Boss SP-303 Dr. Sample

you need to read the manual to learn to do stuff like edit samples, truncate, or record a pattern, but fortunately the manual is clearly written, so it isn't hard to get the hang of this thing.

pos: the cutoff is a decent effect on some sounds. the isolator is great. the reverse is great, i find myself using that a lot. the pitch can sound cool sometimes. recording and editing samples is really easy once you read the section in the manual about it. the pattern sequencer isn't really that bad except for something i'll mention in the cons.

cons: from what i've heard, with the boss 404, the next model up, you can be playing a pattern, and then make the next pattern can be sequenced to come on perfectly on time, right after the first one ends. i don't think the 303 will do this. i made a song with several drum patterns, and i have to push the pad to change the pattern right at the exact time the one that's currently playing ends, so the rythm isn't quite perfect, and if you're recording something, you can hear the ******* in the rythm. most of the effects aren't that cool, and if you put them on a sound, you'll hear more of the effect than the sample. another BIG con is that you have to plug it in, when the 404 is battery powered. also, another BIGGY is that there is not near enough space on the internal memory, and there are only eight pads per bank, and only four banks, assuming you have a memory card. i fill up the pads really quickly. i need more.

i have no complaints about the sound quality. no degradation in quality between the source of the sample and the sample once it's on the pad. good job on that. it's not velocity sensative, which sucks, but i can't afford an akai.

DO NOT EVER TURN IT OFF WHILE IT'S TRUNCATING! i did it, and it ******* up my memory card. not that bad, but there's a glitch when i use the referse effect on a long sample on bank c or d. my fault though, it says not to do that in the manual.

never dealt withem.

overall...this is a GREAT sampler for the price. it's awesome, especially if you've never used a sampler before. it will change the way you write/play music. opens so many new doors. BUT...my advice would be to BUY THE BOSS 404 INSTEAD because it uses batteries, so now you have sampler and a great quality field recorder! and the 404 has four more pads per bank, and more banks, and it takes a flash drive so you can use more space. plus, their pretty much the same price on ebay. i bought my 303 a couple weeks ago, and i just bought a 404 for less actually. i'm going to sell the 303. i'm not hating on it though, it badass and cheap, but just get the damn 404.

If you look at the manual once, you shouldn't have a problem again... it seems wierd at first without a screen but its intuitive in its own way.

The effects are great... especially the vinyl simulator.

its a sampler, obviously the sounds depend on your creativity

the only thing that looks breakable are the knobs

never tried it

I would definitely buy another one... and am going to. I had one a couple years ago but sold it and bought an MPC60... now, other than the feel of the pads, THAT was a piece of crap. Other than the Roger Linn quantizing and the pads, an old MPC is useless and ridiculously overpriced. Besides, if you aren't making some crunk bulls*** what do you need quantizing for anyways? Listen to Madlib, he does everything sample-related on this machine. Its much more fun than an MPC. Give it a chance.

The SP-303 is without a doubt the instrument I could do the least with on my own - the manual is indispensable with this one. This has become less of an issue now that Roland US made the manual available on-line (make sure you have an American e-mail address, otherwise the system will ignore you). But even with the manual, the insane key combinations and cryptic three-digit LED display is likely to drive you insane.

The SP-303 is a very basic and rather poorly thought out piece of kit that sacrifices everything for portability and immediacy - and then fails to deliver either of these. Without the option of being battery-powered, it's decidedly less portable than its predecessor, the SP-202, and hardly any better. Yes, the specs may look impressive, but that's what it does on a good day, giving you a headache in the process.

Also, think about what it has to offer: for instance, 200 minutes of sampling time sounds amazing, but in case you need to edit the recording, you'll be in for a hell of a headache. And forget about transferring samples back and forth between the SP-303 and your computer for editing and storage right now via the SmartMedia card - it doesn't work.

It's MIDI specifications are very basic. There is no option of transposing a sample through MIDI note numbers, straightforward pad triggering only (it does respond to velocity via MIDI, thank God). As for the internal sequencer, I dare you to use it and get something done - you're better off triggering the samples manually all night long.

