Past To Future releases PTF S950, a 12-bit Akai S950 sampler plug-in

Past To Future Plugins has released PTF S950 Sampler, a plug-in modeled on the Akai S950 rackmount digital sampler. It is a 12-bit, eight-voice instrument for macOS and Windows, and the developer lists it at €53.

The signal path follows the hardware. The input first passes through a capture of the machine's analogue front end, then a filter and a 12-bit converter. The sample rate of that converter is 2.5 times the audio bandwidth, so it ranges from 7.5 kHz at a bandwidth of 3,000 Hz up to 48 kHz at 19,200 Hz. Each voice replays through its own filter.

Input, filter and bit depth

REC LEVEL runs from -24 to +24 dB. Quiet signals stay clean, and toward 0 dBFS the front end saturates the way the machine does. MONITOR mixes the live input stage under what the sampler plays, as the hardware does at its output, and OUTPUT also covers -24 to +24 dB.

Inside a DAW, Bit Depth can be set from 6 to 16 bits, with 12 matching the original.

Playing it

The whole front panel is the interface: a 40 x 2 display, eight mode keys with their pages, a keypad, the CONTROL wheel and a floppy drive. Clicking the drive saves the entire memory to an .s950 file or loads one into any project. The DAW session also keeps the samples in memory.

Samples can be recorded from the track or dropped onto the panel as audio files. A dropped file is sampled as the machine would sample it, at the current bandwidth, through the filter and the converter. EDIT SAMPLE trims, loops, reverses, crossfades and stretches up to 999%. EDIT PROGRAM sets keygroups, soft and hard samples with a velocity switch, filter and amplitude envelopes, and an LFO.

Eight voices respond to MIDI notes, velocity, pitch bend, the mod wheel, aftertouch and the sustain pedal.

The memory holds 474,720 sample points, as the hardware did. That is 9.9 seconds at 48 kHz or 63.3 seconds at 7.5 kHz. A sample played below its recorded pitch runs slower and darker, which the developer calls the classic sampler sound for drums and vocal chops.

The plug-in works as an insert effect on a drum bus or as an instrument. Formats are AU and VST3 on macOS, universal for Intel and Apple Silicon, and 64-bit VST3 on Windows. A seven-day trial is offered.

Source: Past To Future Plugins