Roland SP-404 Mk2 (Part 1)

The Lounge Other Gear
6220

No worries. Sorry, should have given the health warning on type of midi lead (and beware that I am no midi-expert!)- you need a midi TRS-to-5 pin din lead for the 404. Boss make these; just beware that there are two subtle variations of these, and only one will work- I think it’s the ‘Bmidi’ rather than the ‘A’, but you might want to check before you order- mine’s not clear what it is…

Then connect to a standard 5pin din lead, which will either go straight into the TR8S or you’ll need a similar 5pin din to TRS adaptor - I’m not sure which connections are on the TR8S?

Then settings - my TR6S is largely plug’n’play - don’t think I changed any settings to make it the Master. 404- go into the MIDI tab of the utility menu, and make sure MIDI sync is set to ‘MIDI’. But I think most of the other settings can be ‘OFF’ if you’re only using the TR8S with it.

(Someone may correct me, but I don’t think channel choice is critical if it’s just for start/stop/clock…? Where I do have to take notice of the channels is when sequencing specific samples on the 404 from another device- in my case an OP-Z. Then each bank on the 404- A/F, B/G, etc.) Has its own channel of 1 to 10 (plus 16 for Chromatic mode. But that’s a bit more complex than what it sounds like you’re trying to do).

I use the Sp404 almost as a looper- I go into Pattern mode and set up some blank 4 or 8 bar patterns- to select the first one you want to use (without playing), hold the Enter encoder and press the pad, which ‘arms’ it - then when you press Start on the TR8S, it should start both- then switch out of Pattern mode to play samples, or press record to put samples into your pattern loops. You can come out of Record mode, change patterns and record on another pattern without having to stop either machine- it’s a bit of a clunky workaround, but pretty good- I reckon it’s about one update away from being a very capable live looper if Roland choose to…

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6221

I see what your saying. I think roland is purposefully keeping the sp404 a niche device, with resampling baked into its workflow. It seems to be catering to a very specific audience with the effects predominantly bent towards lofi and dj orientation.

Its because of these limitation, especially with regards to sample handling, especially longer samples, that I bought a Maschine mk 3.

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6222

Epic response… Thank you so much. I bookmarked it because I want to try your looping technique as well…

I have the adapter by boss, for the J-6 chord generator, so it should be the exact one for the 404 as well.

The tr8s is 5 pin din.

I really appreciate your respose… I was going to try to figure it out, but I found its so much better to go in with a plan with roland devices.

6223

I imagine that Roland doesn’t want their products to overlap too much but I find that policy stupid. Better that your own products compete with each others than competing with other brands.

I wish that the SP404MKII allowed triggering pads in sync (for instance be able to set a triggering quantization at 1 bar or 1 beat, per pad), because the “DJ Mode” is useless to me the way it is implemented.

Obviously the MC101/MC707 can do that, but their audio loop memory is ridiculously small (1 minute max) so you can’t just put 4 x 30 seconds stems in it and use the MCX0X like Ableton Live.

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6225

I would be very surprised if this doesn’t get implemented in a firmware update, as the present state of affairs is bonkers.

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6226

I wish I could move around the sample with Ctrl 2 and not adjust looper. Feels like a natural thing to do.

6227

Happy New Year everybody!

Guide 0.25 is available at Roland SP-404 mk2 Guide v0.25 – NearTao's Blog

Let’s see, where to start? I got my first donation of $5 over at buymeacoffee.com, super cool, and big thanks. I know I keep telling you all it’s not necessary (it isn’t), and I keep doing all of this work for free, but I also want to say it is greatly appreciated. It’s going into my future gear purchase fund when I find the next device I want to dig into. I suspect I know what it will be, but well, let’s wait and see.

I’ve also just hit the ability to monetize on YouTube (yeah… or boooo), and I’ve just been playing with a few of the new videos to see about the hopefully minor popup advertisements. I’m really trying to keep these videos short and I don’t want to put people through an endless stream of advertisements. Besides, so far, I’ve only managed to make $0.27, so it’s not like the income would have any impact on my life, and I’m not suddenly able to make a career out of informational videos. Either way though, feel free to reach out to me if you’ve got any opinions on the advertisement stuff, I’d like to hear all of your thoughts out there.

I donated all of my old AM/FM radio gear, cassette tapes, 8 track tapes, players, and all that. I needed some space back and boy was that stuff all taking up a lot of room. Anyways, sent it off for a good cause and hopefully it will help get some money back into the local community.

