Boss SP-202

This thing is really easy to use. You've got separate buttons for every action and they light up when activated

4 note polyphony off the internal memory, sadly you can play only one sample off a sm card at a time.
There's midi in, and I sometimes trigger it with my MPC and midi keyboard.
I think you might be able to change the parameters via cc's as well but I am not sure.
It's a dj sampler, and it fits me really well.
filters are nice, time stretching works pretty good too

in hi fi mode it sound great, but using lo fi modes you can get real gritty sound

It works. BUt it eats batteries pretty fast...

Never had anything to do with them

I would get it again If it were lost or stolen.
I have it for 3 month or so. My MPC1000 is way too heavy and expencive for live dj gigs, and you have to load it up everytime.
I wish it had a Li-Ion battery and a little screen where it would display filenames off a better card

I have the manual for the sp-202 in pdf format, if you want it, email me haleyness@hotmail.com and ill send it for free!
(please leave this on here as i was always in search of the damn manual and never found it and often came here to check for a post like this!)

this item is so damn easy to use.. if you cannot use it with minimal capacity.. you have no business even being a musician. a chimp can operate this thing.

effects are simplisitc. and the sound quality is good.. i bought this thing mainly for the portability aspect. meaning it runs on aa batteries. great for dropping breaks on yr headphones on the bus. the sp 303 offers no such convienience.

this item is good for use with funk and soul.. crisp jazz breaks and power drumming.. it fails to meet expectations if not properly amlpified..and the technology is somewhat obsolete. but other than that we have a winner.

i rely on this thing.. it is a good idea not to expose this thing to cold.. and or moisture. everything else is cake.

the 4mbcards for this item are harder to find than pitates booty. but if you find them.. its all good.

This thing is pretty darn easy once you get the hang of it.

Of course a sampler in this price range is limited in the features compared to a rack sampler for example. However dont be fooled this puppy has enough features to help you make kick ass tracks. You will need to get some "older type" 5 volt smartmedia cards for this machine and they are only available now on eBay. They cost like $45 each but man are they worth it!! You can load a lot of samples on a card (up to 35 minutes in lofi-2) so they are the KEY to this machine. You gotta find em. Do NOT try to use regular 3.3v smartmedia cards. they wont work. If you wish to use this baby live, then get at least 4 or 5 cards if you can. You will be very glad you did! This machine is the best SP model out there. Not sure what happened but the SP-303 has more features but its not as good sounding or feeling to me.

Sounds is great really for what it is, it sounds unbelievable for this price range. Would work for many kinds of music i believe.

They are built rock solid like a Boss pedal. Virtually indestructable more or less unless you throw it at the wall. ;-)
No problems so far and i have owned it since 1999!

They are ok once you get thru to a real person.

Yes, i would buy it again. Actually i own 3 of them and have a whole bunch of smarmedia cards for it. As i said before the KEY to this machine and getting your full value out of it is that you will NEED to FIND the 5Volt SmartMedia cards. and eBay is the only place that has em. Roland has been out for a long time. So get some cards NOW before they are gone forever and enjoy the DR.

requires a precise sense of timing...kind of irritating...i had no manual so i had to figure out how to use it (not too terribly difficult)...learning to use it is one thing...mastering it is another...

it's got a couple of filters, but the lo fi and lo fi 2 recordings are alot of fun to use. not only that, but this is great field sampler because it's battery op. The on board microphone isn't that great...you're better off finding a powered condenser microphone to get higher gain.

another cool thing about this unit is that you can plug a guitar, keyboard, bass, etc. through the mic input and mess with the filters. i mean...you COULD get a pedal...but....

sometimes the mark function for editing the beginning and end points of a sample are REALLY volatile it seem to get it on point with accuracy.

onboard effects are feh....it's alot of fun to build low fi creations with this thing that sounds like they were drug through the dirt, broken apart, and then reassembled. the main reason i bought this thing was for the low fi recording options.

fairly reliable...however, one of the memory banks on my unit has been corrupted (?) and refuses to erase/write to it.

n/a

main use: recording samples in lo fi. using this unit in tandem with another sampler/sequencer such as an mpc 60 (which I have) makes life more fun. even as a stand alone unit, you can make some pretty fun noise with this.

It is not a stompbox, but it isn't much harder than one. You must read the manul (which isn't too awful) if you want to do certain things (like truncate samples). Labeling on the front could be better.

First, the good stuff. The sample quality is certainly good enough for live applications and acceptable for lo-fi recording (not serious stuff, but you wouldn't use this for that anyway). It is intended as a live tool, and as such I think it works well. Samples can be stopped mid-phrase, something the SP-303 and the Korg ES-1 can't do. Once you have learned the buttons it is very easy to move around quickly. Midi functionality is simple but works well. BPM calculator works as would be expected.

The not so good stuff. The feature set of the SP-202 is outdated in a number of very important ways. The filter and ring mod effects are almost totally useless, but the pitch, time and delay effects are ok, albeit very limited. The onboard memory is terrible, and it only accepts antique 4mb Smartmedia cards which fetch over $60 on line. I bought one because I couldn't take the limitations of the internal memory, but to my dismay I have discovered that the card once formatted by the SP-202 will not be read by my Smartmedia card drive, so I am **unable to back up to or load from a computer**. This, kids, is not good.

