Akai S3000XL User manual

INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
FEATURES ....................................................................................................................2
ABOUT THIS MANUAL ..................................................................................................5
FRONT PANEL ..............................................................................................................6
TAKING CARE OF YOUR DISKS ...................................................................................8
REAR PANEL.................................................................................................................9
SETTING UP THE S3000XL ..........................................................................................11
CONNECTIONS..............................................................................................................11
LOADING THE DEMO FLOPPY DISKS..........................................................................12
MOUNTING THE S3000XL.............................................................................................13
GETTING AROUND THE S3000XL ................................................................................14
OPERATING MODES .......................................................................................14
SOFT KEYS .....................................................................................................14
SELECTING PARAMETERS AND ENTERING DATA ........................................15
MARK AND JUMP KEYS ..................................................................................16
NAMING FILES - THE NAME KEY ....................................................................17
THE ENT/PLAY KEY ........................................................................................17
LCD CONTRAST ............................................................................................................17
RECORD LEVEL, MAIN VOLUME, HEADPHONE OUTPUT............................................18
HOW THE S3000XL WORKS ........................................................................................19
S3000XL FLOWCHART .................................................................................................20
SINGLE MODE ...........................................................................................................................23
SELECTING PROGRAMS ..............................................................................................23
VIEWING PROGRAMS..................................................................................................24
SETTING PROGRAM LEVELS, PAN, FX SENDS ..........................................................24
SETTING PROGRAMS’ MIDI PARAMETERS .................................................................25
SETTING PROGRAM LOUDNESS AND VELOCITY ....................................................... 26
LOADING FROM FLOPPY DISK ....................................................................................28
LOADING FROM HARD DISK ........................................................................................28
DELETING PROGRAMS................................................................................................30
RENUMBERING PROGRAMS........................................................................................32
USING THE S3000XL IN ‘OLD AKAI’ MODE! .................................................................33
USING SELECT PROG - PROGRAMS WITH THE SAME NUMBER ..................33
LAYERING PROGRAMS...................................................................................33
CREATING KEYBOARD SPLITS ......................................................................33
USING RENUMBERING TO CREATE MULTI-TIMBRAL SETUPS .....................34
SINGLE VS MULTI ...........................................................................................35
MULTI MODE - COMBINING SEVERAL PROGRAMS .................................................................37
ASSIGNING PROGRAMS TO PARTS ............................................................................38
SETTING A PART’S MIDI CHANNEL ..............................................................................38
MIXING THE PARTS......................................................................................................38
SENDING PARTS TO THE INTERNAL EFFECTS ........................................................... 38
ASSIGNING PARTS TO THE INDIVIDUAL OUTPUTS ....................................................39
TUNING AND TRANSPOSING PARTS ...........................................................................39
SETTING A PART’S LOW AND HIGH KEYRANGES ......................................................39
SETTING A PART’S PRIORITY ......................................................................................40
INITIALISING A PART....................................................................................................40
SETTING UP A MULTI ...................................................................................................41
MODIFYING THE MULTI................................................................................................42
NAMING A MULTI ..........................................................................................................43
SAVING A MULTI ..........................................................................................................43
LOADING A MULTI ........................................................................................................43
RENUMBERING PROGRAMS........................................................................................44
USING MULTI MODE FOR LAYERING PROGRAMS......................................................47
USING MULTI MODE TO SET KEYBOARD SPLITS ......................................................48
PROGRAM EDITING ...................................................................................................................50
WHAT IS A KEYGROUP? ..............................................................................................51
KEYGROUP ZONES ......................................................................................................52
OVERLAPPING AND CROSSFADING KEYGROUPS.....................................................53
ASSIGNABLE PROGRAM MODULATION ......................................................................54

EDIT SINGLE.................................................................................................................58
NAMING PROGRAMS - COPYING AND RENAMING......................................................59
DELETING PROGRAMS................................................................................................60
MIDI PAGE ....................................................................................................................64
OUTPUT LEVELS PAGE................................................................................................66
