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Preme11291
Guest
How is the SP-606 in y'alls opinion. Is it good for making gritty samples, or is it too hi-fi? Would an SP-808 be a better alternative?
Mattman04
Kit Ramsey's brother
Took this from Synthtopia.com.
"One limitation of 606 sequencing worth noting is that you can't play back a sample at different pitches. Many samplers make it easy to play a sample at different pitches, so it's surprising to see this absent. Our contact with Roland says this is because the SP-606 is designed to be a phrase sampler, and doesn't do keyfollow of samples. The expectation is that you will sample entire phrases, instead of building musical lines from pitch-shifted samples.
If you prefer, you can resample pitch-shifted samples and save them to new locations, but this means means that playing a simple bass line with the SP-606 will eat up a lot of pad locations. Keep in mind the 606's generous sample capacity, though, and it's easy to find workarounds for this."
I would consider this a pretty huge oversite by Roland.
What a terribly failed attempt at competing with the mpc1000.
If your interested in an Roland/boss sp, and want to pitch your samples for easier bassline/melody creation then look at the sp505 instead.
"One limitation of 606 sequencing worth noting is that you can't play back a sample at different pitches. Many samplers make it easy to play a sample at different pitches, so it's surprising to see this absent. Our contact with Roland says this is because the SP-606 is designed to be a phrase sampler, and doesn't do keyfollow of samples. The expectation is that you will sample entire phrases, instead of building musical lines from pitch-shifted samples.
If you prefer, you can resample pitch-shifted samples and save them to new locations, but this means means that playing a simple bass line with the SP-606 will eat up a lot of pad locations. Keep in mind the 606's generous sample capacity, though, and it's easy to find workarounds for this."
I would consider this a pretty huge oversite by Roland.
What a terribly failed attempt at competing with the mpc1000.
If your interested in an Roland/boss sp, and want to pitch your samples for easier bassline/melody creation then look at the sp505 instead.
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VexaDJ
Guest
wow what a terribly failed attempt at answering the original question.
To actually address the question; yes you can make very gritty and overweight samples with the 606. It's a very capable sampler and nothing like an MPC (which is a GOOD thing - unless you want to be a clone). It comes into its own when manipulating sound - has way more flipping ability than the MPC (which is essentially a sequencer in a box more so than a sampler). Head over to www.sp-forums.com to see what it is capable of. It can do things that NO other sampler can do; eg realtime timestretching just like abelton live...
As for pitching samples - if you really wanted to do that, it's child's play to pitch them on a computer and load them into the 606 (computers do the best pitchshifting anyway unless you WANT to sound 1986).
the 808 is very slow to work with; but still a good choice if manipulating samples is your thing - very cheap too! Then there's the insanely popular sp-404 - essentially a smaller verson of the 606 with many of the same tricks up its sleeve for less cash!
To actually address the question; yes you can make very gritty and overweight samples with the 606. It's a very capable sampler and nothing like an MPC (which is a GOOD thing - unless you want to be a clone). It comes into its own when manipulating sound - has way more flipping ability than the MPC (which is essentially a sequencer in a box more so than a sampler). Head over to www.sp-forums.com to see what it is capable of. It can do things that NO other sampler can do; eg realtime timestretching just like abelton live...
As for pitching samples - if you really wanted to do that, it's child's play to pitch them on a computer and load them into the 606 (computers do the best pitchshifting anyway unless you WANT to sound 1986).
the 808 is very slow to work with; but still a good choice if manipulating samples is your thing - very cheap too! Then there's the insanely popular sp-404 - essentially a smaller verson of the 606 with many of the same tricks up its sleeve for less cash!
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Mattman04
Kit Ramsey's brother
I was just pointing this out since for me anyway that missing feature is a showstopper.
Now maybe not for everyone, but for me it is.
What if you want to hit a button, and presto 16 levels pitching?
Or autochramatic asignment so you can play melodies without having to resample or external editing?
It's certainly worth pointing out in case he's used to being able to quickly adjust a sample from 0 to -5 semitones with a simple knob twist.
As far a sample manipulation then yeah Roland has a good rep for that, and when I had a mpc2000 the thing that I did not like was it's inability to easily twist the sound up behond the basic quick pitching, and cold filters.
But for me easy sample tuning in a traditional sampler kinda way is more important than cool effects.
Everyone may have a differant take, but such a simple feature being left out should be pointed out to potential buyers.
Now maybe not for everyone, but for me it is.
