Yamaha SU-200

This is a very easy box to use. Editing the samples is done by start and end point values; there is no wave form picture to cut up. The manual makes sense and explains everything well.

It has 6 voice mono polyphony which is ok for this box. The pads are easy to trigger. The built in effects are easy to use, and are decent. There is a 'scale' feature that I really like that lets you play a sample at different octaves like a small keyboard. That's my favorite feature. You can save sounds onto a memory card SmartMedia which is nice, also you can load sounds onto the sampler from a memory card. I can't remember the exact amount of sampling time, its something like 3 minutes at 22Khz which is not so terrible. It also has a stereo left and right 1/4" output which is interesting and can be used for clever purposes. It has a MIDI in jack so you can trigger samples from a keyboard or similar device. There is no onboard sequencer, but there is a loop-sync feature which synchronizes playback of looped samples at a specified BPM(although the sound quality of looped samples tends to suffer). It's real simple.

The sampling rate of 22Khz isn't CD quality but it isn't bad. I used the sampler for hip hop music but I sampled classical, rock and roll, and movies and it works fine for all of it. The onboard effects are good in general. I liked to 'filter' the 'audio in' pad when I had drums playing in. The pads are not velocity sensitive. You can set a sample to play while you hold the pad down or play all the way through when you press the pad, and if it's a looped sample in this case it will continue to play until you press the pad again. It does what it is supposed to. This isn't good for picking up low sound frequencies so its not great for bass.

I can depend on this box to do what it is supposed to. The only time I would use it without any other instruments or boxes would be to play through a beat loop for people to freestyle rap over.

I've never had a problem with this and haven't had to ask for any support. By the way, I got a AC adaptor for this box from Radio Shack because it was cheaper than Yamaha's power unit, and I've been using it for a year without any ill effects yet.

If this box was lost or stolen, I wouldn't get another one just because I have two other samplers now. If I had all my gear stolen I would consider getting it again. I have been using this box for 1 year and I have been making beats for 6 years. I also have a Roland MC-09 PhraseLab, Boss SP-505 Sampling Workstation, Zoom MRT-3 Drum Machine, Korg Electribe-A, and a Yamaha DGX202 keyboard.
I love the fact that it is so simple to sample anything with, and the 'scale' effect for me is a real huge plus. I love its simplicity. I hate the fact that it has no sequencer on it, and that the loops sound crummy when you try to synchronize them at times. That's it. I originally got this for the price; it was cheap and its main function was sampling. It is the cheapest sampling unit I could find that had its features. Like I said before, if this had a sequencer, it would be very sweet. The main reason it helps me make music is because I can take it anywhere to sample, and I can play samples on an octave scale like a keyboard. For me it is a luxury to have a sampler like this which I can use in conjunction with my other equipment.

It is very easy to use especially with the instruction manual but you will need a tiny bit of electrical knowledge.

It has 7 effects distortion/lo-fi, Delay, Loop remix, time, filter, tech mod and reverse. It has A MIDI out socket you can trigger your samples from a MIDI keyboard. There is no touch responce.

It is best for making practicly anything you want it is not designed for any kind of music but if you are targeting a very precise type of music you might (not usually) have some problems. It depends about the sourse your sampling off of course but the sound quality is baseicly the same as the sourse so about CD quality.

It is very reliable you can nearly always depend on it. it even has a feature that lets you lock your samples so no on can delete over them by accident without unlocking it. It tells you in the manual how to do it.

I have no idea ive never had to ring it that if you think about it is very good all i needed for a short while from when I got it was a big manual reading session.

I would say the SU-200 for the little sampler it is is a very good buy. I f it had got stolen I might have not brought another one because i would like to explore other samplers not because it was bad. It helps me loads to make music it is my main tool. If you are professinal and wants the best maybe try the SU-700 or something else this is the best sampler for a begginer. It also is suitible for someone that does not want to pay a big price for a sampler. My overal rating a very good buy!!!