The RCA outs are an irritant if you use 1/4" plugs. The headphone jack is oddly 1/8" (?!?). Mark function is fiddly (it will not always act as a start/stop marker when you are attempting to truncate samples).

All in all, the feature set is outdated. However, the unit is fun to use.

Sounds about as good as the samples you load into it, though it has a certain grungy character even when running without any of the onboard effects. Things can get very dirty with this unit, which I like about it. Effects as mentioned are not all the best, but I like the effect the short delay can have on things and the time effect is wonderfully digital ugly.

Plastic housing and I wonder about the long term reliability of the buttons, but I haven't had a problem with it so far. This is not a Boss tank.

Whatever.

I bought this unit a few years ago and paid too much for it even then. I don't think these are worth the prices being fetched online. This is at most a $50 unit, because of the limitations on memory. You will have to find 2 or 4mb smartmedia cards (and lots of them, really) if you don't want to be constantly overwriting your samples, which you'll have to record directly onto the SP-202.

All that said, I do think this little box has a place as a fun, flavorful unit that can spice up a track or two. It is definitely intended for live use and it works well for that. Just don't expect to have a full-on phrase sampler when you get it into your hands!

Very Easy!
Moi facil de usar, en 5 minutos estaralo utilizando.

It's a TOY.
E un xoguete para samplear, moi simple, pero moi divertido tamen.
En poucas palabras e un sampler de frases, con efectos; ideal para tratar loops e levalo o direito; NOTA; o sonido e suxo!

IMPORTANTE; esta maquina so merece a pena a un prezo moi baixo.

PEGAS:
-Pouca polifonia.
-Tarxetas SmartMedia, moi dificiles de conseguir.

It's DIRT. Very DIRT.

Nom esperes calidad de som, e un sampler suxo!!

Moi bon para direito e para tratar loops.

ok.

REPITO:

Nom pagues mais de 150 euros, por este prezo e unha maquina fantastica!!!

Por mais e un timo, demasiada limitada en todolos aspectos

Not very easy to use. A pain in fact. All based on manual timing, can't adjust loop points or sample length, and even so I couldn't seem to get it to be very precise. Basically, it advertises as a performance sampler, but I found it almost impossible to use as such.

This box talks a good game, but doesn't live up to it. 4-channel polyphony? Only on low quality sound (and only on the 22 seconds you can hold on the 500k internal memory; external memory cards are 2 voice polyphony). Great built in effects? The only effects that are any good are the filters, and they aren't even that cool. Ring modulation, yay, make your sample sound completely unrecognizable. Plus, throw on the effects and forget about polyphony: On the internal memory with an effect on, you get two voice polyphony; samples on a memory card can only play one at a time with an effect on. As for having lots of space (upwards five minutes of recording time, according to the specs, on a memory card) I maxxed out the internal memory on my first use. Also, the device claims to record to exactly the right length sample, based on the BPM. Every attempt I did to get it to record in this fashion failed miserably.

The sound quality is a joke: Highest quality recording is only 21khz recording, and the lowest is a dismal an intelligible quality, something like 4khz. I'm pretty sure it's 16-bit all around, which is nice, but it doesn't make up for the low sampling rate. The effects aren't terrible, but with only one knob to play with on each one, the effects get boring pretty quick.

Batteries are terrible. Burned them out in a matter of minutes. (25 or so minutes after putting in 6 fresh batteries the device would crash and die.) I didn't have any trouble with losing data, or any kind of reliability trouble.

I gave mine away. It was useless to me. My POS Gemini Scratchmaster mixer has a pushbutton sampler on it that I prefer. The newer model (SP-303) seems to address all of my major problems with this one, interestingly enough: The ads say it has more memory, 8-voice polyphony (which means all 8 buttons simulaneously), better quality sound, and more versatile effects. But, I'm not so sure I trust it: The SP-202 said it had 4-voice polyphony, great realtime effects, and high quality sound. And none of that was true. I still haven't played with one yet, though.

Very easy. I have the manual and the video too, so that helps, but it is very easy to work with.

Very cool at what its supposed to do. I like how simple it is and that it uses batteries AND has expandable memory using 5v smartmedia cards. The cards are a bit hard to find but I have managed to find a good handful of 4MB-5V cards on eBay and I still see them for sale over there. The cards allow you to really use this baby. Without the cards, you are very limited!!

Sound great!! Its no Akai S5000, but hey its amazing how good it sounds for only $150. Has an uncanny "real" sound to it.

Boss builds everything like a rock!!

they are cool

I love these things. I have 2 of them that I use with the DR-202. You really gotta use these 2 together. They are a dream pair of inexpensive yet expressive & impressive quality for sure!! You cannot go wrong with the SP-202. Better than SP-303 or SP-505 or even SP-808 in my onpinion. A good buddy of mine owns the 202 and the 808. He hardly ever uses his SP808, but always uses his SP202. I keep one handy in my car to snatch up cool samples when Im out and about......hey you never know when that kitten will purr (heheheh). Anyway SP202 is KILLER DEAL!!

Simple. audio in and out, built in mic, and a 1/4" mic input. big buttons, with a solid feel to them, everything laid out in front of your, no lcd's just a digital readout.
Super simple
the manual was complete enough, but the device is simple to use and I only read it while i'm on the toilet or something like that.

