Q on Roland SP-606

Post by **meatballfulton** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:05 pm

Any users out there?

Have read a number of reviews that claim the unit chokes up when trying to BPM synch more than 2 samples. Also that the timestretching sounds terrible.

True or false?

My #1 deal-killer requirement is the ability to stream long samples (many minutes...backing tracks) from the CF card, BPM synch not required for these.

Post by **meatballfulton** » Sun May 04, 2008 7:50 pm

Wow, no 606 users here at all, eh?

supermel74 · Post by **supermel74** » Sun May 04, 2008 8:26 pm

I'm a former SP 606 owner. I don't recall any problems with the unit choking up when synching 2 or more samples but I guess that wouldn't surprise me. I did notice that when you send it too much midi data it got ckoked up, at least mine did. As far as the time stretching, I actually thought it was very good but I guess that could be subjective. I think it's based on Variphrase. Obviously at extreme time stretches it will sound not natural but the time stretching was one of my favorite features when I had it.

Post by **meatballfulton** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:37 pm

OK, supermel time for some brain picking...why did you get rid of the 606?

What did you like most about it?

What did you like least?

JSRockit · Post by **JSRockit** » Mon May 05, 2008 3:27 pm

I know we aren't supposed to do this...but, since you aren't getting any questions answered here...try here: http://sp-forums.com/index.php

supermel74 · Post by **supermel74** » Mon May 05, 2008 6:30 pm

meatballfulton wrote:OK, supermel time for some brain picking...why did you get rid of the 606?

What did you like most about it?

What did you like least?

I got rid of it because I was getting an MC-909. I probably actually liked the time stretching the most. It was my first phrase sampler so I was pretty impressed with that feature. The computer connectivity was also a cool feature even though I hardly ever used it. It definately made up for some of the limitations that came with using it solely as a standalone hardware unit...expanding the sequencer from 4 to 16 tracks and giving access to lots of sounds. What I liked least was probably the sequencer limitations(4 tracks) and relatively low polyphony(8 I think). The digital in/outs were a nice feature and the effects were very good. Sound quality was also top notch in my opinion.

Post by **meatballfulton** » Mon May 05, 2008 6:51 pm

Yeah, I was over at SP Forums, Roland Clan and Future Producers too. I did have trouble understanding some of the posts

as the level of technical understanding there was amazingly low. There was one guy there who sounded like he knew a lot about the 606, I may follow up offline with him.

The people who really hated the 606 were HC and Sonic State reviewers, they said it was buggy, bad time stretching artifacts, etc.

The people at SP Forums, etc. were all pretty much in love with it and thought the time stretching sounded fine.

Hard to tell much from that!!!

My own experience with time stretching/BPM matching is Acid (very good) and Motif ES (good).