Quote:
Originally Posted by Hollowcell
Nice looking setup there MC. How do you find the Z8 out of interest?
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Well, it's a sampler. It can be switched to 96khz, but I don't bother. 64 voices, 512MB RAM, and a 60GB HD. The USB interface and their utility lets you (basically) drag-n-drop .WAV files to the device -- .WAV is its native format -- though it doesn't mount the hard drive directly.
Their PC utility allows for easy on-screen editing of multis, assignments of samples, effects, etc., but the front panel is tolerable. I use its front-panel USB jack to power my MDP16, and you can stuff a usb mass storage device inside and face it out the back (zip or jaz drive, etc.).
The stock Z8 effects are good, very clean. Not the slightest hint of grunge, which isn't for everyone. The filters are pretty strong. The faceplate detaches and the unit comes with a cable so you could remote-mount it. The controls don't feel very manly, but they haven't puked yet.
Other than a lot of capacity, it's a pretty utilitarian unit.
It's strengths are that it is an effective, durable outboard sample playback and (quite especially. with a 60GB HD) librarian device. Supposedly, streaming of samples from the HD is/was to come as an update, but the Akai organization in the states is a mess right now and it may not happen.
It has a sequencer, of sorts. It might as well not have.
The only thing that gets under my skin about it is that the midi-to-program assignments in multis are kind of a pest to adjust when you are trying to experiment a bunch with sequences running, etc.