There are two kinds of board:
M32S1
(Currently out of stock.)
S1000 / S1100 Also the S1000KB, S1000PB and S1100EX. 
M32S3 S2800 / S3000 /
S3200 / CD3000The S2800 and CD3000 are normally only expandable to 16 Megabytes. The M32S1 behaves identically to four Akai 8 Megabyte boards.
The M32S3 behaves identically to four Akai EXM 3008 8 Megabyte boards. It is not suitable for the MPC3000, which uses a single Akai 2 or 8 Megabyte board and two 30 pin SIMMs. (But see http://www.forat.com , here or here for MPC memory.) The M32S3 and EXM 3008 boards are not for the S3000XL, S3200XL or CD3000XL – which use standard SIMMs.
One M32S1 or M32S3 board provides the maximum possible memory for these samplers:
These boards replace all other memory boards. There is no possibility of installing other boards or two of these boards.
- 32 Megabytes
- 16 Megawords
- 3 minutes 10 seconds stereo @ 44.1kHz
- 6 minutes 20 seconds mono @ 44.1kHz
- The boards behave identically to four Akai 8 Megabyte boards, so there can be no incompatibilities with software.
Installation of the M32S1 board in the S1000/S1100 is straightforward. It plugs into any of the four slots and there is no need to alter switch (S1100) or jumper (S1000) settings on the main board.
Installation of the M32S3 board in the S3000 and S3200 is also straightforward. It plugs into all four slots at once.
Installation of the M32S3 board into the S2800 and the CD3000 without the analogue input board involves soldering several wires. The CD3000 with analogue input board involves quite a lot of extra work to remove part of a bracket which is in the way of the new memory board. In the S2800 the alphanumeric functions of two groups of buttons on the front panel (Select Prog to Help and F1 to F8) are reversed, so a little more care is required when using them to name samples etc. (Thanks to Sylvia Miller on the Akai Samplers List, 24 June 2005, for pointing this out.)
In all cases the installation should be performed by an experienced technician because it is too easy for non-technical people to damage either the board or the sampler itself with static electricity. A simple error such as leaving a blob of solder somewhere can cause all sorts of trouble. Installation and test takes 30 minutes or less, except for the CD3000 with analogue input board, which takes about an hour.
Each board is supplied with full installation instructions, in a static-protective bag inside a small, robust cardboard carton. Shipping weight is 200g.Australian customers
AUD$541.20 including GST. $10 for overnight Australia Post Signed Courier. Installation is free if the sampler is brought to Real World Interfaces (Heidelberg, in Melbourne). The Australian retail price of Akai 8 Megabyte boards is over $1500!
Customers outside Australia
Payment via PayPal is the quickest and best approach.
- Via PayPal. If you are a PayPal member, then you already know all about it. From your account page at PayPal, fill in a form which initiates the payment to me using my email address: rw@firstpr.com.au . But first, please email me about the boards you want to purchase, and I will confirm they are in stock and give you a US dollar value to send me. If you are in the USA, then the payment amount is as per the table below - click the top links for one or two boards. If you are outside the USA, then I will send you the US dollar value to send. I will ship to your address, as supplied to me by PayPal.
- A bank cheque drawn on an Australian bank.
Direct funds transfer ("wire transfer") into the Real World Interfaces account in Melbourne (I will email you the account details). Any bank can handle both these forms of payment. The latter costs a little more, but takes only a day or so and does not require postage. US banks can charge as much as USD$25 for this, twice as much as Australian banks. The Australia Post EMS Courier service is delivered by your country's Post Office or by a courier company such as DHL. Delivery will take between three and seven days. I have never had any problems with this service, but please note that your government may charge import duty and/or sales tax on items imported into your country. EMS packages can be tracked online here.
Cost for a single board is AUD$492. Insurance is AUD$13 and EMS courier varies with the destination. Denizens of Great Britain, we Australians consider your country (where I was born . . .) to be part of Europe. For two boards, the price is 2 x AUD$492 = AUD$984, plus AUD$23 insurance, plus freight.
