Boss Dr. Sample SP-202
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User Reviews of the Boss Dr. Sample SP-202
- Submitted by apewrist from Kielce (306 points) on Mar 19, 2010
- I only got this old-school sampler recently and i love it. Ok, first of all - this unit is not for pro musicians, it has too many disadvantages. But, if you're a creative noise artist you're going to love the lo-fi, gritty sound. You can sample short snippets of noises, run it through an external distorion and do a spastic cut-up glitchcore noise. It also works great for laying speech samples over your tracks or sampling some drum loops and fiddling with the "mark" button to get glitchy breakcore. The only problem with this unit is that it only accepts ancient 5v Smartmedia cards (not 3.3v!). You can get them on ebay but they're expensive (i paid more for the card than for the unit).
- Good Points: - Lo-fi, gritty sound - Works on batteries - It's lightweight and portable! - The built-in effects are great
- Bad Points: - Memory extension cards are obsolete and expensive - No sequencer (although you can plug a midi controller into it) - RCA input/output
- Price Paid: US$100.00
- Purchased At:
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- Submitted by tapesss from Brooksville, FL (344 points) on Mar 27, 2008
- Cheap, reliable, really gritty sounding sampler. The crunch and just overall bitcrushed filth when you sample at the lo-fi 2 setting is just amazing. Add to that the great filter, nice ring mod, modest delay, and the reverse function and you've got a really solid machine. Good for sampling sudden blasts of noise or anything else...ya know,peewee herman christmas special samples, pitched down all the way with a delay....phew! runs on batteries too, so you can take it out with you on the bus or whatever, yell at people in your car and sample it, the loud whackazoids you pass on the street. Internal mic function is nice too, and adds even more lo-fi grit to your sound. a blast to use. very simple operation, i dont even have the manual and i figured out everything pretty quick. GET ONE WITH AN EXPANSION CARD!!! you need the space, you can only get 8 samples with the 2 included banks.
- Good Points: cheap, solid, battery power option, low-fi grittiness, lots of good effects
- Bad Points: cheese factor when you load it with Goof Troop samples, plastic case might be a problem if you're rough with yr gear
- Price Paid: US$96.00
- Purchased At: ebay
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- Submitted by dallas from Harrison Township, MI (48 points) on Jun 24, 2007
- i loved this little box when i got it. that was like forever ago b4 i even discovered noise music. pretty handy but very limited. pretty much out a relic by today's standard. phrase/ d.j. samplers can be had dirt cheap now ' days. this one's about as weak as they come. not completely useless. just dont think i'd buy it today because of what can be had for a couple dollars more.
- Good Points: can be battery powered. easy 2 use can be a stand alone effects unit internal mic can capture noises on the fly
- Bad Points: memory cards are no longer made for this limited features outclassed by other similar products availible
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At:
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- Submitted by kinetic turtle from Oakland, CA (166 points) on Jan 9, 2005
- I have a distinct love/hate relationship with this thing. I love how it's battery operated and has an internal microphone. I love being able to sample anything that I run into, whether or not it's near a power socket, microphone, etc. I love how the quality is variable, which can really be used as an effect. I absolutely love how specific the control mechanism is; any sample, once applied to a pad, can be set to play as either gate or switch, loop or single-shot. But I hate how the memory cards are old-school and impossible to find, and expensive. So I only bought one and I just leave it in there. I hate how the outputs are RCA... which makes sense, it was designed for DJs, but DJs never use them, hilariously enough, and we have to deal with getting adapters. I hate how the sampling/etc process is so cumbersome. Obviously there's no real visual feedback, and it makes life kindof irritating. I hate how the effects seriously cut back on polyphony. Overall, it's a funny, quirky little box that plays in a surprisingly organic fashion. If you see one for really cheap, get it, but I can't recommend it as a primary sampler or anything. Oh, and the tap-match function is crap. But most tempo-match functions are crap.