Well... ...in fact it's easy to use, maybe because it's a very limited unit.
It is my first sampler(?) but not my first piece of gear and anyone that owns good quallity equipment will be disapointed with it.
So whay did I bought it?
Because what I realy need is a sample player to take my computer edited samples live!
So, as I said, very easy to use!
There's a manual also(!) very clear(it even tels you what's the machine's downs, oppositly to magazine revews and brochure!).

Ho yes! If you want this baby-phrase-sampler to work properly, your permanently stuck in 22.05kHz rate! Otherwise thers lots of clicks and noise.
I like(not much) all the fx except the delay. It's a crappy delay sim. The unit actually plays the sample twice stealing one voice in polyphony. This delay unit can just do one delay each time, so if you want a sound with more than one delay you must resample.
Talking about resamplig: users will note that sound quallity gets worst everytime you resample. That's probably caused by a BAD INTERNAL PROCCESSING!

Static sample player!
Don't expect great quallity!

Never let me down.
I will use it in gigs as sampler player(for spoken words and ambient sounds).
Let's face it: it's too weak to fail. Don't have enought specs to crash!

Don't know!

Hardsamplers are still very expensive, but if you want a SAMPLER you are loosing money buying this thing.
If was stolen, I would say: "thank you very much, now I will buy a real sampler!"
Well, not all bad things: you can take it everywere to pick about 1 minute and half of sound at 22.05kHz without beeing afraid of robbers, as SmartMedia slot(NICE!!!) and is very direct.

This thing is extremely easy and kinda fun to use. If you have half a brain figuing out this is no problem, as everything is clearly labeled. Mine came with no manual, but i was able to download one.

As long as the samples you are playing together are all of the same quality it sounds good. The effects are cool and easy to use, though I wish it could do several effects at once. The are limited to one part. There is no onboard sequencer as there really isn't a need for. It has a smartmedia card slot, but I don't have a card for it as I don't need one at the moment.

People who bought this and gave it a bad review didn't relize what it is and what it's intended to do. It's not so much a tradional sampler, but more like the hardware equivilent of Acid. So far I've been useing it to created music using samples I get from old records and loop, kinda like early Dust Brothers. There is no difficulty playing it, push a button, it plays the sample. There's not really any aftertouch or velocity. I found the loop remix effect an original and great effect. The other ones (filter, tech mod, slice, distortion/Lo-Fi, and delay) to sound pretty good as far as onboard effects go, but they can only be applied to one sample at a time.

I bought mine used off eBay and the line inputs were a little shady, but I fixed them myself. It feels kinda cheap but it's alot sturdier than it feels. The hollow feeling it has is from the battery compartment( which is essential to how i use it). I have used it a gig, and there was no problems. For the people who think something has to be built like a tank to gig with, I wonder what the hell they're doing with it.

Yamaha is great for customer service. Practically all their manuals are available on online. Getting a manual is the most I've ever had to deal with Yamaha, because they don't make crap.

Over all it's fun to use. It's not a traditional sampler like an Akai, but as I said earlier, a hardware version of Acid and all those other "instant music" programs. I carry mine around play with as much as I can. If it were stolen, I'd be really pissed. I wouldn't be able to buy a new one given I'm a poor college student, but I'd sure beg my mommy to buy me a new one. The SU 200 is fun, easy, inexpensive, and a great piece of hardware for a begginer, or an expierianced musician.

Pretty easy to use. For the most part, I figured out everything that it could possibly do within an hour while checking out stuff at Guitar Center. The initial presets sounded awesome while I was playing with it in the store. Doing anything with it was pretty easy - but trying to get it to do what I really wanted was right near impossible.

I couldn't figured out (probably because I didn't really read the manual) why it appeared that sometimes I could play 6 samples at a time, other times 4, and yet other times only 2! Then I read the fine print... I don't quite understand how technology today can be so advanced in some areas - yet some manufactures can't figure out how to play more than 2 CD-quality sound samples (which, combined - will be less than 33 seconds long) at the same time. Why are these types of devices even still made?

The effects are cool though (except for the scratch). Although the scratch-pad is useful a method of editing effects (when the scratch-pad is off, you can use it as the "second" effect variable). It recieves MIDI clock signals from my Roland D2 just fine. I do have to say that the fact that the smart-media can take WAV files is also pretty cool.

