The Akai SB-1 Deep Impact is a discontinued bass synth pedal made by Akai Professional, an electronic music manufacturer better known for samplers and workstations. Released in the mid-90s, it was designed for use with bass guitar and carried a variety of fat, funky synth-bass sound presets, letting a bassist put synth bass lines under their playing without a keyboard rig1.
What it does
The Deep Impact is a bass synthesizer pedal: it takes the signal from a bass guitar and turns it into synth-bass tones. Akai's own account describes it as containing "a variety of fat, funky Synth-Bass sound presets" designed specifically for bass guitar1.
Its sound engine uses four sawtooth oscillators running at 32 kHz. The maker describes the result in the higher pitch range as a very distorted, greasy sound1.
The pedal offers nine preset sounds, and they are not programmable: only the major parameters can be edited on stage. That makes it a preset-and-tweak unit rather than a deep programmable synthesizer, so players worked within its fixed set of sounds and adjusted the main parameters live1.
Discontinued, and what came after
Akai Professional discontinued the Deep Impact, but the maker's account notes that "the aftershock continued to rumble long after the pedal was discontinued"1. Demand among bassists pushed prices on the vintage market well up near the $1000 mark in US dollars1.
The Deep Impact has been out of production since the 1990s era, and surviving units trade on the vintage market near $10001. It is not a current Akai product.
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Questions
Is the Akai SB-1 Deep Impact still made?
No. Akai Professional discontinued the Deep Impact, and the maker's own account notes that interest in the pedal continued long after production ended. Demand pushed vintage market prices well up near the $1000 mark in US dollars. Players looking for the same idea in a current pedal can find it carried on by the Future Impact, a bass synthesizer pedal sold by Godlyke Distributing that traces its lineage back to the Deep Impact design.
What does the Akai SB-1 Deep Impact do?
It is a dedicated effect pedal for bass guitar that produces synth-bass sounds. It carries nine non-programmable preset sounds, with only the major parameters editable on stage, and generates its tones with four sawtooth oscillators running at 32 kHz, which the maker describes as giving a very distorted, greasy sound in the higher pitch range.
Sources (1)
- FUTURE IMPACT BASS SYNTHESIZER, Godlyke Distributing, Inc.
