From SP1200 to MPC60 to SP303...

[Danswift]

^^^
The mod is simple.

Zip Drive has a 40 pin header.Disconnect the drive and insert the compatible CF reader in its place and you're done .

[SP-USER]

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

You're dwelling far too much on the drive. Admittedly that comment is fresh coming from me, but the only thing that put me off the drive thing before is because I thought that Zip was an optical format, and I never could stand optical media for storage of data - I absolutely despise it.

Thankfully, it's good old nostalgia-filled magnetic technology, Zip is nothing more than a large-capacity floppy disk, and you know what? I was watching that Video Manual yesterday, and towards the end of it, the most ridiculous smile crept across my face, and do you know why bro?

He mentioned that although you can attach a second drive to the rear, you can in fact make back-up copies of your Zip disks directly on the SP-808 without needing a computer and without even needing a second drive. What he said after that reminded me of using X-Copy on the Amiga, cause what it does is take the disk you want to back up, copy a whole chunk of it into memory and then asks you to swap the disk for the disk you want to back-up to. It then writes what is in memory to the new disk and then asks you to reinsert the original so that it can copy the next chunk of data, and so on and so on.

Could be just me, but man, I just love that, I love that soooooooo fucking much, it reminds me so much of the good times using X-Copy on the Amiga, and personallly I freaking love floppy disk!

So personally, I cannot wait to get my hands on an original generation unit, one with an original drive in place. The fact that I can make back-ups directly on the SP-808 means I have zero worries about a disk or the drive failing. Those Zip drives sold in multiple millions, and since Iomega were responsible for producing almost every one of those drives, what this means is that you're never going to be in a position where you're unable to find a replacement drive mechanism or a replacement disk. It's just a standard 100MB internal Zip drive designed for OEM as far as I can tell.

Would I replace the Zip drive with a CF or SD card drive? Yes of course I would, but even then I would be sure to keep the original drive in a safe place since it is part of the original machine.

I get why people worry about mechanical failure on drives, but at the end of the day, failure is true of all storage media, and the ironic thing is, it's generally easier to recover mechanical media than it is to recover a failed or corrupted digital drive or memory card, and like I said, the SP-808 even has its own on-board Amiga-style disk back-up system that can all be done using the built-in drive, no computer or extra drive needed.

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

I'd love to see you do a video bro, especially as you're so enthusiastic about the SP-808. You were damn lucky to get that thing with a working CF card reader, btw!

Regards doing a video, I think you should do something that entices people to buy one. I've not really come across a video yet that enthuses about it as much as I think they should, so it would definitely be cool to see that if you want to make one! Much as I appreciate the thought, don't go doing it just for me though, I certainly don't need any convincing. Put it this way, I no longer have any interest in purchasing an SP-404MKII after reading the manual for the SP-808.

I love everything about it, even the Zip drive

For once I'm prepared to accept people calling me an idiot. I missed out on the SP-808 all this time, not even bothering to look into it thinking it depended on an optical drive, and it turns out that the drive is in fact magnetic, my favourite type of media!

Cassette, Floppy Disk, Zip etc, all magnetic and therefore all fine with me, I'm old-school like that. That said, I would of course rip the fucking arms off' the first person to offer me a working CF or SD card reader for 50-100 Pounds or Dollars or whatever!

[SP-USER]

Ah man, tell me it's a nightmare, please tell me it's just a nightmare!

It just dawned upon me that since the SP-808 was from the same line of DJ-based stuff as the 404, it probably has the same whacky limitation of not being able to adjust the pitch of a sample in the same way a normal sampler would.

Now don't get me wrong, I know it can change pitch, and I suppose Vari-Pitch can be used to achieve the same thing, but am I right in thinking that other than the Vari-Pitch, it is the same situation as with the original 404?

If you make that video, TGN, please cover the various ways you can change the pitch of a sample. I'm still buying one even if I have to sample Vari-Pitch to do it, after all, it makes no difference what the function is called as long as it does the same thing, but I'm still very curious about that.

[Girru]

Guess what I just bought? LOLOLOLOLOLOLZ. Anyone in the market for a 202, 303, Yamaha QY10, microKorg or FMR RNC? LOLZ. My set up will now be just an SP808EX and VS880EX. LOVELY. I wish I'd remembered to reconsider the 808 before going all in with the 303 and then 202 malarky. GREAT sounding samplers, of course, but the workflow woulda been way too hard for my style - I like a challenge and old school ways of working but...nah. I'll take a chance on zip/finding a cf drive.