There is something where SP-303 does a half-decent job, and that's sampling. It's pretty straightforward, the samples sound good (to check out some of the songs I used it on, e-mail me), and the overload indicator is very helpful - I'd had less clipping with the SP-303 than with all the pro gear I've used since. But try to do anything slightly more advanced with that sample, be it editing, effecting, moving, or exporting, and you're back in hell again.

The effect particularly are just waiting to drive out of your mind: not only is their specified number a blatant lie, most of them are totally useless, while the rest are of really poor quality. Be careful with tempo-based effects as they'll only follow the sample's supposed BPM - there is no way you can switch the timing to follow the external MIDI clock, which is a great shame. So in order to properly delay a short vocal sample, you either have to record some silence after it to make the BPM right, or you have to duplicate it an "delay" it manually in your sequencer.

I've had it for one year and nothing went wrong, nor did it seem that it was about to. The build quality seemed decent enough for the money, but it did freeze on me a few times, which would be very awkward during a gig and it's something no back-up can protect you against. The manual warns that you should never turn it off if it stops responding as you can lose your data, but if it doesn't wake back up after fifteen minutes, what will you do?

Roland don't have official customer support in Slovenia anymore, but their former authorised dealer still gladly repairs their equipment for reasonable prices. Top marks for the local guys, then.

There's only one thing you really need to know about the SP-303 if you're a prospective buyer: read some professional reviews very carefully, more than once if necessary. Go for the bare facts, they'll tell you what the SP-303 can do, and don't go buying it thinking it can do a whole lot more like I did - because it won't.

Also, if you're putting together a bedroom studio and you think that you don't need a professional sampler unit, again like I did, you are wrong. Seriously, for the money, you can get an older Akai or Emu unit that'll do most things the SP-303 would, and lots, lots more. The SP-303 is a totally closed system that you're likely to outgrow very quickly. In case you don't need to carry your sampler around a lot and don't mind a few menus to step through, get something else.

Very simple. Instant gratification. This is NOT a machine that will have your head in the manual. It's like a fisher price, 'my first sampler,' kinda box. Yes, it's really that easy to use.

Polyphony is set at 8, but you can re-sample till your hearts desire. The effects are good (personal opinion).. I don't get hung up with needing a certain reverb (hall, stage, stadium etc) just let me adjust the parameters till I get what I desire. The 303 lets me do this. I like the effects, and the ways you can bend up samples. It's the perfect companion to the mpc's because the 303 does what the mpc's can't, and the mpc does what the 303's can't. BTW, the sequencer on the 303 is WACK!

It's sounds good to me, but I make hip-hop.. not rap.. Honestly, if you are making anything that requires a polished sound, this may not be for you. If your looking for lexicon effects, look elsewhere. If you desire the cleanest samples, I wouldn't even waste your money. Techno, house, hip-hop, rock and roll and even R&B will beneift from the 303. I'm not saying it can't produce clean results, because it can, but don't expect the 303's compression effect to match an avalon.. know what I mean.

Never failed on me... it's even fell on my floor a few times!

Never delt with them.

Yes, I only paid $35 for it, and that's the only reason I own it. A true blessing. Anyways, let me give you the bad side of the 303. It came with a 32 meg card (or something in that area), so I'm thinking, cool.. I got plenty of space for my samples. Well, yes and no. First, let me say that I don't sample more than a few seconds. mainly kicks snares, etc, and I like to re-sample my own tracks to create intro's/outro's etc. Ok, so I put in a few kicks, snares, and fill up the internal memory (banks A and B), now I go and fill up banks C and D with additional hi-hats, snares etc. In total, I MAY have used up 2 megs from my total storage, that leaves me with 30 megs free right... Correct, but since I don't have any more banks left, those additional megs are left unused. There's no way to access the space that I need.. in fact, when I go to sample another little 20k kick, the 303 displays a message saying the memory is full. WHA.DA.YA MEAN THE MEMORY'S FULL?? I GOT 30+ MEGS LEFT. This is my gripe with the SP's.. they don't take advantage of the memory. In fact, they even have a new model, the SP-606 that can hold up to 6 hours of music.. yes, 6 hours, but I think it has the same problem as all the previous models (I could be wrong, but I think I'm 98% correct though) So come-on Boss/roland, do the SP series some justice and upgrade the OS to utilize it's memory.

