OK so I've finally started learning my SP303 lately, and since I don't have a turntable yet I've been transferring samples over with the SmartMedia card from my laptop. While it's great that I can do this, taking the card out, writing the files to it and loading them up on the 303 (not quick by todays standards) kind of seems like missing the point of such a fast and creative production tool. So to remedy this I wondered about buying a 3.5mm jack-to-phono lead and sampling files straight off the laptop from iTunes.

I thought I'd find out if anyone is doing something similar. Will I be losing quality? Is this essentially the same (with lossless rips) as sampling from a CD deck? Basically any advice you can give me on this is appreciated.

you're probably going to get a more raw sound sampling through the phono's instead of importing through the card.
sampling wax in addition to (or instead of) itunes is preferable

Try to not take the card in and out as much as possible. Smartmedia is known for easily becoming corrupt by just using it normally. Since they are not readily available anymore try to keep it working for as long as possible (or pick up a spare from the interwebs). And yah, get used to sampling from the inputs. The mark button is your friend

Thanks for the responses, is this a commonly done way of sampling? Computer to 303? Probably asking some pretty basic questions here, but where would the analogue-to-digital conversion be taking place in this setup - the laptop?

Just trying to wrap my head around it.

The A/D conversion would be done on both sides. Digital to analog on the PC and analog to digital in the SP. Yes, this is a common way to do stuff. Most of us don't import samples from the card as it's too slow and kills workflow. Don't worry about losing sound quality.

I would say 95% of us sample using inputs.

While there may not be enough SmartMedia cards left for the 303 there sure are plenty for the SampleTrak and at some reasonable prices. Just my plug for the SampleTrak

I've never used my 64 mb for file swapping on the 303. I sample using the inputs and use banks C and D whenever I can as it's faster to work with.

yeah I would say a stereo headphone -> rca cable is pretty common toolkit in SP users aresenal.. plug it into anything you like

+1

Thanks guys, my other option is to output through my Apogee Duet which probably has better converters, but this is way more of a hassle and I'll need new cables. Anyone compared high quality converters to internal/cheap ones while using the SP-303? Does it make a worthwhile difference?