Akai's 12-bit S700 was released in 1987 as a rack-mount spin-off of the X7000 keyboard sampler. The S700 is a very user-friendly sampler. It's much like the S612 that preceded it, but with some improvements. It has the same filters and effects as the S612. Its sampling frequency ranges from 4 to 32 KHz and it supports up to 8 seconds of sample-time. Its polyphony is limited at just 6 voices with an optional expansion board to 16 voices and it uses the 2.8-inch QuickDisk format for loading and saving samples. Each Quick Disk holds one sound on each side of a Quick Disk.
A unique limitation of its sampling, the S700 is capable of recording only six 0.8-second samples at its maximum bandwidth setting of 16kHz. It samples in mono and using twelve bits it has a distinctly lo-fi sound quality. Yes there's a low-pass filter and no, it's not resonant. So, limited memory, sound quality and data-storage may label the S700 as a dead end. But some think it's got character and continue to use them today. It's a dinosaur, and some people may like that about it!
The unit has a low and high pass filter along with a single LFO for vibrato with settings for sine wave, speed, depth and delay controls. The unit features MIDI control as well as auto triggering samples. Editing of program and looping options like forward looping, reverse looping, One shot and Drum Modes.
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