Hi just bought an sp 404.

My first question is:

Can we assign 1 effect on several pads? For exemple:
Reverb on sample on pad 1, and subsonic on sample on pad 2, and play them in same time?



Second question:

No chance fo lunch more than 6 pads in same time?

1 fx at a time but you can assign the same fx to multiple pads. To get different pads with different fx you need to resample the pads using the fx you want for each sample.

12 polyphony means 12 mono samples played at the same time or 6 stereo samples. You can use a combo of these but it must not excede 12 voices. Not all your samples need to be in stereo so try sampling using both settings. The poly limit is one of the restrictions of the sp404.

Good luck

Check out the manual. It is your guide book into the world of the SP.

Thanks for your answer dude, that help me a much.

How can I resample in same tempo as sample (that i have before resampling)? I tryed to adjust it with "start/end level" but there is a delay.

use the marker button to set the start and end points of your sample

but it's impossible to get the same tempo by this way.. there are all time a little delay

I never worry about what the SP tells me the BPM is. Just use the start/end knobs to fine tune the sample points so its looping how you want. You may need to press the start/end buttons a few times because it only works in increments of + or - 30 values. If you get your start and end points to where they loop properly and your bpm is still not what it needs to be you can use the adjust bpm knob to change the tempo of the sample. If you change the tempo too much the time stretching of the SP does not sound very good. It works pretty good if you only need to change + or - a few bpm.

But yah.... I just ignore what the SP LCD shows and I use my ears.

what about the sp404sx? is this possible on the SX (without resampling)? And is it then possible to change the parameters of the effects in live playback?

Nope. SX is one effect at a time. Gotta resample.

does anybody know about a device that could do that (other (and cheaper) than a PC or six separate SP404SXes )? Seems like a pretty simple feature to me... or at least a device that would have multiple outputs so that I can apply the effects myself?

Great question. Might wanna grab a mpc with eight outs. As far as sp goes the 606 can apply two effects at same time. Im pretty sure they cant b set to independent pads. Maybe a 606 user can clarify??

A feature of my dream sp would b 16 effects at once all being able to b assigned independently. (effect per pad). Where u at roland?? (yeah right)

As far as getting delay effects to match a tempo in an SP, the machine will use the sample with highest bpm value to sync with. say you resample yourself playing a drum beat and the temp is 75bpm, just adjust the reading from 75 to 150 using the time/bpm. Now if you have a sample loop under 150 bpm value, the delay or other rhythmic effects you apply should sync to drum timing. Thank Wax Inspektor for that info

Effects don't need to be live, man. The listener doesn't know if it's sampled reverb or live reverb. If you want reverb, resample with reverb. Simple as that.

But to answer your question, ESX has much less sample memory but can use 3 effects, even chain them together if you want. But SP is more flexible machine. GO WITH THE FLOW, stop trying to swim upstream. Stop thinking of this thing as a computer. It's it's own instrument. You don't pick up a trombone and get mad cause you can't do a violin solo.

If you got a Korg QuadKaoss pad, you can get 4 effects at once, so that's one option to consider to use 5 effects at once. (Only the sp606 will benefit from 6 at the same time, but that might start to get messy quick). One limitation is you'd need some kind of patch bay for RCA ins/outs to really split the signal to different effects, and not cluster them all at once with just the 1 output of the sp404. This is where a MV8800 or MPC would come in handy, since it will have the multi-outs, but maybe all you need is a decent sound card that can split the signal of the sp404.

Try not to go overboard with multi-effects, because it just might make things worse the more reverb/compression/flang/distortion/filters/delays etc you throw at your beats. But if you need that much at once, this might do the trick...