I feel compelled to give this thing a bit higher a rating on account of what I use it for. The simple fact is that the on board sequencer, time stretch capabilities, and bpm funtions are not very easy to use at all, espeacially if you are used to either software samplers or hardware with extensive menus and cut and paste options. Regardless, for my needs, the functions I actually use are a breeze to figure out. I play bass, and wanted an easy to use device for playback of the ambient sounds, vocal samples(from films ect.), and snipits of noise in a live enviroment. The only problem is that I had to purchase a separate midi controller that I could trigger with my feet. I picked up one of the more expensive models, but only bc I have a bunch of rack gear that I needed to controll as well.
Soooo....if you want a little sturdy box, that samples and re-samples very easily, with lots of neat effects and is easily controllable via midi....then this is the thingy for you.

On board effects are pretty well defined....all good for mangling any sounds you load into it. Ive learned that vocals sound really good, when processed through this thing, and if you want retro lo-fi samples, then it scores in that catagory as well.
The sequencer is pretty crappy, so if you want to make complex beat patterns, you'd be better off buying a deticated drum machine, or proffesional sampler like an AKAI or similar.

Its a sampler...the sounds are up to you

But it is not velocity sensative nor are the pads organized in any traditional keyboard type layout(ala electribe)...think of severly poor copies of AKAI pads

its BOSS...so its built like a cinder block

before I bought my midi pedal I actually attached raised buttons to certain pads and set it on my pedal board....used it like a pedal....not even a scratch

Havn't dealt with'em....but I've heard its shite

probably wouldn't buy another if it was lost or stolen. Id most likely opt for something a bit more expansive and expanable.

its great for what it does, and I could see myself using it for years down the line.

Not Sure Of software version..........
Of coaurse I deleted the preset samples including the former owners southern drawl "Yeah".........
Editing takes a bit of getting use to, efects are easy to access.
Had the manual with it havent realy read it yet. STill want to get a 64mb smart media card for it so samples can be biger and longer.

Ofcourse it doesnt have a keyboard built in but triggering with one is realy easy.
The built in efects are realy realy usefull for me(especialy "Lo-Fi"), I like the sounds. easy as well.
As far as expantion you can add a smart media card up to 64mb.
The trigger pads are nice and big and the lights help to remember what pad you just triggered.
Only a midi in........ that sort of sucks........
I havent used the onboard sequencer yet.

ofcourse the sounds are up to you(it is a sampler right?)..
I could use this in any type of music.......
Once again the effects are nice and I find them usefull.
No velocity or after touch, but what can you expect for so inexpensive.

I have owned the SP-202 and never had it fail on me...
I expect it should be the same, I would gig without a backup.
But ofcourse I dont have money for two of them...............HEHEH

Delt with roland before had good and bad experiances with them.....

If it were stollen I would get another...... If it were lost I would be a dumb crap for loosing it! I would say it was worth the tag price.
I have been playing for 12years on guitar mainly and I also play bass drums and keys. SO this is a great addition.
I have way to much gear to list.
I looked at Korg and yamaha samplers, they realy didnt have as many features and goodies.
USB would be a nice addition........
I like it alot!!!!!!!
GET ONE!

This is my first piece of equipment after using a computer for 5+ years. It took me a couple hours to guide myself through all the features, then I was ready to do some sampling and sequencing.

First of all, you need a smart media card, because the onboard memory is not enough. After that, the major limiting feature is the polyphony (8). The Boss website gave me the impression that I could create a pattern and resample it to a pad. I'm working on a beat with 3 sounds layered to create the snare sound, and there is no way to resample all three of these sounds at once to one pad. Also, since you can't resample drum patterns to pads, if you want to make a reasonable length pattern you have to spend forever placing every single piece of percussion. The effects are great, in my opinion, and easy to use. The big drawback on the effects is that only one pad can have effects at any one time. This means you have to resample constantly, and effects like reverb suffer from not being generated in realtime. Finally, the fact that the headphone volume is controlled by the master volume is annoying, especially because this thing is not very loud and you always need to have the volume cranked up to the max. This also makes noise a problem when recording off of it. Bottom line: don't make this your only piece of equipment.