Baseline - sampling is very limited, but some of the effects are very cool... But then again - if I wanted something just to have cool effects, I would have bought an effects processor - it probably would have been cheaper.

Truthfully, I haven't heard many of the preset sounds (other than the ones I heard in the store)... In fact, I don't even know if I got a CD with other presets. Either way - as soon as I got it, I wanted to test it's recording capabilities... I guess you could say that it might work good for dance and rap music. But that's probably about it. The recording quality is not that great. Additionally - you're kind of forced to record in standard (22kHz) mode since you can't use the effects on hiqual (44kHz) samples.

The only reason why I don't give this a rating of a 1 or 2 is just because of that cool remix-loop function. It can make poorly recorded samples sound kind of cool (again, probably only useful for dance/rap music, though).

Looks cool (in the case) - but feels like it's pretty flimsy. If I took it to a gig, I wouldn't have it do anything vital (or keep it somewhere that it could fall easily).

Never tried to contact them... I don't think I'll ever have to contact them either... I plan on taking this back for a full refund.

This is not your studio-quality sampler. This is the "Ford Pinto" of samplers in my opinion. Which is fine for a few people, but probably not for most. It just left me wishing it could do so much more. It may be useful for some of my DJ jobs (record a few phrases here and there, then run them through effects while mixing from one song to the next).

I was very disapointed with the expectations I built up by using it in the store. I would not buy another one of these - in fact - I'm going to try to take it back. Good effects capabilities, but very bad sampling capabilities... They might as well called it a "sample-capable effects processor" instead. I'm going to try to get an old Roland SP-808 instead; I've seen them on ebay for as cheap as $400.00. I figure - after you pay for the SU200 along with it's NOT INCLUDED, YET VERY PROPRIETARY Yamaha AC Adaptor - It costs almost the same as a piece of studio-quality equiptment.

Easy as spinning your arms in different directions, once you get familiar with it. You can learn almost every aspect of SU200 in a single day. Editing is simple mostly due to the limited options. (all useful though). Manual was clear, but took a while to find the full memory reset function (useful when you have SmartMedia card) which was hidden in troubleshooting pages.

When thinking of buying this product you should consider the fact that its not designed to do everything. Unless you're going to stand in streetcorner rapping with battery powered speaker and "will rap for food" sign hanging in your neck. SmartMedia storage, big plus for that one. No midi sampledumb :(
Weird thing that samplerate jumps from 44.1 Khz to 22.05 Khz , so no 33 Khz available. (?) Loop Track play syncs samples to tempo, but buyers beware, this is in my opinion the best feature in this box but also it's biggest downfall.

Here's the tricky part. Units Loop Track play option can't handle low bumpin' baselines or low sounds whatsoever. This is told also in the manual, but some explanation would be nice? Some lines work like a dream. To get full potential from this unit you probably will be using 22.05 Khz mono samples.

I think you can depend on it to do what it does. On a gig I would probably use it for some hits and vocalsamples or maeby just plug in a mic and use effects for live output.

For me this unit is all about looking for inspiration. In my studio I load some percussionloops (without bass) into it and use it with midisync to record varying percussion lines into the sequencer. I think I got it cheap. (Price just dropped from 399 to 166 euro). Seems like sometimes gearfreaks like myself are so blinded by what you CAN'T do with certain units, so we keep forgetting what you CAN do with it. Don't make that mistake.