- Good Points: Battery op and internal microphone. Excellent and very specific control options. decent effects
- Bad Points: RCA out jacks Weak construction Memory cards impossible to find BPM function sucks. Sampling process bites effects signifcantly cut back on polyphony
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At: eBay
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- Submitted by Brad from Cleveland, OH (28 points) on Jan 2, 2005
- This is my second time around owning the 202 and i'm not selling it this time around. I bought the 303 brand new and it crapped out on me a week after i got it. I returned it and found this little piece at guitar center. The lofi sample settings are the best and when used in conjuction with the ring modulation effect you can get some really interesting sounds. I think this piece will be highly sought after in many years to come. Where else can you get a compact sampler with built in effects a built in microphone and mic preamp, and runs on batteries? I like messing with the the start/end point mark button to get some cool sounds.
- Good Points: Runs on batteries very portable Good selection of sampling rates Built in mic and mic preamp Built in effects Start/End point Mark Button
- Bad Points: RCA i/o Uses old memory cards
- Price Paid: US$100.00
- Purchased At: Guitar Center
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- Submitted by Dick from Boulder Creek, CA (6 points) on Oct 7, 2004
- Crummy POS and therefore virtually guaranteed to produce the most savage of turd flinging sonic eargrashums you aint nevah wuz. Furthermore when I bought it NEW the additional 4[lousy]Meg smart card was 80$!!
- Good Points: On-the-flippin'-fly samples that no one will ever appropriate into their trendytune. Send all the unwanted sP^202's to Santa Cruz1
- Bad Points: This unit has cornered the market on homo-looking self-styled wannabeez modern instrument/interface devices. The faux eel-skin carry pouch was never even hinted at by the mfg's but keep your eyes peeled when passing yer thrift store's handbag racks.
- Price Paid: US$225.00
- Purchased At: The Guitard Center, where else?
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- Submitted by ddn from arles (16 points) on Sep 28, 2004
- Never could use it. I sure see how I could use it (random sampling, lofi degrading of samples at 11 khz, etc) but the overal absolute clumsiness of the machine and its cheap plastic built has prevented me to ever use it...
- Good Points: cheap secondhand
- Bad Points: cheap platic construction impossible interface uses only its cards...
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At:
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- Submitted by Sparkle Girl from Seattle, WA (14 points) on Aug 10, 2004
- I love this thing! Yes, everything you've read about this machine is true. But I lucked out and got a fair deal from a friend who had had one for a few years. I was lucky to get the sampler, power, and a 4mb card. It's a noise dream. Who cares about fidelity when lo-fi 2 gives you unexpected ring modulation? We're noisicians dammit! It gives some freakin beautiful love back if you feed it the right goodies.
- Good Points: allowing for owning at least one 4mb card: great nasty samples will weird up anything and the built in mic is suprisingly sensitive. you know you like gadgets and hey! Black Dice use one so what the ....
- Bad Points: Only buy from a friend or someone you can haggle with. This is NOT worth any of the prices I've seen people pay or quotes on ebay. It's a ripoff. My friend and I thought was a good price with one card. Otherwise save your money and buy some more pedals.
- Price Paid: US$50.00
- Purchased At: from friend and collaborator
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- Submitted by Scott from Seattle, WA (8 points) on Mar 10, 2004
- Also one of the first things I ever purchased. Gets interesting feedback and ring mod is semi-redeemable, but other than that I would get a SP 303 instead, because the amount of recording time and exclusivity of the memory cards makes this machine almost obselete.
- Good Points: Portable, effects are alright. Lower fidelity recording modes are okay too.
- Bad Points: Not enough recording time. Doesn't use standard memory cards. Only 3 effects through. SP 303 is a huge improvement.
