I've had a myriad of problems with my 404 since purchase.

Initially I had problems with samples saving to the compact flash card - some samples randomly deleting, some staying, all of them being gone next time I turn on the machine, etc.

I'm going to purchase a new compact flash card, and hopefully that will help.

For now, though, I've been working with bank B. I can record samples to the machine, and they seem to always be there when I turn the machine back on.

When I'm using the pattern-sequencer, sometimes my machine will go haywire and kind of freeze, and I am then forced to restart the machine. The factory samples and what I saved on bank b are all intact after a restart.

Sometimes when I'm trying to record a pattern - if I get that far - when I hit cancel to confirm everything and save the pattern my machine will simply restart itself.

Initially I was working on my bed, so I moved to the floor to ensure the machine was level, but I still have similar problems with the machine freezing and restarting itself.

Could this be a potential polyphony problem? I have a kick, snare, and hat assigned to their own pads. I have a synth line assigned to another pad, and a bass line assigned to yet another.

With my approach, the snare is hitting on the second quarter note, with the kick drum being on the first quarter note. The hat hits fairly regularly on 16ths, and my synth and bass lines would play as a straight shot, occupying my pattern that is a length of 16.

I've gone as far as putting AA batteries into the machine incase there is a voltage issue, though I do have the adapter intended for this machine.

Before posting this I actually went back and rerecorded my samples as all mono, and as I'm sequencing a pattern I'm still having the same problem with the machine eventually locking up, and I have to restart and nothing has been saved though all my samples are intact.

My only remedy so far seems to be working AS FAST AS I POSSIBLY CAN to make a pattern, and even then I haven't been able to make a pattern which contains all three drum elements, as well as the synth and bass line.

Help?

yr machine could be fucked, but it could be any number of other issues.

did you buy it new? can you return it?

first thing to do is reset the machine to factory defaults. the manual can walk you thru these steps.

second thing is get another -- new, and different manufacturer -- compact flash card. there are some hints about a few cards which cards are known to work in the 404 tips'n'tricks section. that list is by no means complete, but it offers some guidance.

next, remove the factory samples from the machine.

then, record yr own MONO samples. all mono.

try making beats w/ the mono samples, on a new compact flash, after re-setting the machine.

if you are still experiencing problems, then yeah, it is probably yr 404.

you could also try using the batteries AFTER you've done all of the above to see wassup.

good luck mans. you sorta have to diagnose it one piece at a time.

Which version of the OS do you have in your 404 Maybe you need to upgrade.