Now that I have one, I understand better what you’re saying (experience it). I also find it weird that it stops the pattern. I’d wish to end pattern recording and let it play actually.
Yeah its one of the reason why I sold my live, not the main one but it was like death by a thousand cuts and having to plug in a preamp for bass and guitar was pita
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Hi guys, just wondering what impedance you use for headphones. Here’s the dilemma:
I use the usb output to record straight to phone video and it’s great.
Now I’d love it to be louder when recorded on the phone BUT you can only decrease the output gain of the usb output. Damn.
So I thought I would lower the gain of the headphone output and push the overall level of the machine so I get more gain in my phone video. But you can only increase the headphone output, meaning that if I leave it as is and increase overall gain, i will murder my ears. Re-damn.
I did notice that my 32ohm DT 770 sounds way louder than my 250 ohm DT 990 (obviously) so there’s an idea there.
Which is why I’m asking, if you find yourself in this problem, what type of headphones and impedance you use with you mk2?
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Agree 100%. I don’t think any MPCs have had them so I guess they are just sticking with established input types, but Live/2 especially should have had one for mobile beat making. You’d need to find a USB powered preamp to avoid needing power still.
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I haven‘t had a lot of time to play around with the SP-404mk2 yet, just a few good hours under my belt, so here are my first impressions:
UI & UI logic are definitely their own thing. Some stuff is a bit hidden though simple (eg how do you route a pad to one of the buses again?!) but the more I use it the more I’m getting used to it. Sample loading currently sucks, too slow to fill 16 pads (or more) quickly, no preview of samples before loading (as far as I could tell without consulting the manual on this one) — but then I feel that’s also not so important for the way I want to use the SP404. But I sure do hope that they will improve on this, for the sake of the device as a sample playback machine as such.
Pads - the pads are, to my mind, excellent. Very playable and responsive, they register touch well without any unwanted double triggering. I find their size awesome as well, so convenient to finger drum on, quite effortless.
Sound - I find it sounds very good. Nothing to add here.
Screen - I think the screen is great - it provides enough information to be useful but never gets in the way of HEARING the music (instead of seeing it…I’m looking at you, MPC Live…)
Chopping - works very well, fast and charming. somewhat reminds me of the OT’s workflow. At first I was bummed out about no zero-point snap but then I discovered the AR envelope and so clicks are no problem 
Sampling - man…BEAST!!! I mean @Akai, do you see this?!? I can sample off a dynamic microphone (XLR to TS cable works fine, @DimensionsTomorrow ;)), I can sample my guitar on the fly (WITH amp sims to spice things up on the way in), I can sample via dedicated Line Ins AND I can sample straight off my iPhone via USB-C…this is soooo good, because I can have the SP404 on my lap and be jamming on it…have an idea but don’t have the right sound on the device? No problem, just connect the iphone, find it online, sample it, keep going. No audio interfaces, mixers, cables, big routing setups…just a USB cable (with the camera connection kit) and my iPhone. Given the many ways to sample QUICKLY with this box, the many pads & banks with the super long sampling times and the fact that I don’t need to save anything I sample to retain it makes it viable to just add samples to my sound arsenal in a project as I go (which is why I don’t see the need to load any samples onto the SD card really). And this brings me to the next point…
What is this thing? - I read some of the comments pointing out that the pattern sequencer is rudimentary etc (which I guess is true) and on other forums I’ve seen people complain that it is not a full featured production tool and Roland really dropped the ball here…well I think that’s looking at this box the wrong way, because this one really IS an instrument first and foremost…a sampler instrument…play it, don’t produce with it, that’s my take on it. The playback functions are so immediate, fantastic stuff (gate / loop / reverse a pad + the hold button & the fx). I captured a few sounds in my environment and then just went at it, playing with them like I would play around with a guitar or my keys…I think from that vantage point, the SP404mk2 is really a special box. The skip back function makes it possible to create new layers of sound in the banks as happy accidents occur with absolute immediacy and FX can be added and resampled over and over to make something new on the fly. Plus the pitch & time algos seem good enough to be useful, so slowing down sounds by 30% without any real artifacts in realtime adds to that arsenal of immediacy. I want to learn to play this thing like I learn to play the guitar lol.
EDIT: In a funny way, the SP404mk2 is what I wanted the MPC Live to be. So I’m super happy to get to develop a relationship with it and see where it takes me!
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Good points…
you can hold shift and select up to 16 samples for import… Push subpad for sample preview. Shift + gate to enable/disable gate on all samples of a bank.
One thing I miss is a setting to start the resample on the wait (for an external audio signal) setting like in sampling mode. Because I need to use the resample function for sampling guitar while playing back a pattern. And with a guitar in hands its tough to push a button to start the resample.
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One question, since I don’t have the mkii yet. Instead of resampling the guitar, could you sample the guitar and choose “mix” rather than the “ext only” setting to record your guitar with everything instead of just the guitar by itself to a pad? This way you could have the count in (one or two bars) to get ready. I only ask because I also want to sample my guitar.
Yes you can! Works like the sp 303!
You can also set a count in for sampling
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You should still be able to start resampling when meeting the threshold. If you go to system settings > Click > Count in Recording > Select Wait !
Manual > Appendix > Parameter Guide > System > Click
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AFAIK I can’t play back a pattern or another pad while sampling. I need that to “overdub” (resample) the guitar to a new pad. So I think resampling is my only option here…
Mix will be external and internal sounds together, similar to the way the sp303 worked.
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In my experience, when resampling, start is only by pressing a pad, not with threshold or count-in, unless I missed it
I am at work rn, and dont have the unit in front of me, but according to the manual that I sited above, the wait setting will work for both Resampling and sampling.
There are individual settings for both Patterns and sampling/resampling. I.e. You can set it to one measure, two measures, or wait which is basically start on audio input.
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Also, if he just wants to overdub his guitar over the pattern, instead of resampling, couldn’t he just do regular sampling, set to mix, and have a countdown as well? Unless I’m missing something. The only reason I say countdown instead of “wait” is that he may not want to record on the first beat of the measure.
If I use mix instead of extin - everything gets sampled to the new pad. I want the guitar only to be sampled to chop it up later. Also - as I said - I need a pattern to run, while playing the guitar, which only works in resample mode.
I’m not sure and look at this tomorrow.
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That’s the attraction of it for me. I see MPC live as a full production suite, but the SP as something to jam around with wherever. I’d take that to the park, on a plane, anywhere really. Not sure I’d do the same with my Live.
I’m going to end up pre-ordering this to avoid breaking Happy NoGear New Year! aren’t I!
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Is anyone else waiting on UK pre-orders - where did you go for?
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