mpc-1000 vs sp-505

I doubt that the 303 would be able to tune samples, while the 505(its bigger, more expensive brother) cant.

see thats what i am trying to figure before i cop the sp303. Does it have true sample tuning like the mpc? If it doesnt than that sucks big time.

I would say no (it doesnt have true sample tuning), becuse the 505, definitely, 100 percent did not.


Would you be copping the 303 as your only piece? If so, then I would either drop a little more dough on a 2000 (you can get them used for like 500-700) or a 1000. If you really arent tryna spend a lot you should look at the zoom sampletrak. I owned one before the 505 and I liked it better. And the Sampletrak has TRUE tuning like an MPC.

thanks -- yeah that sampletrak is nice. But the only thing about it is you cant trigger it from a external sequencer because the samples default to gate mode. I know with the sp303 you can sequence with an external unit.

i cant understand why the 505 and 303 wouldnt have tuning. that is crazy--it doesnt make sense for a sampler not to have that simple feature. thanks

well tuning as we are discussing it also speeds up or slows down the sample. The 303 and 505 adjust the pitch of the sample without changing the speed of the sample, and with timestretch you can adjust the speed without changing the duration. Pretty innovative, but at extremes it could mangle your sound in ways you don't want. Roland is king for real time pitch and time stretching, but it doesn't always sound good to everybody. but if you want those features, Roland is the way to go. Don't let that stop you from trying it, it is a good piece, excellent with an mpc.

thanks for the response. I am curious if it sounds good. If Madlib did that Madvillain record using the 303 alone then that is tight and that is a good look. Cause the beats sound quality is real good. I know it gets taken to the mastering lab after but if the 303 is capable of hottness like that then props. I just hope that pitch thing isnt a big drawback.

It seems like a more logical set up. Pitch and time independantly adjustable, but after so many years of speeding up and slowing down, it is different and may take some getting used to.

Like Decepticon said though, the sound quality may be an issue since it probably just tunes the sample then automatically time stretches it to be the same.

The best thing is that all samples have their BPM displayed, and it is adjustable, so you can match loops like crazy.

i guess it is good for matching low pass filtered loops . But off the bat is the sound quality on the 303 good??

yup.

i agree,it sounds good-I'm glad elmacaco said it would go good with an mpc.Ihave the 1000(love it) and a 303 (in the shop)...i was literally seconds away from selling the 303 when my boy said it would complement the 1000 in a positive way,just gotta learn how to adapt it to my own style and production techniques

The 505 is doo doo. The 606 is even worse... let anyone with a 505 post a really serious beat for me to hear, a 1000 is probably the best deal in music production besides for reason2.5 as far as quality of the product and what it's capable of and how that relates to it's price. I am sure it's not gonna be long before you hear productions done entirely on mpc1000's on major label releases with all the new producers having them... as far as sample editing the 505 does a couple cool things, but the mpc has so many features above it like the sequencer, graphic sample waveform editing, timing correct that gives the legendary mpc feel, not to mention 16 velocity sensitive pads, effects, filters, two midi in's and outs... let me stop because I feel like a commercial.

Back when I did all my beats on a korg ES-1 (which is still a tight machine, though I sold mine when I got low on cash) I picked up a 505. I had seen the 202 and 303 before but the feature set listed for the 505 blew me away. I had never used a sampler with onscreen waveediting, sustain loops or the timestretch-based pitch to keys feature you guys keep going on about.

When I picked it up I kept thinking "dude, this box looks like a toy box" and the construction of the unit was also fairly cheap, when compared to the MPC series or even the ES-1 (though the ES-1 does have cheap knobs you gotta worry about)

The features I liked best about it were the onscreen capabilities which I've matched on every MPC I've bought since (and my s5k) and the map to keys feature, which didn't sound any better than or worse than sped-up/slowed-down tuning as on the MPC/ES-1. The ES-1, as a matter of fact, does real time tuning MPC-style, while the 505 had no realtime tuning. (I don't remember for sure that it didn't have any tuning whatsoever, that seems like a crazy thing to leave out) Neither do MPCs, though.

