All user reviews for the Boss SP-505 Groove Sampling Workstation

Many Features,Plenty of effects, sampling from optical, coaxial, mic, and SPDIF. Plenty of sample time on the smart media card, although almost none in onboard memory. One thing i don't like is theres only 8 polyphony

Price paid

$300

UTILIZATION

Its Pretty easy to use, as it only took about 2 or 3 days of not even looking at the manual to figure it out. If you have ever used any sampler/sequencer you should be able to figure this out.

I've dropped mine on concrete with no flaws, except a few scratches, so i'd say pretty durable.

SOUNDS

Good quality all together, but as i get better at produciong its starting to get limiting. I'd always go for an MPC1000 or even a 3000 or 60 although they are older. Theres only 8 polyphony, which gets annoying when you go for more complex beats. Theres only 16 internal banks, which i filled up with all of my drum sounds, and if you add the 128 MB smart media card it add another 16 banks.

OVERALL OPINION

Good for beginers but like i said nuthing like an MPC1000, 2000, 2000XL, 4000. And if you want that vintage sound i'd always go with an MPC3000, or 60.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: MMProductions ( 9-, 2005)

The best thing about the sp-505 are the effects, with more than 20 effects including: delay, wah, pitch shift, voice transformer,equaliser and my alltime favorite the isolator its makes thin sound fat and fat sounds thin. The sequencing on the SP-505 is pretty limited, you sequence samples in patterns on 4 channels and sequence those to make a song. I don't use the song mode myself. I just make the whole track in one pattern and let it play in a loop and mute the 4 channel parts. There is a 8 voice polyphony with mono samples and 4 voices with stereo samples. It has a 4 mb internal memory and a smart media card slot to save sounds and sequenceses on. It has only a 2 stereo jack output.

Price paid

750 euro

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use. I was building tracks on the SP-505 the same day I got it.

I've got it for 3 years now, never it has let me down, it never crashed. The 16 pads and buttons are solid, the knobs are well made.

SOUNDS

Good sound quality, 44.1 kHz sampling (mono or stereo). Good sounding effects.

OVERALL OPINION

It's a nice mashine if you want to create right away it's easy to use. But if you want to sequence more than 4 channels. You should get an MPC.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: alphawolf (January 0-, 2005)