The Boss SP 505... and now I just got one!
Jesus where to start, well, it's so new to me I'm still figuring shit out. I'm basically comparing it to our current sampler, the electribe ES-1. Here are the huge pro's, for me at least: NON-global delay (unlike Mr.ES-1), graphical waveform editing on a huge gameboy-like display, it does real loops (unlike ES-1)um...well let me talk about the cons b/c this is what SUCKs:
RCA analog in/out's (minor pain), no MIDI thru (kind of fucks up the MIDI chain in our live setup, have to use the thru box, yay), um, and it doens't have a dedicated mute/solo button for individual samples. I guess I'm looking at this from a live-useage perspective so that may not be a big deal to other people.
It does have a 4-part sequencer controlled by 4 buttons that could serve as mutes...but I dunno. Everything feels a bit out of my immediate control at the moment...too many screens and things to push. Prob. just cuz it's new to me. But no dedicated mute for each part? C'mon, I must be missing something (I hope).
One MAJOR SUCKY THING: The pads, while they are big, aren't EVEN as responsive as say, a typical mid-80's drum machine! Like, you try doing some two-finger snare rolls and you'll see- it will miss notes!!! I can get 1/32 notes w/ one finger but I can hardly get 1/16ths with 2 fingers! Again, maybe that doens't matter to most ppl but for me, it's kinda critical. The control over the quantize is great tho- and w/out any quantize it records at 1/96 resolution. Yes, we can now break out of 16 steps and actaully make some beats!
Basically I think it's better than the ES-1, but I'm keeping the fucking receipt till I'm convinced I could actually make it work as well as the ES-1...
Anybody else messed w/ one of these? $495 new...
Boss Spec's
Compact sampling workstation with onboard sequencing and effects 8 voices of CD-quality sampling, expandable up to 128MB via SmartMedia* Chop function divides loops and maps individual samples to pads Pitch function for playing back samples at new pitches as on a keyboard BPM Sync function instantly matches up to 16 phrases to the same tempo 64 onboard Tones with drums, bass, keyboard, synth sounds and more 4-part Pattern Sequencer with Quantize for easy song creation Intuitive graphic LCD (with waveform display) and three knobs 26 effects like Tape Echo, Isolator and Vinyl Simulator with resampling and realtime control Imports .WAV/AIFF files via SmartMedia*; Coaxial/Optical Digital inputs SmartMedia adapter or PCI adapter card required for .WAV/AIFF conversion.
Options Include:
S16M-3 SmartMedia? Card SM-32 SmartMedia? Card DR-10/DR-20 Dynamic Mics FS-5U Footswitch DP-2 Damper Pedal
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