Hi guys I recently picked up an SP 404 og purely due to the fact it was so cheap. However I’ve been struggling to find any uses for it other than an fx machine to run my tracks from the digi through. Just wondering if any of you have used the SP and digi together and what kind of stuff did you do with them?
I like to use my sp404 a couple different ways:
- You can connect output of elektron to input of sp404 and use sp404 for additional performance effects such as dj looper or bpm looper.
- As a recorder where you apply effects while recording such as bit crush or vinyl sim or compressor. I do this mainly when I dont feel like booting up laptop, just record to the sp404, pop the sd card over later on and do any final trim or normalize on laptop.
- Finally, can always free up audio tracks by recording say your snares or hi hats into the sp404 and then triggering those via midi from your midi tracks. Can keep a collection of your favorite snares kicks and hi hats loaded into a bank of the sp404.
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Long (long) samples is one obvious feature over the Digitakt - sample a ctrl-all session onto a pad and use it to pick out interesting bits to resample, or just built a long component to free up tracks on the DT.
Treat the FX as a dual tape setup, passing audio back and forth between the two. The 404 has an interesting performance setup once you get used to it, which would be a good source for samping into the DT.
Sequence the 404 with the DT to bring in probability trigs etc (lots of potential there combined with the 404’s FX) - you can also get velocity on the 404 this way.
You might only see the limitations / restrictions at first, but the 404 does have a lot to offer.
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I used the DN/404 Combo for a while. It was a lot of fun. I understand OP has a DT but the Digis sequencer make the 404 a totally different machine. Also great just to record to the 404. I’d record a bunch of patterns from the DN on different pads. Take the 404 solo and resample them like a beat tape with all the glorious FX.
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Unearthing this topic, DT2 and SP404 Mk2 really is a great combo. SP does all the slicing DT2 can’t really do. Plus the skip back feature to record whatever comes from or in the SP, this thing is insanely valuable. Also the polyphony to sample synths and play chords and ofc all the SP effects, very handy.
In a perfect world the DT2 would have slicing similar to the OT, skip back, polyphony and a few more effects. But this combo does it all with a relatively small footprint. So can’t complain.
Setup is [any instruments or audio source] → SP → DT2
Everything ends up being recorded in the DT to be able to bounce all at once with Overbridge and mix in a DAW. It’s a simple, very powerful and handy setup that can follow you anywhere in a little bag. Love it.
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Agreed! I switch up my chain from time to time sometimes I use the 404 at end of chain and pop on its compressor or other effects.
Feel like I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but it would be so clutch if you could disable sample recording normalization on the DT so that you could just sample direct (or resample) without altering the source audio. Probably not a big deal to everyone but it seems like such a simple thing to make optional.
Prevents me from doing stuff like this and almost always end up DAW prepping samples to avoid it.
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Agreed, there should be an option to switch it off. ATM the best you can do is record it as hot as possible for minor quantization and then turn the level back down to suit the mix.
But I’m ok with this setup not being sonically perfect, if some sound gets really butchered somehow I can always go through a proper audio interface + DAW and the import in in the DT if that’s really necessary.
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Stopping in the middle to go back into the computer kills it for me, motivation these days is already a precious commodity without stopping to do busy work in the middle of a session.
I don’t really think of it so much as sonically perfect, but more like when you resample something so you can bounce a few tracks together, you might layer something with your original samples or want to transition between a bounced loop and a sequence, so it pisses me off when it’s not smooth even though I know they’re derived from the same set of samples.
Anyway, that’s a me problem. Can definitely see the benefit of this workflow.
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