Wow! I was shocked to read the great reviews of this utterly worthless piece of crap. Yes it's easy to use, portable and the effects are cool, but that's it. NO ONE MENTIONED THAT THE SAMPLES SOUND AWFUL. The function that syncs all your samples together so you can change BPM, time strech and pitch makes all the samples "poppy". Maybe in a live situation this would be acceptable but YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THESE SAMPLES IN YOUR PROJECT STUDIO unless you want an ultra noisy sound. I even tried to filter out all the pops with every effect/compressor/noise reduction in the book and it's still there. Search the web my friends and you will find that people everywhere (except here) hate this box. ANYONE WANT TO BUY MINE?

barf in a cheap little plastic box

The SU-200 comes with a decent CD chalk full of samples., Some suck, while some are really slamming. As for the version, it just came out in May, so I'm pretty sure there's only one. Sample editing is amazing! Autosampling starts recording only when the sound reaches an easily selectable trigger level. You can resample into a pad by playing already loaded samples and apply effects. Overall, this machine is EXTREMELY easy to use, but that doesn't mean it's not full of features. The manual pretty much explains everything, even a few disappointing things, such as reduced polyphony with effects and time stretch (which I think is relatively useless because I've had poly reduced to 2, which includes the stretched sample (!!!) ) There's a button called loop TR mode that auto remixes all your loops to the same tempo, which is GREAT although time stretch does not work in this mode, another reason why it's useless. Also Loop TR lets you tap/set the tempo to any tempo you want really, but samples might distort/clip when they stray to far from their original BPM.

You can have up to 24 samples separated into 3 banks of 8 samples each, whereas only one bank at a time can be used in loop TR mode. The memory limit is 819kb is something around that, which is, I think, way too little, I was hoping for at least 1-2 megs of memory. So highquality and stereo samples really are just gimmicks on this machine unless you use very littl number of samples per song.
6 polyphony which gets reduced by one in scratch mode, and as low as 2 with the time effect.
Effects: Each effect is controlled by 2 parameters, which can be controlled by two effect knobs, or one knob and the ribbon controller (when not in scratch mode, which works great.)
The effects include a really impressive sounding filter with resonance and cutoff controls. I mean for a lowlevel sampler this thing really is fine sounding compared to the numerous crap I've heard on way more expensive units. The delay is ok, it could be way better and is limited to the length of the sample, so if you sample ends right at the end of the sound, you essentially won't get any delay. Also the level doesn't work well at all. The tech mod adds some weird metallic clangs to the sample and and LFO which can warble like mad. The distortion, lo-fi controls work really well over hard drum beats, makinf them sound pretty fat and dirty.The two loop based effects include slice, which makes some really cool choppy beats, slicing your sample up into parts and playing them at various rhythms based on the knob setup. The loop remix rearranges loops into completely new drumbeats/melody line and you can control how much it reverses parts of the sample. This is really cool for techno cause you could get that crazy tension building bass drum roll going pretty easy. The non-loop based effects also work on any audio input you may have plugged in (mic or line, not BOTH!!!) which is really cool for turntablists. I've actually used it with an electric guitar and it's pretty cool sounding. The audio in can be turned on and off like a ninth pad. You can also take a sample and reverse it, set it to gate or trigger and loop or oneshot on the fly.
The scratch effect is obviously digital sounding, but what do you expect? This isn't meant to replace vinyl scratching, and I don't think anything will ever come near it. But I have to admit, it's real fun to use the ribbon for scratching, and you can gert some odd sounds goin on in there. Also, when the ribbon is in effect mode, you can say you the tech mod and rub your finger in patterns and rhythms on the ribbon and get some really wicked sounding tones. The time stretch effect is pretty useless unless you really only working with that sample at one time. You'll never get a crazy beat going and use this because a) unless all your loops are in the same BPM you won't be able to use this in LOOP TR mode and b) the polyphony is greatly reduced. I really don't use this for any useful purpose, at least not yet. Only one effect can be applied to one sample at a time.
The sampling features work fine, no problems here at all. A explained above the autosampling makes recording samples really nice and quick, and resampling lets you improve and/or mix samples with other samples and effects or even line in. You can also set beginning and end points to adjust your loops or even mess with the sound. Once they're set, you can extract the part you don't use to save space. Also when setting the start/end, it displays the exact byte you're at and the resulting bpm the sample would be played at. VEry cool.
The smartcard was a very good idea for two reasons: They're small and they can hold lots of memory (up to 64 mb for 3.3V) you can export/import WAV files and SU200 volumes (which are all 24 samples at a time, you can't load only one bank at a time, unfortunately) or you can load one sample at a time. The only problem with this, and this applies to deleting and extracting, too: IT IS REAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY slow. Expect to wait at

