Yamaha A4000 Sampler

Not very logical userinterface. But even unlogical thing become logical when you work with it a while. It took mee 3 or 4 hours before I saw the light. Did pick up the manual three of four times. The manual isn't very helpfull. I even now don't know how to edit the fx section altough I read it in the manual. Mixed feelings but learning curve is not very diffent from an Akai S2000

loads of and they are very good to. Especially the effects and filters.

Loading a big amount of samples from floppy is annoying. Importing a wav file takes very long, to long, to long. This is a big drawback and costs 3 yamaha points

Good. Better then al my softsamplers (don't use them anymore). Sound is the only thing that counts. Its a musical instrument after all

Its works and din't let me down. No problems with the knobs yet.

Didn't need customer support. Its stabil, its massive

IF it was stolen I would buy another one. They are very good.

I don't know about the firmware version.
Ease of use - no. Not easy! But to other reviewers here: This device has a lot of functionality! It cannot be easy to use. But once you spent a few hours reading the manual carefully, this unit is easy to use. I don't need the manual any more.
The push&turn-encoders might be disturbing. I find them OK. But I see that some people will find them messy and disturbing.
What's badly explained in the manual is how to assign an effect. So, the trick is to set the output of a sample (or sample bank) to the input of the effect 1, 2, or 3. Complicated? Well, at least it lets you use different FX for different samples within one program, free routing...
But other than that, once you read the manual, the user interface lets you work efficiently.

Features? Lots of!

Polyphony is 32, which is not much, but for the time it was produced still is OK.
It has 96 built-in FX, I tried some... the reverbs are very nice. You can edit all FX parameters. They can also be edited via MIDI controllers. There is a detune effect like in analog synthesizers that does not consume extra processing power or an FX slot. (Sounds like chorus!)
Next point: Basically everything can be adjusted live using MIDI controlers. In many places where you enter notes or controler numbers, you can activate the MIDI function and "type" them on your master keyboard. Especially with controller numbers, this saves a lot of work.
There are I believe 20 different filters, ("DCFs") some provide resonance. Additionally, one can have a simple EQ (1 band parametric).
Countless other functions: Volume scaling over the keyboard from breakpoint to breakpoint. Scaling is also available for envelope and filter. The master EQ is 4 band full parametric. There is one LFO that can control various things. (filter, pitch, etc)
Of course it is multi-timbral and can handly up to 128 programs consisting of one or more sample banks, again consisting of several samples. (Samples can be mapped to a program without a bank, though.)
Recording is easy, there is a trigger mode that cuts samples automatically. They will be given the chosen name + a number and optionally can be stuffed into a new sample bank for each "recording session". Looping works well and isn't hard to do.
In general a good thing: It has internal IDE ports, that can handle up to 8GB of hard disk. (Larger hard disks work, but the device only uses 8 GB). I recommend using elderly laptop hard disks, which are quite cheap and silent. (Hint: You need a drilling machine to mount the laptop drive, ... remove the mounting plate _before_ drilling the holes. ;-)
Memory can be expanded using cheap old PC modules. Mine has 128MB, which is fairly enough.
It imports a couple of formats from an external CD-drive (SCSI) and originally came with 8 CDs full of samples. If you plug in an SCSI CD writer, it an backup the other disks to CD.
And there is a lot of features I didn't use yet.

The drawback: It loads very slowly from disks. No matter what kind of disks. This is a design issue, as Yamaha told me.

It sounds what you record into it. No noise, no tampering of the signal.

The sample CDs are not that good. I think the pianos are dissapointing. But there are some good sounds. I didn't test the drums yet, maybe there are some more suprisingly good drums. But as said, the pianos, if not keyboards in general, are not very shiny.

I can't judge about this now.

Yamaha's German support answered e-mails within a day and was very supportive. The person answering was competend and helpful - even though I didn't buy the device new and it is out of production for quite a while.

