See there is a 32 gb limit (some exceptions for some, not guaranteed) to update firmware.
That’s why I’m pretty sure it came with a card, because I maxed it out quick.
And heed my foolishness. I use 256. And it chugged till it rereads my card.
The lag is my 404 cursing me under its breath. “You have this many samples to have me make that sh!t?”
I just use a 32 but I have issues with sample paralysis if I have too large a library.
Happens.
32 will startup faster. I bought a three pack for cheap on Amazon and have teach one organized for different moods/styles. I just insert what ever one I feel like working with when firing it up. Have one that’s more or less empty for recording purposes. Even got a little SD carrying case.
As mentioned, 32gb is the recommended max, and I believe is the max size when updating the firmware. The sample selection on hardware samplers is a little cumbersome, so I try to keep it more concise so that I’m not scrolling through folder after folder, a mistake I’ve made a few times in the past.
BTW mine came with one too, but I don’t remember the size off the top of my head.
There are a grip of tutorials on the interwebs. A lot of them overlap, providing the same I sights, so find a personality and roll with them. I started getting the hang of it after a few videos and couple of hours ducking around. Biggest hurdle was adjusting to a new workflow, but it’s not that bad.
Out of curiosity, didn’t you have a RD-9 or 8? Did the TR-8S replace it/them?
Sorry for the off topic.
Yes I still have the RD-9 in the box here Iv’e not used it yet only opened it to test, sounds good but with the FM etc on the TR8s I decided to reinvest in it. I’m wanting the SP-404 to work alongside the TR8s. I’m now debating on the MC707 or get another Virus TI2 to complete the setup
I just read about the SD Cards at Roland here’s what I see however…
-Regardless of the current version, be sure to use a 4GB-32GB SD card when updating the system program.
-System program Ver.3 or later supports SDXC cards.
So V3.00 says 4GB - 1TB
I’ll boot mine later see what version it has installed
I can confirm bigger than 32GB will give you trouble updating firmware. Have to use my 4GB for updates.
With all the talk of SD cards, I just want to flag for people that don’t have a 404 that it doesn’t actually use the card as much as one might think. It’s required for firmware updates. You can backup/restore projects and import/export samples to/from it. That’s pretty much it. It doesn’t stream samples, they have to be copied into the project. And the mkII has an obscene amount of internal RAM, so all projects and samples are stored there, not on the card. In fact, if your projects are set up, you can remove the card altogether and the SP will never notice.
So having a large card is really only useful if you have a gigantic sample library, want it all available for setting up a new project, and don’t want to connect your computer via USB. Which a lot of DAWless folks are going to want, of course.
But setting up pads with samples via USB and the 404 app is actually way faster, easier to visualize, and does any necessary format conversions for you. And, of course, keeping samples on the card up-to-date and organized can be a pain, where as they’re always up to date and (usually?) organized on your PC be default. So if the USB route is available to you, try it out. It can be a lot more streamlined.
Oh this is interesting I wonder just how much ram is inside the SP-404 MKII ? So basically you just need a card for updating and transferring samples ? Then I’ll just get the 32GB card for doing just that. I had originally thought that the SP-404 MKII streamed from the card. Thanks for the info 
comments like this don’t help my hankering for a longer skip back. 
16GB.
But it’s used for 16 projects containing 10 banks of 16 samples each that can each be 16min in length, so, you know, it’s in use.
Just press the resample button already 
i’d love to know how many people are actually pushing projects to max capacity.
i reckon the average doesn’t top 2Gb if you’re just using one shots and some loops.
sure DJ stuff will be weightier.
see my previous posts for limitations on resampling vs a whole capture deal. 
The SP404 mk2 has 16gb of internal storage, about 14.1gb are free for your own samples/patterns/settings across the 16 projects and all that.
I’ll just be using my 404 for mainly stabs, bass shots and vocals so my projects won’t be too big at all. I may sample the TR8s into it later on for my sample packs but I mainly want the 404 for live.
Someone here recently described the DJ mode in a great way, but I can’t find it searching for “DJ mode” in this thread or “sp 404 DJ mode” for the whole forum.
Would love to find that post and bookmark it.
Hmm not sure what’s happening here but I’m trying to import samples from my formatted SD card in to the SP-404 but I’m getting this…
I just basically imported the same samples in to the TR8s without issue. Any ideas?
Dumb guess, but have you checked if the write protection on the sd card is not engaged?
Yeah already checked that mate it’s all good. I’m just trying to drag my small sample folder onto the card but get this message. I formatted the SD Card on the SP404 MKII it’s 32GB so should be good to go. I’ll experiment more here thanks
Maybe you’ll find something of use here. I remember having a similar issue once with an SD card that was formatted in FAT32, but a restart fixed that.
Good luck!
