hey guys so ive been rockin the mpc 2000xl for almost 8 years now and wanted to expand on sound. copped a 404sx this week. been reading up heavy on it. so this is the question I had. what is the easiest way to make a beat using pattern mode. also is there a way I can record each separate loop as far as kick hi hat snare, sample and drop them in and out like track mute on the mpc? sorry this is a very broad question thanks yall! peace

The 404SX makes a good combo with the MPC. Pattern mode is similar to the MPC, where you tap your pads in real time. As far as having separate tracks, the SP don't have that. It's just a one track sequencer. But you can build up several patterns. There's no mute groups for hi hats. There's no tuning either. But I do all that in the MPC before resampling into the SP. Each machine has what the other doesn't. They both compliment each other with a little work.

If you use pattern sequencer, you can record your pattern and consider each sample a different track, then:

For "track" muting, you can get a little live with it by assigning Isolator (all knobs at 0) to whatever sounds you want muted using remain button (hold to assign to samples or see what samples its assigned to). You can either tap in and out of the mute with the Isolator button or hold tap tempo and tap and hold the Isolator button.

Im a new 404 user as well, and yesterday i was wondering if it was possible to have several pads playing on loop and move in between them & play with their volumen level for making fade in's & out's.
The thing is when i tried to change in between pads they just stop playing