The S-50 was Roland's first professional keyboard sampler, and the S-330 is a compact, 1-unit rack-module with all the features of the S-50 and more at an affordable price! Still, by today's standards it would be considered limited and lo-fi. However for its time it was a powerful instrument which can still prove useful for many music applications today. It's easy to use, but pretty much requires an external CRT monitor for large graphic editing.

Editing is a breeze and is quite sophisticated especially when using the external CRT monitor and mouse options (the DT-100 digitizing tablet from the S-50 is also compatible when connected through the RC-100 controller). You get waveform smoothing, auto-looping, tuning, multi-stage envelopes and can quickly adjust loops and samples. New to the S-series were the Time-Variant filters as used by the LAS-type Roland synths. All this means is that the TVFs and TVAs are more digital, more in-depth and more precise. There is also the S553 sequencing software which offers basic drum machine type sequencing via an external CRT monitor like the S-50 and S-550 also offer.

Sample memory here is the same as the S-50, 750k-byte which yields up to 28.8 seconds at 15kHz. Sampler specs are still 30kHz variable sampling rates at a 12-bit resolution. Roland has a vast and nice S-50 compatible sample library of sounds ready to be loaded via the built in 3.5 inch disk drive. Samples of your own can also be saved to disk. The S-330 has room for 32 samples or "tones" and 16 patches in 2 banks. There's also a RC-100 remote programmer with an Alpha Juno type alpha-dial for easier programming access. Double the sample memory to 1.5MB and you get the 2-space rack-mount S-550.

15 VISITOR COMMENTS

bruno

December 9, 2011 @ 4:11 am

Instead of floppy drive you can use the SD adapter: http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/ - found it while looking for a FDD replacement for Yamaha SY77.

Bruce Creasy

October 15, 2011 @ 9:23 pm

Look ing for a 720
k floppy drice for S-330, can somaone help?

pajacke

March 23, 2011 @ 8:44 am

The description is not quite right. This is not a rackversion of a S50. The only thing they got in common is the RAMsize. It's a slimdown version of the S550 with half the RAM, half the height, singleouts only RCA and no SCSIboardexpansion.
BUT: It has the realtime filters (TVFs) of the S550 which weren't build into the S50.

Parl

December 29, 2010 @ 9:27 am

Although I never used a monitor with it, I was always able to do all I wanted with the S330 : Sample, loops, patchs, ... I love its powerfull filter !

Andy Crystal

September 22, 2010 @ 5:53 pm

A great sounding piece of gear. I can give that 80s character to all my vintage samples now thanks to its non-linear 12 bits sampling capacity. And It's so much fun to use. Fairlight for the poor? May be but I'd never be without.

<321>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (required)

Email Address: (required)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

Posting Rules:
Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

I have read and understand the posting rules.