All user reviews of 4/5 for the Boss SP-505 Groove Sampling Workstation

8 notes polyphony limit may seem insufficient, but the quality is to go in terms of effects, sometimes quite as original Isolator-Limiter Compressor kind of three bands - or lo-fi filter. The prsence numrique between a SPDIF RCA is a blessing, and the use of SmartMedia cards for storing samples s'avre flexible, and low onreuse. In practice, the step edition of which only the custom settings are limits, however: volume and truncate. Just over 5 minutes sampling bits/22 16 khz standard is a bit short but sufficient for beginners.

UTILIZATION

A manual in French trs clear, flawless ergonomics make the handling is very simple: Just a half-day master the thing without resorting to the manual, which lve the last doubts it rfrant 2 or 3 times. A model of its kind.

SOUNDS

Can be a bit "just" who is used to large samplers, the quality of sound is surprising, however, for such a small and lightweight machine, but is sufficient to use "live ".

OVERALL OPINION

A report qualitprix difficult surpass one aspect "Mattel toy" misleading, ergonomics which means that the fingers were flying on the machine after 2 hours, a light weight, this is its main quality . Among its default, some slow shipping, a time-stretch quite violent (but normal for this price), a little too much plastic that casts doubt on the solidity of the thing. Nanmoins rflechi a choice on my part, does not do much unless MPC is much cheaper, lighter, more direct, easier. I use or have used the Akai S1000, S3000, CD3000 and Emu 5000 Ultra, but I found it best-in SD 140 RSF of my beginners ...

Notice updated on 19-08-04, after 2 years of use ... happy

- Polyphony 8 sounds acceptable given the price.
- 26 effects, not all so terrible, but useful ... Ability to resample a sample after applying the effect (good), but the knobs did not send sysex, not possible to sequence the movement of a pattern of effects (not good). Note, we can apply an effect at once.
- Memory: 16 MB SmartMedia one comes with the beast. Having transferred all the useless presets, you can unleash your desire for sampling ... As for internal memory, it is not huge but enough for the grip.
- Connectik: MIDI in / out (no thru, it's bullshit ...), RCA in + out, mic in, headphone output 6.3, optical input (not bad, but still a little gadget ...), switch to adapt a BOSS pedal to trigger the samples at the base.

UTILIZATION

Handling extremely easy. With the manual, you can begin to attack his first patterns with emotion and gratitude, after an hour or two of exploration ... The recording pattern offers RealTime with correct rhythm (adjustable, let me explain: you can adjust if it will correct the location of the sound of a quarter note, an eighth, a sixteenth .. . or a half, eh, if you want, then you are going to drool) ... resulting in the beats always snugly, and the ease and intuitiveness of the recording RealTime.
Editing sounds is easy too, the visualization of the waveform is really useful. on the other hand, always try to sample a good noise level, because you can always increase the level of a sample after, but the quality suffers. Otherwise, loop to work, the SP-505 is very intuitive and practical.
When the manual to him, is well done and quite clear ... Except for the chapter in the MIDI implementation, which was a bit sloppy (at least that's the impression I get from ...)

SOUNDS

Well, bin it will not dwell on the few preset sounds, four banks of 16 sounds from the glorious past of Roland TR sounds mainly for three largest banks, organized in styles: Hip-hop, Break, Techno. The fourth bank is itself dedicated to 16 samples of instruments, history of having a small base of sounds in instrumentals pitcher to do a few tunes at the beginning, when you have nothing else ...
Otherwise: for effects, cf. characteristics. Too bad that does not, however, a real edition of the samples, such as management of the attack would be nice ... The samples have against by several settings such as looping or upside down, the play mode (gate, drum ...)

