Got it:

 

Hi everyone! So I notice this thread and I was forced to create an account!

So first of all, thanks for your interest

Ok so let's straight up some things.

Is this plugin gonna clone S900 1:1 - no.
Maybe I shouldn't use phrases like akai s900 clone in the video but let's face it, marketing need's to be done.

So audio line currently implements input drive -> lowpass -> downsampling -> dac ->bass emphas -> presence emphas -> another lowpass -> dc offset -> noise -> output gain

Is this line is perfectly matched with S900 - also no. But that construction gives me 14 parameters that I can tweak and trying match the OG.

Also I decided to change sampling time to 63 seconds. I don't know why but making that sampling limit in 2025 is really funny for me, and even if no one is laughing - it's gonna stay.

I got a road map for this project that contains full ADSR, Input drive, Output volume, midi learn etc.
At the beginning I decided that this plugin gonna be a instrument not an effect, because making another RX950 was not on my scope.

Oh and someone said that, I said in the video that antialiasing filter - where the sound of S900 comes - My Akai S900 was modified and has a switches on every individual outputs that I can turn on and off that filter - There is no S900 without that filter.

It's not finished product and this is why I'm saying always - check demo, buy full version if You want to support the project.

Why I releases beta and demo on the early stage?
Because I got over 10 years of experience in software development and I know that users feedback is priceless. This is how You creates products in 2025 from 0 - games addapt that model years ago as early access and it helps a lot, costs of development can be painful (in a month I created a $320 bill for just building osx version) - this is how we lost a lot of great software.

And yes, on the landing page 95% of text is generated by ai slop - I hate write thing's that SEO likes.

Current discord link: https://discord.gg/7FrNnCDM47

You can download current demo here: https://vu900.com

You can ask me questions in here, I will check this thread and thanks again for Your interest in the project

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM

Thanks for chiming in! And good luck with the project, I will surely check it out at some point when it has matured enough, and buy it since I like these kind of projects.

 

Hello, are you planning a Mac Intel AU version?

 

hi, glad you found this thread

what kind of software have you made? DSP experience?
are you doing hardware measurements or tuning all only by ear?

A good project has to be done properly. Look at Plogue level emulations like SFC or Fullbucket (FB02) (Drumtracks) or Sonic Charge Cyclone, otherwise, all these restrictions you’ve conceived make little sense it’s really quite possible to create a sound very close to the S900 in many different ways, what people will search in your your project is an early hardware experience we get from the projects I named and by doing it properly you’ll get a better return in monetary terms.
This hardware interface with a button gimmickry in not the best choice if thats not needed by the chip you emulate. and there is no need to make life more difficult for the user.
They already made a proper software controller for S900 even in 1987:

Spoiler: things to watch

 

Last edited: Dec 24, 2025 at 3:37 PM

Full stack development focused on react/c#, on my private projects I wrote couple javascript sequencers, 4 games in Godot, Unity and Unreal, this plugin is my fourth attempt to make an vst plugin. Yes on DSP level I got little experience but I'm the guy who learn by doing.

You're not gonna like it but I never really tried to recreate the sound of Akai S900 directly. More the spirit of this sampler.
Of course I measure samples, settings etc. but I'm not gonna bury this project just because sound of it is similiar the s900, not exactly like it.

If I really want to make users life difficult I would implement in the plugin menu diving like in the OG, here's You got functional direct keys ;)
Thanks for examples, I will check them out

 

I was wondering if someone was going to point that out.

A day or five late, but you inspired this—no slight.

 

there is a single benefit with the recreation of an UX/UI exactly like it was on the hardware, and that is that former (oder current?) users of the original do not have to think much when operating on the "emulation".

when you want to create an 808 or minimoog plug-in it is tempting to add new features or make something "better", but then it also will be different from the original - and that will not stop users from requesting even more new features anway.

 

I see that myself too but one has to also take into account that how many people of the potential market have actually used the original hardware? I think it is quite limited, probably not so many when it comes down to it.

 

As I can see in the top right screenshot, that software had a great tool for visually matching the end of a loop (on the left) with the start of the loop (right) to find seamless looping points. I had this feature in my Roland W-30 back then and later I always wondered why newer samplers ditched that idea.

 

Last edited: Dec 25, 2025 at 6:27 PM

What is your idea for storing and managing samples and programs by the final plugin? Absolute path? Relative path? Stored in plugin state and saved with a DAW project?

 

I'm new to Discord, so this is a side question...
Ok. so I accept the invite, created an account, login but get an empty home page.
- how do I navigate to the 'AKAI S900 vst clone' page ?
- and also the DSP5630 page ?

 

Last edited: Dec 27, 2025 at 6:05 AM

~ Authenticity Cracks ~

This thread and topics like it makes me think of when people would (maybe still do) paint furniture in a paint that was deliberately made to look antique or crackly or whatever the word is. If the paint didn't do it on its own, they would apply other applications, including scratching the wood and so on, to help do the trick. Maybe they'd smash a nail into it, bend it and break the top half of it off, leaving the bottom half nicely-embedded.

Now, while that's all fine and nice if that's their thing, my attitude about it was 'How about normally painting it and just letting it age naturally?'.

So this old music hardware thing kind of seems like putting crackly fake-antique paint to music.

I suppose one could also do digital recording with a betamax, PCM and DAT too and mixdown live!

 

Last edited: Dec 27, 2025 at 5:57 AM

then just create a sampling plug-in which works exactly like it should, for the masses, in 2026.

but if it says XYZ inspired or XYZ emulation, it could be cool if it actually works like that. yes ok, i know, using a huge main potentionemter with the mouse might feel strange... but you can solve that by allowing clicks just right in the display to switch to the next page.

 

This isn’t the right analogy. Using old, mostly redundant hardware or emulation of hardware should be seen as a conscious rejection by the artist of modern, precisely calibrated synthetic dyes, with their excessive brightness and infinite palettes, in favor of paints made from natural mineral and plant pigments, bound with egg and nut oil, and an attempt to paint as the old masters did, within the constraints of their materials.