Absolutely, DT + SP is wicked. Especially now with the revamped FX in the SP and that gorgeous compressor/reverb/delay on the DT.
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Out of stock at this moment. It went fast, 5 sold in about 30 minutes
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And is that due to the midi control of the DT? or would that also go for the rytm?
Youre saying you can use the Digitakt’s FX and that of the SP! That sounds insane.
Woop woop!!
Shipped! Next steps
- dig for samples
- manage expectations
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I was going to nab one but missed out, think for the best as worried about money this month. I know I’m going to regret it
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If anyone sees one in stock in the states please message me. I’m tired of waiting on Sweetwater.
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When I was thinking of getting one, I was thinking about using it the same way that I use my Sampletrak. That combination works pretty well for me I think because they’ve got defined roles.
The Sampletrak’s sequencer is a lot like the SPs. I think the main difference is that the SP can actually chain patterns, which is fine. I don’t mind that kind of sequencer and I like being able to play chops out when I’m figuring things out. But at the end of the day I want to step sequence. And luckily, once the pads are set up and the MIDI is connected I can control everything on the Sampletrak from the Digitakt.
With the SP, it’s too bad that the effects can’t be sequenced from the Digitakt. But at the same time, I don’t think I’d mind it at all if once I got going and I’m recording, the only thing I’m doing on the SP is messing with the fx.
But on the other hand, the combination that really hasn’t worked all that well for me has been the Digitakt and the Circuit Rhythm. I think it might be different if the Rhythm responded to MIDI a little different. But for whatever reason it doesn’t really respond the way I think it should to sequencing the track parameters like sample choice and filter cutoff. The global stuff works great so you can sequence the fx with more control than you have on the machine itself. But the Rhythm’s sequencer is good and fun in a way that’s different than the Digitakt. So I just use it on its own. Although I do have a few ideas that I haven’t really tried yet.
I think that part of the issue for me and I’m guessing a lot of other people is that I don’t like using two sequencers at the same time. I don’t mind it if it’s the Digis because they’re easy to see as basically the same thing. But even there I usually run one from the other.
So yeah, I’m still intrigued by the new 404 even if there is no chance of me getting my hands on one any time soon. Although someone I know IRL got one so I can at least be in the same room as one now.
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damn! someone yells 404 and I jump on it like a grenade only to find it already blew… guitar center tells me the 404 I ordered back in 1959 will arrive in feb… surrrrrrre
That’s a huge one for me, and the biggest showstopper. A synth and a sampler might be OK, but even then, I’d rather just sample the synth to avoid the two sequencers.
The other thing is that for many samplers, inputing and preparing samples can be a chore, so when that’s spread across two machines with different workflows it gets to be a bit onerous, especially if it’s a pain to prep stuff on one or both of the samplers. For old samplers, I hate old tech like Zip disks, smart media, compact flash, etc.
My first setup was two samplers, Korg ESX-1 and the MPC1K, but I eventually got rid of the Korg as I couldn’t make the combination work.
I also once bought an SU10 as I thought it would be cool to sequence true lofi samples with the Digitakt (and it had no old tech to deal with), but all the work involved made it more trouble than it was worth. Then it suddenly died. That stopped me from buying a 303, which I’ve always been interested in.
All those bad experiences (and quite a few others) made me really nervous about going the Portastudio route, but surprisingly I love it. Mainly just because I love cassettes and tape in general. The old school mixing elements, analog EQ, preamp gain, saturation, compression, and tape speed pitch control make it worth it, and it doesn’t add a lot of time to the process. Plus, once I have everything done on the SP, I’m only working with the portastudio itself. One machine at a time is my mantra. Haha.
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Fingers crossed for you.
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Yeah. I don’t know your background with SPs, but there is definitely a learning curve, so don’t freak out and push through.
I’m still wrapping my head around how to accomplish certain things I’m experimenting with. There is a lot of trial and error. If you eventually hit a brick wall, just backtrack and try something else. It can be discouraging sometimes to spend an hour or more down a particular rabbit hole and then realize the results are crap, but that’s my experience on every single machine I’ve used. New machines are hard work.
It’s honestly an amazing and surprisingly deep sampler. I think you’ll love it (after battling with it for a while).
New hip hop beat battle coming up in a week or so, perhaps a chance to get to know the new SP.
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Word. That’s part of what makes the Sampletrak thing work for me. There’s a weird program you can use to transfer samples on the smart media card but I’m strictly recording things into it. The card is just storage. And I prefer to use something like the Sampletrak or the Circuit Rhythm over the Digitakt for just trying a sample out because I don’t want to bother with trimming a sample, naming it and all that if I’m just going to have to go back into the recordings folder and delete it.
I think I’d probably use the 404 the same way. I’d record into it as I go even though the 404 doesn’t have the kind of memory restrictions that sort of force that way of working on the Sampletrak or even the Circuit Rhythm.