[Danswift]

^^^

Nice ..

Sure you'll dig it dude .

One word of advice ..don't hammer those smaller pads by finger drumming ,the Zip Drive which is located underneath will be fucked as well as the pads ...this isn't an MPC or even like the other SP's.

Just a heads up ..get it hooked up to a Midi Mother keyboard if you want to thrash that kind of shizzle out of the machine.

[Girru]

One word of advice ..don't hammer those smaller pads by finger drumming ,the Zip Drive which is located underneath will be fucked as well as the pads ...this isn't an MPC or even like the other SP's.

Cheers! I don't drum much, so will be alreet there, reckon. Also, gonna replace the zip asap, lolz.

[SP-USER]

Considering the prices they're charging for 202s and 303s it makes me wonder why the fuck you paid that instead of just getting an 808 in the first place!

Anyway, it's just as well you bought an 808 when you did cause I don't know what the fuck just happened, but I'm suddenly seeing the black one going for over £500, over £600 and one even over £900. They've got a red heart-shaped sticker on them but I don't see what that has to do with anything and I certainly won't be paying that for one - they can keep the red sticker!

Also, I went on a rage-read of the manual after posting my previous post and it looks as if things aren't quite what I thought they were.

As far as I can tell, the Vari-Pitch slows-down and speeds-up the whole machine. It's desirable to have that but it does mean that if you want to sample that as performance or whatever, you're out of luck because the entire machine follows the same speed and therefore you cannot separate playback from recording - at least that's what I gather from the manual.

The good news is that the SP-808 has a proper send-return path and that means you could permanently rig-up a cassette deck to it and bounce the Vari-Pitch from that into the return if you wanted to sample it.

It also does not (as far as I can tell) allow you to pitch a sample in the same way a normal sampler would. The good news though is that it's not the same situation as with the 404. On the 404 you were forced to use pitch-shifting using a live effect, and the pitch shifting was absolute crap as a result.

On the SP-808 it looks as if you also need to pitch-shift a sample, but on the SP-808 it's a much more refined way of doing it since it doesn't use a live effect. You get a bunch of settings including five different algorithms to choose from. So not bad I suppose, as long as it's acceptable quality and it probably is since it's not a live effect and instead takes its time to process it for better quality.

Guess what I just bought? LOLOLOLOLOLOLZ. Anyone in the market for a 202, 303, Yamaha QY10, microKorg or FMR RNC? LOLZ.

Looks like you broke even my record for the shortest ever gear romance

[zindan]

Guess what I just bought? LOLOLOLOLOLOLZ. Anyone in the market for a 202, 303, Yamaha QY10, microKorg or FMR RNC? LOLZ. My set up will now be just an SP808EX and VS880EX. LOVELY. I wish I'd remembered to reconsider the 808 before going all in with the 303 and then 202 malarky. GREAT sounding samplers, of course, but the workflow woulda been way too hard for my style - I like a challenge and old school ways of working but...nah. I'll take a chance on zip/finding a cf drive.

i'll take the microkorg off your hands for a steep discount

[zindan]

p.s. like i said before which no one chose to acknowledge, SERVICING an sp808 is probably an insurmountable task for anyone other than professional technicians who (if you can even find one in your area) will most likely charge a HEFTY price (much more than you paid for the unit in the first place if it's more than just a bad pot, trust me)

the more moving parts, the more ways something can go awry

this is one of the greatest advantages of the budget SP samplers, simple components, easy to service, and the 404s are built like tanks (that and the unparalleled FX, scrumptious A/D conversion, MAXIMUM PORTABILITY AND CONSERVATION OF DESK SPACE REAL ESTATE!!! etc.)

also, personally, my creativity just thrives the most when faced with limitations

we need to first be limited in order to become limitless <3

[zindan]

idk if this is your cup of tea girru but here's an example of something i made on the SP404SX just dicking around (before my OCD ruined my life and i started taking everything as serious as a life or death situation)
https://soundcloud.com/zendanisdead/blu-r00m-fx-rape

or something more refined
https://soundcloud.com/beatusertapes/fuckfuck
my most popular song i think? made with 100% vinyl samples 404SX only (with some post processing from street lo-fighter's SP202 and bounced off tape, just pitch effect from the 202)

my impression from this thread though is that you're probably more into a different style of music, what's your thing?

[Danswift]

@ Girru
Don't be in too much of a haste to part with that 303 man...you could use that with the 808 for some killer stuff ..it's a very dope combination,trust me!

