Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay

The Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay is an effects pedal made by Boss, released in 1985, that puts a short digital delay and a phrase sampler in one compact pedal¹². Boss's own history of its delay pedals, written by Jim Bybee, describes the phrase sampler as able to record 800 milliseconds of audio and play it back one-shot style, with a Trigger input for external sources like a drum pad². Ben from Vein-Tap.com calls it the first digital sampler in compact pedal form³.

What it does

The DSD-2 is a digital pedal, and Pedal of the Day's reviewer Mike B noted that "this one sounds really nice for being digital"⁴. Its two jobs are set out in its name: it is a delay in the delay pedal family, and it is a sampler. The delay side runs 50 to 200 ms in S Mode and 200 to 800 ms in L Mode, maxing out at 800 ms⁴. The frequency response is 40Hz to 7kHz (+1/-3 dB) on the Sample/Delay path and 10Hz to 60kHz (+1/-3 dB) on the Direct path⁴.

The sampler side records less than a second of audio, 0.8 seconds at most⁴³. Boss describes the workflow in its history article: the phrase sampler records 800 milliseconds and plays it back one-shot style, meaning the sample plays once and stops rather than looping².

Controls and modes

Pedal of the Day describes the two operating settings:

• Record: records the sample
• Play Only: plays back just the recording⁴

That split lets a player capture a short phrase, then switch to playback only so the footswitch retriggers the sample without re-recording over it⁴.

The Trigger input

Alongside the standard Input and Output, the DSD-2 carries a Trig. In connector and an AC Adaptor connector⁴. Boss's history article explains the Trigger input as a way to fire the sample from external sources like a drum pad². For a player, that means the 0.8-second sample does not have to be triggered by the pedal's own footswitch: a pad hit, a drum machine or another external source can start playback, which is what makes the pedal usable in a band setting rather than only as a studio curiosity.

Where it came from

The DSD-2 arrived in 1985, listed in Boss's delay history alongside that year's releases². Ben from Vein-Tap.com frames its significance plainly: "Boss made the first digital sampler in compact pedal form in 1985"³. Boss itself places the DSD-2, and its later sibling the DSD-3, as early descendants of the trendsetting BOSS Loop Station products that would come later². In other words, the idea of capturing a phrase and playing it back from a stompbox, which later became its own product category, started here in a delay pedal.

DSD-2 vs the DD-3

Guitarcloud notes the DSD-2 is similar to the DD-3, and that it is possible Prince used both concurrently¹. The practical differences:

The DSD-2 sits apart from Boss's later delay pedals. Its most documented player is Prince, who used it from the Parade tour to the Diamonds & Pearls tour¹.

Prince and the DSD-2

The DSD-2 is documented as a Prince pedal: Guitarcloud describes it as used by Prince from the Parade tour to the Diamonds & Pearls tour¹. Prince retired the pedal in favor of the DD-3 in the early 1990s¹, which lines up with the DD-3 taking over the same role in his rig without the sampler functions he had been using.

What reviewers said

Tim Mahoney, in a Premier Guitar interview about his oddball pedals, gave the DSD-2 a specific verdict among delays⁷:

That puts the DSD-2, a pedal with an 800 ms maximum, ahead in Mahoney's estimation of the AD9 for long ambient work, which is a reminder that the character of an old digital delay can matter more to a player than its spec sheet⁷⁴.

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