SOUND ON SOUND
Long-time Akai sampler user Paul Ward tries to stop his credit card from leaping out of his pocket as he gets to grips with the tempting additions to Akai's mid-range sampler.
Come on down, Akai's new low-cost sampler! Astonishing value for money at a mere £999, the basic S2000 is expandable to a top-of-the-range spec by means of add-on cards. Paul White spins the (data) wheel of fortune to see whether Akai have played their cards right this time...
The latest in Akai's line of standalone hard disk recorders, which also includes 8- and 16-track models, sticks with the 4-track format of its predecessor, the DR4d, but adds 250 'virtual' tracks to increase the flexibility it can offer. David Mellor checks out this low-cost entry into the world of disk recording.
Though hard disk recording offers possibilities far beyond those achievable with magnetic tape, it often sports a vastly more complex user interface, which can alienate the tape-based faithful. But Akai's new 16-track hard disk recorder seeks to meet the tape heads halfway, David Mellor plays ambassador...
Akai build on their years of expertise in stand-alone digital recorders with a truly portable personal multitracker offering a digital mixer and 12 tracks of audio on a removable-media drive. David Mellor takes it away.
These days, samplers are the electronic musician's bread and butter — but they need not be used in commonplace ways. In the first part of a short series, Nicholas Rowland looks at ways to spice up your tracks with samples from unusual sources.
Subtle timing nuances play a large part in the feel of much of today's rhythm-based music. Martin Walker bangs the drum about creative use of groovy time-tweaking functions.
Competition in the world of 16-track recording workstations is hotting up, and Akai's new DPS16 looks to be a prime contender, with its impressive user interface and 24-bit/96kHz capabilities. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser take it for a spin.
I have a reasonably modest home recording studio incorporating an Akai DPS12 hard‑disk multitracker with onboard...