PAN PAGE ....................................................................................................................69
THE TUNE PAGE ...........................................................................................................71
MODULATION PAGES ..................................................................................................72
PITCH BEND ....................................................................................................72
LFO1................................................................................................................74
SETTING LFO1 MODULATION DEPTH ............................................................77
LFO2................................................................................................................78
SETTING UP THE SOFT PEDAL ......................................................................81
PORTAMENTO .................................................................................................82
KEYGROUP PARAMETERS - CREATING KEYGROUPS ...............................................85
MAPPING OUT YOUR KEYGROUPS - SETTING KEYSPAN ............................88
ASSIGNING SAMPLES TO KEYGROUPS AND ZONES - SMP1....................................90
SMP2...............................................................................................................93
SMP3...............................................................................................................95
THE FILTERS.................................................................................................................96
ENV1 - SHAPING AMPLITUDE ......................................................................................99
ENV2 - SHAPING THE FILTER.......................................................................................101
USING THE FILTER AND ENVELOPE GENERATORS .....................................102
THE SECOND FILTERS .................................................................................................103
CREATING 24db/8ve 4-POLE LOWPASS FILTER............................................107
THE TONE PAGE .............................................................................................109
ENV3.............................................................................................................................111
KEYGROUP PITCH/AMPLITUDE MODULATION............................................................112
EDIT MULTI.................................................................................................................................114
SCREEN DIFFERENCES IN EDIT MULTI .......................................................................115
SAMPLE MODE..........................................................................................................................116
WHAT IS SAMPLING?...................................................................................................116
RECORD MODE ............................................................................................................118
THE MAIN RECORD PAGE............................................................................................120
NAMING SAMPLES FOR RECORDING .........................................................................120
ADJUSTING THE RECORDING AND THRESHOLD LEVELS .......................................... 122
RECORDING ON THE S3000XL ....................................................................................122
DIGITAL RECORDING....................................................................................................123
EDIT SAMPLE ............................................................................................................................125
NAMING SAMPLES - COPYING AND RENAMING .........................................................127
DELETING SAMPLES....................................................................................................128
TRIMMING SAMPLES...................................................................................................129
LOOPING.......................................................................................................................133
LOOP AUTO FIND AND CROSSFADE LOOPING...........................................................134
MAKING A GOOD LOOP..................................................................................136
LEVEL NORMALISATION..............................................................................................138
DSP FUNCTIONS - TIMESTRETCH, RE-SAMPLING AND EQ........................................139
TIMESTRETCH .................................................................................................139
PERFORMING A TIMESTRETCH......................................................................142
RE-SAMPLING .................................................................................................143
PERFORMING A RE-SAMPLE .........................................................................144
EQ....................................................................................................................145
EQ’ING A SAMPLE ..........................................................................................147
USING THE EQ ................................................................................................147
FURTHER EDITING FUNCTIONS ...................................................................................148
THE PARAMETER PAGE .................................................................................148
REVERSING SAMPLES ...................................................................................150
SECTIONAL EDITING .......................................................................................151
THE JOIN PAGE...............................................................................................154
SPLICING SAMPLES .......................................................................................154

CROSSFADING ................................................................................................155
MIXING AND LAYERING SAMPLES ................................................................155
SETTING DIGITAL FADES................................................................................157
EFFECTS MODE .........................................................................................................................159
ORGANISATION OF EFFECTS FILES ...........................................................................162
ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO SINGLE PROGRAMS ..........................................................163
ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO MULTI PARTS......................................................................165
ASSIGNING EFFECTS TO INDIVIDUAL KEYGROUPS .................................................. 167
PROCESSING EXTERNAL SOUND SOURCES THROUGH THE EFFECTS .................... 168