I use this for hip hop. It does not work very well for hip hop music, because of the polyphony and sequencing. I think it would be great for a live DJ, because you could add effects and have some good basic drum patterns stored. The pads are not velocity sensitive, but at this price you can't expect them to be.

I have not had any problems yet. I bought it new.

I have not had to get any repairs, or contact Boss.

I would not buy it again if it were lost or stolen. My advice to anyone looking to make this their first piece of equipment: you will need to add a sequencer or drum machine to this anyway, so save your money and get a different all-in-one package with more polyphony, a better sequencer, and more outputs.

This is my first machine of any kind besides a computer and after 15 min. I was up and running with own sampels, sequences and everything...Very easy to read and the manual tells you everything you need...The only thing that sets the SP-303 back when it comes to easy of use is that it has a bit to few buttons and knobs. The ones who are the are really great, but some manouvers takes a bit to much time when I play it live...

There is a Stereo RCA & Microphone 1/4" in, and a Stereo RCA out and headphones. The microphone line can be run trough the sampler and you can add effects to it and easily change the volume. On thing thats very annoying is that you can't change the volume of the headphones, they only follow the volume of the sampler. The polyphony is 8, witch is not enough, but alot at this very affordable price..It has trhee knobs to tweak the 26 effects, wich I must say i think is all nice. Filter+ Drive, Pitch, Vinyls Sim, Delay, Isolator have its own buttons while the reast of the effects much be selected while a knot. The different buttons are nice and red. They are soft and with nice sensetivity. There is a three digit display wich is ok for showing numbers(BPM, Volum) but show some pretty cryptic messages the rest of the time. This is no problem since the 303 is so easy to use.
You can change the speed of your sampels but this does not work very vell, you get a lot of clicks and fuzz.

You can use smart mediacards up to 64 MB. They can contain Wav or Aiff files wich can be imported to the samplers own format. This is very good, I bought 4 or 5, 32MB cards and use one per song. The smartmediacards (and big nice pads)is one of the best parts of the sampler.

The sounds are great(due to the fact they are all mine).

It have actually "chrashed" one time what I learned from this is that if you are going to overwrite your cards you must format the card first. If you don't format you might end up with some really screwed up mixes of the old and new sampels. With the right use this works fine, but its not rock solid.

I bought this form a local dealer and his very nice, never talked to BOSS.

I must say I don't have much to compare with, but imust say im very pleased with the SP-303. Now after a couple of months I'm going to buy a drum machine to have beside it so i can use its some limitided polyphony to sampels of other kind than drums. I use this togheter with a trompetist and a guitarst, and mostly playing not programing so the sequencer part of the sampler is not so well known to me but I have used it and it works fine. It doesent only help me make music, but it helps me play music that is what I like about it, you kan play your sampels and add effects and use it as a instrument live. If it was stolen i would buy another one. This is not the greatest tool on the marked but it really is a value-for-money best buy.

yeah, it's pretty easy to use, hit record, press what pad you want to record in and hit record again.. the auto record is a good function, that's helped a lot. i tweek sounds in sound forge and then record them to the sp303 and it's good that i dont have to set the two going at once. the pattern sequence is easy.. too easy. too basic. this thing in general is too easy/basic. there's not much to get too indepth about. its easy to use because there's NOTHING to use.

eight note polyphony in one single bank unless you have an external controler (which i have). if i didn't i'd be majorly pissed off. and also if you want velocity sensitive keys blah blah blah. the effects are pretty good, some good ones, some really useless ones (vinyl sim. what the hell is this!?) and some which just blow (-cough- time compression expansion -cough-) and pitch to some extent.. generally pissweak, but the fact you can change them in real time is good. the selecting of pads to be effected on the fly is really annoying. i might just be a moron but it really is bad. i'm often setting the fx on two samples at once or stopping one sample.. ugh. ooh, and the different recording options- lofi - for extra long samples with a "good distortion". it's just rolands way of saying "hey! we're just trying to find a use for this useless function" NO ONE wants to record in 8 bit sound!