4 voices of poly. could be more, but you dont need it. a human drummer cant use more then 4 voices, so its ok. if you resample to a externam rec. device like tape, cd, dat or (what i use) mini disc, resampling is a breeze and no loss of poly to have your bass kick with some effects
simple effects, all of them are not very good, one of the filers is ok. time strech is useless.
midi in, no out or thru (would have liked to see more midi on here, mainly for dumping samples to my pc)
no velocity sens., the sequencer is hard to use, but hey, its meant to be used realtime. BEWARE it is not a step time sequencer. the unit wasnt meant to do that, if you want to do drums with a step time sequerncer then buy a drum machine.

the sound you get out is directly proportional to the sound you put in. the box has some hiss, but play with the effects a little and you can get rid of it.
good only for electronic music (dance/hip-hop) i use it for hip hop, works good for that.
it reacts well and realtime i have had zero trouble with it, just make sure to spend some time editing your samples. it makes a big differnece with this machine. I also found that if i fade the volume on the sample source as it ends, i can get some real cool decaying sounds out of it.
the low sample rate samples i have sound tough and old skool, very nice.
the effects, as i said, sound ok, nice for the price of this thing.

never broken, looks solid and feels solid despite being made of plastic. i use it almost xclusivly as a portable and i fell right on it once, and it was no worse for the wear.
i'd gig with it w/o ?, the light up pads are easy to see in the dark. i have done work in the backseat of a car with my phones, md, and this in the dark so i like that.

never dealt with them, but Roland/Boss is famous for incompetent boobery.

id cop it again. I use it with
1- sony digital mic
2- md recorder/player
3- portable drum machine
4- homemade audio mixing circuit
5- portable powered speakers
6- headphones
as a portable studio/project sketchpad, just to try ideas
its much easier to get them down like this, as opposed to powering up my asr-10 and my mpc, my comp and the rack. with this, in a small bag, i can go anywhere, sample anything and make a beat anyplace, for a cypher or just for fun.

good

Need more internal storage !

not bad

good

Need more internal memory and use "real" smart cards.
It's just a way Roland makes MORE money on crappy cards that you can't find anywhere. The very least they could offer some kind of internal memory expansion.
If anyone out there read this and know how to mickey-mouse more memory to this,.... or use the 8-128 MB memory with mods... let me know. I think everyone would want one.
I got this for portability... that's 10+ in my book.
Get in thouch with me if you found ways to enhance this product.

Well, although this thing's pretty much been covered here, and therefore another review is redundant, you always gotta add your two cents! I was extremely fortunate enought to have been given this by a friend-kind a nice late Xmas present! But that also kind of meant getting it as is-no manual, no battery cover, and an adapter to go with the unit's dodgy power input-more on that later. Within an evening though (and after reading all the various reviews), I pretty much had this sucker figured out. With a three digit display and everything printed on the case, you can't get much simpler than that! I actually like the audio editing style-true, it's not as accurate as visual, and probably takes a few more tries, but as I'm a drummer, and tend to input things live (like on my DR. 770), I don't find it difficult. And of course if you already now the samples BPM, you'll know how accurate the loop is cos the 202 figures out the BPM and displays it. Obviously this would be most useful for drumloops, but that's also the kind of material where looping is most important. If you're unsure of the original BPM, there's plenty of Sample Calcs on the net to help you out. Basically, you just have to select your source, decide a few basic parameters such as recording quality, mono/stereo, hit record and that's that. The effects are as simple as pushing a button and twisting a knob. Only a tape recorder could be simpler.

Well, the features of the 202 seem to have been covered pretty well by others so I won't repeat them, but I think probably the best and least mentioned features are 1. it's portability; 2. the fact that it saves samples not only when turned off, but also without batteries or a power supply connected, and 3. It's long 32 second memory-this is a lot I think, even by today's standards.
The portability factor alone makes it worth it. Since I got it-like two days ago-my new motto is, "The world is a sample, record it." Ok, kind of lame, but it's true, and unless you've got a DAT or MiniDisc, oh yeah, and a sampler at home to then put them into, it's hard to get found sounds into your music. With the 202, you can not only record it as you find it, but then edit it, take it home, and play it back with a sequencer-without ever having to pull out anything but a MIDI lead. I should mention also, as no one else has, that I found it synced very well with Cubase ver.3.7. It took me some time to figure out without the manual, but it seems that it only responds to MIDI on channel 1, and to notes on the lower register of the keyboard starting with C1 up. If your samples are set to gate, then they respond to note on/off messages like anything else. This is also a great way to save polyphony as you (if you've at least recorded the beginning of your sample correctly with no space in front of it) can then forget about using the internal MARK editing of the 202, which amazingly, and retardedly uses up polyphony. I'm sorry, I must bitch about this. Since when should the basic ability to edit a sample cost notes? Especially as the 202 (as far as I know) doesn't give you the ability to then permanently delete the trimmed portions of the sample to free up memory. Maybe I'm wrong-I'm manualess.
but back to the positive things-as others have shown it's easy to get upset about the negative things!
I'm surprised no one's mentioned this units amazing ability to retain it's memory without needing to be plugged in or backed up. While I guess the SU-10 does this as well, I know the S20 doesn't-of course the downside, like others have mentioned, is that there's no way to export samples without re-recording them elsewhere, or smartcarding them. MIDI is such a standard now, couldn't they have included a MIDI out-maybe instead of the Ring Mod or one of the filters? If you don't have a computer (or at least a DAT/MD) this is pretty lame, but this isn't too much of a big deal for me though as I record with Cubase, and even without Cubase or something similar there's plenty of stand alone audio editors out there to mess up the 202s samples with-assuming you have a sound card;)

