The Z4 and Z8 are the world's first 24-bit/96kHz dedicated hardware-based samplers! Designed for professional audio production at a reasonable cost, the Z Series samplers offer all of the advantages of dedicated hardware, plus the interface power of ak.Sys. PC/Mac Control and Networking Software.

The Akai Professional Z4 and Z8 samplers are a completely new generation that eclipse the legacy of the legendary S Series samplers and surpass the requirements of a new generation of studio and live sampling applications.

The heart of the new Z Series is our new Z-96 LSI sampling engine coupled with a high-performance Intel CPU. This combination provides ultra-fast audio processing with up to eight real-time controllers and 24-bit audio resolution with sample rates up to 96 kHz.

Features
24-bit/96kHz operation (*)

Q-Link knobs for realtime performance control

Automation of commonly performed sampling functions such as normalize and sample assignment

36 resonant filter types with special 'Triple' mode

New 24bit/96kHz 4-channel effects processor (**)

Quick FX for rapid sound manipulation (**)

Capacity for up to 512Mb on board SDRAM using off-the-shelf memory

USB host/slave connection - use off-the-shelf USB keyboards for easier naming and USB drives.

ak.Sys software for computer control over USB

64-voice polyphony

Dual independent LFOs with internal and external modulation control and MIDI clock sync

Balanced analogue I/Os providing full 24bit/96kHz A/D and D/A… read more conversion

Sample rate conversion (**)

Choice of analogue or digital assignable multiple outputs

Sound Library compatibility with a wide range of Akai and other formats

FAT32/DOS disk format and .wav implemented as native format

.AIFF also supported using Mac ak.Sys

* Polyphony is halved when running at 96kHz
** Requires the effects board to be installed which is optional on the Z4

Akai Professional continues to support industry standard formats by adopting the FAT32 disk format and .WAV files as the native formats for the new Z Series. This provides immediate compatibility with every well-known sample editor already on the market. Combined with the ak.Sys Network and Control System software, the Z4 and Z8 combine the best of both dedicated hardware and computer control, by allowing complete control from a Mac or PC computer.

World's First True 24-bit, 96 kHz Dedicated Hardware Samplers
With more and more audio recording applications supporting 24-bit 96 kHz recording modes, your sampler should be capable of providing the same level of audio quality. The Akai Professional Z4 and Z8 samplers are the only hardware samplers in the world that provide the greater dynamic range and improved bandwidth required for these applications. No longer does your sampler need to be the weak link in the chain!

Real-time Sound Control with Q-Link Modulator and Q-Link Panel
The Z4's 4 Q-Link knobs, or Z8's 8 Q-Link knobs, can be separately assigned to allow flexible real-time modulation of a wide variety of selectable parameters including amplitude, filter cut-off and resonance, start offset, effect send, sample tune, and more. Control of an entire program, or a sound assigned to a single keygroup is possible. Each assignable Q-Link knob is capable of generating MIDI controller data so that all performance information can be recorded and played back from any sequencer. The Z8 provides a removable remote panel to allow convenient control away from the sampler.

IntelliSample
Why struggle with complex edit and assignment functions when your sampler can do it for you? IntelliSample is a suite of new features designed to significantly reduce the amount of time and effort involved in creating new sounds. IntelliSample capabilities allow you to create complete, ready-to-play programs from an audio sampling CD in one simple step.

Included in the IntelliSample suite are powerful features like an AUTO SAMPLING mode, which uses an audio threshold to start and stop the recording process. Samples are automatically named and assigned to a new program or any specified program. It's even possible to normalize each sample as it's recorded.

Quick FX
Support for Quick FX allows sounds to be easily resampled and simultaneously processed with the internal effects. A variety of presets are available that describe the final result rather than requiring users to blindly experiment with an overwhelming number of parameters. Presets such as Dirty, Swell, Squash, Stretch, Distant, Fat, etc. provide the desired results without the complexity.

6-pole Filter
Both Z4 and Z8 offer 6-pole digital dynamic filters (3 x 2-pole filters) that allow real-time control of the cut-off frequency and resonance from the Q-Link knobs or via MIDI control change messages. The new filter design not only supports all filter designs available in the powerful S5000/S6000 samplers, but allows new variations such as the TRIPLE Filter, consisting of three independent 2-pole filter blocks.

Massive Memory
The new Z Series sampler come standard with 256 MB of on-board RAM, and can be easily expanded to a massive 512 MB using readily available 168-pin PC100 or PC133 DIMM memory. Memory can be expanded using 64 MB, 128 MB or 256 MB DIMMs to provide more sampling time than ever before possible. No other hardware sampler provides more than one-fourth of what the Z-Series offers.

USB Networking Control Software
The Z4 and Z8 feature both USB host support and slave support standard. The USB host port supports direct connection of USB storage devices such as a USB floppy drive, CD-R drive, external hard drive, ZIP drive, or MO drive. It even supports a USB keyboard for easier naming. The USB Slave support allows the Z4 and Z8 to work with the award winning ak.Sys Control and Network System to provide complete Program editing, Multi editing, and file management. Best of all, the ak.Sys Control and Networking System comes standard with the Z Series.

Software control through ak.Sys allows the new Z Series samplers to provide the advantages of both dedicated hardware and complete software control. The intuitive nature of a computer-based interface means the Z4 and Z8 are easy to manage. And since all DSP processing takes place outside of the computer system, it won't overtax your computer. The result is a much more stable system with fewer crashes and the ability to peacefully coexist with other audio applications running along with ak.Sys. And when you're ready to take your show on the road, dedicated hardware travels much better than a computer system ever could!

The new Z4 and Z8 Z Series samplers by Akai Professional - Don't get caught with anything less than 24-bit 96kHz! read less