I just got my sp303 in the mail today finally after a long wait from eBay,

i have a mic with 1/8th input going into a 1/4th plugged into the mic input on the front of the SP-303,,, i also have 1/8th headphones into 1/4th going into the headphones slot. 9V Power cord as well [as needed]

I have been following the manual thus far, and have just tried to make my first sample after deleting all of the samples that came on the 303 from the factory,, but nothing plays back after i finish recording it?

I assign bank A, hit 'REC', all the 1-8 pads flash and I press pad 1 , all the others turn off and Pad 1 stays light while 'REC' blinks- i screwed with the drive level and the peak light never came on, I am assuming the mic level is very low- but i have recorded plenty through garageband with the same mic and it comes out great- i dont have a mixer with the 303 but this shouldnt prevent me from being able to sample anything should it?

If anyone knows what I am doing wrong I would really appreciate any help. I have been fiddling around now for 4 hours trying to get SOMETHING to come up, but its just a fuzzy silence, help!

cheers

There is that small knob next to the mic input. You should check if it isn't all the way to one side, just play with it.

here's what i recommend. put your head phones in, and when you hit 'record' you should be able to hear what it is that you are sampling.

if you hear nothing there are a few places to check:

one there's a volume level right by the mic input. make sure that is up.

second, make sure your volume level is up on the main panel. it's the knob all the way to the left.

third, make sure your bpm level is all the way up which is the knob all the way to the right.

also, if you want to sample from your mic you have to make sure the external source button is pressed. it will be red when you have it pressed down.

other than that i don't know what else it could be.

let me know if that helps.

hippiesmell

wow i did not even think of the big 'EXT SOURCE' button down on the bottom right. --they don't even mention it in the 'recording with a mic' part of the manual for the 303.. weird

I hadnt touched this or made sure it was lit up when recording with my mic, i made sure the little mic level knob was all the way right, as well as the volume and bpm knobs, i will try it out now, if theres still nothing i don't know what it could possibly be.

thanks a lot for the help, i appreciate it

I'm betting that is it. Just remember when you hit record you should be able to hear what it is you are recording in real time through the head phones.

If that doesn't work try just recording through the rca inputs. Put in the rca to cd player or your computer and see if you can at least sample off of the player. That will give youa feel for how the sampling process works on the sp303.

i just tried to record a small sample and as soon as i hit record the 2nd time and it starts flashing, the EXT SOURCE light goes off and i cant hear it through my headphones - should i be holding this button or is there something i am doing wrong?

It shouldn't go off. I'd say hit record, bank a, pad 1, then ext source...talk into the mic make sure it's picking up a sound, and then hit record again to record. once you're done hit record to stop and then play it back.

i tried hittin record, bank A, pad 1- then ext source and the ext source button wont come on - it only comes on when record is off, and turns off once i hit record
, i am assuming youre not having this problem?

reach me via aim if need be @ sn: i like b movies

i figured out what the problem was, [my own stupidity mostly], i need a Mono 1/4th jack.. ive been using a stereo jack.. i switched around the input im using with my headphones after putting in the RCA cables and it worked, and then once i put the headphone jack on the mic, it worked.. so, gotta run to radio shack tomorrow morning and get a $2.99 1/4th mono jack, which isn't too costly of a problem at all.

thanks for all the help.
this thing sounds insane, i am extremly excited to record some stuff

Good to hear you got your problem solved. Let's hear your stuff.

Yeah, when I first got my 303 I didn't know shit about hardware samplers and it seemed I had all the cables that I didn't need, after a few trips to radio shack I came to find that all I needed was an rca to line cable and some 1/4inch adapters.

what all do i need to be able to record a song off of the sp-303??

right now i am just running songs i already had finished on garageband through it via the rca cables and putting effects on it that way, but it'd be nice to make a song layered out of the samples i do have in Bank A/B for now,

can anyone explain this process briefly??

There are a bunch of ways to record songs off your sp, if you have an rca to line in cable then you can record straight into garageband by having the cable run from your rca out on the back of the sp then have it going into the audio in jack on the side of your mac(not the one with the headphone pic,the one right next to it) then go to system preferences on you computer and set the audio input to built in line not internal mic, next open garageband then go to prefernces and set that to accept line in audio as well. Now if I remember correctly all you have to do is add a new instrument track, play your sampler a check to see if the monitor levels move, if they do then its recieving a signal when your ready just hit record on the track bar and do whatever you want for now and when your done you can arrange and chop up the best parts and put them together for a full song. I prefer audacity though myself, nice and simple doens't eat ram and I like the editing features a lot, oh yeah and its free. I also do alot of recording into a sony stereo cassette-corder from the 70's, also very simple and fun, but I usually just give thoughs tapes to random people I meet, but I guess I should upload some of those as well, and if you need more help just let me know. Good Luck