ROUTING EXTERNAL SOUNDS THROUGH THE EFFECTS...........................................169
SELECTING THE EFFECTS OUTPUT ............................................................................169
CHAINING EFFECTS .....................................................................................................170
MUTING EFFECTS ........................................................................................................172
EFFECTS EDIT ...........................................................................................................................173
DISTORTION/RING MODULATION ................................................................................174
EQ .................................................................................................................................175
MODULATION EFFECTS ...............................................................................................177
CHORUS, PHASE SHIFT AND FLANGING EFFECTS ....................................... 177
ROTARY SPEAKER EFFECTS .........................................................................179
AUTOPAN AND FREQUENCY MODULATION EFFECTS ..................................182
STEREO PITCH SHIFT EFFECTS.....................................................................183
BYPASSING THE MODULATION EFFECTS ..................................................... 185
DELAY AND ECHO EFFECTS ........................................................................................186
MONO DELAY/ECHO EFFECTS .......................................................................188
PING PONG ECHO EFFECTS ..........................................................................189
CROSSOVER DELAY .......................................................................................190
STEREO DELAY/ECHO EFFECTS ...................................................................191
REVERB EFFECTS ........................................................................................................192
REVERSE REVERB..........................................................................................195
GATED REVERB ..............................................................................................196
EFFECTS OUTPUT SECTION ........................................................................................198
EFFECTS DIRECTION....................................................................................................199
SOLOING THE CURRENT EFFECT ................................................................................201
COPYING EFFECTS......................................................................................................202
SAVE MODE ...............................................................................................................................204
SELECTING FLOPPY OR HARD DISK ...........................................................................204
SELECTING THE HARD DISK PARTITION.....................................................................204
SELECTING THE HARD DISK VOLUME........................................................................204
SELECTING THE TYPE OF SAVE .................................................................................204
SAVING TO FLOPPY DISK............................................................................................206
SAVING TO HARD DISK ................................................................................................207
RENAMING FILES.........................................................................................................209
DELETING ITEMS FROM DISK .....................................................................................210
HARD DISK CONTROL ..................................................................................................211
FORMATTING A FLOPPY DISK .....................................................................................212
FORMATTING A HARD DISK .........................................................................................214
NOTES ON USING EXISTING S1000/S1100 SOUND LIBRARY.....................................215
LOAD MODE ...............................................................................................................................216
SELECTING FLOPPY OR HARD DISK ...........................................................................216
SELECTING THE HARD DISK PARTITION.....................................................................216
SELECTING THE HARD DISK VOLUME........................................................................217
SELECTING THE TYPE OF LOAD .................................................................................217
LOADING FROM FLOPPY DISK ....................................................................................219
LOADING FROM HARD DISK ........................................................................................220
LOADING S900/S950 SAMPLES AND PROGRAMS......................................................222
LOADING S1000/S1100 DATA......................................................................................222
AUTO LOADING FROM DISK ........................................................................................222
SEARCHING FOR FILES - USING THE FIND FUNCTION ...............................................223
USING THE TAG DIRECTORY SYSTEM........................................................................225

NAMING TAGS.................................................................................................226
NOTES ON USING THE TAGGING SYSTEM ....................................................227
HARD DISK CONTROL ..................................................................................................228
IMPORTING SOUNDS FROM OTHER MANUFACTURER’S CD-ROMS........................... 229
GLOBAL MODE ..........................................................................................................................231
TUNING THE S3000XL ..................................................................................................231
SETTING THE MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL......................................................................231
MIDI FUNCTIONS ..........................................................................................................232
MIDI FILTER .....................................................................................................232
PPM PAGE - MONITORING MIDI.....................................................................233
MIDI RECEIVE PAGE - ANALYSING MIDI........................................................233
TRANSMIT TEST PAGE - SETTING THE ENT/PLAY KEY ................................234
MIDI SAMPLE DUMPS.....................................................................................235
PERFORMING A MIDI SAMPLE DUMP ............................................................236
MIDI VIA SCSI ..................................................................................................237
