I'll answer all SP questions best I can

[Euclid Ov Oåklånd]

I;ve been playing with these samplers for a while and I'm open to helping folks with specific questions they have but can't find answers to while searching. I;ve learned a lot here and discovered more I didn't share to keep a competitive edge which doesn;t matter to me anymore. So here is the thread to ask anything you want, no bullshit, no deception, just folks making music to entertain fellow humans. I would do tutorials but my life is a mess and I don;t have the focus to do something like that. I have .txt files I put together in the past to help organize my thoughts and production ideas, i'll get 'em from my hdd and load them, maybe they will help people get some ideas and spark new things for the world,,,,I;m not the one to do it.

[hacksound]

Hey there
I wonder if you could help me understand why, when i am making a pattern, my sample only plays for a specific length of time and then cuts out rather than playing for the whole 8 bars or whatever I have set the pattern length at. It then starts again at the beginning. Is it something to do with the way my sample has been recorded?
Appreciate any help

[Euclid Ov Oåklånd]

Sounds like you're having a polyphony issue, in other words the sampler can only play so many sounds at one time. So each mono sample equals one voice of polyphony and stereo samples equal two voices, if the maximum amount of voices or polyphony are 8 like on a 303 than 4 stereo samples playing at once is all it takes to make a sound drop out. In some instances this affect can create interesting "spontaneous" mutes in a resampled or pattern sequenced track. This limitation actually helped me make one of my favorite songs I put together and I didn't know what was happening until someone here brought up the polyphony issue. Another issue could be having your samples on loop in a sequence, every time the pattern sequencer loops back around it will trigger a midi note that will stop the sample. In the sequencer I either have my samples set to one shot or gate, this will help prevent some weird stuff. I used to only work with samples on loop and when I would mess with the sequencer in the beginning the sound would always turn off, then I switched samples to gate and played it to the beat rhythmically and got good results. If that doesn;t help I can try another explanation. bon chance!

[Alfred Stormalong]

Hope this is still alive.

A couple days ago I switched from Maschine to the SP-404sx (i.e. I sold my Maschine and bought a new SP). So far the transition has been pretty rough for me. I feel like an artist who went from a huge palet, some nice pencils and a good canvas to a knife and a tree to carve. Hence I found this thread on the 3rd page of the Production Techniques sub-forum
I have a couple of issues that I'd really like to resolve since this is now my only piece of hardware that isn't a midi controller (I own an MPD24 and an MPK Mini), so I'm counting on this neat little box to be my production/beatmaking tool.

1. Sampling
Coming from Maschine I'm used to autochopping and moving start- and endmarks with a knob. Now I know I can adjust the start- and endmarks with a knob but it doesn't seem to do much for me, also I can only go + or -30 which I don't understand, yet. So what's the general way (if I dare ask) to sample?

2. Patterns and resampling
Which ones better? To put it bluntly. I've been trying resampling and with struggle I've managed to make a 4-bar loop with only drums and a sample that doesn't quite line up since I can't manage to get the timing/endmark right.

3. Not so standalone?
From what I've read I've pretty much come to the conclusion that in order to bang out a complete beat I'm still gonna be spending a lot of time on the computer, that is if I don't want to be stuck with virtually unvaried loops.

That is it for now, hope some of y'all SP'ologists can help a young noob out.

[Dr Van Nostrand]

sample in through the line in, use the mark button to make start and end points then use the knobs to fine tune, gotta use your ears but its really not that difficult, give the pattern sequencer a go as well, quantize on, quantize off, maybe use it for some pieces and not others, you can change the quantize value or turn it off at any point when working in a pattern, you can resample yourself playing small pieces of something (chops from the sample or pieces of a drum pattern) then sequence those into a more coherent pattern, you can also delete pieces from a pattern and re add them or add new stuff at any time (hit the manual up for a detailed explanation cause its all in there), to chop you're going to have to get used to resampling the main piece multiple times and marking out the pieces you want, seriously just take a look at the manual for any functionality questions, and then think creatively about how you can achieve certain ideas you have within the constraints of the machine

it absolutely can be used as a standalone machine, many people here make it happen, it also can be a lot of fun to use with other samplers or even a computer i suppose, don't give up too soon and miss out on a fun machine

