A new toy.

[Crane]

ellaguru - Did you pre order this? I am on the fence. I kinda wish I would of dropped in around $325, but still 399 sounds really good if it operates as their videos imply. I love the Nintendo style directional buttons and pads and the way the recorder incorporates the xoxo on the number pads as well as being able to play it on the pad(s) at the same time.

It seems super user friendly. I love how Roland incorporated so much shit into the 404mkii, but simple things like the "mark" button went to shit. Why even call it the "mark" button if it just opens skipback! Maybe I am missing something but this machine seems more straight forward.

Fuck it, I am going to jump on a pre order.

[spliffsoldier]

ellaguru - Did you pre order this? I am on the fence. I kinda wish I would of dropped in around $325, but still 399 sounds really good if it operates as their videos imply. I love the Nintendo style directional buttons and pads and the way the recorder incorporates the xoxo on the number pads as well as being able to play it on the pad(s) at the same time.

It seems super user friendly. I love how Roland incorporated so much shit into the 404mkii, but simple things like the "mark" button went to shit. Why even call it the "mark" button if it just opens skipback! Maybe I am missing something but this machine seems more straight forward.

Fuck it, I am going to jump on a pre order.

It looks like a fun, intuitive machine. I just can't get past it's toy-like looks. I mean the SP series has a toy-like vibe, but this is a whole new level. Looks like a fuckin gameboy.

[ellaguru]

ellaguru - Did you pre order this? I am on the fence. I kinda wish I would of dropped in around $325, but still 399 sounds really good if it operates as their videos imply.

i'm backer #225 so i spent 325€ (i saw crazy prices like 500€ in some known web shops...)

It seems super user friendly. I love how Roland incorporated so much shit into the 404mkii, but simple things like the "mark" button went to shit. Why even call it the "mark" button if it just opens skipback! Maybe I am missing something but this machine seems more straight forward.

for now i don't know, it seems to me a bit less straight forward from SPs workflow, but it's true that on the 404mk2 you have both 303/404+505/606 different approachs, so the comparison stands...it seems to me that the midi is very well conceived here than on the 404...btw, the 404 has 4fx simoultaneous vs just 1 of the SmplTrek...
I think the SmplTrek is also to be seen as a sort of Recorder/Seq, a better sp808 (maybe)

what i didn't saw for now (and i asked to the developpers and also to video authors) is:
1) do the SmplTrek has motion sequences? I saw automations wich are cool for editing stuff, but is not clear if you can tweak/rec them live while the seq is running; I also ask to them to add some generative stuff, like probability or random stutter...
2) there are not enough examples about time stretching...maybe just one (Looppop video maybe? edit: https://youtu.be/WqDRqgNQoDM?t=1051 and https://youtu.be/oCushyZv_SQ?t=1260 and https://youtu.be/83nYFVLHP4A?t=690) so i cannot ear the quality of this for now...

[ellaguru]

a more critical review by a beatmaker/youtuber...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgmXy_8o_C8

[spliffsoldier]

a more critical review by a beatmaker/youtuber...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgmXy_8o_C8

would seem as if the device has a bit of an identity crisis.
wouldve been interesting if they geared this more in the direction of something like a yamaha qy70/100/etc. or elektron digitakt, and just made this a dedicated portable sequencer with more effects and maybe light sampling capabilities.

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[ellaguru]

would seem as if the device has a bit of an identity crisis.
wouldve been interesting if they geared this more in the direction of something like a yamaha qy70/100/etc. or elektron digitakt, and just made this a dedicated portable sequencer with more effects and maybe light sampling capabilities.
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yes, i understand, from my point of view i'm making them request to add more generative stuff (probabilities, random stutter etc kind of) and i still don't know if automations are recordable in live (as volca's motion seq)