ME35T DRUM SETTINGS..............................................................................................238
DAT BACK-UP AND RESTORE ......................................................................................240
PERFORMING A DAT BACK UP.......................................................................241
PERFORMING A DAT RESTORE......................................................................241
STANDARD MIDI FILE - MIDI SONG FILE PLAY............................................................242
LOADING STANDARD MIDI FILES ...................................................................243
USING THE SMF FUNCTION ............................................................................244
HARD DISK RECORDING ..............................................................................................245
APPLICATIONS................................................................................................245
FORMATTING THE HARD DISK FOR DISK RECORDING ................................. 246
CREATING NEW TAKES ..................................................................................251
COPYING TAKES.............................................................................................251
RENAMING TAKES ..........................................................................................251
DELETING TAKES FROM DISK .......................................................................251
RECORDING A TAKE .......................................................................................255
EDITING A RECORDING...................................................................................258
PLAYING A TAKE IN THE EDIT PAGE .............................................................259
USING THE EDITING FUNCTIONS ...................................................................259
PLAYING TAKES .............................................................................................261
USING THE PLAY PAGE..................................................................................263
EDITING A TAKE FOR SYNCHRONISED PLAYBACK ......................................264
NOTES ABOUT SYNCHRONISING TO EXTERNAL AUDIO...............................264
USING THE SONG MODE ................................................................................265
CREATING A SONG .........................................................................................265
TRIGGERING TAKES FROM MIDI ....................................................................268
USING MIDI TRIGGERING................................................................................268
USING THE SONG MODE TO CHAIN TAKES...................................................271
USING THE NUMERIC KEYPAD IN THE SONG MODE.....................................272
BLOCK EDITING IN SONG MODE ....................................................................273
NAMING SONGS ..............................................................................................275
SAVING A SONG .............................................................................................275
LOADING A SONG ...........................................................................................275
BACKING UP TAKES TO DAT ..........................................................................276
RESTORING TAKES BACK FROM DAT TO DISK .............................................277

APPENDIX 1 ...............................................................................................................................279
CONNECTING AN EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE.........................................................279
NOTES ON USING HARD DISK DRIVES........................................................................279
SCSI CABLES..................................................................................................279
TERMINATION .................................................................................................279
SCSI CABLE LENGTH......................................................................................280
APPENDIX 2 ...............................................................................................................................281
DATA COMPATIBILITY ISSUES ....................................................................................281
SOUND DATA...................................................................................................281
EFFECTS FILES...............................................................................................282
MULTIS............................................................................................................282
ME-35T DRUM SETTINGS................................................................................282
SONGS AND QLISTS .......................................................................................282
APPENDIX 3 ...............................................................................................................................283
INSTALLING THE OPTIONS ..........................................................................................283
INSTALLING MEMORY EXPANSION...............................................................283
APPENDIX 4 ...............................................................................................................................285
USING THE FXM008 FLASH ROM BOARD(S) ...............................................................285
APPLICATIONS.............................................................................................................286
HOW THE FLASHROM WORKS ....................................................................................287
SAVING DATA TO THE FLASHROM ..............................................................................288
WHAT TO DO NEXT.......................................................................................................291
USING THE FLASHROM AS A FAST HARD DISK..........................................................292
EDITING SOUNDS ON THE FLASHROM .......................................................................293
COPYING A FLASHROM SAMPLE TO RAM .................................................................294
FORMATTING AND ARRANGING THE FLASHROM ....................................................... 295
SAVING FLASHROM DATA BACK TO DISK ..................................................................297
BACKUP/RESTORE OF THE FLASH ROM TO/FROM DAT ............................................297
INSTALLING THE FLASHROM.......................................................................................298
APPENDIX 5 ...............................................................................................................................301
MIDI CONTROLLER LIST ..............................................................................................301

INTRODUCTION
S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 1
Welcome to the Akai S3000XL stereo digital sampler and thank you for buying it!