[monstermanchild]

+1 for this thread. Sps are very much standalone machines. Sometimes they can be tedious and maybe give you a headache but once you get it you get it bad. In my opinion, there's no better feeling than busting something out on one of these machines. One piece of advice for anyone though is to read the manual as stated above. There's a lot of information in them that will speed up workflow. Most of the knowledge can be found here, but it's streamlined in the manual and is not obvious when using them. That was when I found their true potential.

[Alfred Stormalong]

I have indeed read the manual, I don't want to claim that everything has stuck with me but I did try my best to study it and I do keep it with me when I work with the SP. I just can't decide wether to return it or not. I feel like if I do return it I might miss an opportunity to work with this great box.. On the other hand I'm stepping way out of my comfort zone when it comes to making beats. Like for instance, how am I gonna create a bassline? :S And I like the whole dirty/grimy aspect of it but I also like some clean loops. I just don't know..

[Tastik]

Iam using he 404sx and whenever I reboot and go back to my patterns the bum has changed. What. Can I do ?

And how can you make each pattern a different bpm ? Mine keep changing each time I change the bpm on another pattern



Also I heard that you can record onto the pattern sequencer with the external source pad. Is this true I haven't used my sp lately because of school ?

[ImOnlySleeping]

everytime you turn on your sp the pattern bpm will be different. You need to remember what bpm your songs are. And you cant program different bpms for different patterns. you actually have to hit bpm and change it with the knob for every pattern if you want different tempos.

Iam using he 404sx and whenever I reboot and go back to my patterns the bum has changed. What. Can I do ?

And how can you make each pattern a different bpm ? Mine keep changing each time I change the bpm on another pattern



Also I heard that you can record onto the pattern sequencer with the external source pad. Is this true I haven't used my sp lately because of school ?

[hseiken]

everytime you turn on your sp the pattern bpm will be different. You need to remember what bpm your songs are. And you cant program different bpms for different patterns. you actually have to hit bpm and change it with the knob for every pattern if you want different tempos.

A fellow SP user I know that used patterns would use the mic and record his voice stating pattern number and BPM and save that as a memo on a pad so he wouldn't forget later.

[Rileyjones8868]

Please see my post and help if you can:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18294

[Kei Kurono]

How do you go about mixing your tracks internally in your sp ?

[SebP]

Also I heard that you can record onto the pattern sequencer with the external source pad. Is this true I haven't used my sp lately because of school ?

Yeah, I noticed that. I realized that the sequencer records the ext source pad as a regular pad.

[SebP]

Hey, I have a question. How come whenever I use the delay, it's speed changes whenever I stop a pattern? Is it linked to the bpm of the last sample pad hit? It bothers me because I use the pattern sequencer a lot, I'm not a big resampler(only for effects processing), and I like to transition a part or end a track by using a delay on the master but the speed changes when I stop the sequencer so I have to use the tape delay in mfx instead. Not a big deal but it's just one of those things I wonder about. It's my first SP. I used to be a virgin until recently...

[Dr Van Nostrand]

delay links to the BPM of a pattern playing, and if no pattern is playing it syncs to the highest BPM of the pads you have selected to have the effect on(i think, if not its the lowest, check the manual)

you can use the BPM knob to half some of the higher BPMs of pads you want to have selected for delay, and then make a dummy pad with whatever for a sound and adjust the BPM to the amount you want, won't matter if its grossly time stretched because you aren't gonna be playing that pad anyway, just make sure its the highest BPM of all the pads you have selected, and you should be good

i say should though, because i've had problems when trying to use this work around where it clearly isn't syncing to the BPM it is supposed to be, sometimes turning the machine off and on and resetting the effect the same way can work, but not always, anybody else ever have this problem? i know i've had it work for me in the past, but every so often i just struggle with it and can't get the delay i want