Hehe my bad!
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Hi all!
This is a bit of a lame question but do you think the SP404 does add that bit of magic?
It is hard to tell from any video I have watched to be honest.
I have had all sorts over the years - MPC Live recently which is very neutral sounding, was easier in the end just to do everything in Bitwig for me, an Emu SP12 Turbo that 100% adds mojo to what you sample that I foolishly sold a few years ago etc etc I am happy now just using Bitwig… BUT…
I have been hammering Madvillany again recently and I kind of imagine making all my sounds in Bitwig then sampling them into the SP for that extra ‘something’ using the compression and fx or whatever then banging out beats but then I think I could probably just do it all in Bitwig and I am just lusting to spend money when in a bit of a slump.
Anyone feel it has that special something? I wonder whether it is just workflow as much as anything? I am not into lo-fi wobbly sounds so much as just sometimes I would like a fun way to beef up my sounds and get rhythms going.
Any thoughts?
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It’s mostly the workflow. And you might click with it or not. If you’re used to it you can be very fast with it. And i found it feels like you’re really working directly with the sounds. Because most of the functions are right there.
Some effects like the vinyl sim compression colored a lot of SP beats in a lovely grimy way. But you can get almost the same sound out of any daw if you know how. Madlib recently said in an interview that he uses an ipad to make most of his beats nowadays.
And i have to admit that i smashed some otherwise fine beats to death with the vinyl sim. Of course that was user error. Could have gone a bit easier on the compression knob sometimes.
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Yeah. To me it’s the vibe of using one. It’s like I’m digitally trimming tape and piecing shit together. Working almost entirely with audio and not midi notes.
The effects sound good but now that I’ve actually bothered looking at what’s available on iPads I’d probably just push people to consider that if they are looking for the most for their money. I’m working out ways to enhance my SP-404MKII with iOS apps (though don’t ask me about it, I’m a noob ).
And yeah, Madlib said his last album with Freddie Gibbs Bandana was made entirely on an iPad if I recall. Some SP-404 fans were a little betrayed lol. You can get a lofi sound on anything nowadays, you don’t need a $500 sampler, but having one is always fun too 
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Hi, my mkII turned up a few days ago (GAK, Brighton), and while I’ve not been able to spend enough time on it yet, it’s amazing- I had an SX for a few months, that I mainly sequenced from my OP-Z - this version seems to have ironed out many of the frustrations I experienced while trying to master the SX. Favourite improvement is the waveform screen, in conjunction with the chopping and assigning to pads, makes it so much quicker and less frustrating…
What I am struggling with though, is the low volume on the line-in - am I missing something? If I sample from my phone using USB C, it’s fine, but using the line-in its way quieter, and samples get drowned out by ones recorded via USB. Also can’t input audio from my OP-Z via USB, but that may be a different issue relating to the OP-Z.
Any ideas why line-in is so quiet? Thanks in advance…
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I don’t have mine yet, but from what I remember from the manual there are multiple places for volume you need to check. First is to make sure the attenuator is off in utilities.
Also, these two settings for volume:
And of course, make sure the volume of the source is loud enough. Volume turned up, etc.
Hope you figure it out soon. I haven’t heard other people complain about that. In fact, someone was recently saying the opposite, that the USB was quiet, but that turned out to be an issue with the app it seems.
BTW, I’ve heard that bank volume setting was giving people issues with resampling volume. (Was the reason resampling seemed quiet).
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SP and OP are both USB-devices (not hosts), so they cannot be connected to each other.
Genius! Yes, it was the Attenuator- I think I must have switched it on when I was messing about with the settings to get the headphone levels up, but forgot to turn it off again (didn’t know what the Attenuator was…). Thanks , that’s sorted it!
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Ah, that makes sense, thanks. Actually, now that the line-in issue is sorted, that’s not really a problem…
Short term lurker, first time poster here.
Anyone interested in Australian stock looks like some have arrived. Just got a tracking notification from Store DJ so should get mine in a couple days hopefully. They told me I was number 5 on a list of about 100 preorders they got. Ordered about an hour after the Roland livestream. They didn’t say how many they were receiving in this first batch tho.
Super excited!
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Madlib is a genius… And also a genius at avoiding GAS it seems. What did he use on his iPad?
He’s also recorded entire jazz albums by himself, playing every instrument from what I understand?! Genius level
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Did anyone ever figure out the bug where you can’t record a note in the last 16th note (or so) at the end of a pattern? I’m having this even when I play the note a little early, so I’m pretty sure it’s not just quantization pushing it to beat 1.
Edit: I’m having this issue with the last 8th note actually, not just 16th.
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It seems a confirmed bug, scroll the comments in this video:
Kid Latura
There actually is some type of song mode where you don’t always have to press the pad you want play next. Press “Pattern Select” and than hold the “Hold”-Button. There you can select a pad which acts as a storage for pattern chains. And regarding the last-kick-not-being-recorded: i was in contact with the Roland Support and they confirmed to me that it is a bug and they are working on it. Anyways great summary of the issues i am also having with this machine. I hope Roland listens, cause this device has got a lot of potential to be a great one.
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Can you help me reach out to that contact? I tried Roland support… no reply. But I have an issue w/ the Mk 2 workflow that really hurts colorblind people. I would like acknowledgment from them that they’re hearing this issue.
It is true that on some of the YNQ projects, like A Tribute to Brother Weldon, he did play all the stuff, and made up fake players that were all pseudonyms (Monk Hughes, Joe McDuphrey, etc). But you’re right that on others he worked with studio musicians. Sound Directions is also one he worked with other people, like the awesome guitarist Dan Ubick.
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I know from your earlier post about chopping your issues go beyond the effects buses, but you can change the colours for these so they’re not orange and green:
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Alas, you can’t. When you chop the sample, then choose “assign to pads”, there is a very specific (orange / green = full / empty) color scheme that isn’t affected by any options for pad color in the system menu.
Thanks for the effort, though, but I’m afraid this will require an OS update to change.
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I’m colorblind as well, so I hope you have some luck. Usually it only affects me with colors at the very edge of the spectrum…dark blue and black, white and very light pink, etc.
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Yeah hopefully they can add it as an option in the settings. If they’ve done it for the fx buses it should be possible!
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