Is there anything impedance-wise you need to consider if you wanted to use an sp as a guitar pedal (say a SP-303)? Do you need to run the guitar into something before (and after) the SP? Do you run it into the mic jack and then need to covert the RCA outs to something to get it right to guitar level signal?

I can easily use cables and adapters to run the guitar through and make it work, but I am wondering from an impedance standpoint, what would be the wisest strategy to have the best audio quality the right way.

Sometimes I run bass into my sp, the mic jack can be sensitive so it takes a bit of time to make sure I have good levels and its not giving me feedback or whatever. Live I think it would be unreliable. I would run it through some sort of amp/eq first then use the sp for lite effect application if in that position

Most guitar pedals will work fine with line level stuff, the problem here is not having a dedicated guitar input on the sampler.

You'll probably have a better chance running a pedal into the line input(s) instead of using the mic in.

Nice idea, Admbomb. Def gonna try this soon.

If you're using a guitar or bass that uses passive pickups (no batteries) you might need to use a compressor pedal before the SP.

That's what I do

i believe james blake's guitar player uses a 404. i wouldnt think it would need anything really. at least with a solid state amp.

I am not looking at playing lofi beat type music with my guitar. I am looking at playing my telecaster or strat through the sp into a 59 bassman, so i can rock out with the vinyl sim wavering or randomly throw in some effects. For tone, you want to keep your signal as pure as possible, so I want to minimize hiss, etc., which are a consequence of running guitar level signal through rca adapters and so forth. I have already tried running my guitar through the Korg KP Quad and it sounded like dogshit. Do I need to run into a DI > SP > back to a reverse DI or something?

I'd say if your looking for a clean guitar multi-effect, no sp will really cut it. The 404sx is one of the cleanest SPs and doesn't really add much of it's own characteristics to the sound so that might help. On a sp-303 however, I've never gotten a guitar input to sound as clean as I'd prefer.

There are a lot of great pedal board style guitar based multi-effects out there.




I don't believe that he uses the 404sx in his guitar chain. It's used for samples and some of the heavy wobbly bass.

Cosign what the person above said. I checked out james blake set at second weekend of coachella. This is what was going down. No guitar thru sx. 555 works great tho and has amp sim effect. Not sure if sx has amp sim??? Anyone??

If Im not mistaken, the James Blake dude is actually controlling james blake's vocal effects with the SP. Usually he's washing everything out with reverb.

As for the multi-effects idea. I am fully aware. I own pedals out the wahzoo as well as have owned buttloads of multi-effects units (most suck). Really, I want that vinyl sim sound, but I may have to get that effect from some type of harmonic true pitch vibrato pedal.

I've never seen any cables going into his sampler, so I doubt he's controlling any external sound. James Blake has a pretty big chains of effects for his synths and voice.

If you wanted to record yourself playing a part on guitar you could then add the vinyl sim effect or any others while playing over it through your normal guitar pedal chain. Not probably what you want, but a more SP oriented method.

dude i wish i could play guitar

I found this link

http://blog.dubspot.com/how-to-route-ex ... o-effects/

I'm stilll getting to grips with ableton and I haven't tried this yet myself but you could use the 404 as a send and return track and then plug your guitar into ableton via an audio interface.

I have 1992 hohner TE custom guitar that I play using amplitube amp sim and I was thinking, like you, that it would be cool to use my SP to effect the sound. Using this setup I can play and record my rusty guitar playing.

This may be no where near what you were after but I thought I would share.

Fun fact- the dude in the picture above goes by the name Airhead. Check him out, it's good stuff with a Mount Kimbie kinda vibe:
https://soundcloud.com/airhead

Probably worth mentioning Airhead, Blake & Kimbie have been mates since way back, hence the similar vibes.