In response to popular demand, Akai have come up with an audio trigger modification for their S612 MIDI sound sampler. Steve Howell dug out his soldering iron...

Most people, I think, would accept the premise that the Akai S612 is a high quality, user-friendly sampler that retails at a realistic price. However, there exists one complaint, fairly universal among S612 owners, and that is that the only means of triggering samples is via MIDI. If some method of triggering samples from an audio source could be used, the S612 would have far greater appeal. Akai have responded to this plea and are now offering an inexpensive retro-fit modification that allows just this.

This modification (known in official circles as the ASK 40) manifests itself as a small piece of circuitry with a new version of software. But let's first take a look at the hardware side of things.

The Mod

To fit the extra bit of circuitry (which is a PCB with an edge connector — measuring about an inch square) you must first dismantle your S612 and remove multipin CN7. This multipin was originally designed to run the Commodore cassette drive, which was previously intended as an alternative means of storing samples, but is no longer utilised. Having removed this, you simply slot in the new PCB soldering the flying lead to R68. Once you have done this, you must remove IC3 which is the main operating software chip and replace it with the new one. Simple. Now put the thing back together again.

In total, the whole procedure takes about ten minutes and is not beyond the capabilities of anyone with a modicum of soldering skill.

So, now you're ready to try it out. To access the new software, you must press the pink Overdub button whilst turning the S612 mains on. This will result in a display of 'C' on the LED display. When in the audio trigger mode, you have an octave range of middle C to the C above giving you a sampling range of anything between one and two seconds.

Because the audio signal input is converted to a very sharp one-shot pulse, you must turn up the decay control to maximum to hear the full sample otherwise you might find the sound gets truncated. (This can be useful for very staccato sounds, however.)

Whilst in theory any audio sound can be used to trigger the S612 in the audio trigger mode, I found that with very fast drum rolls it had a tendency to miss beats. To rectify this problem, I found that high pitched sounds with a very fast attack and high frequency content were best suited to triggering. In fairness to the modification though, this problem only occurred on very fast drum rolls at tempos of 140 beats per minute upwards. I also found that in general use, it liked to have very short sounds to trigger it otherwise there was a tendency to double trigger. Again, in fairness to the Akai, many DDL/samplers such as the Bel or the AMS have a tendency to behave this way as well. If you need to make a trigger source more precise, then you can always stick it through a noise gate, which is sure to cure the problem.

Audio Triggered Playback

The most obvious use for the audio trigger option is for replacing drum sounds. One of the things I don't like about the majority of drum machines is that you're pretty much stuck with the drum sounds provided, especially the newer ones that don't allow for tuning or chip replacement. Using the S612 in the audio trigger mode you can program your drum pattern in the usual way using the machine's drum sounds as a guide and then, when recording your drum track, you can use the individual outputs of your drum machine (assuming it has such things) to trigger your samples. The same technique applies to replacing drum sounds already recorded on separate tape tracks.

In conclusion then, this simple, well documented and inexpensive mod makes what is already a good machine even more useful. If you just happen to have an S612 lying about anywhere, try it.

For further details regarding this modification, contact: Akai (UK) Ltd, (Contact Details)