“C” is a bit of a wild card. I think it’s just like “A” and “B” in that it applies to ¼, ½, and a full cycle, but it has a pretty steep exponential slope making it look like it applies to less? Anyway:
i love how roland devs seem so confident that they apparently assume people would understand that this is what they meant by envelopes, never change Roland
best method i’ve found is create a fairly long tone, env setting to taste, amp envelope REL on 1. (needed for subbier tones).
fastest way for instant chromatic smooth playback.
trying to loop the tone is fraught with too much fiddling.
thanks @jemmons for the graphic captures, this should be in the manual really!
Right? And there was probably some feature they called SOUND GENERATOR®™ on some 70s module they made that worked exactly like this, was thoroughly documented, but never released outside of Japan. And they’re, like, “It’s just like that, how could you not know it?”
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love them for it, though
I’ve been able to loop every wave seamlessly with the following:
set the “pad length” to 0.5sec (or any number of seconds, but if you’re going to loop it, might as well be the minimum).
Set the env to OFF (don’t want any envelope on a loop!)
Save to a pad by pressing REC.
Set that pad to LOOP
Now as long as you hold the pad (regularly or in chromatic) it will loop that wave as if it were a single cycle.
The problem is, just like a single-cycle wave, when normal SHIFT + PITCH/SPEED envelopes are applied, its applied to the short, looping sample making it sound choppy.
So while you have a perfectly looping wave that you can sustain as long as you like, can throw FX on, etc. there’s no fade in/out.
Well, technically…
You can have a fade in by applying a (SHIFT + PITCH/SPEED) attack envelope to taste, then setting the loop point to some point after that. Because the waves are consistently generated, it’s pretty easy to find a seamless zero-crossing for the loop point.
But this doesn’t work for fade out because the release envelope is anchored to the end point, which is also where loops play to before looping back to the loop point.
So if that’s something you can use, it’s actually not too fiddly to get done. But it’s a pretty niche use case, and in most cases I think you’re method of just generating a long wave to start with so you have plenty sustain before the end envelope is hit is the way to go.
Thanks man, was trying some weird period settings which I think were giving undesired results, 0.5s is consistent. But yeah, the longer sample is best method to use amp envelope.
It is. Or, at least, it’s possible to turn it down and maybe you’ve done that and forgot about it?
Regardless, if you go to Utility (SHIFT+13), select “SYSTEM”, then scroll over to the GAIN tab using CTRL 3, you’ll see there’s a “USB OUT” section. Make sure that’s set to 0dB.
Apart from that, as other have said, USB out levels are attenuated by the VOLUME knob on the top left of the 404. So make sure that’s turned up to a decent level.
You might also want to make sure Koala is actually looking at your 404? If you tap on the ≡ button in Koala and go down to “Settings”, make sure “Input” is set to “SP-404MKII-IN”.
Here’s what it looks like to me, recording from the 404 direct to Koala with the 404’s VOLUME all the way up:
my metronome starts once i start the looper. best i can recommend is double checking that the metronome is on (shift+9) and adjusting the count-in to you preference (shift+10) because there are multiple settings for it that you rotate through. sorry if im just repeating the same stuff you’ve already heard, it really should be all there is to do
Not exactly. I might want to fingerdrum my routine during 2 bars without recording to “lock it in”, and I find that throwing a finger to push “rec” fucks up my focus / groove.
@schoolbabyboy man, I swear I’ve tried every combinations of settings under the sun after your previous post and I CAN’T get a a count-in in looper mode. I can get a permanent metronome, yeah. But what I want is a classic “push rec / get 2 bars to lock in / let’s goooo” and I’m trying but it ain’t happenin’ :0
Just updated to v4.04. It seems that a bug with polyphonic chromatic playback via MIDI that I was previously experiencing is now fixed.
Now you can have a MIDI keyboard plugged in and play a particular pad’s sample chromatically + polyphonically while also tapping away at different pads on the device without issue, though I haven’t tested that with any of the recording or looping features on the SP. Useful if you want to be able to play a melody while drumming away.
are you using a mk1? cause I just record to buffer then func+rec3 to save recording. or you can save all your recordings at once doing that. you can set it so they all always store within that project file. its as fast as I can conceivably see it being
