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songboy
Published on 09/11/08 at 11:54
This unit has 8 Polyphony. It has a 20 bit conversion rate for both A/D and D/A. As for effects is has 26 all together (Delay, reverb, vinyl sim, overdrive, isolation, etc...) and has the ability to resample with the effects (pretty sweet). You have three options of sampling, Normal, Long and Lo-Fi. The standard sampling time is as follows: Norman=31 secs, Long=63 secs and Lo-fi=3 mins. 10secs. With a 64 mb smart media card (max) you get: Normal =33 mins., Long=64 mins. and Lo-fi= 202 mins. As for connections it has RCA stereo in/out, 1/4" mic/line input, midi in, 1/4" headphone jack and of course the Smart Media card slot. You cannot edit this with a computer, but really there is no need to, everything you need is right in front of you. I should also mention that it has a step sequencer built in which is great for programing multiple samples to play in specific patterns.
UTILIZATION
The general setup/config is a little confusing. I definitely needed to read the manual to learn how to do just about everything. They do have little "hints" printed next to some of the labels of the buttons, but they don't always make sense. Again, the editing on this unit is a little tricky, but after reading the manual, you should get the hang of it. Once you get that knowledge, you can pretty much do everything you need to do without having to flip back through the manual. This was one of the best Roland Manuals I have ever used (I have had bad experiences before). I had no trouble figuring out what I needed to know.
SOUNDS
The convertors sound fine. The samples retain almost all of there genuine tone when using the normal sampling rate. You obviously lose a lot of quality as you step down the sampling ladder (Long, Lo-Fi). The effects are good as well. I particularly like the isolation and the filters. They are great for electronica type tones. I am not sure what it means when asked if the dynamics are respected, but I think this unit sounds great and I also have seen some of my favorite bands (Benevento Russo Dou uses the sp202 model, and Lymbyc System uses this model) use this unit live.
OVERALL OPINION
I had this unit for 2 years. The best thing about this unit is the ability to resample as many times as you want with the internal effects. What I didn't like about this unit has to do with the resampling funny enough. You cannot set it up to automatically resample the whole original sample. You have to do it manually which can be difficult if you already set up the tempo just right. I noticed that my resamples would be slightly off sometimes so I would have to delete that resample and try again. Kind of frustrating. Also, smart media cards are hard to find nowadays and can be expensive, so that sucks too. I also have the RC-50 floor pedal sampling unit. They label it a guitar effect but I use this thing for all my instruments. It doesn't have internal effects but it does have way better options in my opinion. You can find these for around $150 on ebay, an overall, thats a great deal for musicians who want sampling capability but can't afford computer based samplers. I would probably buy this unit again if I was on a tight budget, but if I wasn't, a mac laptop will do way more.
UTILIZATION
The general setup/config is a little confusing. I definitely needed to read the manual to learn how to do just about everything. They do have little "hints" printed next to some of the labels of the buttons, but they don't always make sense. Again, the editing on this unit is a little tricky, but after reading the manual, you should get the hang of it. Once you get that knowledge, you can pretty much do everything you need to do without having to flip back through the manual. This was one of the best Roland Manuals I have ever used (I have had bad experiences before). I had no trouble figuring out what I needed to know.
SOUNDS
The convertors sound fine. The samples retain almost all of there genuine tone when using the normal sampling rate. You obviously lose a lot of quality as you step down the sampling ladder (Long, Lo-Fi). The effects are good as well. I particularly like the isolation and the filters. They are great for electronica type tones. I am not sure what it means when asked if the dynamics are respected, but I think this unit sounds great and I also have seen some of my favorite bands (Benevento Russo Dou uses the sp202 model, and Lymbyc System uses this model) use this unit live.
OVERALL OPINION
I had this unit for 2 years. The best thing about this unit is the ability to resample as many times as you want with the internal effects. What I didn't like about this unit has to do with the resampling funny enough. You cannot set it up to automatically resample the whole original sample. You have to do it manually which can be difficult if you already set up the tempo just right. I noticed that my resamples would be slightly off sometimes so I would have to delete that resample and try again. Kind of frustrating. Also, smart media cards are hard to find nowadays and can be expensive, so that sucks too. I also have the RC-50 floor pedal sampling unit. They label it a guitar effect but I use this thing for all my instruments. It doesn't have internal effects but it does have way better options in my opinion. You can find these for around $150 on ebay, an overall, thats a great deal for musicians who want sampling capability but can't afford computer based samplers. I would probably buy this unit again if I was on a tight budget, but if I wasn't, a mac laptop will do way more.