Boss SP-505
A three-pound phrase sampler with a waveform display, S/PDIF inputs, and 500 sample locations, in a plastic box the size of a chunky laptop.
Overview
The SP-505 is the odd one out in Boss's phrase-sampler line, and the reason is right on the front panel: a 128-by-64-pixel backlit graphic display. Most compact phrase samplers of the period got by with a one-line LCD or a numeric LED. The SP-505 shows you the waveform. Chopping, loop-point setting, and event editing all happen visually instead of by ear and guesswork. Electronic Musician (2002) called the display a major advantage over the one-liner competition and singled out the SP-505 as the only phrase sampler with a full graphic display.
Roland and Boss had been refining the phrase-sampler concept since 1995, when the MS-1 arrived - a box that did little more than trigger samples. That one led to the SP-202, then the SP-303, and finally the SP-505, which Electronic Musician (2002) described as a big leap beyond the previous models. The same review noted Boss likely skipped the SP-404 designation because the Japanese words for four and death sound alike. Either way, the 505 was a genuine step up and not a cosmetic revision.
It's about the size of a chunky laptop - 11.75 inches wide, 2.56 tall, 10 deep - and weighs 3.12 pounds without the adapter. The plastic case accounts for some of that lightness, though Electronic Musician (2002) found the construction reasonably sturdy. The front panel has 16 drum pads that light up when a sample plays, plus a 17th Ext Source pad that acts as an unmute for whatever's plugged into the analog inputs. That pad can be sequenced like any other, or with two clicks its signal can be routed through the effects processor. So a vocal mic or a CD player can be blended and processed without a mixer in the chain. A Pad Bank button calls up 15 additional banks (31 with expanded memory), for more than 500 sample locations.
The sampling spec is where the SP-505 earns its keep. Out of the box it holds 2 minutes of 16-bit, 44.1 kHz audio, half that for stereo. Add a 128 MB SmartMedia card (roughly $50 at the time) and it gains a whopping 64 additional minutes, and by dropping the sampling rate the total stretches to nearly seven hours. The capacity comes from data compression. Electronic Musician (2002) found the results largely transparent at the highest rate: a 20 Hz to 20 kHz sine sweep showed significant distortion and noise up high, while real-world material like drum loops and guitar riffs sounded fine, if a touch duller. Imported SmartMedia sounds and analog-input samples were tonally indistinguishable, which is a good sign for the 20-bit A/D converters.
Sampling is fast. Press the large Sampling button, hit the target pad (all available pads flash), pick an input source - line, digital, or mic - set the level, and hit Sampling again. Recording starts immediately with a countdown on the display. A threshold-trigger mode is also available, and you can sample through the effects processor while riding its knobs. A With BPM parameter makes looping nearly automatic if the source tempo is entered first, backing up and setting the loop point to the mathematically correct sample. Tempos run from 40 to 200 bpm at 0.1 bpm resolution. Electronic Musician (2002) called the feature a huge time-saver, though one slow loop needed a manual loop-point nudge.
The sequencer is four tracks with 15,000 events, 40 preset patterns, 100 user patterns, and 20 songs at 96 ppqn. Swing quantization is playback-only, so your original parts are never altered. Each pattern runs up to eight beats, and mute status per track can be stored in a pattern for on-the-fly variations. The Event-Editor screen lets notes move forward or back in time or change velocity, gate time, or pad assignment. That's welcome, but easy to get lost in, since the SP-505 doesn't audition notes as you step through the list. Electronic Musician (2002) judged the 40 preset patterns forgettable house and hip-hop fare.
The effects section has 26 types, one at a time, enabled per pad, each with three parameters mapped to three knobs whose current position and assignment show in the LCD. Dedicated buttons select, enable, or assign effects to pads. Electronic Musician (2002) was blunt about it: the common effects, particularly reverb and distortion, are poor in sonic quality and useful only sparingly. The wackier ones (Tape Echo, Lo-Fi, Chromatic Pitch Shift, Voice Transformer) are where the fun is, since they brutalize samples instead of polishing them. One significant limitation: the SP-505 doesn't record knob movements, so a varying effect in a sequence means resampling the pad while wiggling the knob by hand.
The Chop feature borrows a page from ReCycle. It slices mono samples into component beats and spreads them across as many as 32 sequential pads, with slice points repositionable in the waveform window. Slices land in two dedicated Chop banks. For full sequencing access you copy them to the clipboard and paste them into a standard bank, 16 items at a time. Pitch shifting changes a note's pitch without changing its duration, reminiscent of Roland's VP-9000 VariPhrase though furrier-sounding, and can cover an octave across the Pitch banks. Time stretching adjusts duration without pitch, with Phrase-mode samples automatically stretched to the sequence tempo. Sparse drums take it best, and the SP-505 avoids the SU200's clicking, though it won't match dedicated software.
Connectivity is unusually generous for the class: a power jack with cord lock, a multifunction footswitch jack (play, sample, pad 1-16, FX on/off), MIDI In and Out, an antitheft cable socket, optical and coaxial S/PDIF inputs, stereo RCA in and out, a headphone jack, and a mono mic input. Two quirks. The RCA outputs deliver proper line level only with the volume knob around three o'clock. Crank it higher and the signal distorts, which the manual doesn't mention. And the S/PDIF inputs are sampling-only; they don't feed the Ext Source bus, so digital sources can't be mixed in during sequencer playback. The SmartMedia slot sits behind a cover secured with two thumbscrews, which is necessary because pulling or inserting a card while powered can destroy data.
Polyphony is 8 notes (4 stereo), with 250 internal user locations (26 pitched) and 256 optional card locations. Sample import handles WAV and AIFF at 8/16-bit, 44.1 kHz, though loop points are ignored. No sample CD ships in the box. Instead there are three banks of drum sounds and a bank of the note G across bass, piano, synth, and organ patches, which feed the pitch-shift engine. The pads aren't velocity-sensitive, though sounds respond to velocity over MIDI. Electronic Musician (2002) also wished for dedicated reverse and repeat buttons, a hi-hat cutoff option, and the ability to resample sequences.
The SP-505 is not a clean machine. It's a lightweight, instant-on, one-piece collaborator - the review's phrase - that approaches the power of a high-end sampling drum machine while carrying the grit of a budget box.
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