Number of
boardsInsurance Freight Total
Australian dollars1 $492 $15 Japan / Asia / Pacific: $37 $544 1 $492 $15 North America / Middle East $40 $547 1 $492 $15 UK / Europe $42 $549 2 $984 $25 Japan / Asia / Pacific: $43 $1052 2 $984 $25 North America / Middle East $48 $1057 2 $984 $25 UK / Europe $52 $1061
One Australian dollar is around USD$0.77 (Feb 2007). Exchange rates are constantly changing. See the Commonwealth Bank site for latest rates.
For convenience, the links below will load the Commonwealth Bank's page with the up-to-date conversion results for the currency of your choice. These figures are for orders of one and two boards. Use your browser's back button to return to this page. (Please follow this link to the Devil Fish page ../dfish/#conversion for how the links below contain a fudge factor so the foreign currency value you see is approximately what you will pay.)
Country 1 board 2 boards USA AUD$544 AUD$1057 Canada AUD$544 AUD$1057 UK AUD$549 AUD$1061 Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain AUD$549 AUD$1061 Switzerland AUD$549 AUD$1061 Japan AUD$544 AUD$1052 Singapore AUD$544 AUD$1052 The above links load a Commonwealth Bank page. For details of how I did these links for currency conversion, see ../funds/ .
The warranty period is 1 year, or 5 years if the board is operated at temperatures no higher than 70°C (158 Fahrenheit).
Some samplers are installed in crowded racks with little or no ventilation - causing extremely high temperatures to develop inside the equipment. This greatly accelerates electrical and chemical processes which cause the breakdown of semiconductors and other components.
There's nothing particularly temperature-sensitive about these boards, but commercial electronic devices are specified to operate between 0 and 70°C. Temperatures over 70°C are excessive, unnecessary and will significantly diminish the lifetime of all electronic components. Whether or not you use these memory boards, please ensure adequate ventilation for all your equipment in crowded racks.
Telephone and postal details are at the bottom of the main First Principles page, at http://www.firstpr.com.au/#contact. Geographical information on where Melbourne is can be found via that page too. Please note that Melbourne time is very different from European or North American time, so please think carefully before calling. The above-mentioned page links to timezone charts.Alternatives, other sites and loose endsIt is generally best to enquire via email: rw@firstpr.com.au mailto:rw@firstpr.com.au .
I do not manufacture or sell 8 Megabyte cards – although I used to make 8 Meg cards for the S1000 / S1100. If you only require one or two 8 Meg cards, let me know. I may be able to put you in touch with people who have just purchased a 32 Meg card and have one or more 8 Meg cards for sale.
One source of memory boards for these two series of samplers is Sound Logic in California. They have an immense range of memory and other kinds of cards for samplers. German manufacturer MU-TEC http://www.masterbits.de/exp_e.htm makes 8 meg boards for the S2800/S3000/S3200/CD3000 and S1000/S1100, and they are the only source I know for SCSI cards for the S2800. I have no plans at present to make other kinds of memory card, SCSI interface cards etc.Software updates and user manuals
The electroluminescent backlights of these samplers fade over time. The S2800/S3000/S3200/CD2800 series have a push-switch on the contrast control to turn off the backlight when not needed. The backlights are replacable - the following site supplies them: click on the "EL-Foil" link: http://www.midi-rakete.de . A UK site for backlights is: http://www.backlights.co.uk .
Real World Interfaces is not associated with Akai. Akai's web site: http://www.akaipro.com/ has information about current products and some support material for the S series samplers. See the section below for software where the software is on this site.
The web site of the Akai Samplers Mailing List is now http://midicase.com/akai/. (It used to be: http://sonicware.com/akai/ and before that http://www.antisleep.com/akai/ ). This site contains a FAQ and links to other sites. There is also a discussion specifically for the S1000 and S1100 samplers: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akaiS1000S1100Samplers .
Jules Vleugels' site on the S series samplers http://www.cs.uu.nl/~jules/Akai/ contains a lot of useful information.
IceCool has an extensive series of Akai sampler pages http://icecool.web.planet.it which deal especially with MESA, SCSI behaviour, SCSI adaptors for computers, CD-ROM, hard disk and removable storage, LCD backlights, and creating Akai compatible CDs.
