Sunday, September 27, 2015

Akai S900: How To Deal With Bad RAM Issues


REMEMBER SAFETY FIRST. To avoid electric shock, injury and death be sure to ALWAYS unplug your sampler before any work.

The Akai S900. Question: Why would anyone want to mess with these dinosaurs that only have 11 seconds of memory at maximum bandwidth?...Answer: because, like the MPC-60 and S950, THEY ARE THE KING OF LO-FI CRUNCHY SAMPLERS. Filthy never sounded so good!

Unfortunately these dirty little gems are taking a beating. Their power supplies are going out, I presume killing RAM chips along the way. When RAM chips develop 'bad ram bit' errors, it can result in nasty little click-and-pop sounds on your samples....and not the good kind either. Replacement RAM chips are hard to find. It sucks because you feel there is nothing you can do about it, all the while your S900 sits in a corner collecting dust.

BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE IT ANYMORE. With a little persistence, some electronics tools, and experience you or your technician CAN take your S900 all the way back to a crunchy beat party in no time.

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