If it was stolen, I'd moan a lot because I (currently) do not have a CD writer to which I could back up my samples.
I'm using the unit now for about 2 weeks. I read quote some reviews and almost bought something from Akai. But with the A4000, you get more for the money! It just has way more features. This in fact makes the user interface complex. You can't just switch it on and use it. You definetely need to read the manual beforehand.
There's only one feature I miss: Automatic mapping of the original key for each sample. (I'm sampling old keyboards, and every guitar tuner can tell the tone!)
The major drawback of the device is that it loads samples very very slowly. No matter from which medium.

Terrible user interface, but it's Yamaha, haha, lesson learned. I can't think of 1 or 2 Yamaha products that had sensible UI's. Get with it, Yamaha, your user interfaces are clinical, nonsensical, and not conducive to creativity. I'm not sure what OS I have, but I can tell you that many processes in the manual (written in Engrish) are INCORRECT. The sample cds that came with the sampler are very good. The manual, as I've said, is terrible, written by some japanese lab coat.

Polyphony is 64 I believe. The effects are excellent, almost worth the pain and price alone. Even the reverb is better than your typical Japanese Crap reverb. Expansion sucks, I have to pay how much for more outputs and digital in/out? The Emu E64 came with all that factory! Once upon a time samplers came with 8 outputs standard, but 4 outputs is decent, and at the price these go for, you can't complain much. There are alot of good tools for multisampling and sample mangling if you can get past the terrible OS. Memory is more than adequate, it's pretty easy to upgrade this path. Loading samples is PAINFUL, banks take FOREVER to load, it's unbelievably slow. Why was my E64 which is way older than this thing 10 times faster and easier to use? It is really nice that it's compatible with so many formats, but trust me, this sampler is more for sound design, not AKAI/EM U functions.

As I've said, the Yamaha sample cds are great, and if you just used the basic waves on the Aseries you could still have a ripping synth. The filters, lfos, and envelopes are excellent. The effects are very musical and deep....at the used prices they sometimes go for, it's worth getting a basic, factory A4000 or 5000 just as an effects processor alone. I may keep mine around for that, since I hate actually, you know, SAMPLING with it. Har har

I wouldn't depend on it and I wouldn't gig with it. I have my reasons. The rotary knobs are HORRIBLE, they jump around if you turn them too fast, which inhibits speed of use. All A samplers have this issue to some degree or another, chalk it up to Yamaha using cheap/inferior components (like the SCSI bus).
This is a STUDIO ONLY piece if anything.....if for some reason you had to reload your sample banks at a live show, you'd be lynched by the audience before Eeyore4000 loaded everything. The fan is NOISEY too, which can create problems if you have sensitive mics in your studio.

Just about every major conglomerate like Yamaha gets a 4 from me. To me, customer support is more than how long you have to wait on the phone for a technical answer (which you should use the internet for anyways). Half of customer support is how well a product is supported with O.S. upgrades, compatibility in the future, and like Roland, Yamaha flunks this miserably. Remember the Ex5? Neither does Yamaha. MLAN what? Here's a couple of token O.S. upgrades, now deal with it, suckers. It happened with the A3000 v.2. Instead of working on the sampler we sold you, we'll just sell new samplers with the o.s. we should've given you. Feel sorry for anyone who paid full price for the original A3000.

If lost or stolen, I would hope it's the only equipment the thief had to use, my revenge would be sweet. Compared to stuff I used to work with, this thing's way more powerful, but nowadays, I'm more impressed by workflow than how many bells and whistles something has. If I had nothing but a sampler, I'd rather have an ASR-10 or barring that, an Emu or Akai sampler and a good external effects processor than the A4000. Not to mention all the software options like Kontakt that exist nowadays. Part of the demise of hardware samplers is software, but alot of it has to do with manufacturers releasing samplers that are whack.

Overall, A4000 is not very easy to use, and one needs to make work one's brain to use it cleverly. It is a professionnal studio sampler, not an "easy to use rompler". If you want to buy sth easy to use, go to AKAI. If you want sth professionnal with outstanding sounds, stay with A4000. Owner's manual is not easy to read and won't help a lot.