There are some customer reviews of these samplers, links and other resources at the following sites:
If you are wondering how to install 8 and 2 Meg memory boards in an S1000 or S1100, here is all the information your technician needs: 8Meg.html.
Akai's web carries some .PDF (Adobe Acrobat) versions of manals. Most of them are just scans from the original page image, but one is an image to text conversion with some mistakes. http://www.akaipro.com/consumersite/manuals.asp .
If you have any of the software I am missing, please let me know.
Real World Interfaces memory boards function identically to four 8 Megabyte Akai boards. So they do not depend on a particular version of operating system. To support Akai owners, here is some information on versions of the operating systems.
Software – the internal operating system (OS), also known as "firmware" – comes in two forms as far as the sampler is concerned. Firstly, it can be in two EPROM chips plugged into the motherboard. (EPROMs are chips which can be programmed with ones and zeroes, and then erased with ultraviolet light, to be programmed again.) Secondly the operating system can be on either floppy or hard-disk. With these, the sampler must have some version of the software in EPROM, and once it boots up and finds an operating system on a floppy or hard disk, it loads that in place of the version in the EPROM. The advantage of having it in EPROM is that there is no delay when turning the machine on. The advantage of it being on disc is that if your sampler has old versions in EPROM, you can use the latest version of software on disk without the need to reprogram or replace those EPROMs. If your sampler has a hard disk, you can boot the machine with the new OS on floppy, and write it to the hard disk.
Akai's web site has the final versions of the operating systems for the S1000, S1100, S2800, S3000, S3200 and (in the past at least) CD3000 available as a Windows executable program which writes the operating system to a floppy disk. I understand that the S1000KB uses the same software as the S1000.
These versions are:
S1000 and S1000KB 4.40 1994 July 24 S1100 4.30 1994 January 17 S2800/S3000/S3200 2.0 1995 March 29 CD3000 2.0 1997 October 29 These used to be available at Akai's site: http://www.akaipro.com , but there was no CD3000 OS. I have a copy here: akai-software/cd3kv20.zip and the program to write it to a floppy disc on a PC akai-software/teledisk.zip .
The discussion below relates to EPROM versions of the software, older versions and to the EX1100.
In case anyone needs EPROM images for the CD3000 V2.0, here it is, but in 64k chunks: akai-software/Akai-CD3000-V-200-EPROMs.zip.
The final version of software for the S1000 is. Here is a .zip file of the EPROM images for two 27C512s: akai-software/s1000-v44-eproms.zip . I also have 4.3 : akai-software/s1000-v43-eproms.zip .
The final version of software for the S1100 is 4.3. akai-software/S11V430.zip
In this file: akai-software/s1100-202-s1100ex-136.zip you will find the 1.36 version EPROM files for the EX1100 (the slave version of the S1100). Together with 2.02 for the S1100, which is also in this file, the S1100/EX1100 pair, joined by SCSI cables with a hard disk, was capable of hard-disk recording. I don't know whether this works with later version S1100 software. Please see discussion on the S1000/S1100 discussion list (starting March 2006) for information about these EPROM images.
A version 2.0 EPROM image for the S3000XL are here: S30XLV20.zip This is the top 256 kbytes of a 512kbyte 27040 EPROM - I have been told it works fine if you load it in at offset 0x40000, leaving the bottom half of the chip empty.
Version 1.06 and 1.05 (courtesy of Steve Charman) are believed to be good: S3000XL-1.06-1.50-eproms.zip These are for a 32 pin AMD AM27C040. Steve wrote "V1.5 was the last real update as V2.0 addressed the SCSI transfer stuff for MESA - and thats all as far as I am aware."
Akai memory board part numbers as search-engine bait: EXM005 EXM 005 EXM-005 (2M for S1k) EXM008 EXM 008 EXM-008 (8M for S1k) EXM3002 EXM 3002 EXM-3002 (2M for S3k) EXM3008 EXM 3008 EXM-3008 (8M for S3k).