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Boreas
Nov 21, 2006 3:42:54 GMT
Post by gwenhwyfaer on Nov 21, 2006 3:42:54 GMT
Ooh good, you've started an Off-Topic corner! I can ask the question that's been bugging me for a while... what exactly is an Akai Boreas, what does it sound like, and why did it never make it to market? I know you've mentioned it before, but I can't remember... and of course, there aren't too many user descriptions on the web.  |
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Boreas
Nov 21, 2006 9:16:57 GMT
Post by Failed Muso on Nov 21, 2006 9:16:57 GMT
Ooh good, you've started an Off-Topic corner! I can ask the question that's been bugging me for a while... what exactly is an Akai Boreas, what does it sound like, and why did it never make it to market? I know you've mentioned it before, but I can't remember... and of course, there aren't too many user descriptions on the web. Boreas was just an Akai Z4 with a minor cosmetic update and was destined to ship with a HD crammed with library. It was going to be marketed in a similar fashion to a big rack mounted sound module with the added bonus of being a cracking sampler. It only really came about when Akai could no longer source the original spec LCD screen and had to make a change to the design. Sadly, the market for hardware samplers had truly dried up by then and it never saw the light of day, except for the pre-pro model Steve has I have to be thankful for it though. as it was the development of the Boreas that got me my Z8  |
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Boreas
Nov 21, 2006 15:20:29 GMT
Post by Hollow Sun on Nov 21, 2006 15:20:29 GMT
It only really came about when Akai could no longer source the original spec LCD screen and had to make a change to the design. Not quite.... Everything else you say is correct but (to my knowledge), the LCD is the same as the Z4/Z8's. I might have been under the impression that they were changing the LCD to something more like the MPC1000 and may have told you that, Rob, but I was mistaken. As far as I can see, the LCDs are the same. No, Boreas came about because the 'old' Akai were in deep financial doo-doos and couldn't afford the R+D, etc., to design a successor to the Z4/8 so, in their infinite wisdom, they thought that doing a re-spray on the Z4 (their least successful selling sampler ever!) and giving it a silly name would revive their fortunes. Yeah - right!  But the Z-series (and the offshoot MPC4000) are damned fine samplers, especially when used with ak.Sys. But Boreas (or 'Boris' as we called it) was doomed from the start - the world didn't want the Z4 .... why would they suddenly want one in a different colour?! They made a few pre-production prototypes (one of which I still have here) but when Numark rescued Akai, Boreas was dropped .... understandably. It's a great sampler but wouldn't have stood a chance in the market unfortunately. Mine is hardly ever switched on to be honest. 24/96 is a bit of a joke for single samples so I mostly use my S5000 in conjunction with various wave editors to develop samples, convert them to Fusion and then the fun begins as I get jiggy with the multi-samples and add all the funky mod matrix stuff, the filters and effects, etc. Steve |
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Boreas
Nov 21, 2006 15:29:12 GMT
Post by Failed Muso on Nov 21, 2006 15:29:12 GMT
Everything else you say is correct but (to my knowledge), the LCD is the same as the Z4/Z8's. I might have been under the impression that they were changing the LCD to something more like the MPC1000 and may have told you that, Rob, but I was mistaken. As far as I can see, the LCDs are the same. I stand corrected |
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