Thanks for all of that. I think the difference I was remembering is that the first gen Thunderbolt required an adapter to work on the later Thunderbolts/USB C ports. I ran into a problem once and couldn’t remember exactly what it was.
So basically I’ll just order a regular old USB C to USB C cable, when I order a USB C equipped power brick. The Roland video says that it has to be USB C to USB C to power it, so my regular USB power brick I’m using with my iPhone won’t work it seems.
That might be true if Roland says it, but you might want to wait until you get one and test it before getting a new brick. It doesn’t make sense to me why that would be the case given that it can run on 6xAA. I keep a ton of stuff powered just using a USB-A port on my brick.
On Roland’s website the specs say:
1,100 mA (AC adaptor)
1,500 mA (USB bus power)
It just has a USB-C port in, but I would assume a USB-C to USB-A cable (or an adapter) would still offer enough power through an USB-A 2.0 port.
It doesn’t. BoBeats tested it. USB A out to the MK2’s C results in a “sorry” message, and no functionality if you try. C to C is explicitly shown to work in Roland’s official vid. I guess “C” allows more juice transfer, or whatever.
But naturally, I’d recommend buying from a place w/ unconditional returns.
Good to know, but that sucks and doesn’t make sense. USB-C not transferring power and audio together is also ridiculous, literally every phone/camera/interface that uses USB-C is capable of that.
I guess I didn’t confirm, but I was assuming that if it’s connected to my PC, it would power over USB and let me sample over USB. Just by the nature of my workflow, I think a lot of sampling over USB will be done from my computer anyway, mainly because I work a lot with VSTs and multisampled instruments these days.
That should work but i was thinking more mobile considerations like phone / battery pack. If you’re charging AND routing audio from a laptop, you’ll doink your laptop battery in a flash, I’ll bet. Unless you’re near an outlet, in which case you’d probably be using AC power, anyway.
Yeah, for that scenario it will be nice to have AA batteries in while you are doing the sampling and then switch over to the power brick when you are ready to start arranging to save your batteries. Seems quite flexible actually!
I do envision sampling quite a bit off my phone as well. Not just for laying in bed or the sofa on a lazy weekend, but also if I take this with me on long trips (like when I go to visit my parents and a lot of the time I’m just hanging around the house in the evenings). The SP, iPhone, and headphones is a really nice portable setup. You could even just record into IPhone if you want to leave the Zoom recorder at home (I think Roland even just released a recording app of some sort, unrelated to the SP).
I’m so stoked for this thing. When the MPC Live was first released I was really hoping to be able to use it sort of like multitrack recorder, but it ended up being not really geared toward instruments. This new SP seems a lot more suited to what I was wanting to do.
While I’m not holding my breath, the two features that would make this nearly perfect for me I think would be:
(1) A grid mode for the sequencer like JJOS added to the MPC1K for a bit more speed and flexibility in terms of workflow.
(2) A looper on the instrument input for real time overdubs. Roland has great looper technology, but they might not want to cannibalize that market.
I’m really looking forward to using this like a portable multitrack recorder. It’s an incredibly powerful tool now in such a portable little box. Pretty much exactly what I’ve wanted for ages. Especially being able to go anywhere with just an SP, phone, and headphones and create something from scratch.
I love that it accepts both 1/4” and mini jack headphones as well. That means if you really want to travel light you can leave the big studio headphones at home and not worry about forgetting your adapter. You will probably always have your phone with you, so a small pair of headphones and the SP is a super portable setup. A little field recorder would be a nice addition to the rig though.
EDIT: I’m finally watching the full manual video and just got to the part that says “At launch chromatic mode is only available in resample mode”. That bodes well for an update!
Is there someone here who has received
their 404mk2, and has an iPhone or iPad with iOS 14 minimum plus a lightning to USB adapter to connect them that would be up for a short experiment? I’d really like to test how an app I’m working on works together with the 404. Throw me a dm if you’re interested.
Why are so few devices Bluetooth headphones compatible? I obviously know about the latency issue, but that’s only really important when playing live. There are many other occasions when you merely play back a sequence and/or want to try some effects and sound variations where a 0.3 sec delay won’t make much of a difference. Would be really nice to not have to bring so many cords with you all the time.
If Nintendo can do it with the Switch, why can’t Roland do it with the SP-404 MKII?
Hey guys, for anyone from the UK, where have you pre-ordered from?
I’m looking to pre-order from a site where I can easily cancel it if needed (ideally just by a click of a button). Somewhere that wouldn’t take the full amount until it ships would be good too, I don’t mind paying a deposit.
Not sure it’s been mentioned here but I did see the MK2 on Amazon UK with prime shipping and a delivery date of 10th November the other day, but it sold out very quickly. The listing doesn’t appear to be up any more. It was the same day the unit went up for sale on Juno
Mine was from GAK, in Brighton. I had to call to order at the time. They asked for a £40 deposit. Mentioned earlier in the thread - they told me they were expecting 12 units expected this past week, all allocated to pre-orders. But they only got one in - and that one arrived at my house yesterday. They said the others may arrive end November, or maybe December. But those will already be taken by other people’s pre-orders, unless people cancel.
Cheers. Difficult to know whether to pre-order now or wait a bit on the off-chance that more will crop up at retailers like Juno that didn’t do any pre-orders
I would say it’s because adding Bluetooth means they have to get certified in every country for wireless transmitter certification. Nintendo Switch already needed Bluetooth for the controllers so it makes sense to utilise it for audio as well.