Again, this has been covered, but it's pretty safe to say it works better/best with loop based music, or ambient, where timing isn't key-and where quality is also not key! Hip-hop/dance/or jungle/D'n'B or generally anything electronica (as much as I hate that word) probably have the most to gain from its grittiness. That being said though, my friend uses one live in his punk/hardcore band for a sample at the beginning of their set. Not being able to play anything back over more than one note range thoughg will always be limiting to ANY style of music (christ, even my AWE32 could do that), but then that's obviously not what this is for. This ultimately is meant as a playback device with loop/oneshot being the key words. You could attempt multisampling for some sort of 4 note bassline/melody or something, but then you'd obviously need other equipment-or maybe not! Like all samplers of any kind, the more creative you are, the better it will sound.
The filters are definitely the best effect (if you can call that an effect). I actually really like the second, more resonant low-pass filter. Where did people get this hi-pass shit? I wish... I recorded a bare sawtooth wave from my analogue synth into it, and then tried the filter on it. It's very warm and resonant enough to provide a little aceed over an otherwise bare synth bassline. Gotta love that knob...
And while it's probably THE lamest effect, I think also there's something positive to be said about the delay affect. It IS super limited in that it really only varies between two types of flanger, BUT in the middle I found that with drumloops, there are a couple of usable settings where the delay acts more like a rythmic effect and actually reorganises you beat, instead of just doubling it. This is really useful in general, giving you a nice variation on the beat, but especially useful live where, with the drumloop playing, you can keep hitting the delay button to add fills without affecting the tempo. If it worked in my car, it's gotta work on stage!

Here's my only real gripe I've got (and it's a pretty big one). My 202 has probably seen some bad times with it's other owners, and while I don't mind the missing battery cover, the input for the power adapter is properly screwed. You actually have to push the connector in a certain direction for it to work, and then you have to keep something on it for the unit to stay on. Somebody could have really tossed this thing around, but there is something to say about products entirely made of rubber and plastic. Unfortunately, this product shouldn't really carry the Boss name, as I would expect more from them in terms of build quality. Unlike my DR.110 which still is in great condition, I know my 202 will probably die some day (especially as I carry it around with me everywhere). I'm sure the pads can take some abuse, but that control knob seems ready to go any minute. I know its not just the 202 though. Roland seem determined to use these stupid orange cheesy knobs for like ALL of their current product range. Even the VP-9000, their top o'theline sampler uses them. All they do is remind me of the MC-303, and that's not a good thing to have in your mind when you're about to spend several thousand on anything!

Have never had any contact, but I imagine Boss would be fairly helpful

Overall, I suppose my review could never be critical enough or unbiased enough as I got the thing for free. But having said that, this was exactly the type of thing I've been looking into over the last month or so, so I was just lucky I guess. I'm in university now, so anything I've got at school has to be transportable by plane. This really limits my equipment choices and I'm especially limited because the laptop I use for school does not have MIDI, or get along with Cubase, so it's got to be stand alone. I probably would've gone for an Akai S20 if I could've found one. Unfortunately, they're on the second generation of these "Groove" type samplers now, so while the the first wave is much cheaper, they are also all out of production. Once I'm in a more permanent situation (like in an apartment next year instead of the dorms:), this would not be my only sampler, or at least not the one I would spend any money on. Obviously, you could do better nowadays in terms of home sampling power-the Akai S-2000 and EMU Esi-2000 are both constantly dropping in price, and you could probably pick up the former for only one or two hundred more used. If you're really serious about sampling and production, you'll save up for one of these (or better) instead of bitching about the limitations of the 202. Either of these (along with many other older samplers-older Akais, or even Ensoniqs) would pretty much render the 202 obsolete even if you were just going to rip samples off records. And they are not that much more expensive, if not the same price. Even my old AWE32 and current SBLive do a better job. They sound better, and while finding memory for the former might be an issue, it certainly isn't for the latter. Admittedly Vienna sounds terrible, but even the included Wave Studio does a better editing job-minus the filter. And anyone with the Windows audio recorder can do the 202's Lo-Fi. Try recording 8-bit at 8MHz---->that's Lo-Fi!!! So it doesn't sound like the 202s worth it, but then there's the three reasons I stated in the Features section, and obviously I'm gonna take this back to school with me, if for no better reason than to record a PHAT loop from somewhere, and then nod my head to it in my room while I do my homework :)
If you find one for cheap, it's worth it.

the preset were really scary.....
i got mine for 100$.worth that but inever would pay much more for that!!!
i use it for expiremental music,so the time runs out fast!!!(i tend to use lofi1 alot,for the dirt and the xtra time!)
i hate how you can only use one or 2 pads at once,dep on the time it takes up...