What if you want to hit a button, and presto 16 levels pitching?
Or autochramatic asignment so you can play melodies without having to resample or external editing?
It's certainly worth pointing out in case he's used to being able to quickly adjust a sample from 0 to -5 semitones with a simple knob twist.
As far a sample manipulation then yeah Roland has a good rep for that, and when I had a mpc2000 the thing that I did not like was it's inability to easily twist the sound up behond the basic quick pitching, and cold filters.
But for me easy sample tuning in a traditional sampler kinda way is more important than cool effects.
Everyone may have a differant take, but such a simple feature being left out should be pointed out to potential buyers.
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Preme11291
Guest
Would my samples have some crunch if I ran them through D/A converters?
Mattman04
Kit Ramsey's brother
Well the sp606 has variable samplerates, and I think a lo-fi effect as well, and that goes for all the other boss/roland sp models I believe.
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VexaDJ
Guest
Oh I see what you mean mattman - although as I said you can get better results doing the pitching on computer... for some peeps it seems to me doing any work to make their tunes is just too much to ask (not directed at you - it's just that these days too many people want the machine to do all the work!).
The 606 does NOT support different samplerates - it'l play the sample but all kcufed up.. again easily fixed with soundforge. In general, the 606 is DESIGNED to be used with a computer at home and alone on stage - this is what we do with ours. It's sooooo easy to take whatever you've done in the studio (with computers or other hardware) onto the stage with a 606. The External Sequence Sampling is another great feature that others can't reproduce, not even the other sp samplers!
As for crunch - there are literally a hundred ways you can crunch a sample with an sp - that's why I love 'em soooo much. For just one example you can make a plain old reason drumbeat sound like it was lifted from some classic vinyl very easily - all with no copyright issues!
My wife has an MPC and I like it a lot - but for me the ability to twist sound is what sampling is all about. She can't get the 606 to do what she wants it to though - so perhaps it's not as accessible as an MPC for first-time sampler users?? I dunno. You can certainly get further quicker with the MPC (in terms of making song ideas come to life) but a bit of work with the sp gets unmatched sounds...
The 606 does NOT support different samplerates - it'l play the sample but all kcufed up.. again easily fixed with soundforge. In general, the 606 is DESIGNED to be used with a computer at home and alone on stage - this is what we do with ours. It's sooooo easy to take whatever you've done in the studio (with computers or other hardware) onto the stage with a 606. The External Sequence Sampling is another great feature that others can't reproduce, not even the other sp samplers!
As for crunch - there are literally a hundred ways you can crunch a sample with an sp - that's why I love 'em soooo much. For just one example you can make a plain old reason drumbeat sound like it was lifted from some classic vinyl very easily - all with no copyright issues!
My wife has an MPC and I like it a lot - but for me the ability to twist sound is what sampling is all about. She can't get the 606 to do what she wants it to though - so perhaps it's not as accessible as an MPC for first-time sampler users?? I dunno. You can certainly get further quicker with the MPC (in terms of making song ideas come to life) but a bit of work with the sp gets unmatched sounds...
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Adlib311
Umbrella Music Group
I wish i had a wife with an Mpc 
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VexaDJ
Guest
Adlib311 said:I wish i had a wife with an Mpc
Hehe yeh we make beautiful music together, literally! I've just got to get her confident enough to come on stage!
Mattman04
Kit Ramsey's brother
Lol I was thinking the same exact thing, and scroll down to read your post haha.Adlib311 said:I wish i had a wife with an Mpc
PMC
New member
In the fx section there is a lo fi setting to make your samples a bit more grimey.
Though it is not an MPC I have found the sp606 to be capable of some bangin ish if you work with it between the hardware itself and a PC.
Though it is not an MPC I have found the sp606 to be capable of some bangin ish if you work with it between the hardware itself and a PC.
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Dj Frantic
New member
The wonderfull thing about SPs is that you can make them sound as clean or as grimey as you want. The Lo-Fi effect combined with the compressor on the vinyl sim gives you a FAT gritty old school sound like an SP1200 or an EPS. I use a 505(dont overlook this one! Its the only SP that lets u pitch samples) and mainly a 404 and I love the results ive been getting. Also, ive found that the chromatic pitch shifting effect actually works really well to pitch samples. Its a tad more time consuming because you have to resample at the different pitches but in the end its not a big deal because the workflow on SPs is amazing. I can chop samples on my 404 faster than on ne thing ive ever owned.