There's a bunch of old Akai S series samples out there, they're available in either original .ISO discs or converted to samples in a folder...

I'm wondering how people here actually use these in their productions?

FWIW I haven't used samples alot beyond just kontakt libraries or dropping FX Risers or a vengeance kick/snare. So I'm kind of noob to using samples in actual production. These Akai CDs have things mapped across keyboards sometimes so I thought "what's the point of downloading the converted wave files??"

I found out Halion can load the original ISO's, so instead of sample folders of waves I got the original ISO's and have been just loading the patches into Halion and using that way, rendering to audio in daw and such from midi... like a kontakt library...

Curious what other peoples methods or ways of using them are here...

 

Your method using Halion is better than mine when I used Akai, Roland, Yamaha samples some years ago.
I converted them to Soundfonts (SF2) with Awave Studio (sistersite).

 

Breakcore, jungle, glitch / neuro dnb, hip hop, etc. I just slap em in a sampler or chop up and program the samples manually. Some OTT or heavy saturation can spice those things up to another level. brings out the noise and grit in a good way

 

If you just want to tear into them and convert to wave or however , just use Chicken Translater or CDxract.

 

I use the Extreme Sample Converter to convert them to EXB and then use them with the Emulator X3 VST plugin. Works flawlessly. That way you also get an authentic sound since its filters are modeled after E-MU's hardware sampler Emulator E4. Just make sure to (in Extreme Sample Converter) tag the option to save stereo samples as split mono samples, because more often than not there are different loop points for the left and the right channel and Emulator X3 can't handle that otherwise. The Emulator X3 is also *the* perfect tool to adjust loop points or to apply crossfades to the looped parts. And you also have the option to apply E-MU's infameous Z-Plane morphing filters.

 

Last edited: Dec 5, 2023

Filters are not modeled they are exact same filters from hardware

 

Sometimes when i'm lazy to dig in my vinyls I use old samples library the same way I use samples from vinyls, search pitch them up a little bit then record the samples in my hardware samplers, I use converted samples in partition folders, I trim, chop, assign samples to keys, in a very traditional way.

 

Wow great idea, I'm gunna try this out. I have the EMU X3 but only used it for the old emu libraries so far but this seems fun to experiment with

Good idea with the OTT, they even have a plugin that emulates the akai's S950's dac called RX950, I bet stacking those it'd sound pretty awesome lol

 

That plugin RX950 and they also have a SP1200 imitator called RX1200, are a waste of hard disk space. And likely a waste of your time also. You can get impulse responses from older hardware samplers and use them in Proteus, NAM NeuralAmpModeler, or other free plugins like them:

https://github.com/GuitarML/Proteus
https://github.com/sdatkinson/NeuralAmpModelerPlugin

I'm not saying those kinds of options perfectly recreate the sound of actual hardware. But they definitely are better free options than many payware plugins which definitely do not.

 

They really are a revelation! Back then they used to cost $200 a pop, so to have dozens or hundreds of them was definitely not possible!

They’re perfect for capturing those retro styles of the 1990’s. IMO the trick is filtering the low end off (of loops), and then layering them with your own drums.

My favourites: all the ethnic ones like Heart Of Asia & Africa, Spectrasonics in general (Distorted Reality I & II, Bass Legends, Metamorphosis…). Then all the d&b ones like Jungle Warfare I & II, X-Static Goldmine (this really is a goldmine). All the weird ones like A Poke In The Ear With A Sharp Stick. Junk percussion ones. Dance Industrial I & II is also fantastic.

Roland had also some superb ones, like their drum sample CD.

The older Ableton versions converted AKAI ISOs into playable Live instruments. I took a bunch of them and converted all the non-loop CDs. Works fine in L11, I keep them in my user library!

Sometimes, instead of pulling up MODO Bass, I’ll just pull up a patch from Bass Legends or Will Lee’s CD!

In terms of loops, I have them all as WAV. Ableton’s time stretch makes these 1000% more useable now than they were back then. Although sometimes the looping is a bit odd in the original file, you need to remove like a quarter note or two. Often these also contained single hits of the loops - just insert them into Drum Rack or any beat plug-in!

 

Kontakt 5 can (kan?) import old formats, but weirdly only the 32 bit version does this. They dropped it in 64-bit and Kontakt 6 onwards (includes soundfonts and everything else). They can be saved in Kontakt format and loaded in newer versions though. Could make sense if you're already a Kontakt user.

From the K5 manual:

Shame that the Emulator-X software is almost unusable with modern displays, it was otherwise great. Damn Creative Labs for fucking up E-mu.

 

So much this. They probably just wanted to grab the patents for their own products. Like already said, all the E-mu libs are on orchoife dot ork ready to use with X3. Tons of Akai CDs are converted to Reason refills. Some are in rex format, that can imported to Live or used with Korg Gadget Stockholm (Dr. Octo Rex) which is a regular plugin in AU/VST2,3 format and works in other DAWS like a charm.
Too bad Live and Kontakt no longer can use isos directly. I wonder why they did that.

 

Which Halion are you referring to? Because Halion Sonic 7 won't pay any attention to those ISO's at all...

 

In my humble opinion, Halion Sonic does not have this feature. This is only possible with Halion 7.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2023

Ohh, cheers for the impulses, need to check them out!

The only decent DAC/ADC emulations I've encountered are the TAL DAC, and the MPC/AKAI modes in Kontakt are not bad but not special.

Also, not that I particularly look them out, but 8-bit mu-Law companding is pretty fun for slight oldschoold vibe (for drums).

 

Bro! To use codecs as FXs! That is genious af, Sir!

 

How exactly are you going about this?
Extreme Sample Converter will not take sample files and create synth/sampler patches. In this case the original iso's converted to individual wav samples.
Extreme Sample Converter will not read the iso images either. Are you burning the iso's to disc first?
Extreme Sample Converter won't seem to deal with any cd formats unless you point it to an actual optical disc.

 

Creative bought EMU in 1993 and it was well known it was because they wanted their voice processors for their sound cards. Every Creative sound card released after that has an EMU chip on it. Dave Rossum makes no bones about it and Creative was extremely supportive towards EMU. They're the reason I have my two E6400 Ultras. They were under Creative for 17 years, nobody plundered anything. The reason EMU was killed was because they were dead in the water and losing money.

@saccamano ESC can read ISOs just fine, I've done it myself several times in Crossover and in VirtualBox..

 

A dozen years ago I was using AKAI ISO libraries converted to Sample Tank or MachFive and added permanently to those plugins libraries. I still have a HUGE collection of AKAI ISO's, because back then I converted all my purchased physical CD-ROM's to ISO's for convenience.
Nowadays I never use those sounds, nor those two old VSTi's.

 

It seems to me that everybody is giving great advice to this poor guy.
But would it not be that easy as to play Helion synth inside your DAW (Which ever DAW you use) as a VSTi and load the samples in Helion synths so it can load the ISO files?