Unfortunately.
I can see what you’re getting at here and I do like where you’re going, but I don’t think it really works in regard to using external gear and the 404 in this sense tbh. Someone else used Elektron sequencers as their reference point so I’ll stick with them as my example, my problem with this whole thing is that the idea of these imperfect loops only come into play once recorded on from the ext gear and although there will deffo be an ability to adapt to what’s coming at that point, writing the initial loop on external gear that’s much more quantised with an expectation of it shifting further down the line generally gets quite frustrating and adds a lot of back and forth when it doesn’t quite pan out. Not to say that isn’t a workflow people use I know a lot of trial and error producers but to me this system would put me off trying to settle in to the imperfect world.
However using it with standalone synths and keyboards i.e. no sequencers I can imagine it to be quite intriguing.
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@Affectionate-Bee-781 again, a lovely track… your output on the SP is so different from mine, it fascinates me. I’ve litterally no idea how you put your tracks together…
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I don’t know what the gear being external has to do with it. It’s just sampling. Whether that’s coming from a turntable or a sequencer, it’s just audio. And like all audio, when you play it back you can either play it as a loop (which has to be unbearably precise) or you can repeatedly trigger it on a grid (which has no hard requirements about length or, if you slice it fine enough, BPM).
The 404 was never made for the former. That’s looper or Octatrack territory. But it really excels at the latter.
Not to say y’all shouldn’t be putting in the time trying something new. The whole history of electronic music (and the 404 in particular) is people using gear for unintended purposes. But if what you’re trying to achieve (big if. I don’t know your music) has already been done for a decade by bunches of people in a much easier way without loops… maybe give that a shot first.
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Hi NearTao, you made this vid about what we discussed, nice. Thanks!
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Has anyone figured out how to use headphone outputs 3-4 for pre-cueing in a 3rd party DJ app like DJay Pro? The SP404mkII has so much potential as a mobile DJ mixer and FX processor, but sadly pre-cueing also gets sent to the main outs.
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it would be useful if shift + 3 allowed you to toggle the EXT SOURCE to CUE for sure!
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thank you 
there really are so many ways to make on track on the SP
here’s a wonky beat, something different for me (inspired by the recent Ricky video where he samples a chord a few octaves up and then pitches it down)
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Yeah I figured it was worth taking a few minutes to share with others…
I’ve added a blurb about it in the guide as well… though who knows when I will get the next update out.
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The truth.
I had to sit through that video to see what she was looking for, YT drives me nuts!
Check out the post below from @waftlord for loops:
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I don’t disagree with your main points. But, even if it is not the 404’s primary purpose, the ability to just quickly and easily say “I want recording to start when audio is detected, and I want it to record exactly 8-bars at 122bpm” just seems like a no-brainer, standard ability in this day and age 
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A quick workaround is to sample a bit longer than the bar length desired. Drop that sample into the pattern sequencer with the correct bar length. If the timing is all good, you have a loop!
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@waftlord, the md 404 mix you posted, zero notes, badass as always 🫡
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For a very specific workflow, yes. But for such a feature to make any sense, all the following must be true, I think:
- You have to be able to consistently start playing loop you want to record precisely at its beginning.
- It has to start with something loud enough to trigger the recording threshold (can’t start on an off-beat)
- You must know precisely the BPM of it ahead of time (or your bar calculation will be off).
- It has to maintain that strict BPM throughout. Any variance + or - and again, your bar count will be off.
The only thing that really fits this bill, I think, is another sequencer/drum machine/DAW performing pretty specifically regimented electronic beats. So if that’s your deal, it would of course seem like a great feature. But if it’s not, it’d just take up space on a device where people already complain about too many menus and button combinations.
So let’s look at why this might not be worth adding to the complexity of the machine:
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There are already workarounds that do this. Just playing it in a pattern and then “bouncing” (or resampling) it will work. End snap will work. Manually cropping the loop to a specific number of samples will work. Etc.
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For the way the installed base of 404 users had been using the device (flipping vinyl) this wouldn’t be particularly useful (can’t drop a needle on cue, BPM all over the place, etc.)
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If sequencers/daws are the primary source for this sort of loop, they almost all offer a way to export a “perfect wav” of the right number of samples that can be easily imported into the 404 obviating the need to do this sort of capture on the 404 itself (which, as discussed in #1, there are workarounds for if you really need to make it happen).
Which, I mean, I want to be very clear none of this this means it shouldn’t be a feature or that people wouldn’t find it useful all other things being equal. But it’s not equal. The box is already pretty full being the historic 404 many know and love. At some point adding new features starts to take away from that, so new features need to “pull their weight” as it were. I think there are good arguments for why “perfect sampling” does not, but it’s pretty subjective and reasonable people can disagree.
The good thing is, for those who want perfect sampling, there are other boxes that are built around that from the ground up. The experience on those is going to be much more satisfying than if it were wedged into the 404.
But I said pretty much the same thing about TR-REC mode! So if the past is any indication, tomorrow they’re going to announce v4 with perfect looping included. So… you’re welcome I suppose? 
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Hello! I’m interested in the sp-404 mkII workflow. I don’t have one, but from what I’ve seen, “scale mode” doesn’t fold the keyboard in like it does on other gear, like digitakt or ep-133. It looks like it just gets rid of the note that’s not in the scale and leaves that pad blank? Is this true?
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The pads that are out of scale are not lit up, but can still be played.
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Also…
Dropped version 0.29 of the guide at Roland SP-404 mk2 Guide v0.29 – NearTao's Blog
I’m also 11 days into my 2023 Sample Advent Calendar, plenty of free samples to mess with that you can get from the YouTube playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLreK50aqgX-ZUaGRkTrVmeb-jSA_vZEpd or hop onto my discord server and download them.
Happy Holidays and best wishes to everyone!
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once page flipping between different places becomes abit more muscle memory (it’s taken 6 months, probably a little over a weeks hard core use in that time to be realistic) i see the mk2 now as one of the best blank sonic canvases in hardware.
you can go anywhere and do anything
i love it.
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