SP 555 in a liveset

pierlo · Post by **pierlo** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:51 am

Hey guys, i finally bought my sp 555 and there are already so many questions i want to ask you wiser dudes...

For example about using the 555 in a liveset environment. How would you do that? I have an idea but i don't know if it makes sense...

At first i thought about using patterns. Sequenced at home, just fire them in order and apply fx... cheesy but ok i bet.

But then i realized that... well, you can only fire a pattern at once! Which puts the whole point about live composition in a dead end.
So i thought to myself, there's gotta be another way.

The question is: would it be possible to resample a pattern and assing it to a pad, put that pad in loop mode so that i can loop the sample as if it was a pattern easily (which means not fighting against start-end marks) and most important without loosing the bpms?

Just imagine the scenario: i have a bank a full with beats and breaks and bank b half basslines and half melodies. Then you could "assemble" new tracks on the fly (yeah, pretty much as if it was ableton live...)

So does it make sense? If so, would it still work when changing bpm?
Please help... this would make it a killer for me

Rhua · Post by **Rhua** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:30 pm

I don't know anything bout the 555 but I don't think there's a way to record a pattern down to a single pad. You can record it (to your PC, tape or whatever) and then resample it from that source again and you have it as a single sample on your SP.

I use this method from time to time but be aware that you can't control a specific element of the beat alone.

I don't think you'll be able to change the bpm of that resampled sequence either. You can switch to another break by pressing both pads at the exact same time (the active sample will be turned off and the next sample will flip on) though.

Dj Frantic · Post by **Dj Frantic** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:10 pm

Ya, you can do that. You can just use loop capture to record your pattern (not longer than 4 bars tho). Theres a number of ways to play your 555 live. Its not as easy as the roland adds make it seem...but I kinda like it that way

u gotta put in work and get creative with it and u will find alot of tricks and work arounds. If u look around in the SP-555 section of the forum u will find a ton of usefull information. Have fun !

pierlo · Post by **pierlo** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:08 pm

Dj Frantic wrote:... Theres a number of ways to play your 555 live. Its not as easy as the roland adds make it seem...but I kinda like it that way

Yes it definitely is NOT THAT EASY! it's a lot of mnemonic key combos and i bet it takes time and effort to really master this baby. But that makes it challenging in the fun way imho.

It's just a bunch of wierd behaviours here and there that still don't get me. For example, today i was recording on the loop capture 4 measures of synth notes thru line in, and then i saved to a pad. Without doing anything the sample was doing timestratching automaticlaly which was a good surpise. I put this sampled phrase in a sequence and it was perfectly in sync.

Then i tried again, did the exact same thing, but this time the loop was not in sync at all! Argh!
Don't get it....

vivi pedraglio · Post by **vivi pedraglio** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:37 pm

frantic found this excelent workarround...please read complete...because is perfect, i use it a lot live and in production....i mean i use it...always!

link: viewtopic.php?t=1405

pierlo · Post by **pierlo** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:14 am

dj vivi pedraglio wrote:frantic found this excelent workarround...please read complete...because is perfect, i use it a lot live and in production....i mean i use it...always!

link: viewtopic.php?t=1405

yeah i got that! I tried it a lot yesterday but it really takes time to get used to it... the cool thing about loop capture is that you can set measures that will sync with the current bpm. But then when you resample this phrase LIVE (dj franctic's tecnique) you must be VERY VERY accurate otherwise the loop will drift out of sync which is BAD (especially live) ... so i'm kind of frustrated about this...
or am i missing something?

vivi pedraglio · Post by **vivi pedraglio** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:03 am

its about time to practice...big up! everthing is ok.