From SP1200 to MPC60 to SP303...

[Danswift]

I have to ask, did you ever put up a video on YouTube where you gush about the SP-808 like you do here?



I'm genuinely intrigued, especially since you have one (or two), and aren't as enthusuastic about the SP-404MKII, yet feel like you need an MPC-X. So it suggests to me that the SP-808 inhabits a workflow and niche that those other machines don't do so well.

I've owned SP 808's since they were first released..I also had the Roland MS-1 and a 202 before I got the 808 OG and the EX, but no ,I've never put anything on YouTube regarding them,in fact I don't think I've even watched any videos of ppl using them either now I come to think about it so can't really point you in the direction of any .

Ahh man ...what can I say about the MPC X ?

Well,having now tried one out a couple of times all I can tell you is those things are fucking incredible ..it's the absolute best sampler I've ever come across basically in terms of it's workflow and usability-its also completely standalone, most importantly.

Do I need one? ...possibly not,I've enough equipment and samplers already.

Am I getting one ?

Hehe...you can bet your life I am.....another month or two from now and I'll be ready to lay out the dough for it and pull the trigger.

[zindan]

Which one?

My only concern is the tempo can't do decimal places, just whole numbers, which for loops could be tricky, but sequencing in double time should mitigate that somewhat.

22

same limitation all the boss and roland SP series samplers have, and i've never had an issue for the past 7 years lol

are there even any samplers out there that do have decimal place adjustable tempo?

[Girru]

are there even any samplers out there that do have decimal place adjustable tempo?

Er, SP1200, MPC60, MPC2kXL, MPC1000, MC909, Amiga Octamed...pretty much every sequencer I've ever owned, lol. As I say, I use drum breaks and loops, so it will be an issue, but not insurmountable. Trying to avoid tmestretching tho.

22 is niiiiiice. The sweet spot between the most basic and the too-complicated/too 90s sounds of the 70, I reckon.

[Danswift]

are there even any samplers out there that do have decimal place adjustable tempo?

The SP-808 has Vari-Pitch.

100 to 25%

[zindan]

are there even any samplers out there that do have decimal place adjustable tempo?

Er, SP1200, MPC60, MPC2kXL, MPC1000, MC909, Amiga Octamed...pretty much every sampler/sequencer I've ever used, lol. As I say, I use drum breaks and loops, so it will be an issue, but not insurmountable. Trying to avoid tmestretching tho.

22 is niiiiiice. The sweet spot between the most basic and the too-complicated/too 90s sounds of the 70.

yup that's exactly what i was going for after researching the QY series

yeah my entire catalog of music is 99% sample-based 99% made on SPs and i also try to avoid time stretching as much as possible, every now and then there are those times it's been unavoidable though (also when i'm going for lo-fi production, it's even favorable in certain circumstances, just always time stretch UP rather than down lmao)

i don't have $5,000 to shell out for a sampler, and i prefer older equipment, so i guess i'll have to deal with this minor issue

that's badass though, i had no idea those old samplers were so tweakable in that area

[zindan]

danswift, and the sequencer?

[Girru]

danswift, and the sequencer?

It's easy to get confused when talking about BPM and sample length etc and SPs, due to the fatal decision Roland made to aim the SPs at DJs initially. Like how all the SP Bods refer to the 202 Pitch as an 'effect', when it's actually just sample speed and something pretty much EVERY sampler does apart from the SPs and a couple of other budget ones. "It's so much better than the 303/404!" - yeah, coz it's not also trying to maintain the same tempo, lolz.

[zindan]

danswift, and the sequencer?

