Here is a properly special rig. The Akai AX60 is a fat six-voice analog polysynth built around the legendary Curtis CEM 3394 chip, with sliders, a real resonant filter, an arpeggiator and lush BBD chorus. But the party trick is the bundle: connect the included Akai S612 sampler (with its MD280 Quick Disk drive) through the rare 13-pin voice cable, and the sampler's voices run straight through the AX60's analog filters, envelopes, LFO and chorus. Suddenly your gritty 12-bit samples are being sculpted by genuine analog circuitry, polyphonically. That hard-to-find cable is included, which is the whole point.

Sold together as a complete, ready-to-play system. The S612 sampler is also available on its own with its MD280 Quick Disk drive, see the Akai S612 + MD280 package here.

FEATURES & PROS:

• Six-Voice Analog: CEM 3394-based polysynth with that warm, John-Carpenter-meets-synthwave tone.
• Samples Through Analog: The S612's voices run polyphonically through the AX60's filter, envelopes, LFO and chorus via the rare 13-pin cable (included).
• Complete Sampler Setup: S612 sampler plus the MD280 Quick Disk drive for loading and saving samples.
• Hands-On Controls: Sliders, resonant filter, arpeggiator with hold, keyboard split and BBD chorus.
• The Rare Bit: That proprietary connection cable is notoriously hard to find, and it is right here.

GENRE / USE

• Synthwave, cinematic and John Carpenter-style scoring with bright, cutting analog tone
• Running 12-bit sampled voices through real analog filters, envelopes and chorus, polyphonically
• Huge unison leads, gritty resonant sweeps and characterful sound effects
• A hands-on sampler-and-synth front-end for adventurous sound design

THE WORD: On Gearspace, AX60 owners single out how alive and characterful it sounds, a CEM-based poly that shines on stacked unison leads, harsh analog textures and sound effects, and reckon it never gets boring. Read owner reviews at Gearspace.

SPECIFICATIONS

• AX60: 6-voice analog polysynth, 61 keys, Curtis CEM 3394, MIDI, arpeggiator, BBD chorus
• S612: 12-bit sampler, 6-voice, real-time start/end sliders, 13-pin voice output
• MD280: Quick Disk drive for S612 sample storage
• Connection: proprietary 13-pin DIN voice cable (included) plus MIDI
• Era: mid-1980s
• Condition: used, functional
• Sold as a bundle; the S612 + MD280 is also available separately

Further reading: S612 to S5000: Which Akai Sampler Do You Actually Want?