Madlib talks about the sp303 in scratch magazine

in case any madlib heads is interested:

"I first discovered the 303 a few years ago, a few months before I went to Brazil for the Red Bull Music Academy. I get bored with just one machine. The 303 turned out to be one of my favorites. I liked the way it looked; I like the feel it had. With the MPC, I can't feel the pads. They're hard. It's like your not hitting shit, theres no response. On the 303 you feel the pads-it lights up when you hit it. And all the effects...That's what got me, really. You buy one machine, it's all on there: wah-wah's, tremelos, filters, pitch shifters, a time stretcher. I figured out how to use the time stretching really quick. It's not the best, but it's good enough for me. But there's too much clicking and pops. Like a scratchy record, but digital. That's something they need fix on it. The quality of the sound is rugged. The 303 makes samples [sound] dirtier. The first beats I made with the 303 ended up as part of the [beat CD series] that started with 100 Beats. My beats on the Jaylib came from those cd's. So did the beats for Madvillain, Dudley Perkins, the DJ Rels album, The Wildchild album. People think i'm using the SP, but basically it's all about the records you use.
"I brought the 303 to Sao Paulo, and I didn't even have a cd burner with me. So I dumped the beats I made to the little cassestte box that was in the hotel. The samples were already **** up from a portable turntable. That's how I been doing it though. It's working with whatever you have. As long as it records and you get your idea down, it's cool. You record on whatever you have. I'm gonna always keep the 303 formula...."-madlib

I have an SP303 and have recently purchased an MPC1000, but I don't think I'll get rid of my 303 just yet. Forget it's internal sequencer - don't ever go there. The most use I have got out of my 303 is the efx. All the classic efx + more. 24 all up if I remember correct (I'm not at home). Big pain is the lack of space in which to store samples. Only 2 banks of 8 pads in which to store samples onto smartmedia cards, and same with internal memory - not much room at all. TIME STRETCH IS FUCT! But for price range is a great starting sampler to cut your teeth on. Provided me with plenty of entertainment and creative inspiration.

MPC1000 can't even be compared because it just does infinitely more stuff with infinitely more space. My SP303 is now being used as an aux efx send on my desk, it's cool for that.

Yo Concertmate, can the 303 tune samples like an MPC, or does it only have that wack timestretch? We were havin a discussion on that in the MPC1000 forum a while back, and we were all curious...

Yeah ive had the sp505 for a while it's ghetto but u can do all the same things as an MP but in a more primitive way.

At the end of the day buying an mpc aint gonna make u better so i ain planning on getting a new sampler anytime soon the only thing i would get is the new korg ESX-1 but they need to give me a wave edit screen then im on it.

jpeg wrote:Yeah ive had the sp505 for a while it's ghetto but u can do all the same things as an MP but in a more primitive way.

At the end of the day buying an mpc aint gonna make u better so i ain planning on getting a new sampler anytime soon the only thing i would get is the new korg ESX-1 but they need to give me a wave edit screen then im on it.

Yeah, I actually owned a 505, too (for about two years). I hated how you couldnt tune samples without using timestretch... Other than that it was straight. No MPC, but straight... Anyway, thats why I was curious if the 303 could do it (tune w/out timestretch), cause I know the 303 and 505 are pretty similar.

Yea I knew Madlib used the 303... The 505 was my first drum machine... I definitely feel the MPC more, but hey everybody's got their preference and you can't knock him... He's makes the best beats in the underground (at least in my opinion)... It was really nice though... I still got it, but I think I'ma give it to my little cousin so he can start makin beats... I would like to keep it, but It's time to pass it on to the next generation.

Answering your question Decepticon - the sp303 doesn't have any sort of instant chromatic tuning like the MPC. ie. you cant take a note and transpose it over an octave. It has a PitchShift effect which is pretty dodgy, especially if you don't know what root note the original sample is at. It's no where near the quality of the MPC in this regards.

I do wish that AKAI would consider some better efx for the MPC1000. Don't get me wrong, the compressors and EQ will fatten your sounds in an instant, but I'm after some more interesting efx than the typical reverb and so on. The BitCrusher is cool, but this is where the sp303 excells, with the efx.

The sp505 has chromatic tunning but it does not do a good job on alot of things, but maybe becos i dont know shit about root keys.

Anyone know any sites that give info on how to understand which root key to choose?

Concertmate wrote:Answering your question Decepticon - the sp303 doesn't have any sort of instant chromatic tuning like the MPC. ie. you cant take a note and transpose it over an octave. It has a PitchShift effect which is pretty dodgy, especially if you don't know what root note the original sample is at. It's no where near the quality of the MPC in this regards.

I do wish that AKAI would consider some better efx for the MPC1000. Don't get me wrong, the compressors and EQ will fatten your sounds in an instant, but I'm after some more interesting efx than the typical reverb and so on. The BitCrusher is cool, but this is where the sp303 excells, with the efx.

Good looks... That's what I was trying to find out.