The S3000XL features 32-voice polyphony, expandable memory, DSP functions, etc.,
and using the S3000XL’s resonant lowpass filters, multiple LFOs, envelope generators
and extensive modulation possibilities, your new sampler can double as a first class
synthesiser as well.
Certain new functions are introduced in the S3000XL In software, the new MULTI mode
of operation simplifies multi-timbral sequencing and layering whilst hardware options
include a multi-effects processor that offers no less than four channels that include two
multi-effects channels with distortion, EQ, ring modulation, modulation effects such as
chorus, flanging, pitch shifting, auto panning and rotary speaker effects plus delay and
reverb. Two ‘spare’ channels of reverb are also available providing a total of four reverbs.
Add to this the second bank of optional resonant multi-mode filters and you can see that
the S3000XL is a sampler that can grow with your needs.
Bundled with the S3000XL is a software application for the Macintosh™ computer that
allows you to operate the sampler from your Macintosh allowing large screen operation of
waveform and program editing, sophisticated organisation of your sound library on the
Macintosh as well as the ability to integrate your sampler more conveniently with your
computer sequencer.
Naturally, all sound library developed for the Akai S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S2000 and
the S3000 range of samplers is compatible in the S3000XL giving you access to
thousands of sounds on floppy disk, hard disk, removable cartridges, MO disks and CD-
ROM. The ability to read CD ROMs made for other manufacturer's samplers gives access
to an even further range of sounds.
All this adds up to a price breakthrough in sampling technology - the new Akai S3000XL.

INTRODUCTION
Page 2 S3000XL Operator’s Manual
FEATURES
• Polyphony 32 voices
• A-D Conversion 16-bit stereo with 64-times oversampling
• Internal processing 28-bit accumulation
• D-A Conversion 18-bit with 8-times oversampling
• Sampling rates 44.1kHz/22.050kHz
• Phase locked stereo sampling and playback
• Internal memory 2Mbytes standard, expandable to 32Mbytes using SIMMs
• Sampling times 2Mbytes 24 seconds mono @ 44.1kHz
32Mbytes 5.94 minutes mono @ 44.1kHz
(Halve these times for stereo sampling)
• Inputs L/Mono and R jack inputs
• Outputs L/R stereo jack outputs
8 assignable individual outputs
Stereo headphone jack output
• Display 40 x 6 character backlit LCD with graphic waveform editing.
• Digital I/O SPDIF digital audio input/output on RCA phonos.
• Effects Optional 4-channel multi-effects processor offering two
channels of simultaneous distortion, three-band EQ, ring
modulation, modulation (chorus, phase shift, flanging,
pitch shift, autopan or rotary speaker), stereo delay and
reverb plus two ‘spare’ channels of reverb (four reverb
processors in total).
• DSP Functions Timestretch, re-sampling and digital EQ.
• Filters 2-pole (12dB/Octave) resonant lowpass per voice.
Optional IB304F offers a 2nd bank of 2-pole resonant
multi-mode (HP, BP, LP, EQ) filters and tone control.
• Envelopes 1 x ADSR and 1 x multi-stage envelope generator (an
extra multi-stage envelope is added with the installation of
the IB304F).
• LFOs 2 x multi-wave low frequency oscillators (triangle, square,
sawtooth and random waves).
• Legato mode Single trigger playback to emulate old monophonic synths
and solo instruments’ playing styles.
• Portamento Polyphonic and monophonic portamento.
• Sound library Fully compatible with Akai S900, S950, S1000, S1100,
S2800, S3000, S3200, S2000 and S3200XL samplers.

INTRODUCTION
S3000XL Operator’s Manual Page 3
The S3000XL can also read CD-ROMs made for other
manufacturer's samplers1.
