I am soon to be the proud owner of a Yamaha A5000 sampler. Does anyone at SOS know of an Internet users' forum or something similar for the Ax000 series of samplers? My searches have (so far) only found one, in Japan, but my Japanese isn't too hot!
Nick Latham
SOS contributor and A5000 owner Derek Johnson replies: Good choice, Nick! The A5000 was good value when it was released, and I've spotted some really great deals in shop ads scattered around SOS, so now is a good time to be buying. As it happens, you're in luck: Chris Carter, in his hi‑tech troubleshooting Net Notes column (March 2001 issue) listed a number of relevant discussion lists at the web site formerly known as eGroups (it's now part of Yahoo). What he didn't list was the A5000 one, at groups.yahoo.com/group/YamahaA5000. This is relatively new, but is quite active. There's a files section with a few samples to download, and links to other sources of samples. If you jump to www.mourningafter.net/sizers/, you'll find a collection of A3000 native samples for free download that are compatible with your imminent A5000. (As an aside, visit www.mourningafter.net/sizers/ if you'd like to access some free WAV‑format multisamples of a load of classic synths — your A5000 will be able to load WAV files.) TekLab Systems, at www.teklab.com/, have been supporting Yamaha samplers since the A3000, and are behind an A‑series sample library and the Windows‑based A3kDisky sample management software. They also host a forum and a mailing list for A3000, A4000 and A5000 users.
Yamaha's own site (www.yamahasynth. com/) has some useful stuff on it — particularly an A‑series 'power user' guide that's worth downloading, and the v1.07 software update for the A5000. You should download this update as soon as you get your A5000, if it doesn't have it ready‑installed. The upgrade mainly adds compatibility for more internal hard drives and CDR/CDRW drives. It's easy to tell if v1.07 is installed in your A5K: press the main 'Disk' button; then press 'Command'; scroll to 'Load OS', and press knob four. If the display doesn't show an OS version number, you don't have v1.07. Not surprisingly, the display will say 'Current: v1.07' if you do!