Hey peeps! So I have an opportunity to buy an Akai S950 locally (at a fair price compared to eBay). As much as I love playing with new gear I actually try to keep my setup minimal. However I’ve somehow managed to accumulate quite a few vintage samplers, including the S2400 (not vintage but including it here). Given what the S2400 is capable of, having an S950 would perhaps be redundant.
Chain the S950 to the MIDI and trigger it from the S2400. That’s what I would do… oh wait. I’m supposed to be talking you out of it…
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Don’t do it. Managing samples and so on on the s950 is boring. It will only complicate and slow down your workflow. Less equipment is more 
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Maybe it makes more sense to buy a 2nd s2400 than a vintage piece? I had a 950 decades ago and I remember hating programming it with that tiny screen. If Paul S is doing the filter board for the s2400, then those analog filters are going to sound top tier, and that’s pretty much the main appeal of the 950.
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I wish I could talk you out of it but it’s a killer combo 
The S950 has balls. I sample breaks, pads, keys into it from the 2400 and it ruffs them up and makes them sound meatier, darker, and familiar.
Navigating the 950 is lightning quick once you know what you’re doing with the space key. Arguably quicker than the 2400.
The sample looping and playback modes give you interesting effects that can’t be replicated as easily on the 2400, specifically the alternating playback mode. Such a distinct sound on drums.
I trigger mine from the 2400, midi timing is flawless. You can max it out with RAM from Jazzcat at £52 a piece on ebay.
And we haven’t even mentioned the filter yet.
I’m sorry, you asked to be talked out of it
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Damn, now you made me want to reconsider it too, ha. It’s too bad they’re priced so high now, like everything else that’s vintage sampler related.
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If you can find a good deal then I’d say go for it, I got lucky and found a faulty one under £200 and it arrived without a fault 
I’d also look at S900, S1000, S1100, S2000. The test tone sine wave in those things is responsible for some devastating 808 style basslines in old skool jungle/D&B.
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Unfortunately, everything local and on Reverb is $1200-1800 and I don’t think that’s justified at this point. I’d get another one for $500ish, but paying the same as an s2400 seems insane to me. Unless you are getting enough money back via the work it produces, of course. I get that some people have to have one for clients.
I’m seeing ASRs and MPC3ks going for 2500-3k now and its the same issue again. At that point I would seriously consider just getting another s2400 and running it through a DP/4 to have most of the functionality. Its too bad, I wish I hadn’t sold my old samplers 20 years ago for cheap. Now I miss the workflow.
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Tell me about it!! I used to have a MPC 3K that I mostly regret getting rid of, although to some extent I think sound-wise it’s slightly overrated (the 60 and the SP1200/S2400 is where the mojo is at IMO). As with retro video games I think too many YouTubers contribute to price inflation, where a lot of these vintage samplers aren’t even scarce.
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Same here! I had a MPC3K and S950 and sold both for £650!! That was in 2006, I also remember passing up a TR-909 for £500 
But they were reasonably priced then, no way are they worth todays inflated prices unless you’re a collector.
For me the 2400 scratches that itch for a meaty old skool sampling drum machine / midi production centre. But there’s always a place for a vintage Akai or EMU rack sampler 
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You’re asking the wrong guy. I have about 10 or so vintage samplers including an S950 and a S2400 and will continue to scoop them up as I find good deals. If you don’t buy it, I will 
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Embrace the technology of the current age rather than grasping for the past. The stuff out today will be the classics of tomorrow, so make the most of it now.
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