The effects sound great. The delay could've been made a little better, and I wish the time stretch didn't suck so much power. The effects feel full, and not thin at all. The CD samples are pretty cool, I've used them for my DJ show at school and they're great. The sample CD even comes with premade groups of samples that fill one bank at a time, so you can get a feel of what you can do on this machine. The output is great, no crackling at all. The only problem is that you really can only use 22Khz (mono) quality samples if you plan to use the sampler extensively. So you're not getting CD quality here, but for live situations, thats not that big a deal. I don't plan to record with this other than for it's effects.

This thing is made a light, somewhat cheap plastic. KEep this thing protected like a baby, cause it's gonna break if something falls on it or it falls more than 2 feet. I use this thing when I DJ all the time and it's super reliable other than the fact that its SLOW to load and delete samples (although for quick delete you can hold three buttons when you power on and the whole thing deletes at once very quickly)
I wouldn't need a backup for this. The only problem here is the fact that it's so delicate. The knobs are tough though, I use them and abuse em regularly and they keep up. The ribbon is built to last although it could be smoother.

I never needed them, because the manual prety much tells all, and even if it didn't, you'd probably figure it out in 10 minutes anyway.

Also, I had to pay 31.95 CDN plus taxes for the AC adapter, which I really don't appreciate, considering most adapters are under 20$, but the threat in the manual of any other adaptewr fryin the thing doesn't leave you much choice. This thing takes batteries (8 AA), but I havn't tried that yet. This really sucked and brought the total of the unit with taxes to 700$ CDN. I wasn't expecting to pay 40$ more than expected, and not only that, the adaptor IS HUGE! If you don't have those special wall wart power bars the load the plugs sideways, this is definately one for the bottom of the bar. I've never seen an adaptor this big since the 80's.

I really, really enjoy this unit. Of course it's not anywhere close to the higher end stuff like the su700, but it has features you find only on the higher end stuff. I wish it had volume control per sample on the fly rather than going thru menus to do it. I've had this thing for 2 months now and havn't had one problem with it. If I lost it, I probably would save up for something bigger, but if my budget was the same, I would buy it again. Nothing else I saw in this price range came close, except some Korg which I think is mentioned also in another review above, except that one is more expensive and has a sequencer(?) IF you want a serious sampler,I would consider more buyinga used higher end sampler for the same price. This is definately a DJ tool, and not much more, but it is a VERY COOL and useful DJ tool, and it will help you improve your set greatly. It is possible to do an entire song yourself on this thing if you create your own loops on computer, for example.All in all, I think this unit is worth a serious look.

sorry, don't know about the version of this thing i have, but since
yamaha put it out not long ago, i guess there's just one version. the
presets are pretty good to play around w/, but hey, who buys a
sampler, & then just uses the preset samples? get rid of them, &
getting serious, i say.
the manual is very easy to understand! w/ a lot of samplers, you have
to read the whole thing several times before you can do anything - w/
this baby, you just start jamming & playing around, & whenever you
have a problem, your refer to the manual. after about an hour or so,
you know it all!
realtime playing etc is very easy & comfortable, same w/ using the
effects etc, same w/ recording samples. the only thing i still have
slight problems w/ is editing samples, although this works much better
than w/ the Boss SP-202, the only other low-budget desktop phrase
sampler so far (since those two are in the same proce-class, i'll sort
of compare them at certain points..)

