Wasn't sure if this belonged here or in the 404 tips and tricks, then again I'm asking anyone with a 404 period.


When I first got the 404. I was going through that producer phase of "I make beats on the laptop so now how do I go live?" (Still ask myself that today.) And originally was just going to stash every track on one pad like Dibia$e and JonWayne, long before I even discovered their work.

Over time I was looking up other drum machines and a few youtube videos of the 404 and other boxes. Looking at popular guys like AraabMuzik and thinking back to the time I saw Hi-Fana perform live.

Anyway, for the longest time I've been trying to work on a live routine. Since the 404 has no choke function. Mute group it kind of puts a limit on what I want to do. I definitely need to get back on this and step my game up. I imagine if there was more videos of finger drummers out there specifically using an SP. I'd be able to learn, swap ideas, extra motivated to do better.

Here's me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ZJw2T ... _viylPsbYr

last video I did + XR20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1_KR0S ... Yr&index=8


So yea, does anyone else here finger drum?

yeah, that`s what i do with my 404 all the time ) but i didn`t post it on youtube

Dude, as nuts as Aarab can sound he does a lot of stuff proper drummers would probably balk at. Stuff like playing WAY too fast & not accenting hits. Any decent music teacher will make you learn how to play slow so you know restraint and timing (playing with swing & fills is harder done slow). If you can play with restraint & nuance you can play with soul. It's probs just me but I don't hear much heart in Aarab's tunes. I used to flip out at his pad-smashing too but there's a lot that he isn't doing in his routines.

Check out this guy's lesson on the midi fighter controller, he's lame but his technique's tight. If you can ignore the dodgey EDM & cringeworthy turn of phrase you might find he's not too shabby. Everything he describes you can translate to the SP.

One thing he hints at is to lay everything out the same way for all your songs. That way with practice you'll build habits & muscle memory, the essential stuff to treat your SP like a formal instrument. There's no need to relearn every sample's position across each bank. E's always between the D# & F on a guitar or piano.

Another way to take the pressure playing everything at once is to sequence a bank of samples to play a basic track (or just to the one song-per pad thing) then embellish over the top with extra drums & melodies with another bank. Or is that what you're already doing with the XR-20? Takes a lot of pressure off having to get everything 100% perfect. Rabot nails the technique in this clip.

My mate, An Owl (a pro lurker here), is good at balancing resample loops & finger drumming at the same time. Here's a few of his old 404 joints. DUDE. BRO. BLESSINGS & The Hoot, Stab & The Subby

If you need chokes/mute groups, extra pads & less polyphony check out the 606. Pretty sure the 505 (or even the 808?) can do mute groups too. Don't know why Roland dropped that feature from the 8 & 12 pad SPs .

All said, I've messed with finger drumming but don't have the discipline to make it work . Respect to those than can do it!

I used to, with my band, play finger drums on a Roland XP50 when we couldn't get practice time that allowed me to play real drums as normal, so I'm okay at stuff...however, learning to use 404's pad options and knobs in your set is gonna be highly dependent on how far you want to go and what your tune might require.

Anyway, here's a couple of mine doing live finger drumming/pad playing.
Some are completely without any loops, some use looping and other pad stuff applied as the song needed it...I'll put this up in what I rank in order from simplest to hardest that I've done.

http://youtu.be/XMV0-iflTEs - only a couple of pads, mostly loops, almost pointless knob diddling.

http://youtu.be/WL9Z88dDOmw a little harder. Still using loops but keeping stuff tracked out in my head is a bit hard...manual rhythms and multiple effects fiddlings.

http://youtu.be/YtVCTFw5xbI This one was hard because of the odd chops I was using on the amen and also the fact this is all 1 live resample, I even accidentally cut off a voice because i wasn't careful and went over the limit.

http://youtu.be/ojdZQrkoYgk This is all loops except the melody, but I was still worried about hitting the voice limit. That shit will cause you to have your game thrown off..Also, you can see I forgot what pads were what at one point and had to 'save face' with a 'build up'. 'Air quotes'.

http://youtu.be/jVToEN4ckBk and finally, no loops, all finger drumming. Leaves 0 time for effects. Also the song is kinda boring as a result...

EDIT:

http://youtu.be/4j7O1A_LRAE I totally forgot about this one, which was really hard cause I tried to do some shit for the camera, it used effects changing and also bank switching which was all hard to do. As well, it uses both live finger drumming and drum loops at different times. So I'd rank this one most difficult, but in the end is also the most fun to watch I think.




Hopefully these give you some extra ideas. Each tune was just me problem solving on 'how am i gonna do this so that my fingers don't get tired and there's a good chance i can make it to the end of the song without fucking up?' Then you answer the question and have your live track.

Unfolding: Yeah I know about mad zack. I actually tried loading some of his packs on the 404 and they just sound weird. I dunno it might be my style. The way the XR20 pads + his videos are how I figured out my set up. I just moved everything where it was most comfortable.

Also know what you mean with Araab. Yearrrsss ago I was blown away before I even knew how samplers worked. But a couple of years ago I studied his vids and he keeps one or two pads launched with an instrumental and I guess mute groups them? I also think he layers a kick on his sample and it's all hats from there lol.

Hseiken: that second to last video is definitely what I had in mind.


I know some people loop their drums and play pads like keys or loop their instrumentals and just drum away.

What I'm looking to do is somewhat like the Mad Zach video but EDM + an sp always throws me off balance. Like other than a couple of chops I don't know if I should squeeze in a bass, one shots? Maybe load a song loop into pad 4? On top of that, trying to get all of this to work on a live set without boring people after 2 banks.

I tend to get motivated off of videos like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5VV5qUZBM0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkDUiSH4sfU


I'm kind of hoping people make more because I still feel like it hasn't been taken to that next level yet on an SP.

I'll have to go back and do something like that HS States Tour video next time I put a breakcore track together.

Since I haven't done a video in a few months I'll prob come back to this thread with a new one. And if anyone wants to drop more links of their own that'd be great. I really appreciate it. Here's my basic set up by the way.

SP404-SX

[chop1] [chop2] [____] [____]-(hold)
[chop3] [chop4] [____] [hihat]-(ext )
[_____] [_____] [kick ] [snare]-(Sub)

The more you play with the box, the more you appreciate what can be done and the effort and practice and dedication it takes to get results. It's like engineering miracles in some cases...

Take everything to the next level.

Hai guise, this is my first post BTW.

I deal with turntablism mostly, so with samplers I´m also interested in PLAYING them live mostly.
My advice is that you have 10 fingers, don´t limit yourself to using just 2 or 3.
Here´s me doing some rock flavoured drumming on SP-404SX, at first I thought it was not very good for drumming, but using different velocities under different pads can make it quite ok IMO. I am using 2 hands and multiple fingers, no layered samples, everything is under it´s own pad.
You´ll have to pretty much dedicate the entire bank for one drumset though...

http://beats.eksotik.fastmail.fm.user.f ... umming.wav