Roland SP-808 user reviews and comments @ Synth Site

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Average rating: 4.5 out of 5

Atom a professional user from New York, United States writes:

I have used the SP-808 for around three years- it was a pretty new item when I got mine. I have upgraded it to a 250 MB drive and the newer (SP-808ex) O.S. I would recommend it. I found it easy to learn, although I'd already had several years experience with a sampler, it was a completely different type of system. It is a very valuable tool for song writing, inspiring creativity. There are so many uses, and it fits well in between the complexity of a full studio and the less powerful "groove" samplers or phrase samplers. You can use it to make whole, complete tracks although lately I find it more of a scatchpad, whereby I begin tracks and then export them to the computer via digital i/o to finish them, not losing any quality in the recording. Where I find it most valuable is in live performance- Melange (www.melange.org) use two of them live. It allows me to play my songs live in such a way that they can be different every time- there is a great element of improvisation with the help of the SP-808. The internal effects are quite impressive, top-notch and useful, and the virtual analog monosynth is great. Some may not appreciate programming it by dialing in parameters but it doesn't seem to bother me, everything is set up fairly logically. One thing this box does not do well is drum programming. There is simply not enough polyphony to do it very well and no midi sequencing of the pads TR-808/909 style. Instead you put loops together in a graphical display to create a song- you can do this in step-edit, or in real-time record, then go back and edit. You can work with very short loops such as single drum hits, but it is better to let the machine assemble them into a longer phrase, otherwise you may have problems with disc access. Resampling also usually fixes that problem in other instances- that is bouncing two sounds into one, or resampling a sound with FX on it. If you enjoy working in a cut and paste style, you will like working with this machine. The d-beam is much fun, and I find pretty functional for controlling effects live (though I'm currently fascinated with my Kaoss pad). You may be concerned with the limitations of this box - there are several, but I think that is missing the point. It also does some things no other machine does. It's a phrase sampler which is very different from a "note" sampler- a keyboard or rack sampler attached to a synthesizer such as AKAI or E-mu are known for. Also I highly recommend the OP-1 output expander as it's a good idea to make a backup of your discs! When it comes down to it, the sound you produce with the SP-808 will be your own. -Atom

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Dec-27-2001 at 01:59

Pete a hobbyist user from London writes:

I just bought an SP808 and after reading some of the reviews here that seem negative(i know nothing about sampling and want to learn)I thought Id let you know that my mate suffered for a year with it(long learning curve)and now he is working on tunes with the 3 Amigos who work with Tom Jones.He did a remix of a 70's disco tune and they thought it was done in a pro studio.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Aug-03-2001 at 20:32

Faxorgy from Australia writes:

Funny I don't have any of the problems people mention above. Use the ISO/FILTER in the effects patch assign effects to insert record tweak away and hey presto filtered sample.When performing intricate breaks probgram in step entry first then press markon then mark on and pad the track is assigned to pad erase the original track and insert the pad sample instead dead easy. I don't use a pc/mac for editing and I never get pops or clicks. Quite frankly it's the one piece of equipment I can't live without. A real do anything box with a Zen like quality about it. I think some of the people here need a major paradymn shift in think working methodology before ringing the most out of it. I know I did. Seriouse I'd give it a ten outta ten. Oh and heres a hint to you all feed samples through your v.synth it work like a hi-tech filter bank with delay and flanging/chorus.Simple an indespensible tool.

posted Monday-May-28-2001 at 01:57

patrick a part-time user from us writes:

Now that the price has come down a bit - it's simply the best value out there for a recording workhorse with outstanding effects. If you're not into using effects, this isn't the unit for you. The effects blow away most rack mount units, costing almost as much as the 808 itself. The sampler's only drawback is that it does not work well as a sampling drum machine for really fast drum breaks. If you're looking to sample individual hits to build drum loops in excess of 160bpm - you may have to do some resampling workarounds (of course you can string together break chunks very easily, and it's perfect for that kind of chop/rearrange stuff at any bpm - it's just when you approach maximum polyphony at maximum speed with really quick triggers than you have problems)- otherwise - if your computer has a zip drive - there is no faster way to lay .wav files to a hardware sampler than the 808 - plus the multitracker works flawlessly and it's very easy to pull stuff off of tracks into the sampler. As close to an all in one sampling workstation as you're going to get. You really can put together a whole track from scratch, and then perform it live. I've done it, and it's a joy to use

