Roland SP-404 Mk2 (Part 1)

Peter118 · February 19, 2022, 8:45am

@NearTao Subscribed. Appreciate your hard work.

Kegeratorz · February 19, 2022, 10:30pm

Mine landed! Is there a trick to get USB audio in and midi working? Tried both with no luck. Other than that it’s awesome so far! Can’t wait to dive in deeper!

Edit: Apple Camera kit to usb C cable, no audio. Plays through iPhone speaker only. I must be doing something wrong.

Sleepynumb · February 19, 2022, 11:30pm

Might be your micro usb cable. Some don’t transfer data. Had to try out a few cords. Ultimately used the one that came with my ps5 for controllers.

Kegeratorz · February 20, 2022, 12:34am

Thanks man! Was trying to use a USB C cable I got with a mouse. Found another and all good!

betamax · February 20, 2022, 12:08pm

Friends, acquired here but not found according to specific information (perhaps by my poor english)

When I finish recording some samples I always get the “operation complete” message which takes a while to disappear, this makes the process slower than in previous models. Is it possible to modify this?
The FX screen disappears very fast when triggered. I didn’t find anything in the menu about this setting, is it possible to change this time?

amaury · February 20, 2022, 12:25pm

Yes, there is a setting for “pop-up” somewhere in the settings page
No, but pressing Remain and FX button makes them not disappear

Kegeratorz · February 20, 2022, 8:14pm

Loving the MKII!

Anyone have any luck with usb audio/midi with DN/DT? I grabbed a usb c to usb b cable but no luck, also tried a usb c hub and std usb cable to DN. Stumped.

jemmons · February 20, 2022, 8:35pm

Neither the 404 nor the DN/DT are hosts. They’re both devices meant to be plugged into hosts. So going straight USB between them won’t work regardless of what cables/hubs you use.

Kegeratorz · February 20, 2022, 8:59pm

Thanks @jemmons

Well, that makes sense, wish I asked before buying cables and wasting a ton of time.

TRS A midi adapter in bound.

Jacob · February 20, 2022, 10:11pm

Can anyone speak to their experiences using the unit as an audio interface? Specifically has anyone tried using it with a DAW? What’s the latency like? Any crackling? Thanks in advance!

echo_opera · February 20, 2022, 10:19pm

I use it as one with my iPad Pro. It seems fine to my ears.

Jacob · February 20, 2022, 10:25pm

Yes, your videos have been very inspirational and have definitely contributed to my SP curiosity. I really like the idea of using the SP as a soundcard between my iPad and windows machine with the bonus of being a sampler/beat machine…

Smapti · February 20, 2022, 11:44pm

I’ve been using it to sample audio out of Bitwig. It works well (audio is good quality, low latency). I had a strange issue where I thought it wasn’t working at first but it turned out that Windows had automatically put a weird effect on it that fucked up the audio. I disabled all Windows audio enhancements and now I have no issues.

Jacob · February 21, 2022, 12:08am

Interesting. Are you using Windows 10? Also, are you using an ASIO driver? Thanks!

DelayDude · February 21, 2022, 9:30am

Yes, one of the synth has a vinyl noise setting (sounds great). Combined with a filter and compressor it covers pretty much alle the vinyl sim features.

mtts · February 21, 2022, 11:16am

Really? Didn’t know that. Will hunt around for it. Thanks!

EDIT: for posterity: the Mellotron plugin has a vinyl noise effect. Set the cutoff on the main sound as low as it will go and you’re left with the vinyl crackle. See this video for a tutorial: How to Create LoFi Vinyl Noise in MPC with the Mellotron - YouTube

Jedilicious · February 21, 2022, 1:19pm

Yo @NearTao!

Thanks again for sharing all this knowledge, it is very helpful. I just had a chance to check out some of the videos (thanks for the shoutout on 1.8!)

I really think you are doing an awesome job with this. Your videos are concise and very well explained. Also, you have a very good voice for this.

Here are my answers

** Is it useful to be as thorough as possible or okay to be a bit higher level*

Not sure what you mean by this, but I think your videos hit the sweetspot. What could be helpful from a didactical point of view (forgive me, I am a teacher and teacher trainer at a university is to explicitly state what you will cover and what problem that could solve for the user. In the case of 1.8, it could be something like “in this video you will learn how you can resample perfect loops from your own patterns” or something similar. I think you do this to some degree in most videos, but by building it in as a common part of the introduction can help the learner.

** Are you okay with me doing things between sessions, or is skipping steps not a great idea*

Yeah, definitely. You can always refer to earlier sections, or maybe even refer to the original manual (e.g, “if you don’t know how to use pattern mode, I recommend you check out x”)

** Would it help for me to post the samples someplace, or just let people sample off the video or otherwise follow along*

For me personally, it would not add much value. I like to work with my own samples

** EDIT: Forgot… Does anybody want to see these videos referenced in the guide book to show different workflows there as well*

I think that is a great idea.

Ps. Did you consider giving people the option to donate a small amount for the effort you are putting into this? I would definitely buy you a coffee

monsterism · February 21, 2022, 2:20pm

Roland please just add a looper function, you did it with the sp 555 but I know it be possible.

Smapti · February 21, 2022, 2:52pm

I’m on Windows 11, using an ASIO driver (FL ASIO).

mojodrum · February 21, 2022, 3:13pm

Agree a sampler without a looper function doesn’t make sense.