| Features | |
| Year Made | 1987 |
| Original List Price | $1195 |
| Polyphony | 16 |
| Mulitimberal | 4 |
| Tones & Patches | 4 tones |
| Type of Synthesis | Digital Sampler (12 bit 15 or 30 Khz) |
| Maximum Sample Time | 4 s @ 30khz, 8 s @ 15khz |
| Effects | none |
| Sequencer or Arpeggio | Arpeggio |
| Drum Sets | none |
| MIDI | programmable 1-16 for 4 samples |
| Outputs | 4 asignable mono outs |
| Backup | Quick Disk, MIDI sysex |
| Options | none |
| My Comments |
| I really wanted a sampler,
probably too badly. I bought this one used, for what I should have known
was too cheap. The S-220 does what it should, samples a t aprimitive 15
or 30 Khz, for a max of 4.4 sec,s. But when it comes to edit the sampled
sound, it's difficult and limited (eg. there are four differnent kind of
auto loops but htere is no explanation of what the difference is between
them, and the little experimenting I did they all seemed the same !!).
the limited time is a bit exasperating as well, but the biggest downfall
is the quck disk. These only store one sound a side ( If you are loading
all four tone banks this becomes tedious) and more importantly have gone
the way of the Dodo. I have yet to see any of these disks for sale anywhere.
I'm glad whoever sold this unit sold it with a lot of disks. I did use
this for a while, I was in a three piece and used it for a sampled bass
sound, but it didn't travel well. Too many gravel roads and dirty clubs
clogged the disk drive and killed a few disks so I had to retire it. After
sitting in a relitively dust free environment the junk worked itself out
of the drive and it worked fine. Another thing to note is this was made
back when Roland made buttons that worked for longer than a year. All in
all it is limited but can be o.k. just make sure there are lots of disks
with it!
UPDATE
may 2004 - after consulting the Sgroup gurus I found out my drive was out of alignment, and after much thought, I have not realigned the drive currently in the s-220 but managed to grab the last of the elusive samples I had been unable to retrive before. I aligned the other drive and temporarily swaped them. I have saved all my samples on computer and as I need them I can throw them on QD's (even if the drive is out a bit, what it records, it will read.) I just have to fix a few things I had overlooked until now like a nasty ground buzz and the broken volume knob. Nov 2015 - After letting everything sit for a long time I finally hooked most of it back up and quickly found out there was a problem with the S-220. For some reason everything is about 50 cents flat, just enough to notice and make everything sound bad. I am not sure what is causing this, but I guess I will have to open it and attempt a fix.
|
I rate it 
I bought it for 250$ c I owned it from jan 1996 - present Current PrePay value 95$ us |
| condition of my keyboard
cosmeticaly There
are a few scratches on the front.
electronically There
is a ground buzz and the volume knob is broken. |
Status
2016: Sorted out many of the disks last year. Aside from the curious tuning problem, it all seems good. Still set up in rack 1. 2012:Set up and in the rack. When I have time I would like to organize the samples a bit better, there are hundreds sitting on a back-up CD somewhere. 2010: set up with the other keyboards in the basement. 2008: I at the moment have it set up in my dining room! I am gearing up for a live Beker show, and am practicing as much as possible. I want to buy a USB MIDI device so I can go through samples again, soon! Maybe I should look for some more QD's. 2006: I still love this little unit, I have tons of cool samples. I know when I have the room it will go back in the house! |
| Resources
Sgroup-
users group dedicated to s series samplers, they now have a s-10 section
that has all the Roland samples, the L'il chips samples & and many
more!!
|