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Wednesday-May-23-2001 at 04:20

a part-time user writes:

try resampling to add filters. also, bounce tracks to keep adding. i had the same frustration, but this method seems to work. also, i have an ex also and it works great as a master clock, just use it that way. i suppose it depends what youre using it with. i agree with you, the midi features could be improved upon, tough. i have to say its my favorite toy, though.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Monday-Apr-23-2001 at 02:02

Rizal Khan a hobbyist user from Malaysia (currently in Australia) writes:

I have had my SP808 ex for over a few months now and i Have read through the manual and used it alot before posting a review. I have to say its got really good strong points and also a few weak points. It is dead easy to sample with this thing. THe auto divide and auto trim are just stuff i use all the time. Also I love the fact that u can sample a sound and change the tempo on it without affecting the pitch (this is something I feel the Yamaha SU700 can't do but i might be wrong since i haven't used it in a while). The effects are plenty. Also it features the famous d-beam which to me is pretty hard to control ( i am still trying to get used to this beam)...UMm...i dont like the fact that it can only slave as mtc!!! Also u cant apply filters to seperate tracks once u've arranged samples... THis is my review and my opinion. If anyone there knows a way to do the above which I might not have discovered yet..please email me and let me know rather than bag the hell out of me on the message board.

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Monday-Apr-23-2001 at 01:34

DJ Dexstrous a hobbyist user from UK writes:

Bought my sp-808 about 2 months ago, I'm very impressed! price: £530 second hand and the geezer even offered me a 6 month warranty. I produce hip hop and jungle and use it in my dj sets and have barely scratched the surface. i got in an afternoon and by the evening i was sampling! The maual is pants (there's a spelling mistake on almost every page and even on the user display as well!!!!!) I intended to buy an Akai remix 16 for £150 but it was sold, and managed to get hold of this which is a world away from the akai. This is a very intuitive machine ideal for cut and paste Ninja Tune style music, only serious problem is backing up your samples. You need an expansion board which costs £200 ish to plug another ZIP drive in.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Dec-15-2000 at 08:38

Julio writes:

I posted some thing on the gas station about gear and a cool person hooked me up with some incredible info! I don't know if everyone knows this, but everyone should know this because this makes the SP-808 the ultimate piece of sampling gear, hands down! ROLAND (not shareware or the like) makes a utility to convert its format samples in the Zip disks into wav format and vice versa! Theres more info on the User group, and this really is a giant feature IMO. Everyone should learn about it! Hopefully I'll be getting one of those new effimenate lookin' SP-808EXs soon so that I can start making music like never before.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Jun-20-2000 at 18:23

Gerj@n a part-time user from Netherlands writes:

I love my SP808 so far, it's an awesome tool for sampling, I'm still working to figure out all of it's features =) but still I have a question..... there are several sites/people who tell me I'm able to upgrade my SP808 to an SP808EX Operating System with all it's stuff... I'm wondering what the use of this is and if it's without any risk...

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Sunday-Jun-04-2000 at 17:06

JP a part-time user from Canada writes:

In regards to the Zip 250 - many have done it in the past and they say that the new OS provides easy stability for formatting the 250 meg disks...however, since I've only installed the OS and not the new zip 250 in my regular SP808, I can only rely on info provided to me from the SP-808 User Group...and they haven't been wrong so far.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Apr-21-2000 at 14:33

JP a part-time user from Canada writes:

This is just to let EVERY SP-808 user know that if you want to upgrade to the new SP-808EX operating system - you can! Just take a formatted zip disk with you to your closest music store with a SP-808EX on display, turn off the machine (making sure there isn't a zip disk in it) and then turn it on Holding down the 1/[5] button and the Clear button under the "Locator" section (far left). Turn the 808 on with these keys depressed and it will ask you for a disk - pop it in and you're smoking.

To install it on your 808 - go home - obviously - and boot your 808 holding down the Effects and Status buttons above track B. The LCD will go funny and ask for the new OS Zip Disk - pop it in, wait for about 30 seconds - it does a HEX countdown...and then you're smoking.

