Akai Professional Samplers Mailing List

. . Last updated: 15 Sep, 2005

Overview

The Akai sampler list has been around for quite a while now and is over 1000 users strong (digest and active members). Likely one of the most active sampling related e-mail lists on the Internet. This list is intended for the discussion of all Akai S-series, Z-series and MPC samplers, as well as general sampling topics, such as:

- Sampling and digital audio

- Interfacing Akai samplers with other equipment

- Discussions and reviews of sampling resources and CD-ROM's

- Tips and Techniques

- Technical issues related to samplers

- Midi and recording techniques

- Akai and other sampling manufacturers

The list gets anywhere up to 10 e-mail messages per day, so it is recommenced that you set up a filtering rule in your e-mail program to sort the messages, or you can subscribe to the digest which is sent out daily. Messages from the Akai list will come from midicase.com, have the text "[Akai]" prepended to the subject line and the `To:` field will have akai @ midicase.com.

This list is run for free, without advertisements. This is list is not affiliated with Akai Professional, Akai Electric or Numark. This list is a group of Akai Sampler owners and enthusiasts that help each other out.

News

05.03.2001 -- List moved to midicase.com
07.10.2001 -- Brought the archives online.
02.26.2002 -- Migration to new server and list management software
09.15.2002 -- Added new search engine for the Archives
07.15.2005 -- Added Development Resources and modified page layout

How to Join and/or mange your subscription

By Web: Subscription management page

or by Email:

Subscribe: Send message to with Subject: subscribe

Unsubscribe: Send message to with Subject: unsubscribe

Automated help is available by email. Email with Help in the subject to

Once subscribed, messages may be posted to the list using the list address:

List Rules

Keep posts on topic.
Put model (MPC, S5000, etc.) in the Subject to assist in identifying appropriate e-mail.
Absolutely no requests or offers for pirated software (including commercial sample libraries) are permitted.
Please avoid Mac/PC platform wars (PC vs Akai or Linux vs. Akai are OK).
Do not post test messages to the list. If in doubt, ask the list admin (address below).
Do not BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) the list address otherwise the message will be rejected.
Automatic Unsubscribing. If your mailbox is full, disabled, or otherwise unreachable, you will be unsubscribed. This is handled automatically by the mailing list software. If you have had mailbox problems, please just re-subscribe.

Anti-Spam Notes

I try to keep list spam and advertisements to a minimum (near zero acutally). To help keep spam to a minimum, I follow these methods:

Only Members can post to the list. If a non-member posts to the list, their e-mail is rejected. Likewise, if you are sending from the wrong email account, you look like a spammer to the list software.

I do not sell or share your e-mail addresses with anyone. Your e-mail address is not accessible through list management commands. You e-mail address will, however, appear in posted messages.

I mask e-mail addresses in the archives of the list. This will keep `crawlers` from mining e-mail address.

Resources

Akai Professional - Info, manuals, OS updates and links to country specific distribution
Mansell-Labs MPC3000 Operating System - Make the best MPC even better!
John Katz S5000 Site - Great site for S5000 info (not maintained)
Luca's Akai Samplers SCSI FAQ - Having SCSI problems? This is the place to go.
xfader's Akai S900 Resource Page - Software utilities and links.
Troy Woodfield's Akai Sampling Articles - Good tips and tricks from the list and elsewhere (not maintained).
www.mpc2000xl.com - MPC2000XL related info.
www.mpc3000.com - Sister MPC site to the above.
Akai links at Synthzone
Deepsound - How-to Create Akai CD's on PC or check his Sample Calculator
Creating Akai CD from a Mac

Samples

Hollowsun.com - a universe of free sounds to download for use with the Akai S5000 and S6000 samplers.
BanginBeats.com - True rugged sounds for true rugged producers.
Mpcsounds - Current sounds for MPC drum samplers specializing in RnB HipHop.
Samples and Loops - directory at Yahoo!
Soundengine.com - Pro sounds for connected musicians
Free sample disk Sl1030 originally hosted at www.akaipro.com. Self-executable floppy image file (may not work under all Operating Systems)
Free sample disk Sl1056 originally hosted at www.akaipro.com (see above)

Software

Translator - www.chickensys.com (PC/Mac)

D-Sound PRO - Audio editor with full Akai support (Mac)

Millenium - Great s2000/s3000xl editor (PC)
MPCEditor - MPC series Program Creator/Editor (PC)
Disk2file - Disk imaging software (PC)
AkaiDisk - Read and write samples on Akai floppy disks (PC). S900 to the S3200xl
CDXtract - Browse and convert various sampler formats (PC/Mac)
Windows Akai.inf file - Serves as a placeholder for that "?" in the Device list for Win95/98
Older MESA SCSI Plug - Certain Mac systems my need this for MESA
MPC PGM Maker - Create MPC pgm files (Mac)

Hardware

Akai Sampler Drive Compatibility List July 2001
MPC Drive Compatibility List July 2001
sells SCSI devices for just about any sampler
Real World Interfaces - 32M memory boards for S1/S3 samplers and member on the list
www.memsolution.com - 32MB Memory Expansion for S2800/S3000/CD3000/S3200 (very good price)
Sound Logic in California - Retailer in Ramona, CA and a regular on the list
MU-TEC / Masterbits in Germany - Expansion options for Akai products
Roger Linn Designs - Upgrades for MPC60
Backlight Replacements
MemoryX - sells sampler memory
Satech - sells sampler memory

Data formats

Z-series project file format
Z-series wave file structure
MPC2000 sound format (coming)
MPC2000 program file (coming)
MPC1000 proram file (coming)

Development resources

There are quite a few Open Source projects that inferface to Akai Pro equipment or data formats. They are free to try out and hopefully contribute to thier advancement:

lakai - Transfer samples over SCSI for S-series
libakai - Akai disk and CD reader and extractor(?)
Akaitools - With akaitools, you can directly read, write, format HDDs/CD-ROMs in Akai format via SCSI interface
Abrowse - abrowse is a program which allows you to read AKAI S1000/3000 sample CD's and write the samples into wav audio format
aksy - USB transfers like ak.sys
Akai S2000/S3000/S900 Disk Image Editor - Title says it all?
Wired - Wired aims to be a professional music production and creation software running on the Linux operating system. It can also read AKAI CDs and import 18 different Wave formats. (uses Abrowse)
Linuxsampler - uses libakai
Freecycle - Freecycle is a beat slicer running on GNU/Linux platform, providing amplitude domain and frequency domain beat matching / zero crossing algorithms. It exports sliced audio chunks and generates a MIDI file which can be used to play the sliced loop. Freecycle also exports AKAI S5000/S6000/Z4/Z8 .AKP file to be used with your favorite sampler. (akai support is not known at this time)

List Archives

The list archives are located here.

Administrator

If you have any problems, e-mail the . This is only an email address concerning administrative requests for the Akai Professional Samplers Mailing List. This address is not related to Akai Professional in any way.