The time spent having to update plugins today and a random crash at the end of my session because my iMac Pro that was nearly top of the line five years ago is now almost outdated about pushed me over the edge back to a hardware recorder, but I basically agree with what you say about using it like a multitrack and polishing. Plus, I like it for things like time stretching, etc.
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Just asking the obvious.
Do you play the samples with fixed velocity on?
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Yeah exactly. Iāve resolved myself to working either with plugins standalone, taking the output as an audio file before integrating hardware, or recording with hardware until Iām working with audio files and then doing any plugin work. Extensive integrating of VST work and hardware is for me a headache that never ends up rewarding the time invested.
Thatās one of the reasons I got a 404 in the first place. I can take a stem or export and drop it into my 404, do some work and drop it back.
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Spent the whole of yesterdayās evening researching and watching demos of guitar pedals that can be modulated via midi from my DN, especially ones with some type of Filter. They all either only have Expression/CV Input, or only rudimental Midi implementation, or are limited in other ways or simply very expensive. Then I looked at my SP and realized that it can do everything I was looking for and that I could have spent that whole time doing something useful instead XD
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Not all expensive pedals are great, but yeahā¦ they do tend to shoot up in price as they gain more functionality.
Iāve been a long time Chase Bliss enjoyerā¦ and theyāve got some very capable pedals, but theyāre also quite expensive.
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Taken my first proper steps today towards setting up my drone project on the 404.
A Circuit Tracks and a Preen FM2 on a little stand in the front room for when Iām feeling mediative, plug the outs of the Preen into the ins of the 404, set up a drone patch and record it into the 404 for 5-10 minutes.
Take my 404 wherever I am, plug in some headphones and start the long resampling process, creating pitched and stretched versions with various treatments through the FX.
When I have a handful of workable elements, take it back to the Preen and add some more elements, as well as samples from elsewhere.
The next stage after that is to use DJ mode to bring things in and out and record it out to my computer, then probably bring it back in and work on it some more.
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Is it terrible for DJing?
I like thatās not too expensive, sturdy and portable, to mix a few tracks, very casual, make small sets.
But I canāt do with too much previous file preparation, or terrible navigation, bad UX, etc (reasons why I would never DJ with OT)
@waftlord I like your sets on youtube. Does it take a lot of previous file preparation? eg. set cues/bpm/filenames/audiotrim?
I donāt see many sets with this, I guess itās quite bad? Or is it just that djās are snobs that prefer to go for more expensive denon stuff? Or maybe Iām looking in the wrong places?
Thanks phading.
i havenāt gone back to DJing with mk2 yet.
From memory getting 32 tracks going involved these steps:
Chopping the audio externally to a desired start position (time saver)
Calculating BPM of audio as accurately as possible to 2 decimal points.
Importing
Assign BPM each track
Assign 8 hot cue points (1 is your start position)
Then youāre pretty much ready to go.
The fx bus routing can get fiddly when you want to do certain things.
The knob crossfade thing is ok,
Iād prefer a real crossfader.
If the mk2 had an OT style crossfader at the bottom for fading, cutting and mapping out fx scenes etc it would be game over.
But it is really fun, and felt like having records and the chance to try combos, beat match and find drops and mixes. I wouldnāt of had that using Ableton.
I am looking forward to seeing some kid whoās wrapped the button combos around their head and just cut beats really fast with it with fx modulations.
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Can I get a link to said videos, waftlord? I wouldnāt mind seeing it in action myself.
lockdown creeping insanity sessions.
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I really like it, mainly because I think it sounds great with a little bass boost vis super filter and a touch of 303 vinyl sim on the master.
Effects are very playable. But itās a bit fiddly to keep assigning the isolator to one bus/track for blends, most fundamental issue is that you canāt control the faders while also adjusting the isolator. I mainly mix in the cross fader and donāt use the upfaders at all, which is the opposite of how I usually dj. I would map the intech controllers I use with my DAWs/Push, but itās not a midi host over usb, which is annoying.
But I think itās pretty usable despite the quirks/limitations. It feels a lot like playing records.
Actually the biggest thing stopping me getting further into it is that I havenāt been able to set up my cue points for a track and save/recall from SD, really kills the fun if you have to set up your tracks every single time you re-load them.
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This is great stuff, thanks!
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While ambient guitar isnāt necessarily my thing, this is a really nice run through of a workflow for working with instruments in the 404mkii. I also didnāt know that the MK2 could do ambient reverbs.
https://www.youtube.com/live/vcU3Xue5RqU?si=vk7X1jQC9hT8L2Xg
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Interested to hear a little more about this process, i.e taking short samples of noise and making structures. Please elaborate?
Take a short piece of ambient noise or sound, such as a clip of sound recorded from a camera in the woods, that has some dynamic changes over time. Copy it a few times, pitch the samples differently, try various effects on them subtly to change the timbres and resample. Use the start and end times to pick out moments that have a sound you like.
Resample yourself playing in these small fragments of sound without a metronome over the top of one another in different rhythms. Do this a few times.
Try them in combination with one another, maybe do some resampling of different ones with the super filter on bandpass at different spots with a little modulation, recombine them with resampling.
When you have a handful of different length samples that you like the texture of, trigger them in offset patterns playing against one another to create a constantly evolving combination, paying a lot of attention to the volume of each pad.
Itās an endless way to search for sounds.
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10/10 response, thanks, Iāll try this.
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Just be sure to keep the volumes under control, and listen back to each thing at every step. Itās slow work, but rewarding if you appreciate texture and drone music. It has become a relaxing pass time for me haha.
Iāll share here when I have a final result I like enough.
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Iām dabbling more and more with DJ mode. How do you guys handle transitions between tracks?
I usually slowly just bring track one down and track two up or use the DJ Delay on track one to cover the triggering of track 2. Any other sp specific effects of tricks?
Something else to watch out for with tempos:
While effects such as Ko-Do-Ma sync to the padās tempo during playback, they seem to sync to the Bank Tempo when resampling. If the Bank Tempo doesnāt match the padās tempo, these effects will get sampled at the wrong rate.
Iāve reported this to Roland, and it seems a suggestion has been made to the development team to amend this in a (
) future update.
In the meantime, Iād recommend setting the Bank Tempo before resampling with synced effects.
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Looks like Jon Makes Beats is on board with what we were talking about as well. 
Iām looking forward to hearing your drone stuff. Iāve found the P-6 is also great at the kind of stuff you are describing in your workflow. I havenāt tried this on the MKII, so will be some good inspiration.
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