New effects - no zip disk required to run the effects - use the faders to control the volume of PADS (which I haven't figured out just yet) and tons of more cool shiznaut. Check out the 808 Users Network for more info... http://members.xoom.com/agentofboom/mainpage.html

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Sunday-Apr-16-2000 at 10:08

B.O.B. a professional user from NJ, USA writes:

Wow, I've had the Sp-808 for a little over a month and everyday i break open something new on this baby. I don't even know where to start... this machine gives you 110% creative freedom, it's up to you to put it to good use.

First off, i want to say it's an excellent phrase sampler. It can do quick and easy auto trims and looping becomes very easy once you get used to editing the samples. The most impressive part is that everything can be sampled and resampled again with no loss of sound quality. NICE!

Then we'll check out some of the effects. STUNNING! There's analog stuff, there's modern stuff...everything's packed in here. You can basically pump any sound out of this machine. From reverb to choruses, to crazy analog bullhorns and record sounds. Also, you can use the step modulator to change the effects according to the rhythm.

Let's not forget the best effect of them all: the analog synth! This thing is modeled after the JP series (i think?) and some really cool sounds can come out of it. You can play it three way. You can hook it up to an external midi keyboard and play it on that, you can play it by using the D-beam (if you don't know, ya'll betta aks somebody), or by putting it into the step modulator and making awesome techno leads. The synth is pretty phat and i've been able to make some great songs out of it.

Now we get to the 4 stereo tracks you record on. Combined w/ the sampling section of this box, you have infinite sound possibilities.

This is one amazing machines. Although most people on here like to point out it's limits, i don't see why it's necessary. All instruments are different. It's like saying, that a certain guitar sucks because it doesn't have humbucker pickups. If you're looking for the all-in-one studio, this is as close as it gets.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Mar-17-2000 at 00:45

John Westwood a professional user from Canada writes:

I'm with Analog! The 808's got almost to many things happening on it! I thought I could get by with a Tascam 564 for demos. But after (if your lucky) finding a MDD disk, and paying $30 bucks and doing 2 stereo tracks - then I got to bounce and before I know it... Disk Full! Not that the 808's a HD recorder by any means, but for sprucing up stuff and/or tricky edits of a certain track... WOW! I think of it as my 'general purpose mix idea workstation' now! Sure, I can strum a guitar, or play keyboards, or have ideas for that Giorgio Moroder cut I just heard. But the 808 really get's things altogether going! And each user no doubt has different ways of doing essentially the same thing, they just do it because it's 'comfertable' for them that way. That says alot for a piece of gear these days that allows that! Gripes, sure - I have a few... MIDI control for much of it's features is either unassignable and/or unattainable from other gear/controllers. The manual is not the most easy to follow, typical Roland style (some might be hip to it?). And the SCSI (and I guess itself) can only see 100Mb Zip disks at a time. I guess Roland had to be fair to competitors, if I could hook up a couple of Jaz drives inside and out of 808... Holy Shit!!! But for the price of 4 SU10's and cheaper than a SU700 with RAM installed, the 808 WON'T leave you wanting in any (sample wise) way! Kudos to Roland after the miserable DJ70 crap outs. Don't think there'll be a MkII of the 808 anytime soon!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Jan-06-2000 at 17:35

Analog a hobbyist user from USA writes:

I have to be honest and say that the sp-808 is the best piece of gear I ever laid my hands on. It took me along time to get into the gear to fully understand its abilities. I think this machine is the best shit ever. Its really hard to discribe what this thing got. Theres some much in this box that it will take a person years to grow out it because of the sounds it has. The sp-808 makes song production easy and clean so it won't take long to lay out a track. The sequencer is very basic but with resampling you make your sequence very unique and quick. You can resample as many times as you like. I'm not gonna lie the sp-808 seem very limited at first. It took me along time to see what it could really do. A person can go as far as they want to go with this bady. Its up to the persons imagination to have the box manifest what you want. This box would replace rack mount equipment and just think how much space you would save. This machine is for anybody or everybody no matter if you are a hobby music maker, pro or a dj that think he can make a better track than what he or she is spinning, this is for you. Don't sleep.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Monday-Nov-01-1999 at 12:01

AcdiDJ a hobbyist user from USA writes:

Ditto. This is the best phrase sampler on the market, simple as that. It's not a module like the Akais, A3k or Emu stuff..but it isn;t meant to be. So critisism of polyphony is irrelevant. The effects are just great on the machine, and if you give it enough time you can use this machine to create great things. I firmly believe if Akai made this exact same machine people would beraving about it....but so many folks just love Roland Bashing.

