Hey there,
I have been thinking a lot about getting an S-950 lately to pair with my MPC2000 as a controller.
Can anyone vouch for the sound and time stretch features of the S-950 over the sound of the MDUWII or is that just that overkill.
Thanks in advance
Keep the workflow in mind as the 950 can be cumbersome if you arenāt used to it.
Sound wise it canāt really be beat. There are only other options in my opinion. Not necessarily better options. Just different. The MD isnāt really the same kind of sound. Although it does sound good. However, itās much more convenient. And weighs a lot less.
Iād probably take an s950 vs the MDUW on sound and price if I didnāt have one. But that only relates to the sample engine as the Md is far more versatile. I got mine (950) for free years ago, so itās one of the only things Iāve never thought to sell
Hey Kuroichi,
Thank you so much for the response this is very helpful.
I have a big affection for hardware samplers and do not see much comparison between the two other than the 12 bit hence my curiosity.
I was going down this route but switched gears and went with the ALM squid salmple instead and dove into eurorack. Squid doesnāt have a proper time stretch but you can scroll through looping slices and it has crossfade on the loops for time stretching but it has enough of the old school akai flavor for me. Having another old akai with a gotek floppy usb converter I can say I am pretty much never tempted anymore, work flow is just so dang slow on those old machines. If you are willing to step into euro it could be worth doing midi converter + squid and Mum8 and some other bits to flesh it out.
I am kind of half way there. I have a Mum M8 paired with akemieās castle
and a er301 but that is not 12 bit. Is the squid?
I do have a pico drum and wondered how that compares to the 950 as it is 12 bit
Not really the 950 is strangely hi fi.
Maybe more like in the territory of an Ensoniq mirage or eps 13 bit.
Doepfer sampler module is somewhat similar.
Squid is 16bit but itās bitrate and sample rate reduction are pretty spot on imo, maybe it is closer to a S1000 than 950, 950 used a clock per voice for pitching samples not totally sure how squid does it. But yeah squid in 12bit and lower sample rate is quite nice.
Nothing sounds like an S950. Forget about the 12-bit. The s950 is not a ālo-fiā sampler. The magic is in the 8 analog filters and the way it pitches. It is a pain in the butt to operate, though. You will also need an external mixer as there is no panning in the machine. Itās all mono
if youāre debating between MD-UW and S-950, I would go with the former. the S-950 isnāt cheap already, so you might as well just get the MD-UW and get a whole hell of a lot more, with a better workflow as well.
Sorry maybe I wasnāt clear.
Amazingly I am very lucky to already own a MDUW lI,
I was playing devils advocate to try and stop myself āJonesingā for an s950.
The MD is phenomenal in terms of functionality for sure so I am really not quite sure why I have found myself in this place with a hangover for rack samplers.
Having said that I have never owned a 12bit vintage sampler and my friends MPC60 sounds incredible - I gather it would be similar but with the additional timestretch and filter functions?
I am very much into 92 hardcore/Jungle sound so therefore thought it would fit the bill nicely. Hoping to sequence it with my MPC 2000.
As I get older I am finding limitations way more appealing. Small screens zip disks, limited sample time and samples is where itās at for me.
The MPC60 sounds very different from an S950.
I had this exact setup you are going for. It works great for jungle. Just make sure you have a mixer.
Chopping on the xl takes forever. Its pretty bare bones compared to what we can do to samples now.
The 950 workflow is pretty fast once you get it down. It really shines when you pitch sounds with it more than anything. Kind of sharpens up the drum hits and makes anything that goes in it pop in the mix a little more.
I prefer the mduw sound to the s950.
Also like the mpc Xl sound over the s950 and the mpc60
Maybe itās because Iām into techno and house, minimal and electro and idm and the rest
Anyway if you are up for an interesting and far out rack sampler - Iād check out the Ensoniq eps or eps 16 plus.
Ae and warp label cityscape sampler
The S950 sound was state of the art/high fidelity at the moment it came out.
The MDUW sampling engine was designed to sound retro/lofi, since its inception.
Big difference there.
LCVL - this is a very good point
I am getting excited reading this.
Too late - I just bought one with the scsi and digital I/O.
Apparently the digital sounds good too if thatās possible - Not sure whether someone can verify this or not but I read on another forum that this was very much the case. Nice to have the options I guess?
Could possibly work for tracking/mastering?
Does it? I thought it was the same sample engine?
Well I may have to keep an eye for one of those potentially tooš¤£
Not at all.
The s950 is much brighter. The mpc60 is very dark and āboxyā. The mpc60 interpolates digitally when pitching. 950 changes the clock.
Features wise: 60 does almost nothing other than pitch, pan + volume. No filter, no loop points, no envelopes. Almost nothing.
The only things similar are that they both operate at 12 bit and the Akai logo
AFAIK the mpc60 is the only ālo-fiā Akai sampler. The 612 (or whatever the number) Iāve never used.
You can make them (up until the s2000 iirc) sound ālo-fiā by sampling at a low samplerate. But then you can make your current pc sound lo-fi too in that way
If the sampler operates at no more than a bit depth of 16, you can sample at a very low volume. Then normalize, and you hear āa low resolutionā. But for example the 1990 S1100 operates at 18 bit already. The S3000XL for example you can have it sounding more lo-fi than the S1100. Also because of the cheaper interpolation method.
Bottom line, the early akai rack samplers were of very high quality
Thanks for confirming this.
The 60 does look great but at this stage I am looking for sound possibilities and if as you say the s950 has more flexibility then that is great to hear.