It's easy to get confused when talking about BPM and sample length etc and SPs, due to the fatal decision Roland made to aim the SPs at DJs initially. Like how all the SP Bods refer to the 202 Pitch as an 'effect', when it's actually just sample speed and something pretty much EVERY sampler does apart from the SPs and a couple of other budget ones. "It's so much better than the 303/404!" - yeah, coz it's not also trying to maintain the same tempo, lolz.

pitch and tempo are two different parameters, sp-202 pitch and sp-202 time are two separate effects

whatever the sampler you used before called whatever algorithm it used to do whatever, pitch and tempo are two separate parameters

now that you say this, i'm guessing you were wrong about those older samplers being able to tweak the BPM in decimal places

any SP can hold any length of sample [within memory limits] and loop it regardless of whether the machine recognizes the BPM or not

you can adjust pitch all day without being able to sequence it properly i guess if you're trying to just beat match shit or throw stuff together with resampling

p.s. there are a lot more budget samplers out there than you think

[Girru]

The SEQUENCERS can have BPM adusted to a decimal point. Nothing amazing in that; it's just dividing something by 60, right? Point is, it's only the SPs really that focussed on the *sample* having a BPM, coz they were aimed at DJs initially.

Timestretch changes the length of a sample while maintaining the pitch.

Pitch *should* be changing the pitch while maintaining the length (like on the 303/404).

What is called commonly refered to as 'pitching a sample' (and is Pitch on the SP202) is actually sample speed - the pitch *and* time are changed relative to eachother, like a record player, and it achieves it by fucking with the sample rate. So it's not an 'effect', as such. The 303 is the first sampler I've ever had 9out of A LOT) that doesn't control that in anyway, due to the afformentioned DJ-focus, so it's gonna be a bit odd. One of the main reasons I just got a 202 again is so I can get my breaks looping nice to whatever I've got already on the 303. The MS1 can do it too, of course, but not with a knob, and with potential 'breaks' in the sweep...and I like knobs.

[zindan]

well now this is just an argument of semantics

so those old MPCs and the SP1200 you can adjust the SEQUENCER with the BPM to decimal points??? that's crazy

i suppose there's a reason they're "professional grade" and still found in recording studios to this day

i like putting out beats in non-whole-number BPMs to fuck with the douchebag beat thief soundcloud rappers it's even better when i put out beats from fucked up cassette decks that have speed drift

[Girru]

so those old MPCs and the SP1200 you can adjust the SEQUENCER with the BPM to decimal points??? that's crazy

i suppose there's a reason they're "professional grade" and still found in recording studios to this day

Well, I dunno if I'd call the MC909, MPC1000 or Octamed on the Amiga professional grade, lolz. I bet even the MPC500 has xx.x bpm. The QY10 is the first time I've had a sequencer that doesn't do it, and those decimal points did matter, often, along with pitching (speeding! LOLZ) a sample, for getting seamless loops and chopped breaks, as obvs drummers are a bit loose naturally. So we'll see how I go. Obvs I'm having to completely overhaul my workflow now, so it's just getting used to it and learning the boundaries of the 303.

It just repeatedly struck me as odd that on the SP vids (and SPVidz, lolz) I saw, everyone was wanking off about the Pitch 'effect' on the 202 compared to the 303/404, when it's actually a completely different kettle of fish and is something that is not an effect on nearly every other sampler but is just a sample parameter.

[SP-USER]

I've owned SP 808's since they were first released..I also had the Roland MS-1 and a 202 before I got the 808 OG and the EX, but no ,I've never put anything on YouTube regarding them,in fact I don't think I've even watched any videos of ppl using them either now I come to think about it so can't really point you in the direction of any .

Ahh man ...what can I say about the MPC X ?

Well,having now tried one out a couple of times all I can tell you is those things are fucking incredible ..it's the absolute best sampler I've ever come across basically in terms of it's workflow and usability-its also completely standalone, most importantly.

Do I need one? ...possibly not,I've enough equipment and samplers already.

Am I getting one ?

Hehe...you can bet your life I am.....another month or two from now and I'll be ready to lay out the dough for it and pull the trigger.

Congrat's on your decision bro, the MPC X is an absolute beast for sure! Not sure how much you intend to pay for it, but sometimes I see them drop in price temporarily to around £1,399 brand new. Still a heck of a lot of cash I know, but here in the UK that still works out around £100-£200 cheaper than it usually sells for. Can't tell you how many times I've gotten to the point of adding it to the cart but chicken-out before paying!

