I had an SP-404SX and I didn't like how it added stuff in the high end that wasn't originally there, really obvious in the hi-hats. Is the 303 better?

I do miss the reverb and radio tuner, I guess if I had one I could use those effects with other equipment too.

I do find 303s to be overpriced though, often at 200-300 Euros...

200/300e is an high price as you say....
where are you livin? here in france they go about 150€...
anyway i had the 404 1 year ago and i felt the 303 more warm...but if you listen the guys on the forums most of them they know how to make this machine sounds good...so it's just a matter of taste maybe...

I have an SP303 and I was wondering about the 404sx, LMAO!

I can tell you man, the 303 is the most awesome little machine I've ever bought. whats funny is I bought it totally on a whim, just needed a looper to go with my turntable (I was heavily into scratching). I had no idea of it's possibilities...and Im so thankful I bought it cause I had no idea that it wasn't getting made again.

After I bought it I found out Madlib made Madvillian with it, Dilla used it for Donuts...and then BOOM!, SP revolution. The 303 started the SP revolution.

yeah, for sure, that's awfully overpriced... but , damn, such a good machine, tiny, limited but highly creativity inducing...

As Ellaguru, i come from France, and i found mine for 40 euros (so lucky...).

Actually, as I am looking in every market place for another one to twin the experience, i must admit that prices have awfully grown up...

Never used the 404, and seriously thinking about buying one.

i got a 303 a few months before i went out and got a 404 sx too, and i have to say i have more love for the 303... sound wise, the way it looks, and some of the functionality (vinyl compression, the way the mark button works, reverse in real time without skipping back to the beginning or end of a sample). The 404 is more powerful, faster, and easier with the import and export of audio...
I would buy a 303 again in a minute. I paid 275 for mine, in retrospect, i probably could have found a cheaper one somewhere.

someone mentioned that a 303 SX would be awesome, i totally agree with that.

I think the only stuff a 303 is missing is:

- Flash drive
- Battery power
- multi tracking and muting
- multi-FX on multiple pads.
- auto loop (like the 555)
- MIDI in, out, and thru

more pads is not necessary...but would be nice.

for the battery power feature check the thread about it, it's really not complicated to build it...

really? it's got an isolator and sequencer, you can't do muting?

yeah, you can't do mute groups...like mute halfway through a sample to bring something else up or to just do a pause without turning the volume knob off down and up real quick (muting everything). There is no way around it unless you multitrack...which this machine cant do. Thats the only reason I bought an MPC.

well, there is a sort of trick about the mute: you can do a sort of with isolator fx, it's just like slowing completely the volume of a pad/sample...with "remain" button you do a sort of "group" to apply this trick...ok, i'ts not mute group like akai mpcs style, but...
for muting/unmuting tracks i tried sp606 and sp505 (wich i still got); naturally, the mpc (all the mpcs, even the 500) from this point of view is far far far away...

can you define what you mean by "far away"? We both know they are more complex...but do you mean far away as in further out of reach than your SPs? lol

I don't mind as much not having a mute group capability with my 303 rather than my MPC, which doesnt have 21 effects that I could use instead of muting...its quite the opposite approach delay, reverse, super reverb one hits. I think it's actually a more creative approach, rather than mutes. But anyway...I like them both for each ability. But the SP is just instant gratification...and I always end up gravitating back towards the 303 when I'm in the zone.

SO to keep this thread within it's relevance to buying an SP 303...buy that shit! You will not regret it. I couldn't imagine life without it right now.

yes, the mpc got 16 tracks (and more) to mute/unmute + it got the mute groups....but, for waht hell reason i prefer the sps??!? i say more: those days my preferred sampler i got is the st224, insane dirty useful machine...and you know what? if i wasnt about peparing a live project in the next months, i would have probably sold yet my mpc1000 yet...the whole thing depends on what way we better work...personally i found very useful to make furious jams with hardwares (samplers, drum machine and synths or bass guitar too) and then recutting thos sounds on the software world...sometimes it happens that i recut things to return back to hardwares (samplers) with samples from the pc reworked before in various softwares...

I wasn't thinking of mute groups as in hi-hats closed and open, but for samples in patterns. It could be done with the sample level anyways, it's kind of clunky, but it works for ambient/downtempo, and it's better than the isolator because you don't need to turn the effects off. I hate resampling with reverb, because I may want the samples later dry so I can apply other effects w/o reverb.

But anyways I want one just so I can put a bunch of drum samples on it and run it off of an external sequencer, I don't really care about the built-in sequencer, although it can be of some use I guess. Muting could also be useful for stuff coming from an external seq not capable of muting individual tracks tho...


I could also use the effects with external gear.

OK I'm getting two impressions from this...

1. you need it just for tone purposes...

2. you want to use the effects with say...a guitar or keyboard.

I would suggest buying one. No matter how you look at it...you will discover that there are a lot of uses for the 303. If you are recording to an external sequencer you might want to use an external MIDI device such as an MPD pad or something for smoother drums. Most people dont really talk about how drumming on the 303 sounds really chopped up, just a suggestion. And of course, you would be getting that SP tone since its coming from the 303 thru the MPD and then through to the sequencer and record. running it through more equipment might change the tone some...but you probably already expect that.

Thats what I do with my MPC1000 and my 303...jut back and forth back and forth. haha