The Fourth Man

Akai S900 sampler

Initially loaned to Gabriel by Ogre, I bought one later. I sort of wished I’d bought a second TX16W instead.

The S900 (1986) came out two years before the 16W (1988), and it was essentially the first inexpensive and most popular “professional” sampler on the market, so I assumed that it was superior on all fronts. Compared to the 16W, the S900 was far easier to work with in terms of editing and…well, everything. On the down side, it was limited in terms of the number of possible simultaneous instruments (polyphony), as well as the over-all efficiency in terms of sample quality. Basically, I could just pack more sounds into the TX16W than the S900, which was what mattered most on my budget. Alas, the overwhelming advice I had received was that an S900 was the best deal, and this is why you should never, ever trust musicians, salespeople, musicians who work as salespeople, or salespeople who play music.

After a year, the disk drive on mine died, and it was probably traded for cigarettes.