Just cannot bring myself to do it

No worries on the SP-808. I downloaded the manual for the original model from Roland's website and have been going through it. I also found an official Video Owners Manual for it on YouTube that is over two hours long. It's currenly paused at 48:30 so I'm gonna watch the rest at tea time.

I think I understand what you like about it, pretty sure about that even at this point, and what's extra nice about it is it looks as if Roland designed it as a 'Flagship Lo-Fi Beast'. I'm not interested in the vocoder of the EX model and would much rather go for the original model for various reasons.

First reason being it's the original SP-808, and if they release an SP-808MKII, it would be even more of a treasure to own the original. Second, I actually kinda like those Zip drives now that I've looked into them. I'm not sure what's what with the CF drive situation yet, but what I do know is that I would keep the Zip drive on the original generation anyway unless the original firmware can access the CF drive (I'm not interested in putting EX firmware on an original unit). I'm kinda confused there cause I'm not sure whether a 'working' CF card reader would work on just the new firmware or the original firmware as well.

But in case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, yes, I'm absolutely buying an original generation SP-808. The effects on it, if users examine them carefully enough, are even better and more appropriate for Lo-Fi and sound design than the SP-404MKII is. It even has a super-sophisticated and capable 'Touch-Wah', fancy that, and on top of that you've got the ability to run the entire unit at a reduced sample rate, and then there's Vari-Pitch to play with as well.

Nice!

I'm very surprised that Zindan doesn't have one. Zindan, you really need to invest some time in downloading the manual for the original generation SP-808 from Roland's website, and take a look at the two-hour Owners Video uploaded to YouTube. People must be out of their fucking minds paying all that money for an SP-202 when you can get an original generation SP-808 for the same or less - there is no comparison!

That's not anything against the SP-202, it's just reality!

[zindan]

i've heard a lot of bad things about the zip drive shit with the sp808, and i'm sure they can't be easy or cheap to service compared to an sp202, AND there's the whole desk space issue, but when danswift mentioned the variable pitch effect, i checked out the market on ebay and was thinking about it.... but i'm looking for some other gear rn so idk maybe i'll get one eventually if they're still cheap

[TGN]

808 with Compact Flash here and i love this machine. Could praise this sampler to death With CF-Card, there is no "Disk Busy"-Message and the machine is fast as hell. I love how well-thought everything on this sampler is. And how feature-rich it is. Quick sampling? Just hit sampling twice and you are sampling. 808 has chosen a free pad for you. Not satisfied with the sample? Just hit undo. The sample is gone. And redo brings it back again. You can route the efx to individual tracks as insert or via send/return. The variety, the amount and the sound of the efx is great. you can record up to 4 stereotracks and pick selected parts of your recordings direct to sample pads.. With a 2 gb-card there is 4 hours of mono sampling-time in 44.1khz. i love this unit. Hahaha i could go on and on. Maybe i i should do a video for you SP-USER

[zindan]

808 with Compact Flash here and i love this machine. Could praise this sampler to death With CF-Card, there is no "Disk Busy"-Message and the machine is fast as hell. I love how well-thought everything on this sampler is. And how feature-rich it is. Quick sampling? Just hit sampling twice and you are sampling. 808 has chosen a free pad for you. Not satisfied with the sample? Just hit undo. The sample is gone. And redo brings it back again. You can route the efx to individual tracks as insert or via send/return. The variety, the amount and the sound of the efx is great. you can record up to 4 stereotracks and pick selected parts of your recordings direct to sample pads.. With a 2 gb-card there is 4 hours of mono sampling-time in 44.1khz. i love this unit. Hahaha i could go on and on. Maybe i i should do a video for you SP-USER

well this doesn't help anyone who wants one, how do we do the mod and get rid of the zip drive for a CF card?