Sabine BT-300

This review is for the Sabine BT-300 Riff Trainer/Sampler.

I highly recommend this no-nonsense phrase sampler for anyone interested in transcribing/learning difficult passages. Unlike the tascam unit which can only slow down CDs, the BT-300 can be used to record a variety of sources, including your own guitar. If you want you can record chord progressions (up to 30s.) and have it repeat endlessly while you practice your solos. Also can be used to record samples from tape, mps3, computer, etc.

I have a practice setup with an 8 channel eurorack mixer, a J-station, a CD player, studio monitors, and the BT-300. I play CDs through the mixer and feed the control room send to the BT-300. When I get to the part I want to sample, I hit record. For playback, I have the 1/4" from the BT-300 routed to a channel on the mixer, so I can adjust the levels to the J-station while I play along to the sample.

The phrase can be slowed down to 2/3, 1/2, and 1/4 speeds.

Sabine was thoughtful enough to include the power supply -- with the tascam you need to buy that separate. Also, there is a headphone out jack so you could listen to the playback with headphones and use your amp to play along.

I wish it had more connection options. The input is 1/8" stereo so I had to use adapters.

It has 8-bit sound quality at normal playback speed. At slower speeds it introduces some static but everything is surprisingly intelligible.

Looks sturdy. Solid state, few moving parts.

I have been playing for 15 years and have had problems learning complete songs by guys like satriani and vai. In a mix, its just too hard to hear what is going on. With this tool you can hear every note and it loops over the secion so you can reinforce what you are hearing over and over.

If they had this fifteen years ago I would have avoided ALOT of frustration. Frankly, flash phrases go so fast and are buried in the mix so that its almost impossible to transcribe them without help.

Just an update on my new Sabine BT 300 recorder. The quality of the sound varies depending on the CD being used. I do not recommend this unit for transcribing distortion type music. Older music from the 60's 70's and 80's may present more of a problem for this unit than newly recorded CD's.

This is just a learning tool to slow down CD's. The unit is very easy and simple to use. It comes with a power adapter. No batteries can be used with this.

There is some flutter and static. I knew it would have that before I bought it though. It probably records better with my little 20 dollar Craig CD player than my more expensive Sharp CD player. The sound is very good at full speed less so at the slower speeds. I bought this to mainly transcribe surf music. That is my main interest at the moment. Sound quality is not critical with this unit, being able to hear the notes is more important for learning purposes and I can hear the notes at slow speeds.

2 year warrany, it's very small about the same size as an answering machine.

I have thousands of dollars worth of guitars but I am not a very good guitar player. I am sure this device will help me a great deal to learn guitar music. If any people from Sabine read this review I want to thank you personally for putting out such a useful device. It is less than half price of that other Tascam recorder which is great. Buying a fancy, expensive guitar and other special effects will not do you any good if the music is played to fast for you to learn licks from. It is worth the 80 dollars I paid for it and what I got was exactley what I expected.

straight-forward, plug a CD player into it, use headphones or a set of speakers or an amp. to start recording a phrase just hold down both buttons at once. push one or the other to stop recording.

first of all the reason I felt I should write this, is because of all the whiny ass pussies complaining about the noise. of course you're going to have noise, if it's so bad try getting out a vinyl LP and a turntable like most players did before digital media was available. if your unit sounds that bad, I could understand your crying.

every once in a while it will act up, make some strange digital noise, but I've had it for 3 years plus and it's still going strong. no major complaints

never used it, I was working and teaching in a music store when I purchased it and Sabine backs their stuff up pretty well.

I've used this unit to figure out licks that I thought were impossible to decipher (lots of Johnny Winter). By using this unit I was able to overcome several obstacles with my technique and abillity to "hear" the notes I wanted to learn. Nothing is perfect, but this thing is 10 times better than what most others have said about in these reviews. Shit those guys have probably sold their guitars by now and quit cause they didn't have the patience to actually sit and listen to what they were tryin to learn.

Extremely easy to set up and use. Very small in size makes it possible to put it in your lap while you stop the track, select the speed and change the settings.

Saw some complaints of the 16-Bit 316 version. Mine is 8-bit and for what it's supposed to do, it works and sounds great. Slowing anything down to 1/3 speed will not sound great, but it definitely is sonically acceptable enough to learn leads.

Plastic housing. Time will tell. Sabine makes good stuff though.

same as above.

If you are looking for an easy way to learn hard to learn leads on guitar or even vocal, you should give this a try. I find it very effective. For the price of one month of guitar lessons, this is definitely a worth while tool for mastering licks and leads. People knocking this, really are probably using it for the wrong purpose.

If you see one and have been looking for a way to slow CD's down, you ought to get one of these and try it out.