the polyphony on this baby is 6. that is, it can play 6 mono samples
recorded in STD mode. if you use effects, however, or scratch, or
timestretch, the poly will be reduced. the worst thing that happened
to me so far was a reduction of polyphony to 4, which still shouldn't
be a problem. (the SP-202 has a standard poly of 4, which is reduced
to 2 if you use effects.) now that IS some difference, right.. you can
record 44.1 khz samples (STD is 33.25, i believe), but then you can
apply no effects and the poly is only 2. stereo recording of samples
also reduces the poly. w/ these limitations, the SU-200 is still by
far the best thing you can get for that money, & there are no major
letdowns!
the effects are pretty to real good. 'tech mod' is a ring mod type of
thing, 'filter' is great & does just what it says, just as
'dist/lo-fi'. i'm not so sure about the delay, depends on how long the
samples are. 'slice' is a great effect, works like a clipper, cuts up
the sample. 'loop-remix' is wonderful! remixes the loop, so that you
have a completely new drum pattern, bass line, whatever..
all the effects can be modified in realtime w/ two knobs that respond
really good. clearly, somebody gave some thought to the effect
parameters, too!
one of the best features: resampling! you can resample in diff sample
grades, apply effects in real time, etc. a real plus, compared to the
SP-202!
you can also edit the start/end-point of the samples while they are
playing, which creates further never heard of before effects.
'scratch': not very realistic, but very cool for experimental music!
the 'tap' button works more or less like on every other sampler,
nothing special here.
the pads are not velocity sensitive, but pressure sensitivity works if
the machine is driven over a midi-sequencer. (the SU-200 has no
onboard sequencer..)
basic midi-features. no midi out, like on all the other similar
samplers.
expansion capabilities: there is a slot for smartmedia cards. the
SP-202 has this too, but there is a MAJOR difference here!: the SP-202
accepts ONLY roland-smartmedia cards! those are only available w/ 2MB
& 4MB RAM. 4MB cost about US$60 to 70! the SU-200 accepts all standard
3.3V smartmedia cards, the ones used for digital cameras, ranging from
2MB to 64MB RAM. those are becoming amazingly cheap these days, you
can get 32MB for about US$50! the price difference here was one of the
reasons that made me buy the yamaha unit instead of the boss/roland..

low grade samples sound pretty noisy & grungy, (like they should)
i think this machine was meant for djs, hiphop, techno, & drm'n'bss,
but it's not limited to those genres. i'm doing experimental
electronic music, w/ a lot of playing live & improvisation, & some
occasional drm'n'bass/triphop. it's perfect for me, too.
effects are good, like i said before.
the thing allows you to be very creative, the architecture and setup
don't limit yr flexibility.

it's VERY light, so don't drop it.
otherwise very reliable, do far. no lock-ups & stuff.. i gigged w/ it,
and will do it again!

no idea about that.
one problem w/ yamaha: they make you buy yamaha accesoirs, which can
be surprisingly expensive. w/ the SU-200, it is a special AC-adaptor,
at the price of about US$22. all other adaptors are said to destroy
thew unit. works w/ batteries too, though.

a wonderful little thing. not just a toy, like so many other small
desktop samplers.
at this price, a must-have. it'll be a classic sometimes in the future!
as i said, it works great for me, althoug sometime soon, i'll need a
more profesional unit. my setup usually consists of the SU-200, Boss
DR-202 used as drummachine & sequencer, a basic midi keyboard,
turntables, md-player, Behringer MX802A, several effect devices.
i just love the expansion capabilities, some of the effects, as well
as the price. couldn't do w/out it!
editing is easier than w/ other machines (very usefull graphic
display, but still can be a pain in the ass at times.
i'm thinking of buying a semi-professional akai sampler, or maybe the
SU-700. both have better expansion caps (akai even has a 3.5-floppy-drive),
and onboard sequencers.
the new korg ES-1 should also be looked at, i think. it's not much more
expensive than the yamaha SU-200, but has a pretty good sequencer, from
what i've heard, and also accepts smartmedia cards.

although this machine is on the market for some time now, it's not spoken
of often. in most magazines, it wasn't even reviewed. not many ppl
seem to have experiences w/ it, althoug it really IS much better than
the Boss SP-202. i don't quite understand why that is so, & this fact
almost made me buy something else, cause i thought, well, maybe some-
thing is really wrong w/ this unit. but that isn't so..

Pretty simple operation in that no menu deep items, all functions
are clearly displayed and I found the effects knobs to work much
better that it's rival Boss SP-202.( I've owned both now) Better poly
makes this easier to use as a sampler and SP-202ish lighted buttons
seem to be of equal quality. Resample option really shines!!!!

