SP404 mk2 production tips/tricks/problem solving/bugs

[DimensionsTomorrow]

Post all your SP404 mk2 production tips, tricks, solutions and things you need help with here.

This is not an excuse not to read the manual or do any work yourself. If anything, it should be more about how you solved something so you can help save other people time and give back to the community.

That said, if you make an effort and can’t figure something out, post away! Let’s master this thing!

PS: While it sucks there is no PDF manual, the search function on the online one is actually pretty great. I have been able to find a lot of answers to my own questions quickly with that. Bookmark the manual to your phone.

[DimensionsTomorrow]

A few to get us started.

Some suggested pad settings:

Roland SP-404 Mk2

I saw these pad settings recommended on the SP Forums. [image]

Why is the line in so quiet? (also check bank volume if your resample is quiet)

Roland SP-404 Mk2

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. [image] Also, these two settings for volume: [image] [image] 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 t…

Keep your effects screen from disappearing so quickly or stay on the wave form display, instead of the BPM (Remain + [X])

Roland SP-404 Mk2

[Remain] + FX will keep the FX screen on until you switch away from it manually. However, I think they will change this behaviour in an upcoming update, so many complaints about this one. Other helpful shortcut: [Enter] + Pad will select a pad without triggering it Thought it would take me months. After a week of nonstop action with it (in which I abandoned the pattern sequencer and just focussed on the resampling workflow) it’s becoming second nature. So it goes rather quickly. For some re…

A good primer on recording a guitar (or other instrument) on its own pad while the beat is playing.

SP-404 MK2 Recording GUITAR While The BEAT PLAYS!

[Hamuel]

Yesterday I switched over to a new project and enabled Ext Source to sample an iPad. Tons of noise flooded my headphones, even without anything plugged into the SP-404 Mk2’s inputs. I tried plugging the device’s power supply into another outlet and adjusting the SP-404 Mk2’s noise gate and was struggling to find out why I couldn’t record clean samples. Turns out I had 303 Vinyl Sim and another noisy effect enabled on Bus 3 & 4 from a previous project that carried over to the new project. I remembered hearing that the Bus effects choices were global and not per project but had forgotten. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the SP-404 Mk2 wasn’t malfunctioning.

[DimensionsTomorrow]

@Hamuel

Tons of noise flooded my headphones, even without anything plugged into the SP-404 Mk2’s inputs.

I will add to this, it’s easy to forget leaving the EXT IN button on, which also adds noise when resampling.

[DimensionsTomorrow]

Bug #1 - Reoccurring crash using Ext In guitar amp sim with bus effects

Roland SP-404 Mk2

OK, I just got it again. It happens when using the external in with the guitar amp sim, and then switching over to add bus effects. Not sure if its only certain effects combinations or what, but just now I was using my bass with the JC amp sim and hit the Bus Effects, and tried to switch Bus Effect 1 to a delay by hitting the delay button. I was also using the remain function. I’m not sure what exact combination of button pushes causes it, but it seizes up the unit and you have to pull out the …

[Peter118]

What’s the (best) way to report bugs/feature requests?

[hausland]

I saw that there was an active thread on Reddit for bug reports, not sure if it is still alive though, they sent of a long list to Roland recently. This is the link:

r/SP404 - Sending a list of bugs to the roland homie.

[Peter118]

I hope there are more ways to report bugs/feature requests. The Reddit user already send a doc to ‘PJ’(I assume PJ is a Roland developer?)

Just looked at the Roland Clan Forums, nothing recent to find. On Gearspace there is some more activity, but no official bug reporting over there.

It looks like this topic on Eletronauts will be the one to use. Maybe we can investigate to find a Roland contact person(JP?) and ask him if we can contact him for reporting bugs/feature requests.

[hausland]

Google doc in OP could make sense so things stay orderly and organised. @DimensionsTomorrow what do you think?

[Peter118]

That’s a good plan and much better than several independent posts. It makes searching a lot easier too.

[DimensionsTomorrow]

@hausland

Google doc in OP could make sense so things stay orderly and organis

Sure. I don’t think I’d be good at setting up/maintaining it, but if someone is keen.

[Samplix]

Hi @all! New to this forum but have a long history with samplers and iOS music.
I have a question:
Is there a way to control the headphone volume independently from line out volume? (how does one use the cue functionality in a on stage situation?)

[Sleepynumb]

You can only make it louder right now.

[Samplix]

yeah, I know. would be nice to control headphone out with shift master volume…

[Peter118]

Agree! Independent volume control would be great.

[DimensionsTomorrow]

OK, here’s a tip I learned the hard way. If you need to trim something to get it to loop, you can set the start/end points without truncating, as a non-destructive way to do that.

I trimmed something too close and kind of ruined it before realizing I didn’t actually have to commit to a destructive edit.

[amaury]

Indeed! When I did want to truncate from a too long sample, I did move the start and end outside of the desired loop to be sure not to regret missing a few bits later, then re-adjusted them after truncating. It’s a bit of work but better safe than sorry.

[frankie138]

What SD Cards are working with the mk2?

Thanks

[alspacka]

Up to 32 gb.

[alspacka]

Some reddit samaritan has uploaded a pdf version of the web manual:

sp404mk2 manual.pdf (7.3 MB)