New A4000 and A5000 Samplers from Yamaha
February 5, 2000
Yamaha expands on their digital sampling line with
the launch of two new professional samplers at Winter NAMM 2000, the A4000
and A5000. These versatile units fulfill the requirements for project
studios, film scoring, and professional musicians, and include features
for the growing loop-based dance market. Like their predecessor, the A3000,
both have the ease of operation and superb audio quality associated with
Yamaha digital products. The A4000 and A5000 are currently available.
"The A4000 and A5000 are superior to the competition in both features
and price performance," states Athan Billias, marketing manager,
Digital Musical Instruments. "With the addition of features like
a bundled native format 9-CD-ROM library, these units will solidify Yamaha’s
position as a serious player in the sampling market."
The A4000 features full 64-note polyphony with 64 multi-mode resonant
filters, 20-bit A/D converters, 24-bit D/A converters with 8X oversampling,
and a sampling rate of 44.1/48 kHz. The unit contains three effects blocks
per program with 96 different effect types, 4-band total EQ, and loop-based
Break-Beats functions that include the popular Loop Remix, Loop Divide,
and Time Stretch. With the addition of an optional SIMM memory, the A4000
can have up to 128 MB of sampling RAM. The A5000 contains all the features
of the A4000, but is further equipped with 126-note polyphony and six
blocks of effects per program.
An important addition to the two new units is the inclusion of front-end
CD-R software. When connected to a CD recorder (such as the Yamaha CRW4416SXZ),
these units are capable of writing their own native format CD-ROMs for
data backup. With the added advantage of A-Series internal DSP processing,
the A4000 and A5000 are capable of writing audio CDs in real time.
Expandability options include an AIEB1 output expansion board, E-IDE
or SCSI hard drives, removable Zip drives and 72-pin SIMMs for RAM memory
expansion. Production professionals will appreciate that both units share
import/export compatibility with many other high-end samplers currently
on the market–such as Akai, Emu Systems and Roland–and with
standard computer formats such as WAV and AIFF.
The A4000 and A5000 are bundled with sound and wave editing software
(for both Mac and Windows), and a complete 9-CD-ROM native format sound
library set gathered from Yamaha’s extensive sound library. Both
units will be available as turbo versions with expanded outputs, RAM,
and internal hard drives in addition to the standard specifications.
Both the A4000 and A5000 come in a 2RU professional package with a distinctive
faceplate, graphic 320x80 LCD display and five data entry/control knobs
which allow the user to adjust parameters and navigate around the interface.
For more information on the Yamaha A4000 and A5000 digital samplers,
visit Yamaha at Winter NAMM 2000, Petree Hall, Los Angeles Convention
Center
For more information, visit Yamaha's web site at www.yamaha.com. |
