History
Starting with the S612, a 12-bit sampler meant to compete with the Ensoniq Mirage for low-budget samplers, Akai has been innovators in sampling. They made travels up the bit-ladder with the XV7000, the S900 and S950. Finally they arrived with the modern-day plateau of the 32mb 16-bit linear stereo sampler, the S1000.

Akai chose to go the rack module sampler route; since the S1000 Akai has mostly avoided making keyboard-outfitted musical instruments (although like Emu they dabbled in it from time to time in a non-serious manner). They also put multiple outputs on the back, making it hugely popular with drummers. SCSI was standard and the big dispaly was much appreciated. It is possible to say that the modern sampler era was started by the Akai S1000.

Probably the most significant thing about the Akai wasn't even the Akai itself - it was the fact that many companies - most noteably Best Service of Germany - started making massive amounts of CD-ROM collections in the Akai format. This was back in the days when you had to get sounds in the particular samplers format (no more with Translator!) The "Akai format" became the de facto standard and most other samplers (Roland, Emu, Ensoniq, Kurzweil) had no choice but to read that format so their libraries would instantly expand and not be limited by their own.

The S1000 was followed up by the slightly smaller S3000 and the XL series. Both the S-1000 and S-3000 series had many variations - playback only versions, ones with CD-ROM Drive built in, smaller displays, etc. but all bascially shared the same technology.

Akai also spawned the MESA and Pulsar technologies; see the articles below for more information.

Akai lives on!

Synthesis and File Structure
The single Instrument unit on the Akai is the Program. This holds the parameters and the pointers to the wavesamples to be played. The Program file does not hold the samples themselves. A Program holds a mapping system called Keygroups. A Keygroup contains a group of parameters, and can reference up to 4 samples (in structures called Zones). It’s not documented very well, but Keygroups can overlap or layer on top of one another, making for a very flexible (but under-used) architecture.

A common usage of the Akai is to play multiple Programs stacked on top of each other. This was common practice in the S-1000, so common that Akai implemented this feature as a Multi in the S-3000, whereas all you had to do was to select the Multi and that would play combinations of Programs together.

Both the S-1000 and S-3000 disk and file formats are quite similar; the S-3000 format is just an extension of the S-1000’s, with the data chunks a little larger, along with different file type numbers. In fact, Akai updated the S-1000’s OS after the S-3000 came out so that it would read the S-3000’s format - without the additional options, of course, but it could read it nevertheless. S-3000 Volumes are quite a bit more capable - they can store up to 509 "objects" - Programs, Samples, Multi's, other. The S-1000 Volume could only store 128 Objects.

The Akai disk format is the same for the S-1000 and S-3000. Partitions are the same for both formats. A Volume can be either S-1000 or S-3000, and of course Programs and Samples can be either way as well. Even if the files are different, it's a moot point since the S-1000 OS 4.4 sees and reads both. Translator, when you write a Volume, or other file (Program, Sample, whatever), checks your format choice in Options about file type and writes the appropriate type volume or file.

Basically, the S-1000 and the S-3000 are interchangeable to some extent. The only total incompatibility worth mentioning is that if you can't write an S-3000 Program with more than 128 Samples attached to it to a S-1000 Volume. Another interesting twist is that many other samplers (such as Emu), although they can read S-1000 and S-3000 Programs, they can't read S-3000 Programs which are in S-1000 Volumes!

Why do we bunch Pulsar and MESA into this category? Both formats are almost direct duplicates of the Akai format just in a different form. See below for a description. We will describe all these formats, except when they deviate, as the Akai format.

Translating and Building Akai S-1000/3000 Programs

If you are intending to read your new sounds in an actual S-1000 or S-3000, you have to consider writing it directly to a Akai-formatted disk. This can be the disk itself, like a ZipDisk or CF Card. Or you can create a Virtual Drive, format it to Akai format, and write the information on their, then burn a CD and read that in your Akai.

Since the Akai, using Volumes, is a Bank format, you can convert any format into a new Akai Volume, or you can insert a conversion into an already existing Volume.

Since there are restrictions on Zone-level programming and only 4 Zones, somtimes multiple Programs must be created to imitate an incoming Program. Programs like this given an added digit behind them and given the same MIDI number and Program Number, so they play together when the Volume is loaded.