OVERALL OPINION

I use the thing for two years now.
I just add a big sister, my sweet RM1x that the MIDI driver to this and this, without major difficulty (well, it remains to be knowledgeable at least, at first I gallery but I think it it must be valid for any beginner, and with any machine of course ...)
At the time of purchase, I did not know much about groove boxes, but I knew I wanted to make a sampler, so I hesitated between the Sp-505, Electribe S and I had tried in parallel. .. Oh my bin Foy, I am not disappointed and I would do this choice: the Boss is certainly more expensive, but is simply better than the Korg at the intuitiveness, ease of use, and characteristics (the Korg is less attractive side inputs, the sound processing is less developed, especially the Korg effects are really fake .... well, it's just my opinion, but I am not alone in thinking that the effects of Electribe)
The value is a bit high, we must admit that the Sp-505 is a bit expensive ... But bargain prices begin to fall, watch out ...
In any case you will not mine! I, I keep ... I'm not ready to sell it! It's really a good little machine, and I think even with a barge home studio at home, there's way to keep it, even if only to take it everywhere with you, and tinkering in his loops his corner ... It's great.
I see this machine as well small sampler of phrases that would bring a little more electro in a group of such high-bass-drums-vocals ... The singer can play with, throw a few loops and samples from time to time, and even run some patterns and apply the effects of Sp-505 to an external source, such as its micro ...
In this use, this machine excels! It's a big Kaoss Pad!

No utility pc edition, no USB

memory "unlimited" 128 mega card

UTILIZATION

We must send a program change to change the bank when the onset of a keyboard or drum module Maitree elec

edition sounds a little galley Since the machine works in 16 bits and bcp people working in 24-bit (c is to say all banks sounds that I use). c is to say if you want to load a memory card of 24-bit samples it will all turn into 16-bit ... too boring)

sufficient manual except that twelve o'clock No part explained well enough by the bank select an external module (I remember quite a pain)

SOUNDS

RCA inputs .. no top
converters pretty bad (not tried the optical input)

it is best to save his card, his work before her, and send it directly to the storage card (there is a history of root folder is a Tangle little brushes on the placement of sound files in the banks, and more is the problem of 16-bit format, which requires samples to convert its 16 bit .. I hate), and if I may reintroduce fermettre the card in the SP505 preloaded with these banks

some cool effects for live, including voicetransformer.
distortion overdrive reverb ugly

OVERALL OPINION

What I did not like: lack of separate outputs, so you forget the external effects or EQ on certain tracks, or record multiple tracks outside.

liked: very easy to make simple lines of drums according BAR (if you took the time to load the beast with samples in the correct format) you understand that I am lazy

I find not well in sampler triggered by an external module, because not practical, but fun in "standalone if I may say," used as a standalone mpc (except no separate outputs, no velocity on the pads, which leaves its average quality because the converters, and quality effects). a quality monitoring system using avere s ca.

Noon, rca, jack ...

UTILIZATION

Assé use simple after reading the manual, but a sampler c ki a lot of time in preparation of echentillons, ie not suitable for sampling live, privileging the SP404

SOUNDS

The converter has a tendency to jerk the sample when bcp that lon down their tempo, and personal effects for the party ga kaosspad ass because the sampler is a complete Assé is about the award but deffet live is very hard, so I recommend to resample lechantillon ac leffet assigned above and no problem, but its limit for the live bcp or purchase of my kaosspad. But I assume I'm that is a common problem is bcp pure samplers.

OVERALL OPINION

I possess 3 years, jadore cutting the sample is very accurate in automatic mode (eg set the tempo and the number of measurement and it does everything else) of the cutting stroke is perfect. And the fact kil displays the sound spectrum is a very good point for the cutting, unlike the SP404 or there is no visually on the display and the precise cutting the cost becomes very difficult. Weakness: At the last measurement the samples are cut clean and when there is a delay on this one brutal example Larret tends Loreille shocking, but good ac a little work progra This can be overcome by recording the end of the sample (ex: echo ...) on the first beat following. And major weakness: they can only register on 4 share for every song, even if we may put several on a sample unit for the live one soon reaches the limit of hand. Me I absolutely want to keep it level as it is great value for money, but g in the draft to fill a akai mpc ac 2500SE. Conclusion: very good to try their hand at sampling

Pretty good sampler in CAR, with soft pads in use (nice enough to play)
If I remember correctly SD memory card.
Effects of fairly good quality and I have chosen the most tape delay that sounded pretty good for a dub / reggae.

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use, I read the first 4 pages and all inclusive.
In fact it was my brother who used it more than I play the sample with a small group of friends, knowing that he does know almost nothing about machinery and some explanations he was doing pretty well.

SOUNDS

Effects effective, good potatoes, sampling acceptable quality.

OVERALL OPINION

Used for 1 year and a half.

Personally I would take the SP808 which is more powerful, but to use the stage to play some samples is more than enough.

