Akai S5000
On Arizona's last tour I was using our macbook pro running Logic's Mainstage 1.0. A very cool app, but unfortunately like all computers, it makes me nervous. It's gonna crash eventually (it did once or twice), and even just knowing that it might just die, puts out bad vibes on stage. The macbook pro, while awesome in the studio, and for all kinds of other applications, just isn't my ideal extra bandmate on stage.
In an effort to replace the macbook on stage I tried to find something to run keyboard samples that was affordable, sounded good, and was reliable.
I found an Akai S5000 on ebay for about $300, a piece of gear that would have cost an arm and a leg in 1997 is now obsolete, but it has a a USB port (the older S series like the s3000, seen in some of the pics is SCSI only), hot output, decent D/A, and like it's MPC brothers has been on countless platinum records. So is it good enough for the stage?... hells yea. Okay, one problem though. How do you make it totally bombproof. For me the weakest link was the internal SCSI hard drive (which my unit did not have, but is a must have unless you want to lug around an external SCSI device like a hard drive, cd-rom drive, zip drive, jazz drive (oh yea they made those...).
Solution:
1) Internal Flash Drive... Enter the Transcend 2GB IDE drive, I think I found mine through dealmac.com for $70. So this eliminates any moving parts.
2) IDE Laptop 44-pin to 40-pin Desktop connector.
3) Acard AEC-7720U 40-pin IDE-> 50-pin SCSI adapter. I found through some of the Akai forums online that this piece is a cheap substitute (I think mine was under $50) for the $200 Akai adapter.
4) Akai Power Cable, connects power from the samplers power supply to the new drive.
Below: Open Sampler
Below: Modified 40->44-pin IDE adapter, shown with power connector attached. I had some trouble getting the small 2-pin clip to both stay on the adapter, and clear the circuit board on the Acard scsi adapter, so I soldered the connector directly to the adapter (see the yellow heatshrink on the top left item).
Below: The whole assembly.
Below: Temporarily hooked up, testing before securing drive.
Below: Barely visable, but after powering up the unit, it recognizes the IDE as an Internal SCSI drive, and is showing 1.96GB free. Success!
Below: That's how it's getting secured, velcro?!?! Yes, but keep in mind, this is 3M's Dual Lock. This is the stuff they give you with your EZ-Pass, the adhesive stands up to baking on a car windshield, so I'm pretty confident it will be okay with the heat of a hard drive. I always keep this stuff around, it's sooo useful.
Below: Connected, cables routed. The laptop drive does not have the same screw spacing. You could buy a proper mounting adapter, but I'm impatient on this one.
Below: Installed, taking up not nearly as much space as it should. Put the lid on it.
So, this project was completely about a month ago, and so far so good. No crashes in rehearsal. I'm happy with the ability to edit Wave files on my laptop and transfer them over USB to the device. Surprisingly enough the large screen and controls on the S5000 are pretty quick once you get the hang of it, and now I edit programs and samples directly on the unit.
October 10th, 2008 - 02:42
do think you could help me get a compact flash card reader to work in the s5000 I have found some scsi pcmcia drives and have some pcmcia card adapters for compact flash cards but I was too scared to try it. do think you have heard of this using compact flash cards instead of floppies or replacing your old zip disks.
October 10th, 2008 - 17:28
I just did a quick google search for “IDE compact flash” and found this: http://www.antonline.com/p_Addonics–ADIDECFB–Ide-Cf-Drive-Bay-Bracket-Black-_231546.htm
I can’t garauntee it will work, but I imagine that since the Acard SCSI to IDE adpater listed above is known to work with the Akai S5000, combining it with the CF drive bay listed above should work as well. It will mount where the floppy drive is which is cool too.
hope this helps.
December 11th, 2008 - 00:17
I have just purchased the cf adapter drive I’ll try to get digital camera and take pictures if it works. I have already tried to put in an ide hard drive with no real luck. I really hope the cf reader takes. I am tired of my scsi zip drive walwart, it’s hard to gig when your equipment can’t be plugged in….
December 15th, 2008 - 13:40
I’m curious if salvador was able to get the CF reader to work. Thats a great idea if it does indeed work.
December 16th, 2008 - 00:19
well I am confused. I have a S5000 akai with 2.14 OS. a vacant ide port on the mother board, an ide CF card reader,and the power supply. \yes i checked both master and slave settings on cf card reader; iput the ide cabel in one way and then turned it around and nothing.\ In a perfect world this would be all you need to add this functionality to the AKAI. in japense please (!!!tasukete!!!!) socoro, help!!!. The only other thing I can think of is to loose some functionality in the akai becuase the buzz word on the akai mother board is (optional). So what has to come out to use the ide feature, I don’t have the usb card I don’t the effects board, I only use one midi out port I can loose the B midi, hell I’ll pull out the floppy drive. In short my little dream has gone the way of so much flushed excrament. I it is a sad day for me, let this a lesson to others. I need Get an electrical engineering degree learn to make an open source platform that will allow you add a toaster to your gear if you wish. I wouldn’t be stingy man..I would share my wealth so others could move foward..ok I’m rambling but really I was really hurt my akia will just have to make way for my A3000 yamaha sampler. Sorry to those hardcore Akai users out there.
