According to Specifications | SQ-64 - POLY SEQUENCER | KORG (USA) it is Midi Type A, and since the SP404 mk2 is Midi Type A as well, then any old “straight” TRS to TRS cable will do.
4 Likes
Thanks! I just wanted to be sure, thoses trs to midi cables are quite expensive!
I agree, every person has a unique setup and use for it. Technical stuff can be found in the manuals and should be sufficient in most cases.
Also does anyone know how I should EQ my 404 on my Neve console?
2 Likes
And like most obscure hypotheticals, most can be solved by the inherent functionality with in the 404 itself!
It has an internal EQ! It is in the Effects menu. Also Compression!
I’m sure we will see that Neve console on Reverb soon enough now.
3 Likes
Again, I read the manual and my questions simply aren’t covered there. But since they’re clearly annoying to many 404 owners here, I’ll stop asking from now on. 
2 Likes
The questions didn’t bother me… though some of them I wasn’t able to answer. If you’d prefer to discuss some of this stuff someplace else feel free to jump onto my discord server.
What are your remaining questions?
1 Like
Thanks! Mainly #3 in this post. Ideally all 3 questions in that post but I understand that these questions are harder to answer because they require interacting between several devices.
Syntakt will trigger pads via midi, I do this with my DN and it’s awesome. I’ve never tried to record though. I wonder if you could resample the audio. I can try when in front of both, would be awesome.
I have no opinion on questions. It’s a forum, after all. And I love answering questions💕
But also I improved my personal quality of life with this one weird trick that y’all may or may not find as helpful as I did:
- look up the price gear is selling for on reverb. Looks like around $500 for the 404
- take 9% of that and add $20 for shipping. That’s how much you’d be out if the gear didn’t work out for you. For the 404, that’s around $65.
- divide that by the average hourly wage of a Starbucks barista. 65 / 15 = ~4
- that’s how many questions I can ask about a thing before it literally would have been cheaper (and much more satisfying) to buy it and find out myself.
For some gear that number can be really high and a lot of research warranted. For some, the number is low enough that I realize I’d have a lot more fun if I just got it and tried it out, and that I might actually save myself money by doing so.
Anyway, life hacks.
17 Likes
I like questions, as an owner it makes me find out stuff I didn’t know/hadn’t thought of.
2 Likes
So I’ll agree with you that the manual is a bit obtuse… and the guide I’ve written on the mk2 covers a fair amount of this, but you are circling around some edge cases that, in some ways I don’t think the mk2 is exactly made for, and in others it’s kind of what it is made to do, though the implementations can be a bit wonky.
#1 So… I’m going to give a two part answer, because this is sort of complicated
- An external sequencer cannot address an arbitrary sample/pad on the 404 mk2 and play it chromatically, as there is no way to send a midi note/channel (to address the pad/bank) and also tell it to play the note chromatically. At least note as of 2.01…
- You can select a single pad for Chromatic, and then have an external sequencer play that one note chromatically on midi channel 16 (+/- an octave, so a 2 octave range)… or you can dedicate a bank of samples (pads 1-16 for instance) to each have a distinct note and then have the external synth play the notes on the bank by addressing (midi channel 1 is bank a, midi channel 2 is bank b, etc…)
#2 I know very little about the Syntakt, but unless it is a USB host device, you’re not going to get the audio from the 404 mk2 to go over the USB to the Syntakt… that said, you can definitely put the 404 mk2 into an audio loop (being aware of feedback issues/concerns) over the standard L/R In and Out connections for both… and the 404 mk2 is kind of a Swiss army knife in some ways, as it can see (and send) audio over from Line In, Guitar/Mic In, and USB In… and send audio out of Line Out, and USB out… at the same time. It’s a tiny bit configurable… so easy to make a mess, but it does let the mk2 do a few things with say an iPad, synth, guitar, and kind of route (a bit ham fistedly) audio around to get magic to happen… just beware that the mk2 isn’t really a mixer, so you’re going to be stuck using each device to manage levels, so no proper gain staging here…
#3 On the mk2, you can send a Program Change to the appropriate Midi Channel, and it will trigger playing a specific pattern on the mk2. The Syntakt should be able to send Program Changes to the mk2, so that you can then use the Syntakt to play appropriate sequences on the mk2 for building songs. Otherwise, sure you can use the sequencer on the Syntakt to program patterns, and just use the mk2 as a sample playing box, but you need a Midi Channel per pad bank to address all of the samples… so Midi Channel 1-10 to address all pad banks on the mk2, which is a lot to dedicate to it… but just food for thought.