poly 4 but realistcly it is 1 or 2 voices.
i like the filter, but i already have a kaoss pad,
so ring mod,filter ect are better on that!
it is cool though to have a little box that i can walk around the streetw/and sample things.
i have 2-2mb cards.which can hold like 4min 27 sec (std)or 8 min 55 sec in the crappy lofi 1 (i use this to screw up all my samples )
no sequencer.
do not really use the midi.

the only reason i got this thing was because it was really cheap, and i can run it on battreies.
i love the crappy sound of the lofi settings!!!!
good for exp,breaks,lofi exp stuff,ect...

good

roland outdates their shit so quick i bet they would think you were nuts if you called and asked a question about this!!!

i already have a REAL sampler. this was only to augment my setup w/ a fun little portable toy.

not a good "only"or 1st sampler.

No software, no presets, no patch editor and no input for a patch editor, manual is dummy-fied. Just a "press play to hear the sound" kinda thing, but for a machine so simple, I'd hate to see what they could have come up with. Editing patches is a nightmare that I will talk about on a later answer.

Supposedly polyphony (the number of patches or samples that can be played at once) is four. This is the absolute best case scenario. Only on the internal memory banks can more than one sound be played, and if you have to edit the time, you can only play two. Drum loops have to be the same BPM (beats per minute) to be played together, otherwise it's shit. So, you basically always have to edit the BPM of at least one sample, which means you can practically never play more than two samples at once. If you try to load a sample from the external memory (the SmartMedia card), the BPM and pitch features are unavailable, meaning you are stuck with those loops or samples at that BPM FOREVER! Also, you can only play samples from the internal memory, then samples from the exteranl memory. If you play a sample from the external, then try to play something from internal, it shuts off the external sample.

Built in effects are kinda ok, check the other posts for the specifics. Like I said, pitch and time are unavailable on external samples, so they are kinda useless, since the interanl memory can only hold something like 3 minutes of sound.

The memory can be expanded. Internal memory cannot, but the machine can accept 2MB and 4MB SmatMedia cards, increasing the external memory time to something like 30 minutes on the lo-fi setting. But, there is a catch:

NO COMPANY MAKES 2MB OR 4MB SMARTMEDIA CARDS ANYMORE. If there is a company that still makes them they are not available through any of my local camera shops, on the internet or even in Target, Bestbuy, Walmart etc. The ONLY place I have seen them is on eBay selling for $47 for two.

Midi through input. Don't know if it works, but I bet it's as half-assed as the rest of the machine. No on board sequencer. The keys are fine, big and illuminated. The case is plastic so it rules in my book.

Some things sound good sampled, some don't. The little onboard microphone is better than some of the mics that I own. It works well for experimental stuff, like randomly playing speeches over ambient or uneventful rock. The BPM and time stretch stuff is so hard to syc-up and so limited that you cannot really use it for anything serious.

Well, it's practically antiquated at this point (July 2001), so I would gig with it at the Smithsonian. It's basically a cheap little plastic piece of a bygone era. I would gig without a backup so if it did get broken I could justify to my girl buying a new toy.

No response. I've emailed them numerous times trying to find out if the 4MB ShitMedia cards are 3.3v ot 5v, but I've never gotten a response.

Save you money. Buy a real sampler, not this toy. It's neat that it has an onboard mic and runs on batteries so you can take it places, but it's so limited that you cannot do much with what you've got. Further, the expansion cards are no longer available so the memory is stuck at a max of 5 minutes, or like 30 minutes if you have the 4MB card. I know that I keep bring up the cards, but think of it this way:
There are 4 banks with eight sounds each. Two banks internal and two external. The internal fills up fast so you might my able to use nine sounds. The external is so big that you end up with dead memory. I've got all 16 external sounds full with a surplus of 2 minutes. If I nned to change memory for a show oir something I basically have to just erase and re-record the slots.

Sorry, if you ever get to play around with one, you'll see what I'm talking about. I recommend that if you are thiniing about buying one, BORROW one from a friend for a month, otherwise save up and just buy a real sampler.

everything is lay out..what you see is what you get...I like the big pads,,when you slam your fingers on them...dammmn. it's pleasure no doubt,,gotta get my thrill on ...scrill on...editing the patches are easy as fuck...record and play...simple!!! presets???I don't know I bought it used and the guy before me deleted them already..thank him doing me an extra favor..hehehehehe...six built in effects that would make quite dramatic difference to the original sound, manual is pretty straightforward,,,but I just kinda scan through and look at the pics cuz I don't like reading words and this machine is so easy to use anyway you don't need a manual...thus,,,EASY TO CARRY AROUND>>hehehehehehehehehehe

polyphony is sorry asss white dawwg,,only 4...and 2 with effects..but I will just live with his limitation...the ten thousand things are refined by their limitation so it's all g double od good. the pads are not velocity sensative...I wish he has that so it can add more dynamics to the sounds. but the pads are good in their physical sizes...and I like the letterings too...compare to the korg electribe, the small ass pads and the ugly looking Roman letters that doesn't match with any machinery looking objects...the pads of Dr. Sample are hella better..they are more solid and...BIGGER
I like the feeling of the little "click" everytime you press the pads.

six effects: with a control knob to adjust the amount (intensity) of the effects, time stretch is sorry though but it's only a sp202 so I dont expect much, delay is descent, ring modulator is pretty fun to mess with...the low filter is kinda superfluous and the high filiter is dope!!again....I love him for his ease of use...all the processings are just couple buttons away...all you need to do is..PUSH babaay...like how Huang Qiu Sheng push the 1 pound beef ...

as far as the expansion...I decide not to bother with it...cuz I seek not room for him but his portability...optional battery-powered machine...that's hella tight...I travel around alot and this feature is very ideal for me...

there is one midi jack but as I experienced with midi and realized how a mind fuck it is so I cut all of my midi cables so midi journey comes to an end for me now I am up to multi track recording...the rca line in/out hella worked for me..

