The Roland SP-808 GrooveSampler and SP-808EX/E-Mix Studio are both discontinued

workstations A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

, which function as

digital sampler A sampler is an electronic or digital musical instrument which uses sound recordings (or " samples") of real instrument sounds (e.g., a piano, violin, trumpet, or other synthesizer), excerpts from recorded songs (e.g., a five-second bass guitar ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, and

music sequencers A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...

. The digital samplers are a part of the long line of both

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has fact ...

's and

Boss Corporation Boss is a manufacturer of Effects unit, effects pedals for electric guitar and bass guitar. It is a division of the Roland Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer that specializes in musical equipment and accessories. For many years Boss has manu ...

's Groove Gear, which includes the more popular and successful

Boss SP-303 The Boss Dr. Sample SP-303 is a discontinued digital sampler from Boss, successor of the Boss SP-202 Dr. Sample. The SP-303 was revamped and redesigned in 2005, and released as the SP-404, by Roland Corporation. Features While the Dr. Sample S ...

and

Roland SP-404 The Roland SP-404 Sampling Workstation is a discontinued sampler made by Roland Corporation. Released in 2005, it is part of the SP family and successor to where Boss Corporation’s SP-505 sampler left off. The sampler was succeeded by the S ...

versions.

Background

Being an early installment in the SP lineage, the SP-808 GrooveSampler was originally released in the year of 1998. Sometime in the year 2000, the sampler was updated, redesigned, and released as the SP-808EX, with the additional name of "e-Mix Studio." Despite receiving an upgrade, both versions of the SP-808 have and also lack certain features of the succeeding SP installments.

Features

Groovesampler

The original Roland SP-808 GrooveSampler can play up to four stereo samples simultaneously, with the sample rates of 44.1 and 32 kHz. The maximum sample time allowed is 25 minutes of stereo at the rate of 44.1 kHz. Being an predecessor to more popular SPs, the sampler itself can hold over 1,000 samples, while 100MB Zip disks can store up to 1024 samples, roughly amounting to 64 minutes. Unlike some of the succeeding SP installments, the sampler has no

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

card option. Furthermore, audio samples can only be stored, read, and transferred directly from the

zip drive The Zip drive is a removable floppy disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Considered medium-to-high-capacity at the time of its release, Zip disks were originally launched with capacities of 100 MB, then 250 ...

rather than

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RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

. In an effort to maximize storage space on zip disks, Roland decided against the use of AIFF and WAV audio formats.

D-Beam controller The D-Beam was originally manufactured by Interactive Light, as a stand-alone unit, around 1996. It was then soon purchased by Roland Corporation, becoming trademarked and rebranded as D-Beam Controller for their own music equipment. Background Af ...

is also included.

E-Mix Studio

Being an upgrade from the Groovesampler, the SP-808EX E-Mix Studio includes a virtual

monophonic synthesizer Polyphony is a property of musical instruments that means that they can play multiple independent melody lines simultaneously. Instruments featuring polyphony are said to be polyphonic. Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophoni ...

for use with the

step sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...

and

. Vocal effects, guitar multi-effects, a 10-band

Vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

, Voice Transformer, Mic Simulator, and a number DJ-oriented groove effects were added as well. A larger 250MB Zip drive replaces the original 100MB Zip. Sampling and recording time was extended possible to 61 stereo minutes. Expansion options include the OP-1 interface (6 analog outs, 2 digital I/Os, SCSI) and OP-2 interface (XLR I/Os, digital I/O, SCSI). In regards to storing and transporting audio, the method is the same as the Groovesampler.

Notable users

Despite receiving little popularity in comparison to the later SP-303 and SP-404 installments, Slipknot member

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is known to have utilized the sampler for a number of years. DJ and music producer,

Rekha Malhotra DJ Rekha (born Rekha Malhotra, 1971) is a London-born musician, DJ, producer, curator, activist. She has been credited with pioneering Bhangra music in North America. Her first album, ''DJ Rekha Presents Basement Bhangra'', released in October ...

is known for utilizing the SP-808 as well.

External links

SP-Forums.com - An active forum dedicated to Roland's SP range

References

{{Roland Corporation Roland Workstations Samplers (musical instrument) D2 D-Beam Grooveboxes Music sequencers Sound modules Music workstations Hip hop production Japanese inventions