If you still own one and love it, post one trick you've learned I still super dig mine. Also post one thing you wish you could change.

My trick for ya'll. this machine has tons of headroom. After you chop/set your end points adjust the amplitude by 200% or more. This will get the levels similar to the internal stock sounds.

I am leaving in 20min to go pick one up actually. If you have any tips on what to focus on when testing the unit please let me know! getting a good deal on it.

The clicky round buttons will be first to go out. Like all other SPs be sure to check RCA in and out. Also if it comes with a card make sure the card is being recognized and you can play stuff from card banks.

Just got my new 505 home- is in really great condition too and I got a killer deal I lucked out! Only an 8MB card though, oh well. I am really digging it- different work flow for sure but I have a feeling I am really going to like it!
Also, not sure if it calculates the BPM correctly but it CAN do ODD TIME SIGNATURES!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2In5a9LDNg

Cool. I like the overall feel too and the pads. Also love the built in sounds.

Don't know if I will ever need to use them all together or in conjunction with my other gear but sure is nice to have options for now!



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Spent some time with it tonight. I wish there was some sort of playback rate adjust (pitch)- on the 404SX and 555 I can at least use the DJFX to get some slow down but seems to be no way to do this on the 505.

On the plus side I love the visual feedback when assigning fx, deleting, etc.

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The best way to look at the 505, or any music gear for that matter, is to focus on what it CAN do instead of what it can't. There's always ways around the obstacle.

I still use mine. Sometimes I'll do sequences on the 505 and resample thru tape to the 404sx and other times vice versa.
Love the 505 too much to let it go

...

Having my first real long session with it tonight. It seems to be stuck on processing data to an amplitude adjustment to a 30sec mono sample. The preview came up surprisingly fast but now it seems to have same bug as my RS7000 and just processes forever. Doing it to a card bank- have a 32MB card in there.

The 505 is way different than the 404 or 555 series- it is way cool- that is for sure. I am really digging it. Battery is on its way too so I can take this thing out with me.

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every day.

cant think of any "tricks" off hand.
one thing i found nice was you can hack the microscope editing without stopping the sequencer.
once you get used to interpreting the minimal info microscope gives you,
sequencing is lightning fast.

you can also set a sample to loop, without the use of the sequencer.
if you need a panic! button, hit "wave edit".

like someone above said, the headroom is borderline ridiculous. if you sample a sound in that you want prominent, youll need to boost the amplitude.

awesome and highly underrated machine.

Man I had a good time tonight making a track on the 505 for STBB338:
https://soundcloud.com/clifford-novey/t ... e-big-beat
The 505 is really cool, I love microscope edit I am right at home coming from RS7000. Part mutes per pattern are cool, good size in my lap, pattern naming. I did find myself looking for some effects I have on my 404/555. I have not touched any phrase control stuff other than pitching. Cool feature. oh shit i just realized i pitched a cool bass with delay and I don't think I even used it- oops. Overall I really love this machine!

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PS- whatever file you upload to SC is what users download, I use .wav files but might switch to .mp3 so users get proper tagged and named files.

I'll try to pick mine up next week, but even if I don't, I plan to put some money down on it. I still need to order a memory card, otherwise, I'm stuck with the pre-sets. The AkaiS20, an effects unit, and a cheap mixer would get me started...

The 505 is very efficient w memory- mine came with an 8MB card which was enough to work with. Now I have a 32MB card in there and sampled 2 videos, made a track, made some patterns and backed every sample and pattern up to the card (and used some of the card banks) and was only 20MB when I backed it up to the PC! I also truncate things a lot- every bit helps.
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I've got plenty of .wav files of all sorts, drums, bass sounds, guitar, some vocals, odd sounds, etc. The nightmare will be finding the right sounds and squeezing as many as I can into each memory card. I might want to track down another sp505 or 303 if I really need more pads and samples to work with, but that's kind of why the AkaiS20 is around. I don't have the manual for that though, so I'm not really thinking I'm doing alot of things right with that machine, like truncating samples, etc. I can pitch the samples up/down, but I usually can only get about 4 samples into a floppy before I can't save anymore. All the other pads kind of get wasted. I don't expect this problem with the 505, but at the same time, I do want as many samples/pads at my fingertips as possible. Anyhoo, I hope to get at least something out of the pawn store next friday. (I have alot of my gear out of reach at the moment)

I bet you will be good w 505. You might want to get a 128MB card to max it out. There are a few practices that will be good to think about.

1- Stereo or mono? Mono cuts memory usage by half. do you really need certain things to be stereo? This is even more of an issue for polyphony. I have started to use more and more mono samples and it actually is interesting to hear the 2- I have made cool transitions by going from mono to stereo.
example:
https://soundcloud.com/clifford-novey/c ... ush-for-sp

2- sample as normal, long, lo-fi? Sample at lowest quality setting that makes you happy. Lower settings are often acceptable and save significant space but can also introduce shitty frequencies and such- you can EQ those out sometimes though.

3- truncate- but not too quickly (in case you need another part or to adjust later) I always do this- good habit to get into. I make temp copies often of samples and patterns before I do destructive or extensive work. every second can count. I even do it on my SX w 32GB card just to make it a habit.

4- use card banks on 505- obvious but easy to forget at first

5- loop only what you need- if you have a 4bar chop and second half is same as first consider chopping it in half. sometimes there is variation you want but often not really needed.

Anyway hope that is useful!

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