Das best kansloos
maar een kaosspad heeft toch ook een sample functie...? en ik snap btw niet echt het nut van een sample resamplen als die alleen het origineel sampled beetje dubbel op maar dat terzijde.
ik was dus net ff wat shit aan het uitzoeken over deze sampler
echt als ik deze harmony central review moet geloven is die echt hopeloos
Product: Roland SP-606
Price Paid: US $640
Submitted 11/16/2005 at 10:57pm by MagNO Cellular
Ease of Use : No Opinion
Well, it's a mixed bag with this thing.
Almost all of the needed functions have dedicated buttons, or moreso, are clearly printed under other buttons and accessible by the SHIFT key. Several compaints; As presets are worthless, it was hard to dig up how to "un-protect" them so I could trash them. Also, this thing has dedicated buttons to switch whether the samples/beats are being controlled internally or externally. That's NOT something you're going to change on the fly (or even from night to night), so that front-panel dedicated-button space could have been used for something much more useful, such as a dedicated tap button. Speaking of tap, you have to open up the BPM sub-menu to start inputting tap; really disrupts flow. The list of design flubs goes on.
Let me put it this way, This thing is rather easy to use if you you're going to use it JUST as a more powerful (longer memory, more effects) version of the sp303 (because there are some -505 features this thing drops the ball on) to stop and start audio samples w/ buttons. Likewise, to a lesser degree, it works if you want to use it as a pattern sequencer to whip up a SINGLE BEAT (more on that later) like an MPC (but it still gets outclassed by even the mpc1000 in terms of midi range). Due to it's limited polyphony (4 ?!?) and processor allocation, this thing will VERY quickly falter if you try to play synced-sampes on the fly over pre-sequenced patterns.
This thing may look like it was built to do JUST that combination of things in the store, but I guarentee roland paid some guy to tweak the factory samples/patterns to get the most "apparent" mileage out of this thing w/out having it falter.
Features : No Opinion
quite simply, the Sp606 is the idiot-savante of groove-box samplers.
...allow me to explain...
The sp606 has a pretty powerful sampler, and it's the first hardware sampler I know that can really convincingly stretch a loop to fit arbitrary tempo sync (w/in a certain range). Software has been doing this for a while (ableton, acid), and on akai and yamaha samplers, you have to stop and edit samples and tune/stretch them to a certain tempo. This thing, you can import a sample, assign it as a "prase", turn on "tempo sync," play the sample, and it will stay in sync while you change tempo, even via external midi clock.
The only hardware that did this before was Variphrase technology
(...a really incredible innovation that they haven't taken taken anywhere else).
In terms of "hey let's automatically sync up these various groove" the 606 manages a pretty impressive partial-showcase of variphrase ideology.
That IS impressive, and that's mostly why I bought it. Specifically, you can designate samples to identify as any number of beats (1-7) and measures (1-8 or so). Well, I make indian music w/ poly-metrics, so I throught it would be really cool to have samples of different beat patterns play against each other IN SYNC (thus creating a hemiola loop); i.e. a 3-beat bassline sample and a 4-beat sample drum sample both play at 120 bpm and hit a common "1" every 12 (4x3) quarter-notes.
And this sp606 can do THAT w/ two samples. This really impressed me in the store. ...took it home, found that the sync really starts falling apart if I taxed the processor w/ a 3rd odd-sync element.
Ok, so I figure sequence-playback would be less processor-taxing than realtime-audio-stretching. The other reasong that I bought it is that it has a built in pattern-sequencer, so I figured it could not only replace some drum machines, but it could work as a master-clock for my (more-simple minded) electribes.
WRONG.
Not only did I quickly become frustrated w/ the paucity of polyphony, but I quickly found one of the poOorest design flaws I'd ever seen in a "groove" product of any brand.
Let's see, a groove product is supposed to "keep a groove," right. you start it up, rock along to the beat, and maybe jump around different patterns at that groove. Mechanically, this can happen because, in terms of processing heirarchy, the tempo/clock element is ABOVE the sequencer information.
Well, in the sp606, each pattern has a "native" tempo that if forces the machine to play at. Worse yet, that "native" tempo is determined by whatever tempo that pattern was last played at.
