Unfortunately the truth is the new Akai series (S5000/S6000) has some very serious problems. I have read some great reviews on the unit, and I too agree that there are many things about the S5000 and S6000 that are truely wonderful. But I do feel many neglected to give it any more than a few tweaks before they came to this decision, because there is a critical problem with the unit's midi response. For persons who have sequences of minimal complexity, you may not have initially noticed a problem. Historically Akai has been known To be very tight in this area,but unfortunately they slipped on this one. For instance, If you are in logic audio and you have a good bit sequence data going, and you highlight your information to copy it, logic triggers each note. This has repeatedly overwhelmed the Akai and caused it to lock up, stop triggering all together, or playback incorrectly. (I stress that my sequence data and my proceedure was nothing out of the ordinary, and is easily handeled by all of my other gear including the other six Akai samplers I own.) Midi reponse is also a problem when you roll things tightly (Common practice to any competitive jungle music and IDM.) If you program a roll for instance at 192 and double time it in logic, the Akai cannot keep up. Even more discuraging (If the unit does not lock up) is that it playes the notes late, or long AFTER the sequence data is over. Also, you will see that even at a slower roll like 192 or 96 or even 64 the roll data will not necessarily sound the same each time it passes, but rather like the sampler is struggling to play it. Try rolling two things at the same time at the same rate and you get a sound that is NOT the combination of the two sounds but rather a loud unpleasant sound that sounds like pure stress. I know this is bad news for many. I called Akai and they said that they had heard this, but offered no suggestions on a solution. This test was performed on my S5000, my friends S6000, and the S5000 in the store. I suggest anyone who is interested in the new samplers run these tests to see these problems first. Take a laptop to the dealer and plug it in. I hate that this is the truth because I love Akai products, but I think they got slack on this one (with midi). Their response was "Sometimes we have to release a product so that we can get feedback" That is great if you are rich and don't really need to compose on you sampler, but Midi response above all should never be an issue. If this is an OS problem great it can be fixed (whenever they get around to it)! But if it is a cheap processor problem your screwed.
-Matt
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