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Average rating:
3.9 out of 5
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I love that sampler : it simply sounds to me.I've heard about the SCSI option board, so I'd like to know how and where I cuold get one (even in the US or somewhere else). I hesitate to connect it to a RGB monitor (at the moment I use a monochrome one). If anyone wants to chat about that huge sampler you can write to me, 'cause I haven't got any E-mail (I can only go on the Net when I'm working) Here is my address : Bouffart Diams 6, all�e Petitou 95210 ST GRATIEN FRANCE
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I've had my S-550 for over 10 years! I still like it and think it was way ahead of its time. But you definitely need a monitor and the mouse to use it, but that was what made it so good - until the later samplers with big LCDs came out, even so with the monitor I can edit it from the other side of the studio!.
For those interested in the SCSI option, it did definately exist (I have it on mine) but you'd have to be really lucky to find one now. If you do have it on your S-550 you may be interested to know that it works with 100Mb Iomega ZIP drives - this gave mine a whole new lease of life (=80 floppy disks & utilities). There is also an updated OS that lets you load individual patches into it instead of whole banks and there was a CDROM drive with the whole Roland sample library on 1 CDROM - anyone got a copy I could borrow?
My sum up would be that nowdays it makes a good "instrument" based on sampled waveforms, if you just want to replay drum loops or found sounds forget it, there just isn't enough memory. Also I seem to remember that although it only had 12bit A-Ds the D-As were 16bit and it did some sort of interpolation.
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the thing has character...nice filters and so on...not alot of people seem to know about this, but mac users can download a shareware program called D-Sound; it allows you to load your S-550 program disks directly into your mac, and it gives you stuff like timestretch among many other useful things - a whole new breath of life for the old beast...
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CONS:don't buy one unless you have either an RGB monitor, or a spare tv with a RCA in(or a vcr...). unfortunately it is kinda difficult to figure out. the sample quality is fairly limited. it takes like 5 min to load all of your stuff. you can buy the manual, but the manual is about as helpful as a map of new york would be if you were lost in the amazon. PRO: if you can find it, the sequencer (sys553) is pretty awesome!!! 16 tracks visually laid out in a logical manner. it is pattern based so if you do alot of drum stuff it's perfect. really cool editing features, and the interface is is very helpful.the mouse is proprietary and it cost $60. i just used the front panel controls, they were more than adequate.the sample time is good for a sampler of it's age. Bottom line:nowadays this will make an excellent 2nd sampler/sequencer. $200-$300 is ok but try lower!(i've seen maxed out esi 32's going for $500-$700 around here!)
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I got mine without a monitor and Roland told me I didn't need one to edit it. 'Elementary stuff they said'. 'Bullshit' I said. They were lying - you do need a monitor and finding one was a pain in the arse.
Finally got a monitor and realised that it's not difficult to use at all, you just need to be patient.
The sound quality is 12-bit but that's nice if your'e into that but you do loose a fair bit of top end.
Not much sample memory but it goes a long way if you use sub tones for different filter/LFO setting etc. Overall you can do a lot of things with it especially as it comes with eight outputs as standard which are all pretty quiet.
I've heard people complain about the lack of real time filter cutoff control but on mine you can assign aftertouch to the filter cutoff. So by drawing controller maps (or mapping controller 1 (modulation) to aftertouch in real time) in your sequencer you can create some nice effects, but this only works for the low-pass filter. The high pass is a weird one that just affects the whole sample uniformly.
I like it, I like the price, like the sound, like the filters, like the LFO and even like the operating system but don't like having to take the monitor everywhere. No time-stretch though, bugger.
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