It happened. I got a text from Sweetwater’s saying they had my MK2 and they are shipping today. Seems like a good amount of ones that had been told 2022 are getting bumped up!!!
Should get it in time to enjoy the four day weekend next week!!
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Tested a few cards out, formatting each a few different ways in Windows just to verify, it appears the SD card needs to be formatted in FAT32 before trying to format within the SP404MK2 - exfat or NTSC will not work.
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What sd card do you suggest?
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Useful thank you!
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@BassesAndPads I’m not knowledgeable about the limitations of formatting memory, but some of the faster, larger cards (sandisk extreme 128gb) didn’t seem to allow for FAT32 when right-clicking to format in Windows 10, they only showed exfat and NTSC options, not sure if this has anything to do with the speed of the card. The card which worked for me was just a random old Sandisk 32gb SDHC card, not extreme, ultra, or pro, just… blue. However, slower, low capacity cards can also be formatted exfat and NTSC, making them unreadable. So, just because it’s an slower, low capacity card doesn’t mean it won’t need formatting by computer to be usable in the SP.
I will say that another thing which threw me off is that the update from the Roland site, now version 1.13, is a zipped folder with two small files in it. You need to drop both of these files, not the folder, into the root of the SD card after formatting the card in the SP404MKII, then restart while holding SHIFT, it will take a moment, but will load the files and ask if you’d like to update.
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Yes, this was the trickiest part. I had to think about this step for a minute to make sure I was doing it right. The instructions could have been a bit more clear to specifically state to only drop the SP404MKII_APP0.bin and SP404MKII_APP1.bin files into the root folder of the SD card and NOT the unzipped folder containing the two BIN files. This could confuse some people.
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Also good to know.
Maybe there is a max size sd card that the sps take. Didnt the old ones do better with 16 or maybe 32 gigs max?
The SP-404SX/A supports SDHC/SD cards up to a capacity of 32 GB.
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iirc fat32 doesn’t allow large files to transfer. Think it’s 4gb plus. Having a high speed large capacity card might be limited to a type due to that. I might be wrong completely though I haven’t formatted an SD in ages
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Also, it sound silly, but I’ve had a number of SD Card issues fixed by using the official SD Card formatter from the trade group rather than the one on-device or built into my OS: SD Memory Card Formatter | SD Association
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Thanks, will give this a go. My 32g SDHC wasn’t read while my old 4g SPa works fine.
Thanks for all the feedback. Just an update for anyone in the future trying to figure out SD cards for the MK2. I went out and bought a SDHC, class 10 16GB card that has a read speed of 30MB/s. It worked fine with the Sp-404MK2, along with the 1GB SD card that came with my 404SX.
In the process of getting that all setup, I managed to also get my SDHC Sandisc Ultra 120 MB/s 32GB card to work with the MK2. Turns out my card reader for my mac is on the fritz and it damaged the memory card. Because of that, it was acting up and I couldn’t even use the disk utility first aid function to fix it. Thankfully I was able to do so using my wife’s computer and that seemed to do the trick. It now works fine with my MK2.
As a result of my troubleshooting, I have an extra SD card now and may need to get a new card reader in the near future! 
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Random question for someone who has one already, can you use the USB c port to plug in your phone and use the phones microphone to live record onto a pad?
I don’t have one yet, but I can tell you that iOS won’t allow this because it can only take one audio input at a time, and the SP will take priority over the phone mic. Not sure about Android.
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Just get a 1/8” to 1/4” stereo cord, and run your phone in that way. Also recommend “MicSwap Pro” for iOS.
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Tips For Using Roland Sp-404 MK2:
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Fellas, not sure if this is the right thread for this question since I’m new to this.
Question,
What are your guys thoughts on the new 404mk2 vs a mpc one?
Originally I was about to pull the trigger on the mpc one to compliment my 404, but then the mk2 dropped! With the new screen and features.
Having a hard time deciding what would be the best purchase.
Any pros/ cons would be appreciated.
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what’s the specific reasons for contemplating the mpc one?
Sequencer
Chopping
Instruments
It does make a nice compliment to it, but I just don’t like the touch mpc and prefer more hands on with say a 1000.