty aggressive and not all to digital sounding and are good for sweeps as well as general EQing. which brings me to one of my fav features, the single band of ONLINE (or realtime) parametric EQ! not offline like every other sampler on the market. you simply have no idea how usful this really is untill you put it into regular use. and I haven't even gone into the envelopes. there's 3 ADSR (hardwired to amp, filter and pitch) with time AND level for attack, delay, sustain and release.

well, the knobs did get a bit loose and the audition button broke, but I've been rather rough on it. there's also some minor timing problems but only when you're pushing it as far as it will go. all in all it's been fairly realiable.

about as helpful as my cat. don't even try.

if it were lost or stolen, I'd get an A5000 or an E-mu E6400. at the time this was pretty hi end but technology has moved on. for the price this is goin' for now though (around $600-$900) I would definatly recomend it.

Very hard to use i had for three months i still can control,it would be easyier to use if manual 1 & 2 was a single book, editing patches is very hard

polyphony 64 note
yes expansion capabilitiesit & have an on-board sequencer is easy to use

Expresiveness/Soundssome
instruments very realisti

Reliability

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Customer Support

Overall Rating

The A3000 is so easy to use I almost couldn't believe it... Once you spend the 5 minutes necessary to read the tutorial section of the manual (which, btw, is quite good, although it is organized more as a reference than as a "manual" which can lead to problems) to figure out how things are laid out, you will be making sounds happen.

The Midi capabilities of this are pretty much amazing. 8 external controllers per sample, 4 per program (or is it 8?) - ridiculous. The polyphony is way more than necessary, the effects are actually not that bad (for effects that sound like digital effects)... Plus the expansion board stuff.
Nota bene: disk transfer rates and midi dump rates pretty much blow for this thing. You've either got to get your whole sample set in early on or spend time waiting around while you load it up.

The A3000 sounds excellent, but a little bit dry. It is possible to beef up the sounds, but I find it's quite difficult to get them as full sounding as I want. Not too much of an issue though, if you have some nice offboard analog effects.

Hasn't crashed on me yet...

For the money, I think it was the best choice. I was also considering an akai s3000xl for $750, and I think this one is more user friendly, more expandable, and a lot cheaper... Haven't had a chance to compare sounds though; maybe the akai is thicker.

pretty easy to use (V2)buttt,
lcd screen is too small when you`re working with loads of samples!
using a cool editor like b-zone for PC helps a bit but doesn`t fix the glitch :(

64 P which is fine (for me)
effects are ok but not incredible as some people say
give me some real good reverbs insted of all these `techno-toys`
although some are usefull, most of them just sound crappy and remind me of the mc 303 groovebox from Roland
the-sucker-victory-machine :)
so I ended up not using the effects a lot
the effects are definitly not a reason to buy this sampler!!

good thing is the fact you get 3 blocks and they`re standard
and pretty flexible

`the A3000 comes standard with a scsi interface`
they made a mistake, scsi = slowsci
horrible slow

sound quality is very good
no complaints about that but even here the a3k has a sucky side,
yes I am talking about assignable extra outs,
the signal of these is much lower, less expressive as the main outs
so you`ll need to do a lot of extra editing to level all your outs..
bad bad baby!

reliabilty is the reason why I sold it in the first place!
jesus, just take a look at www.a3kcentral.com and
you`ll find a lot of people with HD crashes etc.
I will not dive into this now but my HD has crashed (losing all my partition, and samples!) 3x times since I got it (1 year ago)
this is just not acceptable if you store a lot of samples and use it as your main instrumento
maybe a scsi zip is a better solution, but even with these I saw people having problems

never dealt with them

sold the A3k recently and went for an Emu
costs bit more but you can find some pretty good secondhand deals on the net
it`s just better, much faster, more reliable and flexible

if this is an extra add of flavour for you
the a3k is ok but
using this sampler as a main instrument though,
is not a smart idea..

