If anybody is interested, kicked off a “Old School Sampling Techniques” themed session on my youtube channel… it’s around 20 videos discussing various things we used to do back in the day, and how to apply them on the SP404 mk2 for those who are inclined.
Nothing here will really make the mk2 sound like an older sampler per se, but a lot of the techniques are good ways to put restrictions on yourself and see how you can work with or around them creatively.
Keep making music everybody!
I use loops not synchronized as well as one shots. I never use the pattern sequencer. I’m sure it’s great but free form jams and resampling is my main workflow aside from just assigning whole tracks to a pad and playing FX. The SP404mkII is an inspiring imagination machine.
It was easy for me to put off ordering one of these while they were out of stock, but had to do it now that they are.
The 404 SX was what brought me into making electronic music after some years of recording more traditional rock stuff. I basically wanted to do what Animal Collective did live, and had fun learning the ropes with the 404 SX and a microkorg and not getting close to what they did. Barely more than a year later and I had my first Elektron, a Machinedrum UW, and my production really started taking off, but the 404 SX has always been a go to live tool, and I learned so much from it that has been invaluable working with other gear.
I’m really looking forward to sitting down with nothing but the Mk2, my MS-20, and guitar stuff. Then, once I’ve got that down I’ll add Digitakt to the mix and maybe try to put together a live set for the first time in a few years.
Good man! Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos did a low-key vid with Perfect Circuit showing how he uses the SP-404A with guitar and pedals. 
My SP-404 Mk2 seems to be haunted. Last night inadvertently left it powered up and woke up to it randomly triggering snare hits. Needless to say it was quite vexing, especially before I identified the source of the sound.
This happened once before, so I reckon it’s going to need to be RMA’d. Anyone else encounter mysterious self-triggering pads?
What are your pad sensitivity settings? If the treshold is too low it might cause some self triggering, had that on the MPC Live. Never happened again after I adjusted the pad sensitivity.
Very tempted by this instead of a Digitakt but don’t seem to be any in the country I’m living in currently. Main reason is longer sample time for weird cut up spoken samples and maybe some distorted loops.
Two completely different machines and different approaches.
I think of time with the Digitakt as ‘programming a drum machine’ Vs ‘playing with SP-404’.
And actually Digitakt is not even a drum machine, more like a sample player
It’s a drum computer. (& sampler)
It doesn’t matter, that’s how I approach it.
Any tips for looping samples without getting clicks?
I never use the loop button. I record more than I need to and use the sequencer to loop a sample rather than worry about the end point.
ex: I have a 4 bar loop. I record that loop for 5 bars. In the sequencer I set the sequence to 4 bars. It loops perfectly every time.
when you’re on the start/end screen hit resample to have the start/end points moved to zero crosspoints
The digitakt absolutely is a drum machine, it acts like one, with functions like fill-ins and what not that are usually seen only in drum machines. The fact that is uses samples is irrelevant, an Alesis SR16 also use samples.
A small amount of env on start/end can help with this also.
After my first evening with the 404 Mkii I realized I did not look into what it does much, just saw some improvements over the OG/SX and decided it would be a worthy upgrade to my oldest piece of electronic gear. I’m glad because I’ve been very pleasantly surprised as I work my way through the manual.
The effects sound fantastic on this thing. I tried the filter+drive effect first and it really blew me away since I was expecting the same sound from my old SX. Instead I was given further evidence I probably don’t need my Oto Boum I’ve been thinking of selling. Maybe not a good comparison but the MKII effects should do all I need while working with it, and are good enough that I’ll likely be processing sounds from a DAW through it.
I have been doing everything as I go through the manual even if I’m not particularly interested just to see how it’s done. Made it to the sequencer section last night before I needed a break, and will resume that later today despite thinking I won’t be using it much. Just getting the basics down to do what I did with the SX and finding some of the enhancements has been enough for me to really enjoy getting back into the SP workflow. I already know this was a solid purchase 
This is what I do and you can resample the loop to pad. Pretty awesome!
Sounds interesting. Can you post a link?
This playlist has everything I’ve posted, but scroll down to session 30 for the new stuff
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLreK50aqgX-ZR-vsYN_I8ssY1yAUhIS58