RX 950 (Akai S950 EMU?)

[e@rs]

It's on sale with 37% off at PB. But no demo version available...

[sin night]

I had some virtual cash from previous purchases at PB, so I bought it for a really nice price.

I didn't found the time to play with it properly yet, I only tried it briefly in Wavelab on a song ripped from a CD and the plugin gave me immediately the impression of "that classic sound". I don't know how it compares to the real hardware, but I like a lot the result.
I have no idea of the way this plugin works, it could be even just simple samplerate reduction and simple filtering (maybe you could get the same result with other plugins?), but I think the controls are well calibrated and it's virtually impossible to get a bad or unconvincing output.

Maybe it's a one-trick-pony because it gives just "that" sound and nothing else, but in my opinion it does a good impression and it takes no effort at all to get that result.

I should have bought it earlier (even at full price).


Just my opinion, off course!

[Lotuz2019]

I should have bought it earlier (even at full price).

I did and I don't regret it. And for EUR 12 it's a no-brainer if you like the sound of eighties samplers. And as mentioned before it sounds a bit different from other bit crushers, so it's like having another sampler in the rack.

[Local Man]

Has anybody compared this to the vintage sampler emulations in Komplete Kontrol and Maschine?

[Lotuz2019]

You can't really compare it to the SP1200 emulation (which is pretty good imo). But I prefer the RX950 over the MPC60 emulation in Maschine. The Maschine emulations do give you the pitch up/down aliasing though that bit crush plugins don't.

[Local Man]

You can't really compare it to the SP1200 emulation (which is pretty good imo). But I prefer the RX950 over the MPC60 emulation in Maschine. The Maschine emulations do give you the pitch up/down aliasing though that bit crush plugins don't.

Yeah, obviously they are emulations of different pieces but I was just wondering how they stack up in general for that type of effect. Thanks for your answer, that helps.

A plus for the RX950 is that it can be used as a general effect on any type of track (including software instruments) and not just audio samples.

[Lotuz2019]

Just don't expect a very crunchy sound from the RX950, because the S950 is a pretty clean sounding sampler unlike other 12 bit samplers. The sound degrading that is done by the RX950 is more about the filtering and driving the preamp. If you want obvious aliasing, then go for Decimort, TAL DAC, ToneBoosters TimeMachine etc.

[jbuonacc]

You can't really compare it to the SP1200 emulation (which is pretty good imo). But I prefer the RX950 over the MPC60 emulation in Maschine. The Maschine emulations do give you the pitch up/down aliasing though that bit crush plugins don't.

this is four 2-bar loops strung together. can't recall the order, but each was made using the following:

- 112db Morgana
- TAL Sampler
- Maschine SP1200 emulation
- stock Ableton bit-crusher

https://soundcloud.com/jbuonacc/grits

can you tell the difference, or even that it's not all from one source? (my point is that you can get the same results from using pretty much any bit-crusher plugin.)

[dionenoid]

Picked it up pretty cheap. Nice little tool. Also have Tal-Dac and Decimort2 but i like to have options
Tested it on an Amen break and got some nice results, it's quite different from Tal-Dac and Decimort when driven hard.

[Lotuz2019]

You can't really compare it to the SP1200 emulation (which is pretty good imo). But I prefer the RX950 over the MPC60 emulation in Maschine. The Maschine emulations do give you the pitch up/down aliasing though that bit crush plugins don't.

this is four 2-bar loops strung together. can't recall the order, but each was made using the following:

- 112db Morgana
- TAL Sampler
- Maschine SP1200 emulation
- stock Ableton bit-crusher

https://soundcloud.com/jbuonacc/grits

can you tell the difference, or even that it's not all from one source? (my point is that you can get the same results from using pretty much any bit-crusher plugin.)

At one pitch you can get very similar results indeed. But once you play a sample across the keyboard, then you'll hear that each note sounds different. The sound gets more degraded the more you go down (left) on the keyboard. A bit crusher doesn't follow the notes, so each note you play gets the same kind of effect. Unless you automate the sample rate, I guess. For most people a bit crusher will do just fine.

[jbuonacc]

At one pitch you can get very similar results indeed. But once you play a sample across the keyboard, then you'll hear that each note sounds different. The sound gets more degraded the more you go down (left) on the keyboard. A bit crusher doesn't follow the notes, so each note you play gets the same kind of effect. Unless you automate the sample rate, I guess. For most people a bit crusher will do just fine.

yes, this is true. depends on what you're doing.

[Lotuz2019]

Tested it on an Amen break and got some nice results, it's quite different from Tal-Dac and Decimort when driven hard.

I actually just got the RX950 the other night and compared it Decimort 2. The RX950 has a subtle sound difference that I cannot get with the Decimort. That said, I can get close enough by tweaking a few knobs on Decimort. Aside from all the functionality Decimort has, the RX950 does to kicks in a single turn of the knob that takes more sculpting on Decimort. If we're splitting hairs, I can get great results with just Decimort 2. Personally, owning both I can guarantee there is no linear overlap of any common feature other than the filter sweep.

The most obvious difference in sound between the RX950 and Decimort 2 is the low pass filter imo. I haven't been able to find a setting that sounded indistinguishable.