I purchased a 404sx for my live beat sets along side my MPC Renaissance.I needed something with effects and i always admired the 404's so i figured why not.Im also interested in making full beats with it.Its very different from my MPC workflow (Renaissance & 1000) and its taking me awhile to get used to.I pretty much got all the basics down.One thing i need to work on is gettin my start/end points.Im a sample based producer so im gonna be chopping stuff up on the 404.Once i get my chops down then i think i should be on my way.In the meantime i will spend as much time with it as i can and try to master this joint.If you guys have any tips that will help me out,especially MPC heads that use the 404 then please drop a line.I took a break from the unit but i already wanna pick it back up.Cant wait to make my first batch of beats! ill report back soon.

first things first: GREAT user name. I probably won't be the only one to hear pmd's voice in my head when I read it.

since you're familiar with mpc, it might be good to midi the sx up to your mpc. that way, you can use the great sequencer that you already know in and out, but with the fast sampling and sample manipulation of the sx. no programs, multis, or naming things, plus the sx is fast to chop on with the copy and mark features.

also, if you have finished beats on mpc, you can sample them into the sx and use the effecs to tweak them. When I first got an sp, I first used it to breathe new life into some ho hum beats sitting on my mpc's hard drive using the effects.

hope it helps, have fun!

one problem i had when first chopping drums on the sp was getting uniform start points. to get them extra tight (so your playing won't be off) chop while in gate mode. tap the pad in gate mode while turning knob 1 to shorten attack. if you're just hearing air or record static you know its not tight enough. keep turning knob til you hear some of the drum's attack while tapping the pad

HAHA! "Chillout! Music" is the name of my label/imprint but not like sit down type of chill,more like TURN THE MUSIC DOWN,SLAP SOMEONE IN THE FACE,CHILL THE FUCK OUT chill haha.The YouGots2Chill part just stuck with it. Anyways ill keep u updated on all that stuff later.I can chop way faster in the MPC but ive only had the 404 for less than 24 hours.As far as midi goes thats a great idea! I didnt even think about that and will do so asap.NOW is the 404 multi tambral??

yeah, 404 has 12 voices.

I got the 404sx synced to my MPC 1000.12 voices meaning i can use 12 midi channels???

No, twelve voice polyphony, meaning 12 mono or 6 stereo samples, maximum. Don't know how many midi channels there are, but they are easy to select using the function button and pad 9.

Not the most voices, I know, but the sx's resampling can work around that.