In-board excellent 3 effects and outstanding filters. Superb convertissors. Very flexible studio tool... Once you've understood how it works. Complete MIDI implementation, flexible modulations, good polyphony... If you want to store datas, you'll need to add an Hard Disk, or a ZIP 100 Mega drive. Unfortunately, A4000 uses old-SCSI, which makes of it a quite slow-to-store sampler.

Superb for techno-new'age-house-Hip'hop-synthetic music. A must-to-have for those kinds of musics, really! Warm sounds!

Well... buttons in front pannel work bad after a few months of intensive use, and my HD seems to store sometimes wrong datas. It is a rackamount-studio unit, which does not seem to be very solid. Not for a live use...

Very professionnal studio sampler, with excellents effects, superb convertissors and filters. Not easy to use, but very, very powerful!

Never used a machine that has destroyed my creative impulse as much..i just couldnt GET this one. every thing so slow and not intuitive.. never managed to hear the library on CDrom..as i dont have a scsi cdrom..(whats so hard with putting a built in cd rom in??) no wonder hardware samplers are dying out ..and whats with SIMMS !!! Never recorded one sound from it in 3-4years of owning it.

ive used a LOT of gear since i got my 1st SH101 new in 1983..and i dont mind spending time learning them..but i just gave up with this,as it wasnt intuitive in the least to how i work.

seems well featured...if you can be arsed to sit down with manual and battle to get it to do something.i dont have the paitence...i;d rather be creating music.

heard 1 or two sounds from it..they sounded great...never yet heard the cd libary u get with it :(

no probs...but ...never really used it

i own a lot of yamaha gear..but after this , i refuse to buy anymore yamaha stuff , also where is there loyalty to customer after purchase..?

it LOOKS the sexiest bit of gear i have...and is the only reason i have kept it but its been useless waste of money for me..one day when i dont have to be creative i will sit down and try again with it ..for now i'd rather be playing and not fighting with it , my emu esi-32 under it just WORKS..so it gets used...Although i hate software synth/sampler...i is gonna get new EMULATOR X..

The A4k can be a bitch to use.. The interface is quite logical, but navigation is slow due to the slow responsive knobs. Things are fiddly to map out. I'd reccomend bzone, the software editor (www.bzone.be) .. Of samplers, this is deffo the mammoth.. powerful but slow.

One of the things i love about this machine it it's awesome array of FX. If somehow i chose not to use this beast for sampling i would keep it solely as an FX processor (oh yeah, did i mention you can run it as a standalone FX processor?) You can have 3 FX blocks in combo, or allocated to different samples.. in standalone mode you can have 3 in series, which is more than the average digital signal processor can offer. The FX types are great.. There are some real mavericks on here.. such as the techmod, autosin, jump and flangpan, as well as some nice crunchy distortions and ampsims which stick out to me most. Those are just a few out of i think 100+ (can't remember off the top of me head) FX to play with.. you'll find pretty much anything you need.
Filters are fantastic, plenty of types, great sound and best of all... <<a filter plus 1 band EQ per sample!!>> You won't get that on most software apps will you?

The A4k is more of a synth than a sampler. Unlike dedicated synths, the A4k gives you a whole new dimension on sound design, you start with an oscillator (like or a synth) or start with a sample and put that through the synth process of Filter > Env > FX. You'll get completely different results.
If you want your average stereotype sampler.. basically a rompler.. get an akai. It'll be easier to use the AKAI sample CDs.. However if you want to explore new sonic territory and create wholly original sounds, then consider the Axks, they're synths at heart with huge potential.

I'd say the yammi is v. reliable, hasnt crashed on me once. It can be slow, but provided you treat it with care as far as messing with devices like SCSI, it should be very reliable

The A4k isnt really supported anymore. Yamaha still support it i guess, but unless you can understand japanese, you'll have little luck. I havent had to deal with their services cause the machine hasnt failed me.. Hopefully I wont have to

I love my A4k to bits. I don't care if hardware samplers are going out, This thing has some serious power and potential, and i can always forsee having a use for it.
If you want a bread and butter sampler, i wouldnt reccomend the A4k. Seeing as its past the h/w samplers heyday, modern software apps have much better support.
When you have a bit of cash to spend, pick one up and you'll be amazed at what you can do.