It doesn't have an on board sequencer,,,basically..he just play loops of whatever you recorded in different manners which you can choose from..normal/reverse, loop/one shot, gate/trigger, pretty cool..but like I said..this is a casual sampler for me and I do mostly rough draft on it and I plan to get a sp 303 and an akaid mpc 60 to do my advanced sampling on them...this is my first sampler...and I made a right move...hayhay
thus,, I can use him as an effect box...plug a mic in to him and sing along and distort my voice and all that..tiiiight!!!wowowada

the marker hella helps too...cuz I am a "ear" kinda guy...for me..setting a start point and an end point with the markers is easier for me as I read along the reviews lots of cats wish sp202 can have graphic stuff they can set markers on...but personally I do prefer the non-graphic ear-oriented setting marker style..HUI!!

well...it's a sampler...so it's up to the person who sample what kinda sound and how that person used it...
I found the stereo recording mode unessessary cuz first of all it kills more memory and second when you record in stereo mode you can't use effects...that sucks..but I think the sampling rate is pretty lo-fi for him why do you wanna use stereo anyway??but the ability of changing the recording rate is helpful though. hi-fi, standard, lo-fi 1, lo-fi 2...gives accorded characters of the sounds you recorded

he is really reliable...haven't froze on me yet...the reason I gave him a 9 is cuz the knobs are kinda getting loose....hang in there brother!!!!!one more thing...he is thirsty for battery....it's always good to have the adaptor, I dont' know what kinda fucking weed roland's been smoking....doesn't come with the adaptor???!!!!!!

never deal with them and never wanna deal with them...but I think what I need to do is to find....someone at my age...so I can communicate...

Ultimately speaking, it's around a B+ range (disregard its low price)...I have connections with all of my music partners...can't live without them...I been playing with this thing for about 4 months and I have made 3 songs with it already.,so it's all gravay babay..I just hooked it up to my roland vs 1680...I also have a korg trinity and a korg vc-10 vocoder and a casio rapman and various toys that make noise....as my sound sculpture yard is getting closer to completion...I planned to hooked it up with the vestax pmc 005 mixer and with my turntable so I can make some hip hop cuts with it...you know..gotta represent...

for the price I got from him..it's totally a DEAL, I also love the color of this thing, peachy orange with iredescent black body and the cute LED number display..I forgot what it's called..reminded me the good memories in my electronic classs in high school where we fuck shit up in the lab by plugging light bulbs in the socket and blowing shit up and write dirty stuff on the screen savers of teacher's computers...ooops I am off topic anyway..I wish the SP 303 can have the same battery powered option...that's way too sick...this thing is tight at his consumer level...representing civilian spirit. I was also looking at Yamaha su-10, korg electribe e..whatever 1 es? ea? e...?? and akai mpc 60...the akai is a must have...I bought him cuz I was discouraged by other's comment on how hard of use the mpc's samplers are, therefore I wanna get ready by having a primitive sampler that I can start with...he definitely help me. He's got CHARACTER!!!!!!!!

Within an hour, anyone can have the basics of this machine down. The manual isn't really necessary, although it's good to have just in case. Thankfully, the eight preset samples can be deleted.

This is where the SP-202 justifies its low price. The reason why I bought this box was to sync the samples to another drum machine, such as a 303 or an SR-16...THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE. I was not aware of this until I had already purchased the SP-202 and scoured the manual for an hour trying to figure out a way to do it. (There actually is a way involving some tricky MIDI configuration, but it doesn't generate a clean, looping sample.) I am of the opinion that a sampler is next to worthless unless it can sync to another drum machine or sequencer, so if your imagination has a tendency to stretch beyond the feeble possibilities of a small black box, don't purchase this product. Save yourself some frustration and buy an AKAI or Yamaha sampler; more money, sure, but entirely worth it.
The built in effects include 4 voice polyphony, which is reduced to 2 once effects are used, or if the sample has a high sample rate. Pretty lame, but again, look at the price. The sampling rates are Hi-Fi, Standard, and Lo-Fi 1 and 2. The Lo-Fi's are worthless, making your sample completely unrecognizable. I found the standard rate to work the best for the amount of internal memory it used. The Hi rate posed a rather irritating problem of "clicking" at the end of more delicate, drum-less samples (e.g. piano) that I found impossible to remedy or bypass.
But again, I the main thing I wanted, simple BPM syncing, just wasn't possible with this box. As this was my first experience in the sampler market, perhaps I should have done more research, but be warned.