But yo, the ES-1 was terrible with sample prep. If you recorded directly into it it took forever and loading samples from the smart media card one by one wasn’t much better. It’s funny, I still have that and the SU10. I don’t think I’ve ever really done more with the SU10 then figure out how to use it. Now they both live in a shoebox. The ES-1 is due for a comeback though. Running drums off of that and playing chops live on the Sampletrak could be fun. Or I could run my Rhythm through that compressor instead of the Digitakt. Hmmmmm…
Porta Studio also reminds me again that I’ve got one of those Roland desktop studio things in a weird Roland suitcase thing around here somewhere. But instead of cassettes it records to zip in a propietary format that I couldn’t read on my computer even if I still had a zip drive.
Man… technology
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I don’t want to be an enabler, but I want you to buy one for selfish reasons. Really want to hear what you come up with on one of these. 
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Bought some rechargeable batteries and a charger yesterday. The 404mkll is the perfect size to comfortably use on a couch, perfect weight to sit on the lap, not too light, not too heavy.
I messed around with bus 3 and 4 and configured the 16 favorite slots that are available. I was initially a bit disappointed that it’s a bit of a hassle to configure bus 3 and 4 in comparison to bus 1 and 2. But the machine saves all the FX settings for these 16 slots, so if viewed as 16 go-to presets, they are actually very useful in the way they are implemented. I think I have to explain it in a bit more detail though. The knob values for each effect usable in bus 3 and 4 are saved, but only for one instance of the effect. Say you configure the 303 vinyl sim to have the compressor knob at 50, level at 100 and everything else at 0. These values will be consistent whenever the vinyl sim is loaded in bus 3 or 4 for any of the 16 favorite slots. If the values are changed, they will be changed in every instance the effect is loaded within these 16 slots. That means that it’s not possible to use multiple instances of one effect with different settings for bus 3 and 4. Once dialed in, the settings are saved even if you power off the unit, which is also true for the input fx.
This might be a bummer for some people, so I tried to describe it as detailed as possible. If you want to have 16 different reverb patches saved as favorites, that’s not possible. If you want to chain two different instances of scatter in bus 3 and 4, that’s not possible. You can use different values for bus 1 and 2, these won’t affect the values on bus 3 and 4.
After having messed with it for a while, I do really like it, especially for recording guitars into the 404mkll. Dial in a nice guitar tone on the amp sim input fx and there’s no need to touch it again. The guitar sound will remain constant, whenever you want to record it. The same behavior applies to the 16 favorite slots, so I configured them as 16 go-to fx patches. Once you dialed them in, they are very easy to return to and switch between: shift+pad 16 and turn the encoder. So it’s nice to record, say a verse guitar riff using input fx and favorite slot 4 in the evening, go to sleep, and pick up right where I left off with the same guitar tone the next day to record a riff for the chorus.
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Yeahhh boiiiiii!
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The SP will be my first box in quite a while (post kids).
My history is machinedrum (and monomachine) which I loved. The grid-focus made things come out like house and techno (swing and shuffle worked great though) and I longed for something more loose. I miss those sometimes.
Before that I had a Korg ES-1 (remember those?) and I think that was what I enjoyed the most sample-wise. Pushing buttons and turning knobs in an unpretentious manner was a lot of fun. It had a fun primitive slice function I really enjoyed.
Borrowed a Maschine which was super capable but far too much like work.
OP-1 seemed like perfect fit on paper but I did not like how much it forced me to do things they way it liked to. Like a band mate that only wants to play their songs. And the hipstery graphics which drew me in turned me off in practice.
Never tried MPC:s which is odd in retrospect. They might have done the trick.
Was aware of the SP-line but I never knew what they were for. Had I known more about how Madlib, J Dilla do their stuff I might have reconsidered.
What I look forward to now on the SP is playing by ear and not overthinking.
TLDR old man musings to safely ignore.
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In practice I’m not finding that lack of saving the values to be much of an issue myself. There aren’t countless effects and I have my favorites, so it’s turning out I’m learning them quickly. I don’t touch the subvalues much, so mostly just three knobs worth of parameters, and pretty quick to dial in by ear. I mainly use Bus 3-4 for master effects (glue) when I’m done sequencing though and use Bus 1-2 for resampling.
The bigger issue for me is learning a good effects workflow for resampling. Meaning, the most efficient workflow for building things up via resampling and even understanding all the possibilities, as I’m finding you can really shape the sound. That video from Nonjuror is a good starting point for people just getting their machines though I think. Learning to use the remain function to mute effects buses is going to be a core skill with this device I’d say.
I’m hoping some of the more experienced SP people on YouTube will drop videos on the individual effects. I’d like to see creative ways people are making use of some of these things. For now, I’m studying some old SP beat tapes for ideas.
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I noticed that what I could prefer for some effect is a different default, défaut settings that load when I go to them, as I find myself always going for some similar tweaks.
Else I really don’t mind not saving my settings, as you, the limited amount of parameters is fine and not a problem for me.
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