Is two sp-(404) with a mixer in between instead of turn tables a cool idea for a live set?

Give it a shot .. could be interesting

I’ve seen it done from some dj from San Francisco. It was on a YouTube clip a few years ago, but I couldn’t find it now unfortunately. However, yes, you can definitely do it! You might want to have your samples organized as much as possible for every pad/bank. Toss in melodies, basslines, drum hits, loops, strange vocals, fx, etc. You might even want to think of each SP as it’s own “Record”. Any dj who spins turntables or CDs goes with 1 record, merges into the 2nd, and eventually back to the first over & over. This is probably a goal you need to build into your pad banks, but as much as possible practice, practice & practice some more how it’s going to work. And how it all works out is going to depend on you.

But it can be done. If you’re really daring, toss in a real turntable, Groovebox, circuit, or even a 3rd SP (maybe you own a 202/303 for some grit), and then you could scratch a record, fire more loops, and maybe even tossing in a beat you made yourself from a drum machine, etc. It would definitely give your audience more to see than you just pressing pads.