The filters and the ring mod are nothing to get excited about, but they serve their purpose well enough. Same for the delay. Since the pitch control is digital, it's impossible to get a smooth, sweeping pitch change. The unit also has a reverse loop function that was decent.

I imagine this unit would hold up to a few years of use, but be sure to buy the adapter for it.

Overall, this unit is worth exactly what I paid for it, compared to most samplers: NEXT TO NOTHING. I no longer have to worry about whether it gets lost or stolen because of a nice little thing called an exchange: I bought an Alesis MidiVerb 4 instead. While I certainly don't doubt the enthusiasm of other reviewers regarding the SP-202's features and playability, I myself was not impressed. If this unit was in the $200 price range, I would give it thumbs up; as it stands at around $300, I couldn't help but feel ripped off.

This thing is totally easy. It took me about a day to figure it out, but thats only because i don't like manuals.

We just use it live for triggering audio samples, no midi used. it's great. it does it's job. not a big fan of the RCA outs, but i just went to radioshack and got the converter.

It sounds badass. I put some AA batteries in it one day and just went walking getting samples. it's great for that.

This thing rules. It's ducttaped to a minidisc deck live, and it hasn't failed us yet.

Very easy to use simply because there is little to this machine. I don't think i've ever had to look at the manual. The big buttons on this that light up makes this product very inuitive to work. Although the features that this machine has are very easy to use samples are not easy to edit. All shortening of samples has to be done by ear.

polyphony = 4? Effects are good but can only be put together in a limited way e.g. only about 2 effects can be added to each sample and one of them has to be pitch? Pitch can not be changed for individual samples only globally so loop merchants wanting to put a simple 4- track tune on this should be wary. There's no way to resample sounds within the machine which ccould have been an easy way to get round the limeted effects possibilities. On a good note however this machine is very good for dj's who want to run the dj-sneak type filters through thier turntables. Personally though i bought this piece of kit to make tunes (it was my first investment in musical technology after my 1210's) I was very disapointed with its limeted features and felt very ripped of indeed. I also know a couple of other dj's who bought this machine along with a mc303 to make tunes and they were very dissapointed with it aswell.

If you've got some spare cash to burn then you may want this for its live applications and one of the filters ( the second filter is very unimpressive).

I can't believe the positive ratings some people have given this machine. It just goes to show that people will rate anything highly if they possess it. I really think some of the ratings should have been more cutting. Yes this machine isn't ALL bad but for the price i paid (#270 when it was new out) i think the makers (ROLAND)of this machine should hang thier heads in shame. It just goes to show that making money rather than musical integrety is the number one priority.

While this machine is novel it is way overpriced. This is even worse though because it is obviously aimed at the dj market (mainly the young with little money)and new producers (like me 3 years ago)who know little and get ripped off.

Oh well - at least the sp202 has taught me to enquire loads about equiptment before buying it.

It's a samler with little sound shaping capabilities. There is no touch sensitivity. Would suit loop based dance music very badly.

I've never had any problems with this piece of kit. The controls seem strurdy. Perhaps a metal case rather then a plastic case would have been better (but of course this would drive down Rolands profits).

I do feel that this kit could survive a nasty fall (or throw against the wall)

Never had any customer support because its sturdy and easy to use. But if Roland/boss value future customers opinions then they could email me on 9702612l@student.gla.ac.uk

If the sp202 was stolen i would be happy to claim it on my insurance. Obviously i would in some ways miss its limited features. After all just because its a poor piece of equiptment doesn't mean i'd be happy to loose it - although i have tried to sell it with little luck - I just feel that i'd be just as bad as Roland if i managed to con it onto some poor fool.

Overall this piece of equiptment is SHIT. I know this epecially so now that i'm getting my studio together. ~~~~~I just wish that i saved up my money for better quality equiptment to start with rather than going for a quick poorly informed consumer buzz.

Very easy to use right out of the box. Easy to learn, a little harder to master. The manual is about average I guess, I didn't have any problems understanding it. Realistically, it's not that hard to get started.

4-voice polyphony I believe. 6 different effects, though I personally feel that they could have left off the time stretch. Anyway, the others are good if used right, especially the delay which adds fullness to the sound. Pretty nice features for the price. You can sample from almost anything. It is battery operated, and you can take it outside and get some samples with the built in mic.

The highest sample rate is like 33.something, so it's not quite cd quality, however it is still good. You can sample ANY type of soundsa you want, and loop them continuously or gate them. Nice.

Don't know yet. Only 3 days of use.

N/A

If this were stolen, I'd put some holes in whoever took it. LOL Nah, it's not that serious. But I would definitely replace it. Even when I move up to a MPC 2000 or something else, I will ALWAYS have my SP-202.

This unit is fairly easy to get going on right out of the box. Anyone already familiar with sampling techniques should be running almost immediately. Even if you are new to using samplers, reading the essential parts of the manual will get you acquainted with the unit and its features. The manual is thorough in explanation of its features and operation.

The Dr. Sample comes preloaded with samples in the internal Bank A so you can start messing around, although you would probably want to delete these samples to replace them once you are ready to start recording your own. Sampling at first is tricky because timing your start/stop points must be done by ear. However, you can set the SP-202 to automatically start recording once a input level threshold is reached (the instant the sound starts). You can also input the BPM if you are sampling a loop, and the sampler will automatically adjust the start/stop points for you. This feature makes most sampling a breeze once you are accustomed to using it.