- Price Paid: US$170.00
- Purchased At: Zzounds
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- Submitted by Benjamin from Boston, MA (38 points) on Dec 24, 2003
- This is the first piece of gear I ever got 4 years ago. Mine still works just fine and I still use it. Its nice for trigger little samples or basic loops live. I also have an EMU rackmount sampler, and I sometimes prefer the 202 because of how simple it is to use. The effects kinda suck although the pitch shifting is useful. For using alot of samples or doing long lengths though this box is almost useless without the media cards, so unless doing short blips for looping is your bit pick up the cards for it too. I don't know how much these run for used now, but it is probably worth just jumping up to the new 303 model unless you can get one pretty cheap.
- Good Points: nice small box, easy to use, good for quick live work, and mine has lasted me 4 years. it also has a cool built in mic and a line input so while playing samples you can also run another instrument or microphone through the box.
- Bad Points: effects suck, but you probably have 80 different pedals already. also not good for long length samples without media cards
- Price Paid: US$250.00
- Purchased At: some store years ago
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- Submitted by Harm from Mechanicsville, VA (86 points) on Dec 17, 2003
- This was the very first piece of equipment I ever bought. Its capabilities are very limited but those limitations and make you real creative. It uses specially manufactured 4mb and 2mb smart media memory cards at 3.3v. You can't use regula camera cards with them because boss is evil like that. They probably made more money selling 10 dollar memory cards for 50 dollars a piece, than they did selling the actual sampler.
- Good Points: It has some built in effects, mostly useless, except for the low pass filter, and pitch bending. The ring modulator can do cool things to highly peak out samples. It also has a highly sensitive built in mic, that can be engagedlive and combined with rhe samplers effects to make some nice cold feedback loops. The internal memory lets you play 4 mono samples at a time, or 2 stereo, and the smart media card banks let you play 1 - 2 samples at a time depending on the quality.
- Bad Points: It's got poor polyphony, not cd quality samples, memory cards are no longer made and are hard to find. We found oures on ebay with three 4mb memory cards and i already had 3 others from my previous sp-202 which broke after 3 years.
- Price Paid: US$200.00
- Purchased At: ebay
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- Submitted by nkondi from Portland, OR (610 points) on Dec 17, 2003
- a cheap and easy way to treat samples and that small bit of field recording you wanted to loop without getting to heavy into computers and high end samplers. the memory in lo fi with the smart media card is great, and since its noise im doing i dont find that need much in the way of hi fi cd quality samples...on board fx are fun, but not the greatest thing and running this through some real fx is probably advised. only really suggested if you want to revers that moaning woman, or breaking glass over and over again...
- Good Points: decent construction and fairly cheap since its been replaced. its battery capabilities do make it an ideal field recording device...
- Bad Points: as stated previuosly only four samples at a time can be played. the on board fx are not the greatest (save for the reverse), and youll need the smart media card if you want to get into any serious sampling lengths...
- Price Paid: US$80.00
- Purchased At: ebay
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- Submitted by K. from Sealy, TX (528 points) on Dec 17, 2003
- Discontinued and replaced by the SP-303, which is infinitely superior, which says alot about unit's limited functionality. Basically eight pads to assign samples X four banks for a total of thirty two samples (with smart media, not included). Internal memory is ridiculously short, unless you record in lo-fi mode, which gives you several mintes as opposed to a few seconds. Allows for only four samples to be played at once, choosing a fifth will cut out the 1st sample, which can be a pain if it's integral to what you're doing. A couple of poor quality effects which aren't worth the time or effort. A plus for some might be the fact that it can be operated of battery power, making it extremely portable and of use for field recordings. The SP-202 also has a built-in mic which isn't on the SP-303, low quality but can be useful for capturing sounds "on the fly". I took advantage of the G.C. thirty day return policy when checking this out, and promptly returned it the nextday, which is saying alot since it was a fifty mile drive.
- Good Points: battery powered option good for field recordings
- Bad Points: only allows four samples to be played simultaneously, a few crappy effects
- Price Paid: US$0.00
- Purchased At: gEEEtar center
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