Hey everyone, did a little searching but didn't find much on this. I have the SP 303 right now, and had the SP 404SX version. One thing I really didn't like with the 404SX was that when adjusting the start/end positions of a sample it would re-trigger the sample, very much unlike the 303 that keeps looping but adjusts the associated setting. Does the 404 non SX also have this issue, I am thinking about geting one as a replacement for the 303 but really really hated this feature in the 404SX. Thank you

Ya, same deal on the og 404. I agree-annoying.

Thank you, good to know.

i agree real annoying but found one good use for it: when you're fine-trimming start/endpoints. instead of hitting the pad continuously and turning the knob you can just turn the knob and sample triggers itself automatically

HOLY SHIT! THAT IS FREAKIN AWESOME! sorry.

I did not know this was possible, and it works great! So loop the sample, put it on hold, and then you can tweak start and end fairly easily. And the start time re-triggers...shit...nice. I was able to do a quick test with a vocal, and it was faster than all of that pad pressing bullshit. And the resulting loop was a lot smoother between start and end.

Did I mention this is awesome?

pop it into reverse to get precise with the end point, allows you to hear it like your settin the start point, so say your trying to loop something and there is a obvious note change or drum hit or something at the end of your phrase and you want to cut it there, pop it in reverse and you should be able to hear pretty distinctly when that noise is gone and fine tune it so its just outta the marked zone....

....also look up the mark mystery trick, thread is somewhere on these boards, explains how to use the mark button to your advantage, if you set a start point with the mark button and then never set an end point, by either letting the sample play all the way out, retriggering it, or having loop or gate on and just turning it off, then you can release the mark point when playing the sample again at a later time and it will just keep playing til the end, its only when you have an end point marked and you release the mark points that it jumps back to the beginning, really useful for chopping multiple parts out of a large phrase

i can not confirm that adjusting the start points makes my samples replay....
i know what you folks mean, but i tried every sample on the card and i always had to start the sample manually... i can remember that shit, but it's gone; somehow...
i start beginning to think that this only happens to very long samples....

Wow some great tips and new ideas about how to use the 404. Ordered the original one today so getting back into the SP game, been MPC for a while. This forum in the last few days has really opened my mind to some cool new things that can be done with these old but still amazing samplers. Thanks

Welcome! I'm sort of new myself. Some of these people here are amazing...take a listen when you stumble on their links.

I've been doing that lately and found some real gems. Started on the 303 but move to the MPC a while ago, just using the 303 for FX mostly. Wanting something more minimal again to help explore new sounds and styles, I really love these samplers.

yeah wax, the sample only retriggers itself when changing the end point, not the start point, doesn't matter what mode you are in, at least as far as the 303 and OG 404 go.......

one thing i have noticed though is if you have a sample looping in loop mode, no patterns or anything, and you mess with the start point without turning off the sample and starting it over, just letting it loop away, it glitches at the loop point until you turn it off and retrigger it

so if you are playing a pattern and that is looping a pad, you don't have this problem cause the pad is being retriggered at the top of the pattern each time, just like you were hitting it, but if you have something in loop mode and are playing with the start point you might notice some looping issues until you retrigger the sample, which you can do quickly by just changing the end point, even if you reset right away, instead of having to smash the pad twice real quick to retrigger

yup it's just the end point....
it's been a while since i messed with those.

Got my 404 last night and this trick works like a champ! Surprised I never realized this on the 404sx. Let me know if there is a better/quicker way to do this.

1. Play sample
2. Set single marker
3. Hit cancel 3 times to stop sample.
4. Resample segment you want to new slot.
5. Play sample again and remove marker.
6. Rinse Repeat

Also forgot how much faster the 404 is over the 303, deleting more than one sample at a time? Whaat! Going to be on the 404 for a while, really getting back into this sampler. Thanks for all the great tips/help so far!

got it down my man, my only suggestion would be to maybe have the sample on gate or loop to turn it off so you don't have to karate chop cancel everytime, and if you forget to have one of those on, you can always just hit the pad and retrigger it and that automatically leaves the end point open, which is unlike the 303 i've found out, if you have set a start point but haven't set the end point and you retrigger the pad it sets that point where you retriggered the pad as the end point

also, a while back somebody pointed out that hitting record once worked better as a way of stopping everything rather than pressing cancel 4 times, nice little secret to keep in mind, although it all becomes so second nature that i do all of them at times where another option would of been more efficient and by the time i realize that its already done anyway

Thanks for the advice, gonna save me from destroying this cancel button Definitely going to take me some time to get used to this, keep setting a cue at the end, just the 303 being ingrained in me.

Yeah I know what you mean, I generally take different routes to get to the same point when working on these samplers. But with everything on the 404 being 2x-3x times as fast as on the 303 I can fuck around and still do it faster