I have to admit, although I haven't gotten into any pattern sequencing on this thing (expectations are low), so far it's pretty shitty:
-only 1 FX live*
-always prompts you to stereo record which means you can only have 2 pads down at once if you screw up and record in stereo
-sample BPM seems worthless if you have no interest in messing with the sequencer
-"Reverse" no longer reverses the playhead from the point when you hit the sample*
-No auto-BPM recognition (not a biggie but I thought this was industry standard)
-pads themselves can't be assigned MIDI notes. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to only let you select note values for each SAMPLE SLOT, not the pad itself. Incredibly brainless move unless you own a 120-key synth and want every key to trigger a sample (hah). I can't imagine a single instance when this would be of any use unless you synched it with a Korg Kaptivator or Edirol P10. DAW doesn't count because, well, why would you need a hardware sampler?
-a whole load of CF-card issues. People talk on here of not being able to start it up with a card that it doesn't like, but mine's being a total cawktease and only screwing up after I've already gotten a sample or two on it before getting progressively worse. Help?
-No velocity
-No f@#%ing sample timestretching? GODDAMN, what's the point of this thing?!
(* = downgrade from the SP-202)
..and a few little gripes too minor to mention in detail. I'll take some credit for not catching these in my research before buying it, but for something commanding ~$300 in the used market, it's underwhelming at best. I buy all my gear used, and this is easily the worst of the lot...a lot that is basically otherwise Korg.
So here's the requisite fanboy rant: to me, it seems like Roland has basically been sitting on their asses for the past 10 years. Can't knock the build quality of their stuff, but they haven't done anything overly innovative with their samplers and synths that I can think of off the top of my head (possibly excepting their Edirol stuff) and it's expensive as hell. On the other hand, Korg to this day offers crazy Kaoss Pads, feature-rich drum machines, portable (and interesting!) synths...basically stepping up and making fun, inexpensive intuitive gear. The only thing they don't really offer is something that handles extended samples, so I bought a Roland (used, they actually jacked up the price of the 404SX).
Someone, one of yous who has more experience with this box, please tell me I'm simply doing something wrong here. Are the majority of the things I mentioned actually outside of the scope of this machine? I mean, it's got it's pluses (battery-powerable, can split mic/line feed, supposedly has lots of storage space if your card works), but its limitations are brutal. Any advice, at least on the specific nature of this card issue?
