I just ordered my 404 and i was looking at getting so CF cards to go with it.
Does the write/read speed of the card matter when using it with a sampler. The manual says that It has tested, Sandisk Ultra II, which is 60x speed. But the smallest card size is 1 gb and I was looking at getting a few smaller cards instead. I found some 128mb and 256mb cards with speeds of 20x and 40 x respectively.

I have several CF cards from different brands ranging from 128MB up to 1GBs and I didn't actually notice any speed differences whilst using them in my SP-555 eventhough they are different speeds.

I know the SP-404 is a different machine, but I thínk the actual speeds of the cards isn't all that important... as in, the slowest is probably still fast enough.

I've actually heard people have trouble with the Ultra III type of cards and generally the newest cards (often the faster ones available). I'm sure it would be best to go with the ones mentioned in the manual, but I think it's okey to go with a non-special brand of lesser capacity.

For example I normally wouldn't go for the 'Extreme III' or 'Ultra III' version types of CF cards just to name some.

Scandisks ( 2003 ) normal brand CF 512MB cards seem to work fine here and I doubt they are still very expensive.. at least not as expensive as the Ultra II ones for sure.

Edit: I've just been searching in some online shops, but it seems <1GB compact flash cards aren't even sold anymore in the shops I used to buy them. They sell them up to 16GBs now which is impressive but definitely total overkill for any SP machine in my opinion. Perhaps you can get some smaller capacity ones in a local physical store? You could bring your SP 404 with you and check them out.

At least you can buy more cards, I'm stuck trying to find old ass 64mb smart media cards that barely exist anymore.

not really, i got mines here last year when my 303 was up & running, they're legit...

http://www.memorysuppliers.com/smartmedia1.html?

Nice, thanks a lot. Still expensive as hell though, I need to get a 404 since cf cards are cheaper and have more storage.

keep the 303 though!!


does anyone know if there is an adaptor that let's you use SD cards in smartmedia slots? i have a Roland MC09 which also relies on smartmedia, and i would love to just have an adaptor sticking out the back, which i can put SD cards into.
i have a feeling there is likely some internal architecture in the smartmedia card which these Roland machines writes to and requires for recognition.

I would never get rid of my 303, in fact I plan on buying more of them.

folk with Zoom Ps04 recording devices were having some success with xd to smartmedia card adaptors

The Ps04 had a limit of 128mb - I think - and they found that they had to use 128mb Xd cards for it to work.

That may be a kicker right there - can you find 128mb xd cards anymore?

I had been caught out with smartmedia card situation before and hit some local supermarkets seeking to offload 64 mb and 128 mb CF cards - Kodak - picked them up for a song and they all work v well so far.

that's interesting man, thanks for the info

i'm gonna look into it. i'll drop the knowledge in here when i have figured it out

I can use an adapter with the SP-555... I have a CF card kind of adapter in which I can stick SD cards and those longer ones.. I doesn't work when I put a SD micro card into a SD adapter which goes into the CF card adapter thing though... That only works if I use that combo with the card reader that comes with the set of adapters. So... at the moment, I can't use a SD micro card in the SP-555.

Don't know why though...

It says in the manual that the 404 only uses cards up to 1gb. Has anybody tried larger cards? I was in a store today and the guy told me that they have stopped making cards that are under 2 gb.

yeah the 404 doesnt recognize anything over 1gb I found out the hard way.
I dont think they stopped making cards under 2gb. I went on the sandisk site not too long ago and found plenty of cards under 2gb. It seems like stores dont have them too often though. It seems like stores dont have too much at all when it comes to compactflash cards.

in my searches ive only found 1gig cards in stores, but im sure you can find them online, but my thought is with the 1gig card only costing 25 bucks how much cheaper could the smaller size ones even be

Im guessing the is a US forum, cause 1 gig cards cost me $50 in Brisbane. But yeah I found some 128mb and 256mb cards. The 128mb cost me $9 and the 256mb cost me $14.50.

But there are tonnes of cards on ebay.

You can find all types of cards on ebay. Cheap as hell too.