Using V2 software, when I received the machine I was utterly confused - tinny screen seemingly illogical menues etc, spent two hours looking in the (pretty good) manual but I hate manuals so I gave up entirely, looked at it again, realised it wasn't an EMU/ Akai sampler and suddenly everything clicked. Once you figure out its logic (which if you approach it with an open mind is pretty obvious) this thing is FAR essier to use than the Akai or EMU samplers. In fact, the manual is almost unnecissary, if you don't know howto do something -guess, you're probably right. Only complain is that the 5 (very useful)Jog dials are the clicky optical sort which means the speed at which you turn them doesn't exactly corralate to how fast data scrolls (if I'm controlling any variable for recording I use my Fatboy) and those little button are just way too little.

Polyphony? Voices? not sure - way more than I midi channels / ram.
SCSI implementation really isn't that bad!! (reletively) lots of problems but then alot less problems than with any other SCSI using instrument I've tried. Only comes with 2 pairs of outputs (+headphone) but an expansion board giving another (i think) 4 plus digital outs is availible. Can take up to 128mb of ram (I only have 34 but will upgrade soon - standard 72 pin is used so this can be pretty cheap). You will need to buy a SCSI hard drive and CD-ROM to make it usefull - floppy is slooooooow. Note - mount the Hard Drive EXTERNALY (if internal it not only makes alot on noise through the casing but it seems power noises are passed to the outputs!!) Another good feature worth mentioning is it can import Wav files through the floppy drive.

Samples sound perfect, maybe too perfect - I often reduce the sample rate or use the effects to mess them up a little, otherwise they are just too clear!! Some of the onboard effects are pretty good - others are completely useless but there are lots off them and while only 3 can be used at once they can be strung together in any which way. This is also (unless you mount the hard drive internally) an extreemly quite machine - puts out less noise than anything else in my studio.

Never have had the slightest problem.

never needed them.

I got this for $600 in mint condition and then spent another hundred on 32 megs of ram (only came with 2mb ram), 2 gig hard drive and antique CD rom drive. For $700 this machine is rediculously good - it is way better than the Akai S3000s and older EMU syths, the 4000 is not sigificantly better so the only samplers you are going to find better that I know of are the S5/6000, and the new EMU samplers - and now you're talking 2~3 times the price

I had version 1.something
Okay to use (considering the small display), but when you have more than 20 samples it becomes really difficult to have a good overview of your song.

SCSI SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I put in a 4 gig hard disk and had to wait 30 sec before I could acces it!!! HOW CAN YOU WORK WITH THAT?????????
importing a sample from my computer also takes 3 min/mb
The scsi is a SCSI-I interface connected through the SERIAL PORT of the A3000 mainboard!!!!
It is the most STUPID, CHEAP implementation I've ever seen

Now this isssssssssss something to buy the sampler for. The sound effects are REALLY amazing

It's pretty reliable. I had some crashes/bugs, but I could get an update for most

calling calling again again.... NO ONE at Yamaha knowing ANYTHING about the hardware VERY BAD

I had mine for a year and am glad I sold it. 128 mb is useless with a slow processor. It is really a great sampler to have on the side, but if you really use it a lot and want to use its SCSI, buy something else!!!

i have part 2 of this motherfukka

the basics of the a3000 are very easy to use...but i want more ram and a cd-diskdrive when i buy something if you are a midi freak, it will cost a little bit of your free time...but if you don't understand the logic of yamaha...you're an ass

F*CKING GOOD...if you can't get the sound that you want out of this thing...STOP, and become a farmer

she does what i say...every day...but she can't cook

i don't know and i don't care...i hope she will do her job

I would give it a 10 but for it's small screen and lack of graphical waveform editing. As for the rest, it is very easy to use. There was a rumour that it is hard to learn but only for Akai fans who just need to forget what they know.

It has lots of features that are made easy to use. It allows you to use your MIDI keyboard to assign mapping etc which is a breeze. It will also sort samples and do automatic multisample mapping according to root notes.

The manual is good, clear, concise and covers it all.

64 note polyphony, 4MB RAM expandable to 128MB, 4 ouputs expandable to 10 (incl. digital), stereo Mic inputs, 4 assignable rotary-encoder style knobs, 3 FX blocks, loads of FX, 19 filters, individual LFO per sample, EQ per sample, EG's for everything. Everything is MIDI controllable. Whole machine is editable remotely via sysex. Onboard sequencer is just a MIDI player for live work or arpeggios.

v2 has Beat Remix, which is a per-beat style Recycle type tool with automatic key mapping.