When recording a sample, you can set 1 of 4 different sample rates: Hi-Fi (not quite CD quality but very usable), Standard (less than Hi-Fi but works great for most sounds), and Lo-Fi 1 and 2 for that trendy but cool 'lo-fi' sound. After a sound is recorded, you can set that sample to play normal or in reverse, loop or one-shot, trigger (sounds when sample pad is tapped and stops when tapped again or sample ends) or gate (sounds only when pad is held down).

Summary: Easy to use from the get-go - you will master this unit in no time.

The SP-202 has limited polyphony, and this polyphony is reduced when certain effects or stereo samples are used. The key to using the effects is finding a best use for them. This sampler can be controlled by a sequencer via MIDI, which is an added plus. This sampler's performance cannot compete with most other samplers in the $1000-class. However, in the face of its shortcomings in polyphony or some cheesy effects, this unit is packed with features for the money spent. Overall - lots of bang for your buck, prepare to have fun.

PS: This unit takes 6 AA batteries for operation, but it's a HOG - buy the AC Adaptor as soon as you can.

Built-in effects on the SP-202 are as a whole usable, but some could be much better. They are as follows:

- Pitch adjust (good effect but only works over all samples, cannot assign to individual samples - works well to speed up or slow down a loop)

- Time stretch (not very good, better to use a computer program with a better timestretch before recording into the unit)

- Delay (only a single slapback delay, but can be set at a short delay for a flanging effect or to thicken up the sound)

- Filter 1 (good cutoff filter)

- Filter 2 (cutoff filter with added resonance - very usable)

- Ring modulator (great effect on voices for the robot sound)

As stated before, the key to a great sound with this unit is finding the perfect place for each effect. Even the lamest sound can be used in a way to be killer. This comes with just spending time playing with it. The sample pads are not velocity sensitive, nor does it receive velocity info through MIDI. This would have been a nice addition. I create electronic music, but I also use the SP-202 in a rock band for background ambience or interjections. For this application, the Dr. Sample is perfect.

This unit seems reliable, as do most of Boss/Roland's products. The construction is sturdy plastic, but obviously not as stout as a Boss stomp box effect. Take care of it, don't throw it around, and you should be OK. I'd use it without a backup if you are careful with it.

Never dealt with Boss/Roland personally. The manual states that you can send the unit for any repairs or take it to an authorized service center, so I suppose you are covered.

I chose this product for the amount of features for the money. There are several other samplers out there for around the same price, but might have less or no effects or something else. This sampler is great for beginning samplists and for use in bands, but would also be great for a DJ or techno artist. Really a great product, versatile and packed.

Very easy to use. Big fat backlit buttons tell you what sample is playing. If you've never used a sampler before, just download the
SP-02 Turbostart Acrobat file from http://www.rolandgroove.com/sp202ts.pdf and you're on your way.

MAKE SURE YOU PURCHASE SMARTMEDIA CARDS. You can ge the 2 & 4 MB cards at your local camera ship - just make sure that they are the 5 volt version, not the 3.3 volt version. Without a Smartmedia card, you only have 32 seconds of 32,000 Hz, mono sound and you can't access banks C & meaning you only have 8 banks to work with. With a 2MB card you get 5, and 9 with a 4MB.

Otherwise, you've probably already read about all the features - I'll just provide a little insight in the expressiveness/sounds section.

'Pitch' can run with any other effect and does not affect the polyphony. Unfortunately you can only pitch everything, or nothing. If you want to beatmatch samples, you either have to compress/expand it on your computer or use the 'Time' feature. The 'Time' compress/expand algorithm isn't that impressive. It works, but it's better to do it on your computer. 'Delay' is great. What more can I say? 'Filter 1' seems to be just a straight cutoff filter, 'cuz every sampler's gotta have one. 'Filter 2' is a cutoff filter with the resonance set way up for a steeper sound. 'Ring Mod' you just can't explain. Run your voice through it, and you sound like a robot. Run anything else through it, well, it's different every time.
It's too bad the effects cut down on the polyphony, although I HAVE noticed that if you have samples sampled at different rates, you can run 1 pad with an effect, as well as 2 pads with no effect, as compared to the usual 1 pad with effect, 1 pad without.
The 4 note polyphony is a drag, but if you're smart you can get around it quite easily. It is no longer a major concern for me.
You can also run a line in, mic in, or the built in mic through the box and allpy 'Filter 1', 'Filter 2', and 'Ring Mod' in realtime. Very impressive. This little box is packed with great features.

I have used this thing on countless gigs without a backup. My favourite, smallest, most lightweight, reliable piece of gear. Although I think it may have crashed on me once, so I can't give it a perfect 10 - but I didn't lose any samples.

Never had to use customer support. The Roland Groovezone has some neat stuff on it though, check it out at: http://www.rolandgroove.com/

I find this little box invaluable - not a studio sampler in the least, but the most fun I've had in years. I'm never selling this one.

This is my first sampler and without any experience I was jammin' in five seconds. Just push buttons and you're there.

Polyphony of four but if u use effects then the polyphony is reduced.
The effects are very cool - ring modulator, two filters, pit