The keys are laid out basically like an octave or two of a keyboard, and playing chords is very easy with this setup. You also have MANY banks of sounds as opposed to the MPC's 4, but you don't have multiple programs to access as with the MPC1k. You also only have like 10 "pads" instead of the 16 on the MPC. As people have mentioned already, they are not velocity or touch sensitive.

The auto-tempo matching feature, which I thought might replace Acid for me (occasionally I'll work with homebrewed loops and dump them to Acid for quick mixes) but it sucked. As Soundwave-rockin Decepticon said, a couple bpm off and the sounds are trash.

The effects were so-so on the Roland, since it's real cheap and it has a long list of effects. None of them are really good though. One of my main beefs was that you couldn't save effects settings ANYWHERE. Not in sequences, not in bank setups, nothing. This means you have to run them live when recording. You also can not sequence knob tweaks as you could on the electribe series, one of the major selling points for Korg.

Storage to SmartMedia cards, I liked. I was coming from the ES-1 like i say, and had been using SM cards for a while at that point. The 505 did something the ES-1 didn't, though: it uses the SM card as an extension of its physical memory. So while the card is in, it acts as more RAM. Cool. However, there's a major major catch: You CANNOT remove or insert a card while the 505 is powered up. This is **** stupid. It's also why there's a set of thumbscrews holding a faceplate on over the card slot.

The 505 has a decent hit-detection algorithm to assist you in slicing breaks, and will export a sliced break to a new bank, but it usually still requires a good bit of manual tweaking of hit locations.

The 505 also has an excellent system for copying and pasting samples from bank to bank. It was really innovative and I applaud Roland for it.

The 505 also only has a set of RCA jacks and an optical I/O. It cannot sample itself if I remember correctly, as the ES-1 and MPC1k can. I need my 1/4" jacks!

My last beef with the 505 was this: No transfer of samples made on the 505 to computer for backup or editing. On the ES-1 you can extract samples from an .es1 file using a free utility Korg created, and naming samples was a hassle since they had to be numbered 00.wav - 99.wav, but I took care of that with a little utility I wrote. Anyway, the 505 gives you no means of backing up individual samples to computer. Blah.

I did 2 or 3 tracks using the 505 mostly as a manual triggering device for samples I'd chopped on it (vocal hits, etc) to play alongside my ES-1. I also used it to compose a loop-based piece that came out of the 505 beautifully, a series of string loops I grabbed off an old record my uncle recognized when he happened by one day. It synced well with other gear, but it has no method for driving it with MIDI, not even a MIDI in if I remember correctly. This means you can't even trigger it from a better sequencer and must use it as your main clock source. Gross.

So sorry for the long blabber, but for the way I work, the 505 just won't do.

Hope this helps shed some light on things for everybody.

-tank.

it can resample (easily, 2 modes) it has a midi in and out, and it has 16 pads and lots of banks (unlimited I think)

with a 128Mg SM card it has 64 minutes of sampling time. Puts my maxed S6000 to shame.

Imports wav and aiff. I am not sure if you can store the sounds from the SM card onto your computer, as they are in a proprietary format, but a simple USB SM card reader would work if it can.

While on some fronts it can't compete with the MPC, on others it simply slaughters it. I'd rather keep my 60, and I wouldn't recomend it as a stand alone main piece, but for traveling or in addition to an MPC it is pretty damn good. Then Roland has to **** it up with the 606.

Right on.

So I forgot a few things about the sampler, namely the resampling and number of pads. It still can not export wavs for use in a simpler sampler, the card hassle is not worth the time it takes to turn the thing off and on, and processes take a long time to complete. (not as long as MPC2kXL timestretching, I'm sure)

The polyphony is extremely limited (8 notes mono, 4 notes stereo) but I guess that's alright as long as you're not doing any real composition outside rhythm.

The effects blow.

The sequencer allows 4 "parts" which essentially work like tracks on an MPC. Each part can play samples from any bank if I remember correctly, so as long as you only want 4 tracks of muting for live drops, etc, I guess that's alright. I myself like to layer.

The MIDI implementation has received all kinds of complaints from folks, just browse around the net. No midi file import/export either.

I wrote up an extensive review of the piece back when it first came out for a mailing list on yahoo... I don't feel like finding the link right now.

Anyway, I'm not trying to argue, just stating my opinion. Sorry if it comes off that way.

-tank.