How are you using your 808?

[rageone]

I had a few samplers in my life (electribe esx, akai s2000, mpc500, sp606) and i still have a few (sp 202, sp404, mpc2000xl and the damn sp808) and i love samplers because it`s easy to do your shiz just by sampling other random shiz...

but my question is how you use your sp808? like an mpc? you sample loops? you actually use it to remix stuff? just as a multitracker? I`m asking because i only managed to record loops, set them to the same mute group and mash the hell out of them

i tried using it as an mpc but since it has no actual sequencer and it just records stuff i didn`t find it very useful, the mpc does that just fine... plus the pads that are too small for fingerdrumming (i do that on the 404).

also, i love the tape echo and keep the 808 especially for that... but please, share your experiences with the 808, how do you use it? eventually throw in a tutorial or a video (since the ones on youtube aren`t too many and too good )

do you use it for live stuff? how do you do a remix? do you chop your stuff in the machine, on a pc and then just sample the chops? do you use it in the studio? how did you make a track with it? how did you remix something with it?

(i just can`t get too creative with this sp808 but i can feel there`s a beast inside the box that`s waiting to get out, i just don`t know how to help it)

ps: don`t tell me it has a step sequencer, that workflow just doesn`t work for me... i love hearing a metronome and mashing the pads and making loops like this ) can`t program a beat with the step sequencer, never did, i tried

[otbt]

Hey man! It's a good question since there are many ways to get things done on it.
Personally i try to use all it can give, depending on circumstances and needs.
Sampling to pads, tracks audio rec, step rec, real time rec, bouncing tracks to track/pad/another recorder, editing regions (copy, paste, erase, move from track to track...), time signature, the 999 measures in the playlist to record samples/loops on tracks and jump to them with the 8 locators, to then rearrange them in patterns.
Definitely the workflow is not the same as with an MPC style sequencer, it's like a very limited 4 tracks Ableton Live without midi tracks. And of course you can do live with it, but once again not exactly like on MPC. I own it for about a year and still learning how to use it and searching for useful workflows and techniques. As you said there's a beast inside the box that's waiting to get out, but it's to you to release it.

[rageone]

well let me know if you find other techniques and workflows, it`s a pretty curious machine for what i`ve been used to

i`m working nightshifts starting tomorrow, i`ll probably bring it with me at work and pair it with the 404, see what happens

[Dirty Banks]

I've got the change to buy a sp-808 for around 150 euro.
I have a 202, 303 and 404 og.

Should i cop it? Is it worth it?

[l i f]

I'd say cop it immediately... 808 has been my main machine for 17 straight years and I could not live without it. I scored the 404 nearly two weeks ago only, and with the two paired up i'm in sp-heaven...

... plus the pads that are too small for fingerdrumming (i do that on the 404).

I actually don't agree here... the 808 pads are smaller, but they're also spaced wider than the 404 and don't 'clunk' like the 404 pads, making them much more responsive. The hold button also works in a differnt way than 404, in that a gated pad on hold will re-trigger (rather than cut out) if pressed again, meaning you can really play a loop in a way that the 404 simply can't... like if you ride the hold button with your right thumb you have eight fingers free to play 16 pads.

Resampling on the 808 is 4 pad stereo polyphony and if you have four pads already playing and press a fifth it will simply cut of the pad that's has been playing longest (it remember this somehow)... also, with sixteen pads in a bank I find it easier to load up say 12-14 pads with chops and automatically have a couple free to resample to, which can then be previewed before committing them to the bank (allowing for retakes) and/or easily shifted around with the clipboard feature (copy/duplicate/move). Pads can also be overwritten saving deleting or moving samples you don't want (time-saver) for me making the 808 the chop-juggler/finger drummers dream-machine.

I'm having most fun using the 404 as my external bounce from the 808, then resampling back home with 404 effex on before using the 808's vari-pitch/bpm adjuster to match tempos with (for example) acapellas, since the 808 measures bpm to 0.01 of the beat per minute (404 seems to be rounded to nearest whole-number).

I could go on...

[Dirty Banks]

17 years?! Thats deep bruh.
Ima let you know how this worked out and if i buy it, i'll be a whole lot more active in this section of the forum.