Possibility of playing 8 samples at the same time, the sequencer is simple and effective. the number of items is more than sufficient and allows tweaking sounds in all directions. Most impressive is the time stretching that occurs in real time.

UTILIZATION

Easy to use, clear manual, the only problem is the accessibility of certain functions which for me does not make a standalone device.

SOUNDS

Good sound quality far above the sampler electribe

OVERALL OPINION

Well suited for use in real time, it does not seem to me that it could be interesting as standalone module

(Originally written by henridelavillle/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
The card's memory can be extended to 128 MB. I have 64 MB and the things you can sample are already huge... Sampling is very easy, much easier than with a computer: just press the button and that's it... When I'm listening to the radio I just sample whenever something nice comes on (with jazz it's easier because you can sample everything)... I created a beat yesterday and it sounds great.

- The converters sound great, professional and dynamic!

- Typical connections: jack mic input, RCA line input, Midi input and output...

- No PC software and that's a good thing, I'm fed up with computer screens. I'm a musician who risked his life in L.A.. not a computer scientist.

- The effects are a turnoff because you can only assign one effect to each pad... It's not much unless you resample, which is very easy.

- The polyphony is not enough to use it as a classic sequencer

UTILIZATION

- Very simple and clear setup.

- Ultra easy editing however you cannot pitch a sound directly like in Fruity and I miss that option. It's not possible to pitch a sound with only one control.

- Typical, super simple Boss user's manual. This manufacturer is great.

SOUNDS

- The effect sounds very good.

- Sound and dynamic range are EXCELLENT. I prefer a million times this sound to Fruity's sound with my M-audio Firewire sound card. Fruity doesn't provide this dynamic range.

OVERALL OPINION

- I've been using it for one month

The least:

OS is very slow

Memory card is too small (now you get 1 GB)

The sequencer doesn't allow external synth sequencing

Best:

Sound quality (better than Fruity or Cubase)

Sampling is extremely easy (one button and that's it)

Each track has an adjustable quantization function (typical Boss), which can be deactivated.

Typical Boss groove...

I might buy the SP555, which seems great because you can sample on the fly in the middle of a song (impossible with the 505).

Many Features,Plenty of effects, sampling from optical, coaxial, mic, and SPDIF. Plenty of sample time on the smart media card, although almost none in onboard memory. One thing i don't like is theres only 8 polyphony

Price paid

$300

UTILIZATION

Its Pretty easy to use, as it only took about 2 or 3 days of not even looking at the manual to figure it out. If you have ever used any sampler/sequencer you should be able to figure this out.

I've dropped mine on concrete with no flaws, except a few scratches, so i'd say pretty durable.

SOUNDS

Good quality all together, but as i get better at produciong its starting to get limiting. I'd always go for an MPC1000 or even a 3000 or 60 although they are older. Theres only 8 polyphony, which gets annoying when you go for more complex beats. Theres only 16 internal banks, which i filled up with all of my drum sounds, and if you add the 128 MB smart media card it add another 16 banks.

OVERALL OPINION

Good for beginers but like i said nuthing like an MPC1000, 2000, 2000XL, 4000. And if you want that vintage sound i'd always go with an MPC3000, or 60.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: MMProductions ( 9-, 2005)

The best thing about the sp-505 are the effects, with more than 20 effects including: delay, wah, pitch shift, voice transformer,equaliser and my alltime favorite the isolator its makes thin sound fat and fat sounds thin. The sequencing on the SP-505 is pretty limited, you sequence samples in patterns on 4 channels and sequence those to make a song. I don't use the song mode myself. I just make the whole track in one pattern and let it play in a loop and mute the 4 channel parts. There is a 8 voice polyphony with mono samples and 4 voices with stereo samples. It has a 4 mb internal memory and a smart media card slot to save sounds and sequenceses on. It has only a 2 stereo jack output.

Price paid

750 euro

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use. I was building tracks on the SP-505 the same day I got it.

I've got it for 3 years now, never it has let me down, it never crashed. The 16 pads and buttons are solid, the knobs are well made.

SOUNDS

Good sound quality, 44.1 kHz sampling (mono or stereo). Good sounding effects.

OVERALL OPINION

It's a nice mashine if you want to create right away it's easy to use. But if you want to sequence more than 4 channels. You should get an MPC.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: alphawolf (January 0-, 2005)