Whatever happened to Akai's VZ8?
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/401.html
I was expecting a lot from it, but did it ever see the light of day?
Akai VZ8
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 418 posts since 8 May, 2003 from Somewhere in the triangle...
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- KVRian
- 1469 posts since 18 Sep, 2004 from Suffolk, UK
It never got past the development stage. Akai Japan perceived it as a possible threat to it's hardware sales, and were concerned about the inevitable pirating of it. It was showcased at a few shows and then slipped into obscurity. Maybe Steve from Hollow Sun might chip in, seeing as he was the man behind the UI.
Who knows what might happen now that "legendary" (not) music hardware company, Numark, own Akai M.I ?
Who knows what might happen now that "legendary" (not) music hardware company, Numark, own Akai M.I ?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 418 posts since 8 May, 2003 from Somewhere in the triangle...
If there ever was a softsampler that I was going to buy on the spot, it was this one. Shame!Lovesign wrote:It never got past the development stage. Akai Japan perceived it as a possible threat to it's hardware sales, and were concerned about the inevitable pirating of it. It was showcased at a few shows and then slipped into obscurity. Maybe Steve from Hollow Sun might chip in, seeing as he was the man behind the UI.
Who knows what might happen now that "legendary" (not) music hardware company, Numark, own Akai M.I ?
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- KVRian
- 1469 posts since 18 Sep, 2004 from Suffolk, UK
Indeed. A soft sampler from the undisputed kings of sampling would've been pretty awesome.
Still, I have my S6000 & Z8 to console me
Still, I have my S6000 & Z8 to console me
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- KVRAF
- 1597 posts since 15 Jan, 2005 from Vales Of Glamorgan, South Wales, UK
Indeed.Slacknote wrote:If there ever was a softsampler that I was going to buy on the spot, it was this one. Shame!
As Rob says, Akai were very cautious because of the risk of piracy (however robust you make the copy protection, some f**ker somewhere's gonna crack it
). This would have potentially meant the end of any hardware sales they were enjoying at the time (a Z8 for free on a P2P network - who's not gonna go for that?!).As it is, pirated copies of other s/w samplers damaged sales of Akai's rack samplers big time to the point where... well... you know
It could have been a killer s/w sampler though! Hmmmmmm
Steve
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- KVRist
- 293 posts since 9 Dec, 2002 from Europe, Stockholm, Brussels or Rome
Why don't Akai do like Emu, lock it to a hardware device. With their new X2 update you can even run it with one of their MIDi interfaces or MIDI controllers. And Emulator X has NOT been cracked, so it seems to be a valid method.
And there isn't much Akai hardware sales to be killed by now, Akai managed to kill their sales all by them selves, except for the MPC series and they are in a different segment.
And there isn't much Akai hardware sales to be killed by now, Akai managed to kill their sales all by them selves, except for the MPC series and they are in a different segment.
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- KVRAF
- 2212 posts since 28 Jul, 2003
Still have my Z4... Great sampler.
Shame the disk-streaming OS update never saw the light of day
Shame the disk-streaming OS update never saw the light of day
My main tools: Kontakt, Omnisphere, Samplemodeling + Audio Modeling. Akai VIP = godsend. Tari's libraries also rock.