By the way Honest Mike, you were talking about space conservation....I'm sure you're aware that if you buy an internal IDE Zip 250 you can pop it in the 808 with no problems..and hesne get 2.5 times the space off it. And if you didn't, you know now.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Aug-20-1999 at 00:10

Honest Mike a professional user from So. CA U.S.A. writes:

I have had the Sp for over a year now and it seems like lots of people rip on this phrase sampling deal and I'm not sure why? As for me I believe that it you edit all your samples correctly, file them in your proper bank order, fatten up your samples via the BOUNCE feature and put a couple filters to your samples this can lead to hours/days/weeks/months/years of creative fun possiblities. I keep away from the memory consuming stuff i.e. no time stretch or real time recording tho. In the past year I have been doing all my latest song in Mono form and I have created 7 house & tec-haus songs. Total memory time that I have used out of the 100MB Zip............15 minutes out of 62-64 min. I have composed 7 songs that are a minimum of 10 minutes long songs all with the help of Step recording (THANKS!)thats over and hours worth of music with 3/4 of the Zip still open for more. The Sp has not been an easy process tho I can see how most people could dis this machine if for instance they mess with one at a music store with all em programmed samples and the high price tag and such BUT I have had a fun time putting in my own samples and processing each sample inorder to put in my own personal touch. Learning the ins & outs of this machine(I need to get em Digital I/O to totally be complete!) has kept me busy for over a year and I still learn something new at least once a week. I don't know the difference with the other samplers out there ie. Akais and Emu but as far as my SP-808 goes its my favorite. To all those who hate any groove approved stuff don't classify the SP as one of em toys even tho they call it a Groovesampler........I put tape over my Groove so it just says Sampler. Later 0:] The Sp-808 is Great Machine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Aug-19-1999 at 19:12

Jamal a hobbyist user from USA writes:

I think the sp-808 is the best shit out there. I've had mine for three months and had already pumped 40 tracks from it. THis thing is amazing with the internal effects and harddisk recorder. I wish it had a scsi that would take a harddrive or a jaz drive but I can still get around the limitation. I wish it had more polyphony. Ohwell, I still love this thing. I don't use the D-beam but I play with it to see what it can do. The synth in it is what keeps me coming back because you can get some cool sounds out of there. Looping is so easy with this thing. I just wish it had wave forms for samples. I haven't even toucched what this thing can do and even though I have had it for three months I'm still discovering new things in it. Its dope--so buy it if you got the cash.. PEACE

posted Tuesday-Dec-15-1998 at 11:03

Mohorific a hobbyist user from the molten core of the earth writes:

Well, I posted before, but I'm posting again now that I've had my 808 for awhile. After about five months of owning my 808, I must conclude that it is simply one of the greatest pieces of gear ever made. My only complaint is that I wish it had more polyphony, but that's just because I'm too lazy to use the internal track-bounce feature! To all of you out there who are lumping this thing in with the latest line of Roland canned-shitbox "Groove Approved" stuff- don't. Those other things suck because of their sound. You create the sounds in the 808, so it sounds as good as you make it. The vast amount of features and the incredibly easy user interface make it a breeze. I love my 808, and will never part with it. It is a beatiful machine that has so many facets; sampler, hard-disk recorder, effects unit, mixer, etc. It totally rules.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Nov-27-1998 at 14:41

DinedHavoC a part-timer user from USA writes:

wow... i dont own one but ive used it PLENTY at tha gee centa to put in my two bits. i think my fave part is the "virtual" memory. it holds the first few seconds of a sample in its extremely small amount of rom and then plays the rest of it back from a zip disk in the built in zip drive... this is much like the hard disk recorders that r so popular these days. it has a limited amount of poly (4) but considering u can hold 24 minutes worth of stereo sampling under one pad and it has the hard disk recorder i dont think this is a problem... u can record your sample playin action for much more polyphony in a sense.

i also luv the interface... it screams "press my pads turn my knobs wave your hand over my d beam" and is real straight forward. has loop find points (like recycle?) and visual editing ofcourse. in my opinion this is better than ne sampler, even maybe an Akai S6000 (wow i cant believe i just said that) because of the virtual memory and the awesome real time control. cant forget about that built in synth or the mixing capabilities either...

the scsi is a lil useless considering it only does zip drives and it already has one of those... but if it has one already then who needs the scsi??

to AH: i dont give a shit if this thing is "groove approved!" it rocks my world to hell!!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Sunday-Oct-25-1998 at 00:53

Leonard Hope a hobbyist user from Atlanta, GA USA writes:

Just got mine a few days ago, so I can't give a detailed review. My intial impression, however, is that this machine rocks. It is very intuitive. I was able to utilize many of the machine's features without ever looking at the manual. Since I got it, I haven't even turned on the computer, which is nice. Everything I need is here in this one box. Way to go, Roland!