At any rate, the mk2 should be fine for sampling in most cases for you, but if you’re looking to play samples real time, resample at the same time, and keep things playing in time, without a lot of “tricks” or hiding transitions I don’t think the mk2 is going to do what you want. It is far more geared towards sampling/resampling, taking a break to stop sampling, and then getting back into it… that’s not to say that you cannot get a workflow to more or less do what you want, but I think it will require some proper care and feeding of a process and workflow, and you might end up fighting the mk2 to do what you want, instead of it doing what you want.
That said, I’m just guessing at what you want to do, and may not really be answering what it is you’re getting at.
Good luck!
9 Likes
Mannn… a couple of days ago I switched the sp404mk2 on my desk (which I use in tandem with my ARmk2) for my old 404sx for old times sake and now I’m confused haha.
On the one hand, the mk2 is so much better in so many ways, it’s actually like going back to the stone age. No pitching, no waveform view, no stacking fx, no vel sensitivity. And one of the things I miss most is the skipback. So usefull. As an all in 1 machine the mk2 rocks.
But on the other hand… as soon as I started using the sx again, it felt like coming home. The workflow is second nature for me, and there’s no complex menu’s or functions. It’s just what you see is what you get. But the main thing that surprised me is the sound of this thing. In my memory the sx was completely clean sounding, but going back it def has a more lofi, less sharp/detailed sound than the mk2. It also seems to sound slightly less dark. The sound, and also the fx, are so very inspiring, that I’ve been making tracks non stop for a couple of days.
This is probably just me being nostalgic about going back to my old workflow, but I’ll see if this feeling sticks. Did any of you guys start out on an older 404 model and tried to compare?
8 Likes
You know, I always thought the Mk 2 had a warm coloration to it compared to the clean neutral sound of the Maschine… but dark also could characterize it… not muddy, but like shady
I never know of the 404 line until recently, I only started producing a little over a year ago…
But I’d really be interested in hearing a direct comparison of the two sounds if you have it available… I will say… the technology has advaced so fast… and even on the Maschine, there is options for mpc 1200 coloration, so I know there has to be magic in the sx… I still see them being lovingly used… NEVER GET RID OF IT!!!
1 Like
Yeah man, I definitely noticed the sound difference. I’ve only had an SX previous to the mk2 which is supposed to be the worst sounding of the old ones! But to my ears it does sound better than the mk2. I had them both for a brief period. It was when I was showing the buyer of my SX how it sounded I was thinking ‘shit, maybe I should keep this thing!’ Still, no regrets and all that. I’m still tempted to pick up a 505 one day though 
2 Likes
Yeah I wont sell it unless I have to. It’s weird, but even when it’s very subtle, machines all have a certain sound which just feels a certain way. I remember thinking my mpc2000xl was the cleanest sampler ever, going back it sure sounds oldschool compared to newer machines/audio interfaces.
I’d describe the mk2 as mobb deep-ish: dark, sharp and slightly menacing 
4 Likes
Whoops 
1 Like
Yeah the funny thing is I never really though about the sound of the sx before getting the mk2…
The 505 is like the 303 but with more functions right?
2 Likes
Yeah exactly. I’ve read some saying there’s a little difference in the sound but they must be really close as they share most of the same insides from what I gather. The 505 also looks not as cool which works for me as it goes for cheaper, or at least it did when I last looked. Was about to get one when the mk2 got announced!
1 Like
oh my gawd… great comparison… havok is a beast. RIP Prodigy.
2 Likes
I just looked it up… it looks straight out of a Busta Ryhmes video from the 90’s
2 Likes