Akai S950, a must have to get all the Sampling Skills, and that's how we used it as Sample Based Heads. The 950 provides al lot of interesting functions for sound modulation, very useful for Synth orientated Producers.

We mastered the sampler engine in S950, samplings from vinyl records.

From Percussives to Melodics , it gives ups in Punch, Transient Enhancement, Loudness and Flava to any kind of sample which is recorded in it at the highest range recording level. You can also get over the limit line to gain even more aggressive and gritty details. If you look on the owner's manual, there is also a table where you can read all the instrument bandwidth values, very useful if you want to sample something specific, to get the best from that, in conjuction with the solid LP filter and the pitch tuning, of course. This 12 bit sampler, had a place for several years in our setup, and definitively we will remember forever its job on our Drums, one of the best in its category. Last, is a must have also because it "educate" your ears to a specific kind of sound.

Short Story:
"Once, I had the chance to test 3 units after made the powering repairs on them, and I heard from someone that different units of S950 will sound different when compared.

The Units I had at the time were in pretty different conditions, one from a garage with bad stocking precautions, one from a dude that used it in his home studio, and another that lived all its entire life in a professional studio. Well, the first one had a distortion problem on the very first converter on the recording line, so I had to fix the issue. After that I sampled the same drum sample at the same level and same bandwidth, from a MPC, to be sure that I was recording the exact same thing. after samplice I applied the same filtering and loudness values to every one, set the same output knobs and..

BUM!! IT'S TRUE!

I loved the Garage One because it was a little more aggressive and a little grittier, the One from the home studio was a mid-point between the others, and the One from the professionl studio was very precise and did the best on the after-sampling process, as the S950 is meant to work."
- Secco -

So the S950, as many music instruments in its age, reacts to the environment, and I it's cool because gives personality!

Chill with our trial, audio is not the best, but it comes direct from the unit so you can get an idea at least, and dream to pick one :)