REAL LIFE EXAMPLE.
out of box, the "Hip Hop" patterns (1-10 or so) are all programmed at 90 bpm. so you can leave this playing and mump around all this "hip-hop" patterns, and never interrupt the hip-hop groove. Fine; that's enough to to impress some people to buy it. But, the "El House" series of patterns all come set to 130bpm.
If you're grooving along a "hip hop" patch at 90bpm and fly over to to a "house" beat just to change the "feel" well, this "groove workstation" hiccups and forces a tempo change.
Worse than that, let me explain about how "native tempo" is "last tempo" say you're grooving on the "hip hop" beats, find one you like, but need to slow it down. when you're done, Now that beat got parked at a slower tempo, so now all the "hip hop" family won't match up.
WHAT. THE. HELL.
this is a $640 "groove box," you think it would be able to keep a "groove" w/out completely tripping over itself.
I called roland customer support. they said; "well, it will play any/all patterns at a fixed tempo when slaved to another devices midi clock." I got news for you, Roland. If I pay that much money for a "groove box" which a Roland product field-rep himself (Philadelphia area) tells me will happily replace my lesser- groovebozes (electribes) and samplers (ps-303), I expect it to be able to function as a midi master clock.
this is a six-hundred-starving-forty-dollar groove machine, and INTERNAL clock is NOT a GLOBAL and persistent function.
...Don't even get me started on the "p606" software for which you use the SP unit as a "controller"...
I just don't even want to talk about it.
Someone below mentiones you can dump samples to your computer via usb. Never figured it out. Boo!
Expressiveness/Sounds : No Opinion
as a sampler, it's garbage-in-garbage-out.
out-of-box, the factory samples are garbage.
When will roland learn to stop making samples of that white sista's voice going "come-on," "baby," and "doo-doo." what do they think this is, '97? How much do they pay that bitch? Get her off my sampler.
Also, as menionted below, the effeects sound great, and the d-beam synth and filter are fun.
Unfortunately, you cannot save the effect settings (like the sp80
or even have them come back as you left them (like the sp303 does). Also, while you can program the d-beam to make a wide variety of synth sounds, you cannot save "synth" patches (like the sp80
.
If this thing can juggle rom enough to beat-sync two samples from differnt tempo's AND meters, why can't it remember a handful of patches.
Totally UNinspired and non-conducive to expressive creativity.
Reliability : No Opinion
Every time I've tried to change pattern, it's changes tempo. Without fail, it disrupts the groove. It is un-useable for live groove-work 100% of the time. I can depend on it to
I will gig without it, because I'm going back to my "backup" electribes.
I am absolutely stunned that nobody else has mentioned this. It is probably because, understandably, people are just using it as a big-fat-303.
if that's the case, save your money, buy the shiny new 404 w/ the hip blue lights.
whoopee.
Customer Support : 4
I called roland customer support. they said; "well, it will play any/all patterns at a fixed tempo when slaved to another devices midi clock." I got news for you, Roland. If I pay that much money for a "groove box" which a Roland product field-rep himself (Philadelphia area) tells me will happily replace my lesser- groovebozes (electribes) and samplers (ps-303), I expect it to be able to function as a midi master clock.
this is a six-hundred-starving-forty-dollar groove machine, and INTERNAL clock is NOT a GLOBAL and persistent function.
Hey roland, it's great that you FINALLY caught the boat on publishing your manuals online.
Overall Rating : 4
Some guy below lists a bunch of gripes, and then says "but I'll hang onto it," because maybe he'll "never be happy."
That's just not the case for me.
I've spent 9 weeks trying to make this thing work for me; used internal and external midi, tried all different approaches. While it's time-stretching is truly savante-genius, it's a really Idiotic and incompetent "groove" candidate.
Truly, an idiot-savante groove sampler.
Roland, if you're listening; Make a rack sampler that can do all the phrase-tempo-matching TIME (of different meters) that the 606 can do, and make it capable of sampling on the fly, w/ auto trim (you already made "ext seq sampling").
Make it capable of storing a bunch of my favorite loops and such in the ever-less-expensive flash card format.
Make it capable of playing samples as "phrases," "loops" or just "drum hits". And maybe build in a simple (master-clock-complient) 4 track sequencer.
Basically, build up the 606/variphrase technolgy into something that can replace the live LOOP SYNC market that is STILL being dominated by the Electrix Repeater (which got it right the first time much more than you guys ever did).
seriously, I'm starting to believe I could have done better