• Data storage A variety of storage devices may be used to store data
including floppy disk, hard disk, Syquest™ removable
cartridges and Magneto Optical (MO) disks. Hard disk data
may be backed up to a normal DAT tape using the digital
i/o.
• Flash ROM You may install up to 16Mbytes of FLASH ROM over and
above the 32Mbytes of ordinary RAM giving you a total of
48Mbytes of memory. FLASH ROM allows you to keep
your favourite sounds in memory even when the sampler is
switched off.
• Disk recording Capable of stereo recording and editing on hard disk.
• SMF capability The S3000XL an play Standard MIDI files (sequences)
from the floppy disk drive. This allows you, for example, to
play sequenced backing tracks directly from the S3000XL.
• DAT Backup You can backup the hard disk (sound data and/or disk
recordings) to an ordinary DAT recorder.
• Real-time digital output This digital audio output can be used to mix down digitally
to DAT or any other digital recorder such as DCC, MiniDisk
or a hard disk recorder such as the Akai DR4d, DR8 or
even the S3000XL’s disk recorder. With the optional EB16
multi-effects processor installed, you may add four
channels of effects processing to the mixdown.
• OPERATING MODES
SINGLE For playing single programs.
MULTI For playing up to 16 programs together for multi-timbral
sequencing, layering and key splits.
SAMPLE For making recordings.
EFFECTS For selecting effects.
EDIT For editing programs, samples and effects.
GLOBAL For setting parameters that affect the sampler as a whole
plus access to utilities such as DAT backup, MIDI song file
play and hard disk recording
SAVE For saving programs, samples, multis, effects and
operating systems, etc., to floppy or hard disk.
LOAD For loading programs, samples, multis, effects, operating
systems, etc., from floppy or hard disk and CD-ROM.
1 Some sounds may need adjustment and ‘tweaking’ depending on the sampler they were
originally created on.

INTRODUCTION
Page 4 S3000XL Operator’s Manual
• EDITING FEATURES
EDIT SAMPLE Trim, Loop (with FIND and CROSSFADE functions), Join,
Merge, Splice, Chop, Extract, Reverse, Gain normalisation,
Timestretch, Re-sample.
EDIT PROGRAM Resonant lowpass filters, ADSR envelope generator (with
templates), multi-stage envelope generator (with
templates), 2 x multi-wave LFOs, sample layering, 4-way
velocity crossfade and switching, keygroup crossfade,
portamento (rate and time modes), monophonic legato
triggering, mute group function, panning and autopanning,
held pitchbend mode, separate pitchbend up/down
ranges, output selection. (With 2nd filter bank installed, a
further set of multi-mode filters and a third multi-stage
envelope generator are added).
MULTI Part select, program select, MIDI channel, level, pan,
transpose, fine tune, output routing, FX routing, FX send,
low key range, high key range, note priority.
EFFECTS In the two multi-effects channels (with the EB16 effects
processor installed):
DISTORTION - distortion, level
EQ - low gain, mid gain, high gain,
RING MODULATION - frequency, depth
MODULATION EFFECTS - chorus, flange, phase shift,
rotary speakers, autopan/frequency mod, pitch shift with
parameters as appropriate.
DELAY - effect select (mono, stereo, ping pong), delay
times, feedback.
REVERB - effect select (large hall, small hall, large room,
small room, gated, reverse, etc.), size, decay time, HF
damping, LF damping, pre-delay.
FX DIRECTION:
dist/EQ/ring mod > mod/delay + reverb (parallel)
dist/EQ/ring mod > mod/delay > reverb (series)
dist/EQ/ring mod > reverb > mod/delay (series)
In the two reverb channels:
Effect select (large hall, small hall, large room, small room,
reverse, gated, etc.), decay time, HF damping, LF
damping, pre-delay, diffusion.
A multi-effects channel may also be routed to its
‘neighbouring’ reverb channel for dual reverb multi-effects.