Madlib talks about the sp303 in scratch mag

[JPeg]

in case any madlib heads is interested:

"I first discovered the 303 a few years ago, a few months before I went to Brazil for the Red Bull Music Academy. I get bored with just one machine. The 303 turned out to be one of my favorites. I liked the way it looked; I like the feel it had. With the MPC, I can't feel the pads. They're hard. It's like your not hitting shit, theres no response. On the 303 you feel the pads-it lights up when you hit it. And all the effects...That's what got me, really. You buy one machine, it's all on there: wah-wah's, tremelos, filters, pitch shifters, a time stretcher. I figured out how to use the time stretching really quick. It's not the best, but it's good enough for me. But there's too much clicking and pops. Like a scratchy record, but digital. That's something they need fix on it. The quality of the sound is rugged. The 303 makes samples [sound] dirtier. The first beats I made with the 303 ended up as part of the [beat CD series] that started with 100 Beats. My beats on the Jaylib came from those cd's. So did the beats for Madvillain, Dudley Perkins, the DJ Rels album, The Wildchild album. People think i'm using the SP, but basically it's all about the records you use.
"I brought the 303 to Sao Paulo, and I didn't even have a cd burner with me. So I dumped the beats I made to the little cassestte box that was in the hotel. The samples were already fucked up from a portable turntable. That's how I been doing it though. It's working with whatever you have. As long as it records and you get your idea down, it's cool. You record on whatever you have. I'm gonna always keep the 303 formula...."-madlib

 

[Chisel]

The SP-303 was my first sampler. I hooked my DMX box (aka Music Choice) into the input of the 303 and sampled like crazy! From there I moved to the SP-808 which I still use today. Even though the buttons aren't velocity sensitive like on my MPC 1000, I love the way they light up. I wish Akai would have LEDs over each button or at least have a graphic representation of the pads on the screen that you could call up to see which pads have samples loaded. That's a great feature of the SP series.

 

[def1nition]

I started with a SP 202 played around with the 303 the SP 303 is the shit it's simple to use and all the buttons are at your fingertips you don't have to go through menues. It's impossible to make a drum pattern on it though the drum hit's come out too choppy. it's good for break beats though. I don't believe The 303 is all Madlib uses though I think he still uses the sp 1200 and the mpc I think Roland is paying him to endorse the 303. He makes some hot tracks though and if he does only use the 303 that goes to show it's not what you have it's what you do with what you have.

 

[DJ Reflex]

I use the sp505 and love it! it has smart media drive so any hard to chop samples i can chop in cubase then load em over! its really quick to save to ther is zero wait for files to be copied to! the bpm sync works with the hit of one button! many a day i have had sore fingers from workin sooo long havin so much fun on that machine!