Keep in mind that an S-1000 Volume can only hold 125 objects and an S-3000 Volume only holds 509. Since S-1000 samplers with the last OS CAN READ S-3000 Volumes and Programs, it is recommended that you convert to S-3000 and not even use S-1000.

Also remember that Akai Partitions on disk are maximum 60mb in size; unless you have special organizational preferences, create your Partitions with that maximum size.

Akai S-1000/3000 are only 32mb in capacity, so be careful how much memory you use for your programs.

Parameter Tolerence can be used to reduce the need for multiple Programs; higher tolerance allows the Conversion Engine to average programming needs and while the final result will not exactly match in the incoming source, it will be less complicated to deal with. 0% Parameter Tolerance means no averaging will take place, 100% tolerence means the first claim to a parameter will apply to all further ones.

Translating Out of Akai S-1000/3000 Format

The Instrument Unit on the Fusion is a Program. A Mix is a Performance type that can define multiple Programs on different or the same MIDI Channels.

Samples will be converted out of the proprietary .afs format and converted into the destination format.

You can also convert an entire Fusion Bank into a Bank-type destination such as SoundFont, Giga, Motif, etc.

History
Starting with the S612, a 12-bit sampler meant to compete with the Ensoniq Mirage for low-budget samplers, Akai has been innovators in sampling. They made travels up the bit-ladder with the XV7000, the S900 and S950. Finally they arrived with the modern-day plateau of the 32mb 16-bit linear stereo sampler, the S1000.

Akai chose to go the rack module sampler route; since the S1000 Akai has mostly avoided making keyboard-outfitted musical instruments (although like Emu they dabbled in it from time to time in a non-serious manner). They also put multiple outputs on the back, making it hugely popular with drummers. SCSI was standard and the big dispaly was much appreciated. It is possible to say that the modern sampler era was started by the Akai S1000.

Probably the most significant thing about the Akai wasn't even the Akai itself - it was the fact that many companies - most noteably Best Service of Germany - started making massive amounts of CD-ROM collections in the Akai format. This was back in the days when you had to get sounds in the particular samplers format (no more with Translator!) The "Akai format" became the de facto standard and most other samplers (Roland, Emu, Ensoniq, Kurzweil) had no choice but to read that format so their libraries would instantly expand and not be limited by their own.

The S1000 was followed up by the slightly smaller S3000 and the XL series. Both the S-1000 and S-3000 series had many variations - playback only versions, ones with CD-ROM Drive built in, smaller displays, etc. but all bascially shared the same technology.

Akai also spawned the MESA and Pulsar technologies; see the articles below for more information.

Akai lives on!

Synthesis and File Structure
The single Instrument unit on the Akai is the Program. This holds the parameters and the pointers to the wavesamples to be played. The Program file does not hold the samples themselves. A Program holds a mapping system called Keygroups. A Keygroup contains a group of parameters, and can reference up to 4 samples (in structures called Zones). It’s not documented very well, but Keygroups can overlap or layer on top of one another, making for a very flexible (but under-used) architecture.

A common usage of the Akai is to play multiple Programs stacked on top of each other. This was common practice in the S-1000, so common that Akai implemented this feature as a Multi in the S-3000, whereas all you had to do was to select the Multi and that would play combinations of Programs together.

Both the S-1000 and S-3000 disk and file formats are quite similar; the S-3000 format is just an extension of the S-1000’s, with the data chunks a little larger, along with different file type numbers. In fact, Akai updated the S-1000’s OS after the S-3000 came out so that it would read the S-3000’s format - without the additional options, of course, but it could read it nevertheless. S-3000 Volumes are quite a bit more capable - they can store up to 509 "objects" - Programs, Samples, Multi's, other. The S-1000 Volume could only store 128 Objects.

The Akai disk format is the same for the S-1000 and S-3000. Partitions are the same for both formats. A Volume can be either S-1000 or S-3000, and of course Programs and Samples can be either way as well. Even if the files are different, it's a moot point since the S-1000 OS 4.4 sees and reads both. Translator, when you write a Volume, or other file (Program, Sample, whatever), checks your format choice in Options about file type and writes the appropriate type volume or file.

Basically, the S-1000 and the S-3000 are interchangeable to some extent. The only total incompatibility worth mentioning is that if you can't write an S-3000 Program with more than 128 Samples attached to it to a S-1000 Volume. Another interesting twist is that many other samplers (such as Emu), although they can read S-1000 and S-3000 Programs, they can't read S-3000 Programs which are in S-1000 Volumes!