Yamaha have arranged it like a synth. You start with a Sample, you assign it a MIDI channel, filter settings, it's output (stereo, aux or FX), it's envelopes, LFO, loop settings, EQ etc and then you can choose to turn that sample on in any particular Program. This makes is unbelievably flexible. Each sample on every key can have different settings!

The file handling is the weak point, dealing with samples, program and volumes can be time consuming as can loading samples. There are also very few native sample CDs available so it is not the best choice for someone who just wants to load up a grand piano and play.

Using a SCSI CD-R drive, you can only load audio samples or A3K native ones. You can only burn A3K native CD's using 3rd party software (A3KDisky). The only drive that will accept Windows formatted disks is the floppy so transfers from PC->A3K really need to be done via SCSI (which comes as standard).

I doubt that a sampler could be much more expressive. The effects are excellent and you can use 3 at once for a single sample. The filters are varied and range from subtle to nasty. Any sound you load into it can be changed to beyond alien in seconds - it is a techno dream. It is much like playing with an analogue synth but using your own samples instead of waveforms.

It actually comes with 2 pulse, 2 sawtooth, sine and triangle waveforms as standard v.2 allows you to design your own "oscillators". Even just using these you can come up with some convincing Moog basses!

Every aspect of the sound quality is pristine although I hear that the expansion board is noisy.

It seems very reliable although the SCSI connection can cause my OC to crash but that is SCSI for you.

Can't comment

If I lost this I would cry and go buy another one (unless the A4000 had dropped in price!). It totally wipes the floor with the similarly priced Akai's and Emu's.

I have version 2.

Some people say it's hard to use, well it was my first sampler so I didn't have any Akai-like expectations about the OS. Basically, It's very easy to use. Just put a sample ON and select a MIDI channel for it, then play.

About the features..

Filters are quite good and there's plenty of these.

Effects are good for sabotating the sound, compressor for example sounds surprisingly good for those pumping beats. Reverbs are quite shite.

You can assign four effect parameters to MIDI controllers so you can control effect parameters in real time via MIDI. There's another six controllers to assign for filters, sample start point etc. You can also assign some pitch bend parameters if you want to "scratch" a sample in realtime.

Loop remix function is nice for creating some random drum loops.
Loop divide is nice for slicing a sample in different sections.

The feature I particularly like is that you can duplicate a sample without losing memory. You could for example duplicate a drum loop to
20 different keys and add different filters, different lfo:s, different starting points and whatever without consuming any memory, there's a catch however:
Parameter momory bug; A3k use only half of it. If you load a couple of drumkits and many sounds with many parameters tweaked, you'll propably run out of parameter memory. Very annoying.

There's two LFO's, one per sample and one global. Global LFO is okay, not many complaints, except the square wave isn't completely sharp.

The sample-level LFO is terrible. First of all, it snaps and clicks and you can't make it to "run on". There's parameter sync on and off. When it's on the lfo starts every time you trigger a sample from the same position but when it's off it starts from random positions, it doesn't run on "freely" and "steady". I hope you understand. With the program lfo you can however do this.

Optional extra outputs are noisy as hell and lower level than the main outputs.

You can't assign effect send for every sample invidually, sends are global.

Sounds are as good as you put in it. I have no complaints about the sound quality from the main outputs.

MIDI timing is problem. If you use complex multisample and lay a drum track on it there's a noticeable timing problem. If you don't hear it, you're on the wrong business. Complex beats are also hard to handle.

It's for electronic musicians. If I would like to make classical music I'd buy a sampler with clean outputs and with an orchestral sample CD, like S2000.

I've changed my internal hard drive once (IBM) because there was so many errors. Now I have Quantum and the errors still exist sometimes.

Zip drive or some other is more reliable. I wouldn't do anything without a backup.

It hasn't tilted often, though. A couple of times.

I've send e-mail once and got a reply.