Hi, I'm a musician that plays with a band that was thinking about incorporating samples into our music. I hate to use this comparison but I guess our ideas of sampling is closer to like, Animal Collective or something, the way we intend to use the samples. Mainly would be sampling from an analog modeling synthesizer and I guess from other places yet to be determined. It's just something us as a band would be interested in exploring. The SP series caught my attention mainly because I saw Madlib used them and just had a couple questions.

1. What is the time manipulating capabilities of the 404SX or 555? I mainly use Pro Tools LE 8 to speed up and slow down things but was wondering about the SP's ease of use and ability to stretch.

2. Is this a solid machine to get into sampling with? I'm really a novice when it comes to using samples.

3. Is it easy to sample things from a computer or another machine quickly, like if my bandmate plays something cool on his synth and wants to do something else, would I be able to record and play back what he was playing before quickly and easily without having to go back and edit on the computer?

Thanks a bunch, I hope to be posting more questions.

1. I've not used the 555 but on the 404 this is pretty limited, you can change BPM to a certain extent but if you go up or down too high it starts to sound weird, I like the effect sometimes, you may not. There is no real timestretching or pitching capabilities.

2. Yeah it's really easy, there's no menus or anything, it's all right in front of you. As a bit of perspective I've been trying to show my wife how to use the MPC for about ten years now and she still hasn't got the hang of it, she's just not technically-minded. However less than a year ago I bought the 404 and she can already make some pretty dope stuff just consisting of breakbeats and chopped up jazz samples.

3. Again yes, it's quick and easy, hit record, hit a pad then hit record again and you're sampling. You can easily sample at specific tempos too which is good for grabbing loops of different instruments. As far as editing is concerned, it's just a case of getting good with that mark button which won't take too long.