Why do we bunch Pulsar and MESA into this category? Both formats are almost direct duplicates of the Akai format just in a different form. See below for a description. We will describe all these formats, except when they deviate, as the Akai format.

Translating and Building Akai S900 / S950 Programs

If you are intending to read your new sounds in an actual S-1000 or S-3000, you have to consider writing it directly to a Akai-formatted disk. This can be the disk itself, like a ZipDisk or CF Card. Or you can create a Virtual Drive, format it to Akai format, and write the information on their, then burn a CD and read that in your Akai.

Since the Akai, using Volumes, is a Bank format, you can convert any format into a new Akai Volume, or you can insert a conversion into an already existing Volume.

Since there are restrictions on Zone-level programming and only 4 Zones, somtimes multiple Programs must be created to imitate an incoming Program. Programs like this given an added digit behind them and given the same MIDI number and Program Number, so they play together when the Volume is loaded.

Keep in mind that an S-1000 Volume can only hold 125 objects and an S-3000 Volume only holds 509. Since S-1000 samplers with the last OS CAN READ S-3000 Volumes and Programs, it is recommended that you convert to S-3000 and not even use S-1000.

Also remember that Akai Partitions on disk are maximum 60mb in size; unless you have special organizational preferences, create your Partitions with that maximum size.

Akai S-1000/3000 are only 32mb in capacity, so be careful how much memory you use for your programs.

Parameter Tolerence can be used to reduce the need for multiple Programs; higher tolerance allows the Conversion Engine to average programming needs and while the final result will not exactly match in the incoming source, it will be less complicated to deal with. 0% Parameter Tolerance means no averaging will take place, 100% tolerence means the first claim to a parameter will apply to all further ones.

Translating Out of Akai S900 / S950 Format

The Instrument Unit on the Fusion is a Program. A Mix is a Performance type that can define multiple Programs on different or the same MIDI Channels.

Samples will be converted out of the proprietary .afs format and converted into the destination format.

You can also convert an entire Fusion Bank into a Bank-type destination such as SoundFont, Giga, Motif, etc.

History
The S5000 and S6000 came out in 1995, heraling great press and advancements. However, the first units were saddled by OS problems and bugs,a nd it wasn't really until OS1.3 in 1996 that got everything straightened out. Plus, samplers hit a downturn in the mid-1990's, so really the S5000-series was a misfire, despite being extremely capable units.

Not only did they offer up to 256mb of memory (WOW), but the HUGE interface was something else. The detechable S6000 front-panel (see the picture to the right) was shocking and much appreciated. Someone was really thinking outside the box!

Not only that, they offered a USB interface to link it to a computer with the akSys software. The remains to this day the ultimate in computer-to-sampler interfacing - you can use the S5000/Z-Series as black boxes and operate them comletely from the computer, even storing the AKP/AKM and WAVE files in the computer. And the USB was dependable and fast. This carried tradition of MESA with the S3000XL series to even greater heights.

Although it seems that Mac OSX has been around forever, akSys for Mac was only OS9. Early versions of OSX could run akSys in "Classic mode", but OSX soon dropped OS9 support, elaving akSys in the dust. AFAIK there may have been a OSX version of akSys created, but it is very rare.

Starting with the S900 samplers, Akai caught onto an excellent idea of producing rackmount samplers that catered to drummers, by including not only trigger detection (sometimes) but many multiple outputs. The S5000-series continues that with many outputs available in the back panel.

Not only that, on the back the S5000 offered TWO SCSI jacks - SCSI2 mini 50-pin affaaris, along with TWO sets of MIDI ins and outs.

Undoubtably due to the declining nature of hardware samplers, the Z-Series of rackmount samplers came out in 1999 ditching the big interface, but the Z-Series offered up to 512mb of memory and 24-bit sample compatibility. This much should be said - as far as pure-sampling, programming power, and traditional free data structures, Z-Series represents the ULTIMATE HARDWARE SAMPLER, and certainly the last. (Of course, the modern workstation samplers like the Motif XF and Kronos, with their streaming and flash capabilities, represent a major step forward, but they still lack the basic programming accessibility that the Z-Series and all their predecessors had.)

And lastly, one must wonder why we include the MPC4000 drum machine here. Due to Akai's restructing during this time-period, someone got the idea to make a Super MPC, and they used the Z-Series engine to accomplish it. The idea was to make a standalone groove box that could write compete songs in the one unit (of course probably using a MIDI keyboard to play the chromatic parts). The reason we include the MPC4000 here is that it really IS a Z-Series sampler, just in a MPC-friendly box.