6 voice poly in mono, at first this seemed a let down but if you have
say...a Mackie mixer or like that does jack normaling,(i.e. routes the left input to stereo) you should'nt fear this. My Mackie made the
mono's stereo and everythings great. Caveats: After reading the manual I found a few things that were'nt advertised.
1. USE ONLY Yamaha PA-3B AC adapter (others will damage unit)bet these are'nt cheap knowing Yamaha
2. Ouch!! : "The Su200 can play a maximum of 6 standard (or lower)
grade mono samples at one time or up to 2 high grade samples at one time. Maximum may decline when using time stretch or scratch"
If you thought you'd get 6 note poly for at CD quality...not here.
That means it has better sampling rate at "high quality", but reduces poly to that of the SP-202, standard quality will be your bread and butter on this one.
3. Ouch #2 :When I saw this I was kinda displeased!! "Note: Effecs and scratch will not operate during playback of high grade samples.
Scratch function sucks and sounds nothing like the real thing (no loss) ...however no effects at CD sampling rate seems odd. Why use this (high sampling rate) as a selling point if you can't use effects? Dohhh!
4. Scratch: Sucks...I mean really..the digi pad has terrible feel and sensitivity and makes the same scratch sound wether the sample is
triggered or not when touched. Completly useless!!! Try it and you'll see...I hope this funtion on the SU700 is better!
5. Effects" MUCH better that SP 202, filter sounds better, delay is
actually delay and not goofy echo crap. Slice is OK. Loop Remix is
my favorite though, you can really twist your samples around realtime, I really like this function. Dist/Lo-fi is good too and really helps on some too clean samples, two thumbs up! Time stretch is good but limited (see above)
5. External audio processing, I usually use a out effects send on my Mackie 1402 so this feature was'nt high on my list of needs but I tested it and seemed pretty cool, good for DJ's, especially the filter
and Dist/Lo-fi. Caveat: Loop remix, scratch and tempo change don't work on external audio, this makes sense though.
6. In/Outs: Love the trs 1/4" in/outs, part of the reason i bought it,
Boss was thinking of DJ's when they put those stupid RCA I/O's on the SP-202..i guess. Caveat: Only Mic in or Stereo in can be used at a time. If Mic and Line are both connected, Mic gets the signal, very important if you have a limited channel mixer (i.e. DJ style)
7. Sampling: Ohhhh I love the Auto sample function...super cool..
hook up a mic or line and sampling starts when the signal starts...Coool!!!! Also there's a trigger level function that will
start the sampling after the signal reaches a certain level. SUPER COOL!!! This is where the SP-202 was a real pain, you almost need three hands to rec, start audio and adjust level. Nice one Yamaha!!
7. More Poly, better effects, backlit LCD (Cool!!!) and higher sampling rate make this a winner, resample with effects or multiple samples is over the top for sure. I was pumping out slamming loops within an hour of cracking the box. Super FUN!!!
8. LCD Shows time left...Sorry Boss keep trying. This feature makes this sampler really effective and a breeze to load up to the hilt!!!

Very good for techno, trance, Hip-hop or loop style musc, Sampling rate and overall quality seem to be pretty good. Onboard effects
are great save scratch function. Pads are qiucker than SP-202 and
have simular feel, very nice. Midi timing is great and hasn't missed
a lick.

Plasticy...kinda like the CS.X synths, very modern looking though.
I would'nt drop it off the deck to the dancefloor, it would'nt survive
I think. Pretty light and easily transported though. DJ's will dig it
for portability. No lock ups or O/S related problems, memory seems
quick and reliable sampling a breeze.

Never tried, major company though and never heard anything bad yet.

At the price range yes, I would by it again. Nothing in this range comes close. It's more musical than the SP-202 and really easy to create songs and loops with. Polyphony is great and I would only trade
it in for a SU700 or better....but that's much more $$$$. Try both the Sp-202 and the SU200 and I think you'll see a W-I-D-E gap between.
Try it!!!!!