Yeah, it’s a small town, independent music store so a weird website is a given. It had a really weird looking electric guitar there as well (looked sort of like the st. Vincent music man guitar) that was locally made in Missoula. It looked pretty cool.
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hole in the wall spots are the best, from crate diggin to beatmachines and synthesizers 
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Mine arrived yesterday and it’s my first sp. First impressions are good. It will take a while to get going quickly but the overall structure and workflow is relatively simple. I haven’t quite got my head around the FX system yet. The way I understand it is you have an FX bus for the inputs and then 4 FX busses for the pads. These are configurable with busses 1 and 2 being used mainly for the individual pads while busses 3 and 4 are master fx. The FX busses do not have send levels, they are more like insert fx.
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I got mine yesterday also. I usually go to sleep at 11:00 or so …not tonight. 3 hours straight. I LOVE the TR rec mode…at least for drum hits. Being able to switch between TR Rec and live is great. I do wish I could stop the sequencer to add trigs because I like longer patterns and the always running thing is annoying.
Love it though. My Rytm was jealous!
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Whuut, can you only add steps when the sequencer is running?
Yeah, they didn’t rewrite the guts of the machine. As nice as it is, the TR-REC sequencer is still just a different way to enter pad trigs into the same sequencing engine the 404 has always had. It’s always playing back, looping over the pattern, just like the “real-time” sequencer.
Or, I should say given my recent flubs about the capacities of this box, I haven’t found a way yet to make it behave differently 
EDIT:
So actually you can start editing the sequence, then SHIFT+HOLD to pause playback! This didn’t work in “real-time” mode (because what would you do then, I suppose?) but totally works in TR-REC mode. Thanks for the prompt to look into this!
END EDIT:
Maybe it’s also worth pointing out the other sequencing limitations that still apply? Like you can only play one at a time. If you want to have multiple sequences that you treat as “tracks” that play “on top of” each other you, have to resample them all down to pads, and then trigger the pads together (with PAD LINK or, perhaps, a new sequence). And while you can play a sequence “in the background” and trigger sample pads live on top of it, you can’t sync the triggering of pads to sequence or quantize a pad to play along “live” on a grid. The sequence is still the only place a notion of “time” exists and it’s still behind a wall that doesn’t interact with the rest of the sampler (outside of sharing bank BPM).
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There are very few pieces of gear I actually “regret” selling. The SP303 I bought when I graduated college is one of those. I still miss it for its immediacy and sheer fun factor.
This thread I getting harder and harder to ignore, especially with class compliance. But, I do have one question: is it possible to turn the SP404s audio engine “off” when using it as a sound card so that you can hear just the playback from the host/computer? Roland royally crewed this up on the MC-101, such that you could never monitor just the signal playing back from the host when the MC-101 was serving as the sound card. Hopefully that’s clear (let me know if it’s not – could relieve my wandering eye 
)
Fwiw i have my iPad connected to my SP and it’s sending audio via the headphones port to an external speaker and i play Music from Apple Music on my iPad to the Speaker. I’m using the SP as an audio pass thru to hear music, or watch movies on my iPad and hear it on the speaker.
Not sure if this is what you mean or are looking for.
Also in AUM and Drambo you can send audio to 1+2 (3/4 on back) or 3+4 (1/8 headphone on front of unit) channels, in order to refine your audio routing.
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LOL I almost posted about this in your BB sale thread, but didn’t because of the lack of plocks and sequencing
I’m not sure I 100% get what you’re asking so please correct me, but if I have the 404 plugged in to my computer, and have it set as the main output such that, say, youtube is being sent to it, I can hear youtube over the headphones and main outs of the 404 whenever the “EXT SOURCE” pad is lit, which sort of lets me toggle monitoring on and off.
But either way, it doesn’t disable the 404’s audio engine. Any FX I engage affects the ext signal and any samples I trigger are still heard over the 404’s outputs.
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Open AUM and create an audio channel.
Set Sp404 to input for that channel.
Add an LP filter to the channel.
Play a sound on the SP through the audio channel in AUM.
Lower the cutoff on the filter. What do you hear? What happens if you turn the cutoff all the way down? Is it ever possible to hear ONLY the filtered signal (including silence if you then the cutoff all the way down).
Thanks!!
I don’t use a iPad or AUM but when connected to a Mac the 404 will trigger app sounds via the pads even if there is not a sample on that pad. If the pad has a sample on it it will play both. I hope I’m helping and not confusing!
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Thanks, but I am really trying to understand whether the SP allows you to “disengage” the “internal” audio so that when you monitor the host/computer playback (whether laptop or iPad) you are not also monitoring the machine itself.
The Models, for example, have a setting that allow you to do just that, so you don’t monitor the device AND the audio signal from the computer (which can lead to feedback in some configurations). The MC-101 did not allow for this configuration and it was incredibly disappointing.
I don’t think you can, some smarter than me (everyone) can verify.
I’m not sure this helps but if you load an empty project there is no sounds to be monitored. Only the effects are there but I don’t think you can even bypass them.
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So for this setup I can route the SP audio out to 3+4 from AUM, but I still hear the 1+2 Channels on top of the 3+4 mix. I can’t seem to disable the 1+2 channels so I only get the WET mix of 3+4 which has the DubStation, Filter, Eventide effects on it.
In AUM I do this:
. Audio Channel receives SP on 1+2
. Send 1+2 thru series of effects chain
. Route effects to 3+4
. I can hear my effects and control the wet of 3+4 in AUM
. However, I can’t seem to disable the Dry 1+2 on the SP so I only get Wet
I’m looking in settings to see if there is any on device Audio channel separation I can do…but someone else might no how as well.
Hope that helps.
Idea though:
So based on this, if I want to Capture my AUM WET effects, I’ll just record it into AUM, and resample it back to the SP and mix it there.
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This does help, and, if I am understanding what you wrote correctly, essentially removes one of the primary reasons why I would even consider trying the 404mk2 (assuming the damn thing ever comes back in stock). 
(jk, now I can stop following this thread )
Thanks!
Well, based on the response Roland had with the 2.0 Firmware update, any all suggestions on feature enhancements seem possible to me.
Request submitted for better control of Audio Routing on Device since 1+2 and 3+4 are exposed on the iPad and Desktop when connected as an audio interface
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When I wrote to Roland to suggest that they fix the issue on the MC-101 I was met with a complete lack of understanding of the issue I was explaining.
Thank you for doing the Lord’s work and submitting that suggestion.
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Well I’m out. Mine’s on sale soon.
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I had no idea that Panda Bear made “Person Pitch” with basically just a 303. Blows my mind and I haven’t personally heard anything I’ve liked close to as much with a 404 and up.
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