i'm completely new to the entire sp anything drum machine and i was wondering if you need an external device to save your complete songs. I have all my patterns ready i just need to figure out what to record to. I was hoping i could record a whole song as a WAV. file to my sd card. any help would be appreciated.

i used to record my stuff from the outputs to audio interface and record it into cubase but ive simplified it because i felt like it was more personal to just keep it raw when recording from sp.
so.. i just record from the outs through audio interface into audacity.

just trigger the sequences when you are recording live in audacity(or whatever you choose) to compose your track

then you can export your track to a few different formats.. wav included

You have just solved the 1st step of my problem good sir.. I NEED AN AUDIO INTERFACE!! Is there any special type you'd recommend?? or can i just go get like an m-audio interface?

m-audio is my choice.
i use the fast track pro but there are cheaper versions that will do just as well.
If you are wanting to use a midi controller in the future you might want to make sure it has midi plugins in the interface.
let me know if you have anymore questions

someone else might chime in and shine some light on this as well

for years i was going through the line in or mic in on an old ass computer rocking windows 98. I still go through the line in sometimes but i ended up grabbing a behringer audio interface for like 30 bucks with an input to the computer through the usb and a headphone jack and an output to hear whats going on in your computer once its there. It aint the cleanest sounding piece of equiptment but thats just comparing it to no noise interfaces which most come with some sort of hiss or hum no matter what and you eq it out most of the time. But honestly if your new to the 404 then just go into the computers line in and rock out in the meantime. once you have a better grasp of your workflow with this machine then you can make a better purchase, maybe an interface with phantom power and a mic input if you rap or something. im also sitting on a behringer mixer that has usb ins that i will probably never use again, maybe. shoulda took my own advice.