The MPC-4000 was in fact a departure to the more simpler MPC2000 and 3000, and was quite powerful. Smart people got into it big time. It also included the akSys software and the USB interface. So popular was the MPC4000 that Roland actually felt they needed to compete and made the MV8000-series, which were even bigger and added their own video monitor technology.

Unfortunately, the arrival of software samplers, Akai's market weakness in other areas, and the general downturn of hardware samplers made it so there weren't a lot of MPC4000's manufactured. It is still legendary.

Synthesis and File Structure
The S5000 series continues the KeyGroup structure - up to 99 Keygroups - with 4 Zones each, but improves on it by allowing stereo samples to be assigned to a single Zone instead of the deal-mono concept of the Left sample taking one Zone and Right sample taking the second Zone. Otherwise the programming structure is very much the same. There are some improvements by adding several innovative looping modes, such as hitting a key and it will loop forever until you hit it again - very convenient.

Filewise, say goodbye to the proprietary Akai format. Not only that, the newer S5000 operating systems formatted to FAT32, not just the simpler FAT, allowing large >4GB SCSI hard drives to be used. (Of course, remember that since akSys can be used, one can use a computer's ahrd drive for storage.)

Programs are now .AKP files and Multi's are now .AKM. The samples are now WAVE files, and can be stereo interleaved. The WAVE files carry a special data chunk that mostly defines the sample start and various other sample-specific parameters. The WAVE files MUST be in the same folder as the AKP file in order to load, and for the AKM file, the AKP files must also be in the same folder.

The Z-Series and MPC-4000 data formats are slightly different than the S5000, but Akai was thinking ahead for you. These AKP files have a S5000-compatible area so they can be loaded into the S5000 without problem, but they also contain a chunk specific to their samplers. For example, the Z-Series has 3 filters, an the MPC-4000 has a Pad-To-MIDINote section that defines what the pads play and the Q-Link structures.

Translating and Building Akai S-5000/Z-Series/MPC-4000 Programs
An AKP file is a single Instrument Unit, a Program. An AKM file is a multi file which loads existing AKP files, like a bank for different MIDI channels. Each AKP file can contain at maximum 99 Keygroups but since Keygroups can overlap and be layered, the structure is pretty much open and can handle many velocity splits and layers.

Be aware that converting into S5000 with dither all incoming samples to 16-bit. If you have Format Preferences-Akai-Z-Series on, it will allow 24-bit samples.

Since the S5000-series uses special chunks on it's WAVE files, new WAVE files will be created, even if you are converting from a format that uses WAVE files.

Translating Out of Akai S-5000/Z-Series/MPC-4000 Format
The Instrument Unit on the S5000-series is an AKP file, and AKM files reference multiple AKP files.

Converting into a format that supports WAVE files will usually reference the existing WAVE files,s ince they are fully compatible-WAVE files. Remember that Z-Series/MPC-4000 AKP's may use 24-bit WAVE files, so if the destination format only accepts 16-bit, new WAVE files will be created.

History
Of note is the MESA programming software Akai came out with. Starting with the S-3000XL, full remote-control ability was put into the operating system, allowing the free accompanying MESA software to control it with even having to bother with the front panel, even going so far to treat a computer as a storage device - you can transfer a MESA format sound (which Chicken Systems supports) directly from a PC or Mac to the Akai memory via SCSI for immediate usage. This went, and continues to go, way further than the attempts of any other manufacturer. MESA was the forerunner of the akSys software that supports the S5000-series, which took the concept to new heights by taking advantage of the USB-interface of those units.

MESA not only was able to transfer samples, but also include a full computer interface for programming sounds. You could treat your Akai as a black box, hardly touching the Akai itself. This was very valuable with the smaller-interface versions such as the S2000. Not only that, it could read Akai CD's and transfer programs and samples from those.

MESA came out in Windows and Mac variants, and a newer version came out called MESA II. The Mac version was only OS9; no OSX version was made.

Due to reported long-running problems with MESA, a English entrapenuer named Jan van Valburg created a MESA replacement program for Windows called Millennium. This was -and is - highly popular, selling for only $30. Although it is no longer supported, it is still sold by Rubber Chicken Software Co.

