Retro samplers (Page 2 of 2)

i don't think it retains the samples.
it works without the disk drive, you can just sample something or use midi sample transfer.
it's the rubber band that was broken btw, shouldn't be too hard to fix?

Aha, well i remember being f**ed when the drive broke, having a live gig. I had to recreate the samples from scratch.
Don't know, it's not that heavy, are you coming by bike?

Okok a little off topic but funny sampler (and hot flute action... hehe)... what about Commodore Sound Sampler ?

Here is my little test !
http://www.deviationsociale.com/synths/?p=9

You can even make four sample in a raw and they're automatically assigned to midi notes... you can plug a MIDI interface in the Commodore Sound Sampler and play !

heh heh.. this thread made me decide to do something with my esi-32 again..i forgot what a pain in the ass hardware samplers can be (including a crashing zip drive when i wanted to save, grrrr..) but in the end i remembered most things again from the old days and it works pretty quickly.. and it does sound nicer than softsamplers, more balls..

Grabbing an sp303 for cheap and love the gearslutz user review...good points, been using solely gear more and don't really want to add samples via live/logic.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/reviews/ … 303-a.html

BOSS Dr. Sample SP-303
In my score above I have tried to look at the BOSS Dr. Sample SP-303 with as fresh (and objective) eyes as possible. What I can't communicate in percentages is just how much I love this machine, and how quickly it has changed my music for the better.

For years I have been making sample-based music in Logic, and while I've truly appreciated many of it's features and finer qualities, a growing feeling of discontentment has taken hold. Somewhere between all the virtual dials and faders and numbers and plugins and parameters and ADSR's and head-scratching and tiny little mouse edits.. I slowly fell out of love with beatmaking almost entirely. It was more out of a sense of duty to myself that I sat down at the computer and tried to record my ideas. While no-one could deny the huge advantages that modern DAW's bestow upon us, for that initial spark of an idea - that moment of inspiration - something has always seemed to be missing for me. I think I've found the solution to my problem.

As with many great things in this world, the SP-303's weaknesses are what define it's strengths. My first sit-down with the 303 could be accurately characterised by the sentence 'oh god, this machine is designed for children and idiots'. What seemed like a baffling lack of modern conveniences almost sent me running back to the computer, but I persevered, and very quickly I saw the error in my judgements. Within the hour I had accidentally made a 90's boom-bap beat, something that I can say has never happened in Logic. Summed stereo output, 4 measly dials, a threadbare selection of pads and an outdated memory-card format doesn't sound like the beginnings of an equipment love-affair, but it's what these limits provoke in you that make this sampler special.

The Casio watch-style display can only produce vague numbers and basic lettering abbreviations, and this is a big part of the 303's magic. With so little to look at, you are left with no choice but to use your ears to make decisions. We have all been made aware at one time or another of the dangers of judging sound with our eyes, but the SP-303 doesn't allow you to make that mistake. It has amazed me how simple and easy it is to edit start/end points and loop samples without the assistance of the waveform. Whereas before I would be glaring at the monitor looking for zero-crossing points, now I just turn a couple of dials and I have a great sounding edit in two shakes of a lambs tail. It seems so simple as to be outright stupid, but it's easy to forget that sometimes having all the options available to you is more of a hinderance than a help.

The SP-303 has a 26-strong built in effects family. Unfortunately it can only be used for one sample at a time (though there are workarounds) but what it lacks in breadth it makes up for in lo-fi madness. Almost without exception the effects are satisfying, bizarre and genuinely usable. They provide a kind of exaggerated, unusual sound that you'd struggle to find on the computer, and while they're certainly not suited to all applications, the variety of effects makes messing around with sounds and being creative incredibly rewarding.

Though I've only touched upon a few of my favourite aspects of the 303, I hope I've said enough to help anyone thinking of hunting one down one eBay or Craigslist. If I can think of a single thing that defines the SP-303's function for me in my bedroom studio, it's that if feels; not just like a production centre, or an audio editor, or an effects processor - but truly a sampling instrument. This is the first machine I've used that I could say this for. The perspective that such a simple box can give you on your music is invaluable. All the human error, the mistakes and accidents remain intact. And it's in this human quality, this vague and imprecise grey area that all the best ideas, in one way or another, seem to spring from.