circuit bent AKAI S01 SAMPLE GRINDER -external patchbay

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CIRCUITBENDERS.CO.UK

RECYCLING NOISE SINCE 2001

For over 7 years we have been creating and supplying aural havoc with rewired childrens toys, modified drum machines, abused samplers and audio insanity machines. Our instuments have featured in both DJ magazine and Future Music cover CD and we have supplied and modified custom machines for:

The Chemical Brothers, Raiden (renegade hardware / Off Key records), The Plump DJ's, Jacknife Lee (U2/REM/Bloc Party producer, remixer, Compulsion), Twisted Records (Hallucinogen, Shpongle, OTT, Younger Brother etc), Howie Miura (Island / Def Jam), matrix22 (12 Inch Thumpers, Brick records), Groove Criminals (Future Music cover DVD), Sweet Noise, Noise Inc and many many more.

TODAYS VICTIM: AKAI S01 SAMPLE GRINDER

The fact that the Akai S01 exists at all is fairly baffling fact as to all intents and porposes it was obselete before it was even released. A 16 bit mono sampler with 1MB of memory as standard expandable to a massive 2MB maximum, sampling at a maximum bandwidth of 32khz, with no storage options other than a floppy drive, with only one output, with very few editing options and only a 3 figure numerical display to edit with. Even the rather odd addition of 2 MIDI in's doesn't save it from being a rather baffling addition to the Akai range. EMU and Ensoniq must have been pissing themselves laughing when Akai released the S01 for £999 in 1993 (yes you did read that right - £999), but the S01 has the last laugh as our mods have taken its sound mangling possibilities way beyond any other rackmount sampler ever produced

As you can see, the most immediate feature you'll notice about this machine is the external patchbay connected to the main unit by a 25 way D cable. The D cable connects to a 25 way socket mounted on the front of the Akai itself, and a corresponding socket on the back of the steel cased patchbay. With the external patchbay detached from the front panel the S01 functions as it normally would.

The patchbay connections consist of:

25 Way Main Patching Area: This feature enables the S01 to apply some savagely unlikely processing and effects to the any samples you have recorded. The main patchbay consists of 25 minijack sockets. Connections made between these sockets using standard minijack cables cause all kinds of sound swapping, distortion, pitching, ring modulation, envelope and odd mix effects to be applied to the sounds and patterns. This machine is very keen on producing insane sample chopping effects where sections of your sound are sliced and rearranged as if they have been through some advanced Re-Cycle session in the hands of a crazed lunatic. 90% of the time your samples are not permanently affected when you remove any patchbay cables although if you sample another sound with patchbay connections already in place you often find that the new sound is spliced into the old sound in all kinds on unexpected ways. The amount of connections you can make at any one time is limited only by the number of patch cables you have.

Patchable switches: These two switches on the right of the main patchbay are each associated with two minijack sockets each. Each switch can be patched 'in line' with any main patchbay connection allowing you to turn a connection on and off at the flick of a switch instead of having to repatch cables

1 Patchable Button: Similar to the switches but using a momentary push button instead. Allows you to make a quick non-latching connection useful for drum fills and effects etc.

2X3 way multiples: These two groups of three sockets on the top right of the main patchbay act the same as a patching multiple you would find on a modular synthesiser. Each group of three sockets is connected together internally. This means that any signal present at one socket is also available at the other two. This feature is useful for connecting one main patchbay socket to two other sockets or vice versa.

patch cables are included with the auction to get you started. If you want any more let us know after the action ends and we can supply you with some decent quality cables. There is no Akai manual for thi smachine as we never seem to actually get them for some reason, but i think you can download a copy from the Akai site. Having said that, you probably won't actually need it as using this this machine is about as difficult as falling over.