A note about Millennnium: due to 32-bit concerns and SCSI/ASPI workings, really the recommended OS for Millennium is 32-bit Windows XP. It also works with Windows 98 as well.

MESA's success was amazing considering having to work with SCSI, and computers naturally didn't like SCSI too much. Added to that, SCSI on computers rarely was friednly with non-storage devices on the other end of the chain, called "Processor Devices". This was a sticking point of many attempts other samplers had with computer-SCSI-communication, such as the Roland TransferStation, the Emu EOSLink, and Ensoniq's SCEPSi and ASR-SCSI. However, Akai pushed through and made it work very successfully. Wheras, none of the other programs really worked at all.

Synthesis and File Structure
MESA used three different file extensions for Akai Programs: .PRG, .S3P, and .SP. All are internally identical. PRG and S3P were used on Windows, and SP was used on the Mac. Millennium uses PRG, not S3P. The internal data structures are - once decoded - byte-for-byte identical to Akai programs on Akai disks and CD's.

On Windows MESA uses WAVE files and on Mac AIFF files are used. On Mac, since this was back in the "old days", it was only a OS9 program and the file names could reflect the non-compatible DOS-names the Akai itself supported. Not only that, many times etensions weren't used and file-typing was used to indicate MESA programs and AIFF files.

Stereo WAVE files are not used, naturally, because Akai is a dual-mono format. "Stereo" samples use two WAVE files, one marked -L.wav and the other -R.wav. The same goes for Mac MESA AIFf files.

The WAVE or AIFF files MUST be in the same folder as the PRG/S3P/SP program file.

Translating and Building MESA Programs
A MESA PRG, S3P, or SP file is a Akai Program and an Instrument Unit.

Translating Out of MESA Format
The Instrument Unit on the Fusion is a Program. A Mix is a Performance type that can define multiple

History
Attesting to the popularity of the Akai, Creamware, a Danish company competing with Digidesign in the soundcard/sampler market with the Pulsar/Scope platform, chose to use the Akai format as their file format with minor changes. This is why we are including Pulsar.STS5000 in the Akai context.

Sound cards have always been part of computers, since computers weren't initially designed for music. It's in fact astonishing to think that in order to get legitimate sound out of a computer, you had to go out and buy your own soundcard, such as SoundBlaster. Eventually, manufacturers got the picture and started including sound generation on their motherboards.

The professional sound card market added the ability to load multisampled instruments, and of course had to have strong DSP abilities to pull this off. This is in contrast to simpler sound cards. Really SampleCell was the first to pull this off. Creamware was second, along with some minor European companies such as Terratec, and others.

Really Emu with their EMU8000 sound chip, and it's integration with SoundBlaster after getting purchased by Creative Labs, inaugerated the SoundFont file format and blew the doors open for sound card/instrument playback. Unfortuantely, the ability for a computer to play a multisampled instrument without soundcard assistance, with the advent of Reality and Gigasampler, spelled the end of these projects.

But Creamware with their Pulsar idea was truly innovative and a step-ahead for what was to come later. The Sharc DSP processors were groundbreaking for power and speed.

Synthesis and File Structure
A Pulsar .p file is basically a standard Akai Program stored on a computer. Their .s sample format is a standard Akai sample file on a computer - no more, no less. Creamware soon changed to using WAVE files instead of .s files (so they could be manually edited) with their Pulsar STS-3000.

With the newer Pulsar STS-5000 they added some proprietary data chunks to the Akai Program data structure and called it a .sts file, supporting stereo sample WAVE files and long file names. And, at the time of this writing, the popular European organ company Wersi adopted the STS format and even added their own chunks.

Translating and Building Pulsar Programs
Since

Translating Out of Pulsar Format
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History
Alesis has a long innovative history of music instrument manufacture, starting with the MIDIverb digital reverb, the 16-bit HR-16 drum machine, and who can forget the ADAT! Although Alesis's history in the 21st century has been rocky, necessitating a buyout from Numark, Alesis continued to be innovators.

Synthesis and File Structure
The worldwide Fusion file structure starts out with a folder called Volume. Inside that are 4 or more folders: Programs, Multisamples, Samples, and Mixes. Inside

Translating and Building STS-5000 Programs

Since the Fusion is a Bank format, you can convert any format into a new Fusion Bank, or you can insert a conversion into an already existing

Translating Out of STS-5000 Format

The Instrument Unit on the Fusion is a Program. A Mix is a