Being a phrase sampler, it's GIGO (garbage in garbage out) pretty much. i am kinda pissed about the phrase sampler.. (you can't play samples like a piano for those who don't know) but it generally works well for what it does. the fact that it comes with a "whopping" *snigger* 30 seconds sample time on two banks is just pitiful. i coughed up $100 bucks for a 32 meg flash card so i get 16 mintues sampling time divided between 16 pads. i was also pissed off about this. i dont really have much use for 16 1 minute samples (although the style of music i do i not unlike the avalanches so that means really long samples) but i was expecting the 16 minutes to be spread across all four banks. no, i've got 2 really long banks and two banks that are as useless as a pedal powered wheel chair. i'm once again dissapointed by the fact that the resample option cannot be transferred across banks and the rediculus price of flash cards. though, i've found a bit of a way out of this, i line up 2 different samples in stereo and then record them in stereo onto the sampler. i have one side going into one channel on the desk and the other into a seperate channel. so, when i progress through all 16 samples in a show, i just flip the faders and i have another 16 samples. poor? yes it is. but hey, this is what i'm reduced to. I'd buy another flash card if they didn't cost an arm and leg. once again, i'd like to point out how bad the sequencer in this is. REALLY BAD people. very basic, no undo features, only has 99 bars, ugh.

this thing's never crashed on me. nothing's broken yet and all the pretty pads still light up. i'm annoyed that this didn't have a battery option like the 202 did. if it did i would have used it just walking around. but no, it didn't. for shame roland. the knobs are pretty sturdy too. i wouldn't try running it over in my car though.

I freakin' hate customer support. even their freakin website blows anus. i couldn't find jack on it. they're obviously not putting the money they saved on customer support into R and D so where's it going? probably up the poop chute of some executive. sorry. i know that was uncalled for but i'm damn well fed up with unhelpful helplines.

If it was naffed, i would be pissed until i got insurance on it and then i'd keep the money and not buy another one. Definately not worth paying more than a few hundred for. I'm envious of all the people who made the smart choice and coughed up for an mpc2000. man i wish i had one of those babys. The best thing about this is that you dont have to load samples into the ram. they're always there.. but then you can't change them, so that sucks even more. i currently own the 303 and sequence it with an old Yamaha RX5 which does a moderately good job. Yeah, it's definate competitor would have to be the mpc2000 which just shites all over the 303. i wish this thing had.. the ablity to hold more samples. it's very annoying. if you're thinking of buying one dont say "oh, 32 samples is enough for me" IT'S NOT! trust me. it would be easier if i just samples whole songs on there and just hit play. i dont do that because it's increadibly stupid. It's good for an FX unit. the fact that it only supports RCA in's and out's is a real pain in the scrotum too. stock up on 1/4 in adapters if you buy it. and a flash card. it's useless without one. Oh, and no midi through line either. That's another real gripe i have. it wouldn't have been that hard to put one in roland. sheesh. Maybe i'm expecting too much. but i really dont think so...

no short falls here, just read the manual and apply the instructions. i havent utilized it in my musical setup yet in regards to midi - will see how it fairs there...

since i'll be using it in cooperation with my midi keyboard (mapping pads/samples to keys for playback) it has all i need. the sequencer is only usable for creating small, loopable patterns. things move out of sync eventually if your using it for song compostions (and generally low flexibility). effects pretty good, some are almost disregardable though.

depends mainly on your samples (of course), but general sound quality is fine. effects quality is fine. one thing that is a bit of a bugger, is that if you transport your samples to computer via smart media card, they appear as .sp0 files which currently (as far as i know) cant be converted to .wav. (if you find a way, please email me at daves_big_toe@hotmail.com)

no worries mate. all is swell, would recomend for gig usage (note: have not utilized midi capabilities yet!)

cant get a bloody local contact (in Aus) to ask about a few minor things.

if stolen, i would save up and get a more pro sampler (akai et.) as i am progressing music wise. good, basic, first sampler though.
will be using it with my yamaha psr540 keyboard for triggering of samples, see how that goes eh? ;-)
wish samples could at least be converted to .wav files when transferred to computer (saves re-recording). would rather do away with sequencer and see the price lowered.
again, fine for a first sampler though. besides, im only 15 and not exactly bill gates, so low price was a big attraction.