hey, been a long time lurker of the forum and i finally bought a 404 a few weeks ago.
Got a few questions if thats cool.

Can someone explain to me how i can change the effect i have on a pad when ive moved onto another pad without having to turn the pad on and off? does that make sense.

I saw a video of this guy called Boon Doc on youtube, you've probably seen him, and hes got an mpc1000. He's making his beat and then he puts swing on the beat to make it out of time. Can i do that on the 404?

Can i record perfect timed samples that wont drift or would i have to make my loops on the computer and re-sample them into the 404 if i want a perfect loop?

And i have an inbuilt card reader in my computer, i put my card in once and put a few 1 shots on there and loaded them into my sp. I went to get some more samples today and when i put the card into the computer it doesnt open or recognise the cf card.
Any clues to the problem. (it also happened on my other computer, same thing, wont pick it up the second time)

Thanks for any help, im so addicted to the sampler. Everytime i turn it on i make something creative, its great.

1) effect change- i don't think you can do it. just hit the pad really fast and no one should notice

2) swing- just adjust the start time for your snare or hi hat so there's a little air or silence before it hits. its basically the same as time shifting on mpc's

3) not sure what you mean by perfect loops, but you can truncate your loop by ear with the mark button, just hitting it when you want your start and end points. then fine tune with the start/end knobs.

4) don't know about built-in card readers. got an external one for my mac book but honestly haven't used it that much...