mpc-1000 vs sp-505

<sigh> ok...a friend of mine has the boss sp-505, and tonite, i went over to her (yeah, she's a girl that makes beats, she's fire too!!!!) apartment and she was making a beat using the 505...and she has some features that i dont have on my mpc-1000 like sample reverse, time stretching and direct outs for her tracks ....man, things just looked and sounded so much better and she made her beat so much faster....i guess i had gear envy...for instance,anyway, i was just wondering if anyone else has ran across this piece of gear and your thought...dont get me wrong, i wont give up on my 1000, but ....and she said she paid 500 bucks for it brand new too...tt was cool as hell to turn on some echo, sample myself saying something crazy into a mic, and press the chop button to create an instant vocal drum kit...man, that chop button...anyways, i might cop this though...anyone else?

It's tight as hell. A good boost to the 303's features fo sho.

THe 606 is still gabbage.

i know that all businesses are in the business to BE in business (i.e; make money), but damn, dont you think, as i do, that akai should've, could've made alot of the features that a supposedly inferior produce such as the 505 has, basic features of the mpc-1000? i'm not hating, and i'm not mad, but.....man....i dont know.....this whole thing is a travesty, and a sham,and a mockery...it's a trveshamockery!!!!!!!
i'm thinking i should've just copped a asr-x pro and an akai z-4....

I made a whole post a while back listing all the things I hate about the 505. Its got a lot of cool features, and it's cheap, but as a standalone unit its worthless (at least to me).

Key drawbacks:

1. Only 4 track sequencer
2. Only RCA outputs, and they're noisy as hell.
3. 8 note polyphony (4 stereo)
4. Effects are not MIDI syncable, making any kind of delay of sweeping filter unusable music-wise
5. No mute groups. In other words, you cant cut off the sound of one pad by triggering another. (Needed for open Hi Hats)
6. Pads not velocity sensitive.

And the biggest flaw with the 505 is the fact that there is no type of pitch adjustment, period. The only thing it has is its USELESS timestretch. The timestretch is so horrible that even a 2-3 bpm adjustment to a sample makes it unuseable. Basically, using loops is out of the question for the most part, unless you edit their tempos on something other than the 505 first.


Honestly, its a toy. I'm not even exaggerating. Its a cool toy, but a toy nonetheless. Im not talking out of my ass either; I owned one for two years.

The only way I could see the 505 being useful is as a scratchpad, or if you are just using drumhits and other one shot samples that dont need their pitch adjusted.

Sorry to post this long ass negative reply, but I feel, as a previous 505 owner, that I need to spread the word about its huge drawbacks...

the sp 303 has pitch shift (realtime) and you can do an 8 levels IIRC. I'd be surprised if the sp 505 didn't have this. Arent the keys laid out like a keyboard? What for if no pitch control?

Nope. Nada.

Its pads are layed out like a keyboard because it has a fake *ss 16 levels-type feature, where it will timestretch the sample across one octave. It sounds horrible though, cause its timestretch and not real pitch adjustment/tuning.

I hope you mean pitch shift.....

Timestretch = Changing the sample length without altering its pitch (which the 505 sucks horribly at doing)

Im talking about the opposite(?) of this; changing pitch without altering length. That is what the 505 does, whereas on a "real" sampler it will tune the samples pitch withought any regards to its length.

I dont know if i'm explaining myself very clearly... Typing sucks.

yeah, that's what I thought, so it does pitch them across the pads, but it doesn't speed them up or slow them down.

I get it now. I've seen crazy things done with a SP 303, whole banging hip hop tracks and experimental stuff. I hear you on the limitations, but it seems to be a different kind of sampler, which is why it sucks when they try to make it look like an MPC with the 606.

dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....so, you're saying that the sp-303 is better than the 505? i know that madlib says he uses the 303 exclusively sometimes, like on madvillian...but...wow.....hmm...and i'm digging the hell out of madvillian by the way "curls" and "fancy clown" all day.....but, as we all know, it's not what you got, it's how you use it....my homegirl found a formula that works for her, madlib has one that works for him...now i have to find one that works for me....your replies are much appreciated folk....fo sho.....

no, I think the 505 adds features. My friend had a 303 and was killin' it.

you believe madlib on his statement though? i mean, i know he has a whole studio of things to get his ideas out, but he states that he makes all of his tracks on the sp-303 and dumps them into a korg 1600...amazing

I believe him. Why Would he lie? That's all he brought with him to brazil and a lot of it was done there.

wait a minute-- I have been trying to figure this out. Does the SP303 have pitch adjustment for individual samples?? I aint talking timestretch--
For instance can i have a kick on one pad a snare on another pad and be able to pitch/tune the kick up or down? and also have a different pitch setting for the snare???? Someone said that pitch is considered an effect on the 303??? is that true?>?? thanks

I dont know about the 303, but one of the 505s effects was a "pitch shifter" or something, but it used timestretching, so it wasnt true tuning like on a MPC. It sounded very bad.