December 16th, 2008 - 01:06
Salvador,
I’m sorry to hear you are having trouble, but I don’t think you fully digested my initial post. You are missing a crucial component. The Akai S5000 DOES NOT HAVE IDE capability built in. I know it looks like it does, but this is not how I achieve getting an IDE drive to work.
If you re-read the post you’ll see that I included the Acard AEC-7720U Scsi->IDE adapter in the parts list. It is vital to your success. While I have not tried this with a compact flash drive, I’m fairly confident it will work.
My comment above was simply suggesting that you replace the IDE hard drive in my instructions with the IDE compact flash drive bay. Sorry if you feel mislead, I thought I was clear.
Good luck if you decide to get the Acard and give it a try. Also, in Akai’s defense, when this unit was new they did sell the USB add-on card, an FX card, and a SCSI->IDE card, I used the Acard model because Akai’s is like $200, and I’m cheap. I think the fact that they stuck to the SCSI implementation strongly enough to have third party hardware work at all is a credit to the company. Ok… now I’m ranting…
You know what? If you send me the CF drive bay, and a CF card, I’ll install it in mine, and confirm that it works before you buy the Acard piece if you’d like, I’m pretty damn curious myself.
December 18th, 2008 - 20:04
Thank you; uhmm…. and for the record I was never holding you responsible. I was just experimenting (dreaming) really and took the risk. I was looking for a quick fix to my on stage problems. I will (try) to send you the cf card but I am a worry wort and $36.00 dollars is lot money for me (like most music folk I am very very poor because of all the gear my money goes to in the fisrt place). email me on my personal email address and we will discuss….. I need to see if I can funnel cash to shipping of this cf card. My my loving, patient, oh so tolerant wife wants me to manage my money better for some reason….oO(i don’t know why…it is my $…I work for it….I…) If she finds out I’m shipping something off to see if works she will…not be happy. Any way let me think about it I’m not sure what your country your in. I live in Planet Texas. ON a side note have you been able to burn your own back up cds. I have an old scsi burner and want to try backing up my own akai cds. If you haven’t noticed by now I tend to want the impossible to be very simple and very fast, yes very fast…..
December 29th, 2008 - 11:42
Hey man – Have you heard of any Akai IBS56USB USB Interface Board For S5000 And S6000 around I got a S5000 with no card cheap but w-o the USB interface its useless. Thanks.
Best,
SL
January 4th, 2009 - 20:34
Sorry, mine came with one, I almost bought one sans card, but when I realized it would be $200 to get a USB card, I waited for one with the card already installed to show up on ebay.
May 3rd, 2009 - 21:54
I’m going to try the CF out on my S6000 and replace the floppy. Here’s what I think I’ll need:
IDE CF card adapter, fits in floppy slot – $28.95
http://ayagroup.com/product.php?productid=16385
Acard AEC-7720U SCSI to IDE bridge adapter – $30.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350044078177
Kingston 2GB CF card – $12.25 including shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134118
Summary:
SCSI-IDE Adapter: $28.95
IDE-CF Adapter : 30.00
2GB CF Card : 12.25
Extra shipping : 10.00
——
Total: $81.20
Any idea what cables I’ll need in addition to the above adapters? Can I reuse the floppy’s power connector? I’ve got plenty of ide cables, but I don’t think I’ve got any SCSI cables lying around. Will I need to round one up? What about a SCSI terminator? Will that be necessary?
Thanks for any help.
May 12th, 2009 - 21:29
An update on my SCSI->IDE->CF conversion — it works with the parts I listed above. I had to fashion my own power connector, and I’ve yet to mount it into the floppy bay because my SCSI cable is too short, but it works nevertheless. Hot-swapping the CF cards seems to work too. I haven’t tried it with two different cards yet though, just with one, and then doing the disk utils “UPDATE” function.
Hornbrake guy — thanks for your tutorial. I don’t think I would have torn into mine without seeing your success.
July 15th, 2009 - 00:45
We have new SCSI CF card readers ready to install into your S5000 sampler for $89.00. These are very fast and easy to install – takes about 15 minutes. We also have internal SSD and hybrid drives that run on 5 volts, make no noise and produce no heat.
If you are not familiar with SCSIforSamplers.com, please check us out. We have been selling the best SCSI gear since 2002 and we can hook you up with whatever you need for you Akai or any other brand sampler.
September 29th, 2009 - 01:15
Argg…
SCSIforSamplers tooooo expensive!!!!
Granted top notch components…
December 10th, 2009 - 13:40
That’s brilliant! nice work.
I never would have thought that you could put a flash drive like that in an older sampler. Although I guess the S5000 isn’t that old.