Just wondering if anyone uses the MIDI input... if so, what can be done with it exactly? Sync up a MIDI keyboard to it?
I bought a MIDI cable, and I have a an old keyboard, but I haven't tried anything with it yet...

any advice would be cool... thanks

i loaded the rhodes sounds (provided by another forum-user) into the 404 and used an oxygen 8 keyboard to trigger / play the sounds.

this would mean you could trigger anything from the 404 w/ a keyboard via midi.

have fun!

you can trigger it and sequence it from any other device.

you can connect your keyboard to the 404 and get velocity sensitivity
(providing your keyboard has this feature...it probably does)
then when you record patterns you can trigger sounds from the keyboard's keys and the 404 records the different velocity of each hit
this can make drum tracks sound much more dynamic and 'live'
also great for playing piano etc

you can also sync your patterns to a daw or multitrack recorder with midi out. i've tryed to sync it to cubase. what you can do then is press a pattern, then press play in cubase and the sp404 will press iin perfect time with cubase.

i made it sync the timing, but i didn't get the start function to work.. i will have to get this thing on. it would be great for mastering on your computer and adding stereo efx and so on. just think:

you use the isolator to mute the samples you dont want playing, then you record it on you pc. then you record the patterns with som eother samples playing. now since it is synct up they would be in perfect timing with each other.

now you can f.eks. put on huge stereo efxs, pan drums and so on.. it would be great if you ask me!

to fauna and drewzle;
if i connect a microkorg would i need to program either/or midiwise or would they be already ready to go? i guess it's in the RTFM somewhere but actually the MK manual is a little confusing.
just wonderin and thanks!!

it should be ready to go

all you will need to do is ensure that the Microkorg is Sending MIDI on the same Channel that the 404 is Receiving it

see 404 manual p. 41 for info on how to set the 404 channel, check your MKorg manual for how to set the channel for that

youll have to set the microkorg to send notes out instead of use the notes to play the synthesizer inside,

and then youll have to match the microkorg midi send / out channel, with the sp-404 midi receive channel..

shouldnt be difficult to do, but youll have to look up in each manual to see how to do it

It is pretty easy you just connect them with midi cable, then turn the weel to "global" and set it to the right midi channel..

no prroblem really.. if your microkorg is connected to a speaker just turn down the volume knob..

yeah, it may not be the best way to go about things, but when i hooked up the keyboard to the 404, i just messed around with settings until it worked. it didn't take long, and it wasn't super confusing - just picking channels and stuffs. i recommend just plugging stuffs in and seeing what up.
but that's sorta how i do everything...

thankz everybody!
i'll just play around till i get it. the main thing is i will have three pad banks(velocity sensitive) at my fingertips:)
so can i send other effects from the MK via midi to pads on the 404. synthesize my samplez.

Anyone see any "latency", as in, hitting a trigger and the sound seemingly not coming out immediately after.

I was experimenting with some new used Roland pads last night and it seems like the sound is initiating a few hundred milliseconds after I hit. But what's cool is the velocity sensitivity, the sound gets louder the harder I hit. That was unexpected.

It could be the actual sample is not actuating when I think it is.

It makes things a little more interesting when loading samples.

I'm not complaining, it's just another problem to solve. We shall see if it is just something with the 404.

There's always a little latency with midi - it can be a lot worse on a computer DAW. It's something you can get used to, although I've heard of piano players who can't cope with even a few milliseconds latency.
Then again, make sure the samples don't have any dead air at their starts, you can use the 404's own start trim to get right up into the attack of the sound - it's tricky, but I found I've got it to right spot if I can play fast flams on the pads.

I hook up a Korg EA-2 and use the step sequencer and song play from that to trigger the 404. Because the EA-2 has two parts, I use a part1 pattern for the 404, and part2 pattern which plays at the same time to trigger video clips on my powerbook through an app called Grid2.

Now I can integrate video and sound clips for my performance, via midi, although I still hit loops manually on the 404 because, well, I can.