I have been recording beats with a casio keyboard and a dp-03 ( 8 track recorder ). It is fun, and great because my friends who played music could just come over, plug in, and record.

Today, I have an sp-404 and finally have a chance to put sounds together at an extremely more efficient and smoother process. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to take sampled drum kits, ("tr-808 professional drum kit"
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/ ... -drum-wavs ) <--for example- and use them on the sp-404 workstation VIA my CompactFlash 64mb card.

in the Sp-404 manual, there is a section that states, "Sampling to a Memory Card" but does not have a section that says " How to play .wav files saved on Compact Flash on your Sp-404" (Something tells me that I need to upload the drum kits/synths/loops etc. into the sp-404, and then tap into them after?? )

I have done some searching and tons of reading but found nothing. If anyone has any idea what I am missing please let me know.

1) Sp-404 is off
2) insert SanDisc 64mb CompactFlash
3) SP-404 is turned on
4) Click to bank [C] (Why does manual say [C] when there is not a bank that is called JUST [C]? Idk...but I get it-so I click [C/G]
5) Digital Display says - - -
6) No sounds, nothing

Anything is good to read. Forward me w/e

Thanks

the 404 only accepts a certain type of wav file. With all the reading, try and bump into that. i dont know what the settings are, think its like 16 bit, 44000, blah blah. look for that info and make sure the samples on your card are formatted to those settings otherwise the 404 wont read em. I had that problem with my 555, all my samples were 32 bit and i had to change em all. ended up just sampling em in the long way, i mean, is a sampler and if you have a problem doing something like this and cant find the info, bypass it and just sample em in one by one, doesnt take as long as you think.

well there is a bank c, and a bank g, infact there are 2 for each external bank, so 8 externals all together. the first thing your gonna wanna do is format the card, which is a combination of two buttons that is listed in the manual, i wanna say cancel and remain (just double checked that, its right), then the external banks will all flash, and it will read frt or fmt (could never tell) and you just hit one of them, then delete will flash and you hit that to finish the process, its all in the manual, just look for card formatting, then you can go one of two ways, you can turn off the 404, pop the card into your card reader, and drag on the wav files you want, then put the card back in the 404, turn it on, and hit cancel and resample at the same time, which will cause the rec button and the resample button to flash, hitting rec is for importing wav samples, so you hit that, and i think it just starts importing any wavs you have in the root folder (anybody wanna confirm this, i've never imported), again its def in the manual, importing samples from the card.......the other way is to just plug the line out (headphone jack probably) of your comp into the rca ins of the 404, and just hitting rec, choosing a pad, and recording the sounds you want right in, then mark em and your all set

I found the section of the manual that I needed to refer too. Now, I have a new problem. When I prompt through to import my drum kit, the sp-404 is saying that it is empty.

My guess is that these are my problems

1) Samples are not in the "root folder"
Q: How do I know what the "root folder" is
2) Samples are not the functional bit levels
Q: How do I make sure I have the correct bit format?
3) My card does not work, but I know that it has worked in the past...



Also, everytime I format the card when I click on the compact flash on my computer I find a folder called ROLAND and inside of that is a bunch of folders called sp01 sp02 etc.

root folder is the top most folder when you put the card in, where the roland folder is, so put your files with the roland folder, not in it, but the file that contains it, and those files in the roland folder are unique to the sp, they are your sounds and patterns, can't do anything with em though, except drag the entire roland folder onto your harddrive, and you can replace it later on, so its a great way to free up card space, as for checking whether your files are the correct format, i would assume a 'right click', 'properties' would show you that info, 44.1 sample rate, 16 bit

Thanks for the help. I am a few steps ahead of where I was earlier. I think my problem now is my samples that I wish to import are not the correct format. If I keep having trouble importing a drum kit I might just resort to manually doing it.

thanks agian

Safe bet is to import samples [email protected] as a wav format. But I think the SP404sx can do this?. Not sure about the regular 404.

I am trying to assign a drum kit to my pads in bank A and B. I am running into a problem with being able to identify supported files before renaming them in my compact flash and inserting it into the sp404, importing etc. (I am sure anyone who knows what I am talking about understands how irritating it is.)

I have a tr-808 drum kit and it is great, but some work, some don't...Are their ways to MAKE all them work or do I just need to keep doing trial and error.
When I view the .wav files I do not see any relevant information ( 16 bit or 44.1k ) I am just doing trial and error and hoping to get a drum kit