Just (re)bought the Live 2 (retro edition this time ), and today the One goes on sale for $200 off.
Not sure it would’ve changed my mind, but I reckon it’s a good time to pick one of those up 
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technically, the One’s price was $699 from day one. it’s only the pandemic demand and supply chain shortages that drove it up the extra $200 for a time. but still a banger for the buck (as long as you can live with one stereo output)
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You could always add a compatible audio interface with more outs down the road as well.
404 does multisamples now, with the most recent firmware update (as well as the MPC? no hands on experience to say but it’s capable)
Do you mean chromatic mode?
There’s definitely nothing in the SP-404 MKII that compares to the keygroups on the MPC. Also, the MPC supports proper envelopes for amp, filter and pitch. You can really use samples like you’d use a synth. The Digitakt has similar capabilites in that regard with its two LFOs and filter + amp envelopes.
As far as I can tell, the SP-404 doesn’t even have a proper amp envelope, which really is crazy to me and rules it out at the moment.
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Rinse and repeat!
Out for the MPC vs DAW straight to the MPC vs 404 conversation!
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I recently got a midi fighter spectra and wow I like the buttons so much better than pads. Now I’m thinking if I want an mpc-esq workflow I might just use serato sample with the midi fighter. Feels a little blasphemous though lol.
I think as a standalone tool SP404 workflow is amazing and contained, and almost perfectly limited. But it is tough to setup for a proper mix. I.e. if you could rapidly solo as well as mute then you could easily track out to a DAW. For example all low end could be on bank A, all percussion on bank B, all melodic on bank C, and so on. Then record just bank A to your DAW for a mix, and so on. But muting every pad is a pain, and crazy there is no dedicated mute or solo buttons, and no solo option. These are basic things I would expect.
Also when it comes to midi sequencing, the MPC clearly wins. I’m prob going to switch my SP404 to MPC. I now have an S2400 and really the SP/MPC is just intended to be a supporting to tool to generate midi, particularly melodic parts, and apply FX to samples.
What I do love about the SP404 is the last 40 second audio capture at any time. Best feature in any new sampler.
a short question. does the mpc have log/exp envelope curves?
Can the MPC link two plugin tracks so I can do bi-timbral stacked sounds or fake 8 voices say for the Odyssey plugin?
… and that effectively eliminates the possibility of doing a live jam and mixing the tracks individually afterwards, since a live jam is only one take. The MPC clearly wins in any form of live jam scenario if you intend to produce the resulting jam in a DAW afterwards.
If anyone is interested in what the MPC X looks like from the inside, I’ve posted a few pictures of the parts/pcb boards here:
it sounds almost better open than it did closed…
my experience with 2.11.7 on an MPC One is that plugins still suffer from the MIDI note overlap bug, so simply layering multiple plugins, or doubling up on the same plugin, across multiple tracks will require some creative key range mapping and transposing to get them playing in unison without choking each other off with overlapping note values
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Yes, or you even stack different plug-ins
Yes🙂…this is what I wished elektron would do for years.
Would be nice if you could adjust the curve form even more. But this is great. Are they really short and percussive sounding?
I’m the wrong person to reply that, I usually use only the attack on samples