I'm not sure what version I'm using because I just got this thing two days ago. Editing samples can be a pain so do your sample editing on your PC. The manual is the best I've read from yamaha because I had the RM1X years before that was the worst manual to read.

The poly is 64 which is great for me. I'm make hiphop music, and this thing is no joke. Response thru midi is tight with no drift. Comes with effects and you add the outs later for $200 (compare to akai). It wasn't hard for me to just dive in and explore the features of this beast. Before I even used this thing I put a IDE Hard Drive and internal 250MB Zip Drive inside plus maxed the ram. Everything worked flawless. People will jusy have to get use to the Operating System and menu structure that seems simple and well thought out. This thing is what I wanted to make my samples more like a synth. Its miles away from the MPC 2000xl in the sample department. But for drums, I'm sticking with my MPC 2000XL because it has more punch. But remember, I've only had the A4000 for 2 days. I like the way you can change velocity for samples. It has a onboard sequencer but is like a scratch pad so nothing like cubase or MPC.

What you put in is what you put out. But after that, you got all this DSP. The filters are amazing. The effects are tight. Its has LFOs that can sync to midi. You can control velocity and how the sample plays plus a shit load to loop a sample. A4000 seems to color sample the sound warmer. I still have a lot more to explore.

I don't know. I hope I don't have any problems. I would not use it at a gig. Its too damn heavy.

N/A

If this thing was lost I would buy another one if I get the same price I paid for it. Its worth the $400 bucks I paid for it. When I bought it, I was like a little kid with a new toy. I've tried software samplers but personally I can't stand them. The A4000 seems more hands on compared to kontakt or halion. The A4000 is not powerful than software but more accessible and since I can use a hard drive inside the A4000 I can get benefits similar to a computer with no hassle. Anyway, for the price, you would be an idiot to pass it up.

Answering the last coment. You must be completly idiot, this sampler is great, the features are great, the sound quality is great and the effects are great. Most samplers come with only a little of memory and what can you espect by 400$ jejejeje. More stupid if you bought it whithout knowing it's specs. It's the same memory that most samplers have ever use, you can conect it by the SCSI directly to the computer, you can control it all by MIDI you can do a lot of things with this great sampler, but you have to be a little inteligent.

Great features for a not very modern hardware sampler. Many effects, a lot of memmory, but a very sloooow SCSI.

As most of the samplers, depend on the samples but you can do many things with it's LFO's, envelopes, effects...

Perfect for all kind of music but it shines more for electronic dance music, I make most of my voyces and drum loops whith this, noth gig with it yet. It have get locked a pair of times whyle loading some samples, but not more.

Not used yet

Great features, great sound quality and many posibilities. Mine have full memmory, internal HD, external SCSI CD-RW and the extra audio I/O card. Very good sampler fot the price.

Bought mine for $400 on sale and returned it the next day.
It is 2003 now! This thing comes with only 4MB of RAM and you are supposed to buy additional RAM, which can be no better than 72pin 32MB. You can't even go to the PC store and buy those today. You have to special-order those because they are so old.
The most important factor to fuel this decision was that the manual explicitly said that I needed an external SCSI CD-ROM drive in order to load all the samples that came on CDs with it. Well, the external CD-ROM is a hard to find thing as well. Nowadays nobody needs those. Besides, I already have a CD-ROM in my PC, why would I want to buy another one just for making this A4000 work?
It's crazy. I figured that I needed to spend a whole lot more money in order to make things work.... Naahhh... Ain't worth it.

I found moving from MPC2000 to this a doddle and more easy than the MPC by miles. The manual can be a little annoying but I only ever looked at it when I was stuck.

The FX's are great compared to the 0 ones you get on the MPC unless you spend another #250. I also bought a 250meg Zip which also helped.

I produce Techno and the FX work really well with vocal snipets and loops I mske up.

Touch wood it's been perfect and i've had it 3 years.

I would buy it again without a doudt.