@ SP User
Those prices you quoted are outrageous bro .
There's one going for sale at £191 plus others at less than £300.

@ Zendan
Anything can be fixed more or less.. especially samplers.
You just have to know where to ask.
There's always an electronics boffin somewhere that can do this stuff ,I know 4 or 5 of those dudes here in the UK who service samplers,drum machines,synths,mixers etc on the regular.

I know a couple of BeatMakers over the pond where you are ..Austin TX to be precise. .
I know they get gear serviced out there ..
I can always hook you up with them if necessary.

[zindan]

@danswift i'm in dallas so that's definitely no problem for me, several authorized boss/roland service centers out here

but with a 404 i'd never hesitate to open it up and fix it myself. with an sp-808, you couldn't pay me to even open that thing up, and it still holds true that the more complex the gear, the higher the service costs no matter what

[SP-USER]

Those prices you quoted are outrageous bro .
There's one going for sale at £191 plus others at less than £300.

Lol, damn right they're outrageous!

Can't see the £191 one you mentioned so I guess someone already took a look after seeing your post and bought it. When I saw those ridiculous prices I thought maybe a readily available CF drive had just been discovered, and let's face it, since the only reason they've been going cheap is due to it using a Zip drive, you can bet that when a drive finally does become available, the price of the SP-808 will go through the roof, you could even be looking at well over a grand for a nice one.

BTW, since there are so many SP-808 in Japan, I decided to check the spec of the power supply since it's a built-in one. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's multi-voltage, so it doesn't matter what country you purchase one from, it'll auto-switch to the correct voltage.

with a 404 i'd never hesitate to open it up and fix it myself. with an sp-808, you couldn't pay me to even open that thing up, and it still holds true that the more complex the gear, the higher the service costs no matter what

Would is surprise you to learn that fixing an SP-808 is going to be no harder than fixing an SP-404? For example, your 404 has four pots while an 808 has thirteen pots and an encoder. Faders are just pots, they're no harder to replace than a rotary pot, in fact they're often easier due to their size. Encoders are equally easy to replace. Pads are pads, and whether it's a 404 or an 808, they all depend on one very simple ingredient to function, that being connection!

The instances where you'd not be able to repair an 808 are exactly the same as they would be for a 404. If the main processor failed for example, you're fucked, but the likelyhood of that happening is very slim since the processor is the most carefully manufactured and stress-tested part of the whole system, it has to be because it's soldered to the main-board and it would cost the company millions in losses if that aspect of the system were not designed right. When processors fail it is usually down to feeding them too much voltage. A processor will live longer than any of us as long as it's not subjected to abuse or ESD, like for example I saw some guy on YouTube "refurbishing" a Zip drive by dusting-off the electronics inside it with a fucking paint-brush!

What he doesn't realise is that even if the ESD that was generated by his paintbrush didn't damage the drive immediately, he has almost certainly effected its lifespan. Seriously, it was cringe-worthy to watch, sat there without a care in the world he was, brushing-away like he's painting a fucking wall, thinking he was somehow doing the drive a favour.

DO NOT DO THIS TO ANY ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_hBScLzY6I

The drive was much healthier before he got his hands on it, trust me. He should have been grounded with an ESD strap and should have used a proper ESD brush to do that. So be careful about what you see people do on YouTube, because while they likely have good intentions and mean well, there are some seriously deluded people out there. I even remember one guy who runs a so-called "Audiophile" channel who was suggesting that people should oil their audio cassettes if they squeak - I mean Holy Fuckeroni.

And this guy was running an "Audiophile" channel if I recall

[Jaytreaze]

considering the size of the 808 vs 404 i think myself and other more amateur people in the area of repairs and shit would be a bit more confident with taking a 404 apart haha

[zindan]

Would is surprise you to learn that fixing an SP-808 is going to be no harder than fixing an SP-404? For example, your 404 has four pots while an 808 has thirteen pots and an encoder. Faders are just pots, they're no harder to replace than a rotary pot, in fact they're often easier due to their size. Encoders are equally easy to replace. Pads are pads, and whether it's a 404 or an 808, they all depend on one very simple ingredient to function, that being connection!

you're not taking into consideration the time required to disassemble and reassemble the unit to reach the part you're trying to repair is significantly increased with a larger more complex unit, on top of the fact that the more steps there are in disassembly/reassembly the more chances there are for you to damage a vital component