I opened my newly acquired Akai S612..to check for spiders and animal residue from its previous owner – i was intrigued by the “cassette interface”. Mine was screwed behind a closed metal door.
I realized right away it is the same cassette port as the Commodore 64.
And yes, you can save, verify and load your samples using an old datassette.
I sampled a sound, got some tape to record, went fast forward 004 counts on the tape counter, pressed rec and play and then pressed save on the Akai panel. Red light, it’s recording.
Counter reading 044, the Datassette automatically stopped. I rewound the tape, switched off the Akai (remember with these old machines it is better to switch them off before plugging or unplugging devices from serial ports..), on again and Load. Pressed play on tape, and yes. It’s working. Easy.
No need to buy the MD280 rack to load discs on the S612.. you just need a Commodore Datassette (clean its heads and fix azimuth before doing anything)!
Masuto's 