What else? I’ve been toying with a few logo ideas, and I figured I’d try out a test run on this version of the guide. I know, it’s not the SP404 mk2 that we’ve all come to know and love, but that’s Roland branding, and I wanted to try something different out. I’ve got a few color versions I’ve been playing with as well, if something really sits well with me maybe I’ll try and get some merchandise together for a T-Shirt or something… I don’t know yet. For now, or maybe permanently, the guide will stick to black and white… and the logo seems to work alright.

As for the guide updates, it’s pretty much at the moment a “fix it up” kind of release. I tried to kill some more of the ??? stuff that I had left in there, and I took notes on sections I actually need to get back to for answering, because there’s a fair amount I had stubbed out, and never got around to adding still.

Then, there’s all the YouTube videos. I’m on the fence if I should document them in the guide, leave the guide and videos separate, or start drawing the two together. Where my head is at is that there’s a lot of interesting workflows that I’ve documented in the videos that would make a lot of sense in the guide, and there’s plenty in the guide that I could do videos on. Typing that up though, I’m not sure I want them that tightly fused together or not. I’ll think on it some more.

Anyways, thanks everybody for your support, it’s greatly appreciated whether it is dropping by discord to say hi, commenting on videos, emailing me, or dropping a few bucks as a donation, it’s all good to me.

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6228

Some of you may remember me having a moan a few months ago about audio over USB from my Google Pixel 6 phone. It was fine on my Pixel 4a, I upgraded to a 6 and the sound was distorted if I tried sampling or just listening to audio from the phone as an external source. Several of you then replied to say it’s an issue with more recent Pixel phones which Google hadn’t bothered to address.

There was a security/bugfix update rolled out for Pixel 6 and 7 (normal and pro versions) this weekend, and I’m happy to say it’s finally fixed! Just testing now and working as expected :slightly_smiling_face: really happy about this

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6229

Just to check, there’s no way to get a consistent USB-C volume out of the 404 MKII that’s detached from the volume control on the machine itself, right? This is very frustrating when trying to record what you’re playing into another device, as the max volume is way too loud for headphones but lowering it to an acceptable level is then too quiet for recording purposes. Seems like a pretty major oversight, this!

(Yes, I could ‘monitor’ from the device I’m recording into by listening via headphones there, but then there’s inevitably a teensy bit of lag even at low buffer settings, which for immaculate drum timing is a pain.)

1 Like
6230

Do you want it consistent? Or do you just want to lower the headphone volume relative to USB out?

Don’t know about the former, but to help with the latter you can put a -18db pad on the headphone out in the GAIN tab of the SYSTEM menu. And while there, make sure the USB out is maxed at 0db.

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6231

I want to lower the relative headphone volume so that I can record at max from the SP to my iPad or MacBook Pro, as the volume level out follows the main volume. Sounds like the best solution you’ve given, thanks.

6232

Hey all! I have a few questions regarding the Mk2, specifically the MIDI implementation. My brother is lending me a Digiton tomorrow, and I’m wondering how is the best possible way to connect my gear. First, I wanted to know if anyone has already use the MIDI out can really be used as a “soft thru”. The idea would be to daisy chain from the digi to the SP to the prologue.

My other question has already been answerd (I think), but is it possible to trigger a pattern chain from the digi? I know I can trigger individual samples, but I think it will be easier to make a drum and guitar pattern on the SP and sequence the audio track of the takt and the midi track of the prologue on the DIGI.

Do you think that’s possible?

6233

Quick question: Is it possible to have the potentiometers on top to snap to values? Otherwise, if you go in to a certain effect, aren’t you going to get whatever the potentiometer is currently set to when you start turning it?

6234

Hey all,

Just wondering if the SP-404 Mk2 is capable of cueing tracks via the headphone socket before deciding to output to main?

I have never used a 404, so unsure of exact terminology or workflow, but am considering buying one to accompany my Digitakt, and this is something that is sorely missing on the Elektron.

6235

Kind of. There’s a setting – I don’t remember what it’s called – in Settings that lets you sweep the pots without changing anything until it passes the value it was set at.

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6236

@kf6gpe is right. if you go to Utility->System on the general tab you can set Edit Knob Mode and EFX knob Mode to Catch

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6237

It has a dedicated DJ mode with functionality that overlaps.

So yes.

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6238

Just wondering if the SP-404 Mk2 is capable of cueing tracks via the headphone socket before deciding to output to main?

Hold down shift + reverse + pad you want to mute: Muting the Playback of a Sample (PAD MUTE)

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6239

I still don’t understand why didn’t they just use endless encoders instead of potentiometers! Makes zero sense to me!

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6240

Completely agree!