yuzzer, it's that time of the month: I'm looking into acquiring a 303. Is there anything you guys could say regarding your experiences with the machine/average pricing of it, etc?

my only advice
keep your 202
they work well paired up

Spend about $150 for one with a card. That's the average price I see them going for lately. You might wanna spend the extra $50 and get a 404. Much faster, larger more common cards, more pads, banks and fx.

Really? There isnt anything that sets the 303 apart from the 404? The 404 really is just a straight upgrade?

ext. resampling!
+sounds better imo

If you like the lo-fi, dirty sound of the 202, look at the dirt machine: Zoom Sampletrak ST-224

It might be slow, but coming from a 202 it could only be better I suppose. Whether you take the 303 or 404. It's a really fun machine, has a max. memory of 32 MB (which to me is enough), yet the SM Cards are pretty hard to get I guess. I've also heard that if you take your SM card in and out all the time it might get corrupted.

I bought one for 200 euros which actually is TOO much, but I just had to grab it.

I agree, plus there will be more 404ohgees on the resale market than 303s. Once Boss/Roland had a hit with the 303 they made a ton of 404s.
I would guess Roland thought the 505/606 would have a bigger impact in the MPC dominated sampler scene at the time. Then Madlib showed people they could make great music with a 303 on a low budget and have fun while doing it.

I love my 303. I own a 404sx as well but would never get rid of the 303. It has such a classic sound. However if you already have a 202 it might not be a bad idea to get a 404, it's way faster, waaay more memory, and effects, djfx being especially useful. You can flip the 404 then dirty that up with the 202.

my fav thing about the 303 is the reverse button. when you hit reverse on the 404 the sample jumps to the beginning and end of the sample instead of reversing from where you hit reverse

love my 303 so much. I switched from fruity loops. It can actually hold a 64mb card but from what i hear, a 8mb card works fastest. If the smart media card werent so rare, i would downgrade to an 8mb card, since i dont need 30 minutes of sampling time.

Fastest as in, shit loads/deletes/truncates faster? Does a larger memory card inhibit speed on a 303?

Btw, thanks for all of the input. I'm currently considering both a 404 or a 303. Can you help me with my criteria?

Basically, I originally wanted a 404 for:

-mfx23 (the wacky stutter-and-spam-your-beats-to-hell-and-back type beats are what got me into SPs to begin with, but I've since decided it's a nonfactor)

-compression. I'm talkin fuckin off the wall aaronmaxwell - dianetics type shit. I figure the compression on the 303 is a different beast alltogether, but how does it stack up to the 404 in relation to ducking beats?

Fastest as in, shit loads/deletes/truncates faster? Does a larger memory card inhibit speed on a 303?

Yes, 404 is MUCH faster doing all those tasks. Yes, the 303 works slower when using larger SM cards. When I used the 303 I rocked the internal banks only and just used a mem card for backup.

-compression. I'm talkin fuckin off the wall aaronmaxwell - dianetics type shit. I figure the compression on the 303 is a different beast alltogether, but how does it stack up to the 404 in relation to ducking beats?

The 303 vinyl sim has a better warble sound, but the 404 vinyl sim is punchier. The brightness of the 404 sounds good with the vinyl sim. 303 is a bit thicker sounding while not as crispy as 404. You will like either machine. Each version is just an upgraded 202. (Excluding 505,606, 808). Just pick the one that suits your needs. You can always sell for same price and try something else.

i use both the 303 and 404 together and love it so much.

303 is great because it has that magical sound, and it ext. resamples which is the best part for me.

also its great to have my 404 run into the 303. i use the 303 to record everything im playing out on the 404. i no longer have to worry about how many pads i hit on the 404 without cutting all the sound off while resampling.

also the 303 cant export samples, so ill record my finished beat to the 404 with rca cables and then export it! makes life so much easier.

and the 404 has amazing compression mfx12 every beat for me.

ID GET A 404 FIRST AND GET A 303 LATER ON IN MY OPINION BUT WITH EITHER ONE YOU PICK YOU CANT GO WRONG