i must say that i love this sampler...the portability, the organic sound...even the way it forces ppl to be kreativ and develop their own methods. but i gotta say that the pitch and time stretching controls suck! the samples get warbled and really f***ed up everytime i try it. unless im goin 4 that messed up feel to a song i neva go for the pitch and time controls. i just do it in nuendo or audacity and record the sample from there. how do yall get around it?

I actually find the time stretch to be adequate if your using alot of layers. It actually isint very noticable. After using the 404 alot more I actually noticed madlib using it in alot of tracks and I never noticed it b4. Like on strange ways ..off the madvillain album for example. The pitch control however is horrible for the most part. Its slightly usefull for small pitch changes... but aside from that its garbage as far as tuning your samples is concerned. Ive had moderate success using the Chromatic PS. I just wish it had 1 tone instead of 2

It works well to pitch shift single notes like bass, guitar, or piano hits, also it works a lot better if you speed up a sample rather than slow it down, if you slow it down even one bpm it sounds strange which I like in some instances, but I usually use loops at a tempo I like already, but if you have a sample that you like thats at a high bpm, just double the measures you would normally use like from 4 to 8 and then just put your snare hits on the 4 of every measure instead of the 2 and 4 and quantize your hi-hats on 4th or 8th notes and it should match the sample with the drums not sounding like a techno beat, then use the 16th note quantize for the kick drum so it has more of a swing to it because there are more possible places for it fall into. I hope that helps.

ya if the 404 had a true pitch this sampler in my eyes would be the best shit ever!I use the pitch shift on my turntable to tune samples so that might help you as well!

^That's a good tip, I sometimes do this but unfortunately I have a pretty crappy "realistic" brand turntable for sampling and the pitch shift doesn't have the features or reliability of a technics turntable, but its still fun to make a beat in the sp and just start throwin' records on and beatmatching until you find something you like.

although it doesn't seem to bother all the rest of you I still see this as the achille's heal of the sp-404 and still hate this fact with a passion..

would've been an insanely good box but IMO this feature makes it very 'average'

Pitch shifting for hip hop is mainly used to match the tempo of a sample to the the tempo of a breakbeat which is why DJ's need it so much, but in a sampler you create the beat for the sample, so I don't really see why it would be a problem.

I don't mind the timestretch (however I think the timestretch in the 606 is more advanced anyway) but I rarely use it. There's no real comparison in hardware for the timestretching that Abelton Live or Sony Acid do. Even then, if you change the tempo by more than about 5 bpm, you can hear what's happening to the sound.

The best way around the whole stretch issue is just not to do it. Cut the loop up instead. Then you can sequence the slices of audio at any tempo you like with no stretchy problems. Obviously this works best if you are speeding things up, but even if you are slowing things down you can use a touch of delay to smooth the edges, or place ghost notes in the gaps.

Pitchshifting isnt as nessessary as every one makes it out to be.

I understand where you comin from,but the truth of the matter is this.The sp-x0x series are the most musical samplers out there.The limitations will make you come up with beats you could never dreamed of.The sp-1200 has only 10 secs of sampling time and you only get 2 secs on each pad.Now listen to what pete rock and others have done with that machine!Yes the 404 has limitaions but in reality the only limitaion is your mind!Thats the beauty of this machine,it will kick your ass!Just keep at it and let the spirit of the 404 take over!

Sup y'all,
It's my first post and I really like the forum btw...
I couldn't agree more,I have a Zoom Sampletrak and should pick up the 404 at the end of the month and after messing with software programs,I appreciate those beautiful machines more than ever.It's so easy to focus on "features" but limitations can be great as well.Even before sp-1200,I heard the most amazing hiphop done with shitty dj mixer/7seconds samplers and a 4 track.And I heard music made with powerful D.A.Ws and there's not a lot of feeling and creativity,but unnecessary complex programming.

Welcome, when you get your 404, come and check out all the posts there are some really good tips here that would take you hella long to learn.

thanx bruh!!
I'm actually checking the threads and posts and I really like the positivity and passion for creating dope music.

Yeah, real talk, I've been on all the forums and all the mpc-centric sites have a lot of angry haters, maybe they're frustrated from wheeling through meuns for hours just to drop 4 bars.

word, gotta love the mpc forums