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Friday-Sep-25-1998 at 14:02

vimana a hobbyist user from pleiades writes:

lovely, ive waited lifetimes to return to my natural state of compu-human interactive artistict creativity cyborg style baby!!!!!!! this is just the "begining" we thank you roland.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Sep-03-1998 at 20:54

Shift a part-timer user from US writes:

Great machine. Easy to use, weighs nothing, plug and play. I bought mine yesterday and can't stop thinking about it. Its that great. Two shortcomings though: One is that it only uses proprietary sounds (no aiffs or wavs allowed), I use a Mac quite a bit and would be great to cross polinate, the other is that the upgrade to extra SCSI limits you to another Zip instead of a Jazz which holds 10 times the amount or even an external HD. For US 350.00 plus whatever the extra Zip drive costs, it seams rather redundant. Increased polyphony would also be another improvement. Only 4 pads can play simultaneosly. All in all though its a great tool.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Sep-01-1998 at 16:59

splice a part-timer user from Canada writes:

it's a really great extra sets of hands. love it. the 4 track recording is decent but you can only play back 3 of the four tracks if you want to be sampling simultaneously live. Or am I the only one who hasn't figured out how to do that?

Rating: 4 out of 5 posted Wednesday-Aug-12-1998 at 13:51

Steve a professional user from USA writes:

The Roland SP-808 groove sampler is due out in the middle of June. I saw it at the Namm show. I have one reserved already. It's like a mix of VS 840 hard disk recorder, SP-202 phrase sampler, DJ mixer, light phaser and monotone synth all rolled into one. Check this out: It records everything on a ZIP cartridge and it's instant access, no loading times. You can use the beam modulator to change the pitch of a sample by moving your hand closer or further away from the unit. It's simple to sample, messup and re-sample on the fly. You can take a long sample and set 2 loop points to create a beat groove on the fly between 2 songs, like sample the drum intro from Queen's "We will rock you" and then set your 2 points to make a loop, then let that play while you triger other samples from the pads, or make noise from the built in monosynth using the dbeam controller. It is a serious piece that will make my show the dough.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Aug-06-1998 at 00:09

wes a hobbyist user from dallas, tx. writes:

Well, I've had mine for 3 days now, and I will venture to say that this thing is awesome! It is very fast as far as processing goes (time stretch, etc). Zip disk is a great idea .. holds 64 min at 32k and 40 min at 44.1k. And most importantly ... very very easy to use! I spent all night grabbing drum loops and samples. Haven't even used the part sliders yet, but I would reccomend this to anyone who wants a sampler that's easy to use and has a TON of effects.

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Thursday-Aug-06-1998 at 00:09

Dave a hobbyist user from UK writes:

I got my SP808 just over 2 weeks ago, one of the first batch in the UK so I'm told, I ordered it soon as I heard about it and after I spoke to some knowledgable guy from Roland UK. Zip drive is brilliant idea, I recorded some audio straight off DAT on to Zip, can't tell the diff. other than a very slight rollof of top but to be expected (Source was 48KHZ and the SP808 records at 44.1KHZ and 32KHZ) Sampling and looping is very quick, the D Beam is very responsive and there is plenty of control on the virtual synth (JP). Mixing is allegedly 24 bit digital, Sampling compression is about 2:1 roland RDAC, again I cannot detect any noticeable effect due to compression, sound is warm (20 bit) , and the FX section is truly amazing! esp the vintage delay/flange etc. Midi control of sample pads is limited to 16 contiguous notes from a midi keyboard, though if you are quick with bank changes you might be able to get round this. , don't forget you can overdub on 2 more stereo tracks and bounce it all together in the digital domain. There is EQ control though I have yet to suss this out. BCK in the UK do a gig bag for it.

Amazing device

Regards Dave,

Rating: 5 out of 5 posted Tuesday-Aug-04-1998 at 11:03

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